Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 4, 1993 TAG: 9304040233
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS LENGTH: Long
SMITH FEELS AT HOME IN SUPERDOME
The size of the Louisiana Superdome may offend some basketball purists who would want the Final Four played at a traditional arena. North Carolina coach Dean Smith isn't among them."This is a real good neutral court," Smith said. "When we played here in 1982 [and won Smith's only NCAA title], even though there were 65,000 people in the stands, you could communicate to your people much better than you can at an away game in the ACC.
"The first time we played here, in 1976 against Tulane, there were about 3,000 people in the place. You could hear everything everyone was saying. That was eerie."
It was strange for another reason, too. It was the longest game in UNC history - with four overtimes. The Tar Heels won 113-106 over the Green Wave, then coached by Charlie Moir, who was between jobs at Roanoke College and Virginia Tech.
\ 29 TICKS: Smith, a Kansas alumnus, and Indiana's Bobby Knight (an Ohio State grad) are the only coaches to have won NCAA titles as players and coaches. Smith is pictured in the NCAA's Final Four photo and memorabilia exhibit in the New Orleans Centra adjacent to the Superdome. In the 1952 photo, he's sitting on a locker room bench getting instructions, with his teammates, from coach Phog Allen.
"I played 29 seconds in the championship game [an 80-63 win over St. John's]," Smith said. "I have the highlight reel to prove it."
\ STREET WISE: How do the players in a Superdome Final Four prepare for the atmosphere. They go to Bourbon Street, of course.
Kentucky's team went out Wednesday night, while Kansas coach Roy Williams gave his players some freedom on Thursday.
"It's pretty wild down there," Kentucky backup center Gimel Martinez said of Bourbon Street. "I saw stuff I've never seen before."
\ TOP SIX GUNS: The strength of this Final Four - the first with three No. 1 seeds, plus a No. 2 - has been a topic of fans' discussion since last weekend's regionals.
Just where were these teams seeded, in order, by the NCAA Basketball Committee?
North Carolina was the tournament's top seed, Kentucky was second, Michigan fourth and Kansas, the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region, was sixth overall.
Indiana was the third seed, while among the No. 2 seeds eliminated, Arizona was fifth overall, Seton Hall seventh and Cincinnati eighth.
UNC's loss to Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament championship game didn't change the bracketing of the selection committee.
The Yellow Jackets, who finished sixth in the ACC regular-season race, helped themselves by reaching the ACC final, and also by playing the fourth-toughest schedule - behind Temple, Michigan and Duke - according to the Ratings Percentage Index.
\ SMELL IT: Kentucky assistant coach Bernadette Locke-Mattox, the first woman to work on a men's basketball coaching staff, inspires the Wildcats with more than her coaching knowledge.
"A lot of times on the bench," said UK guard Travis Ford, smiling, "her perfume wakes us up."
\ FOUR FOURS: The next four Final Fours sites are scheduled, and the 56th NCAA Tournament will end at the Charlotte Coliseum next April 2 and 4.
The 1995 Final Four is scheduled at Seattle's Kingdome, with the Meadowlands (N.J.) Arena being a first-time Final Four site in '96 before it returns to the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis - the '91 site - in 1997.
\ $$$$$: What does playing host to a Final Four mean?
In New Orleans, the estimated economic impact for the NCAA's glamour event is $103 million. Add to that a PGA tour stop, the Freeport-McMoRan Classic in "The Big Easy" at the same time, and it's obvious that businesses here love sports this weekend.
\ BOBBY BASH: Southern eliminated Georgia Tech in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and now Jaguars coach Ben Jobe - always outspoken and colorful - is defending Bobby Cremins' decision to return to Tech three days after taking the job at South Carolina, his alma mater.
"When I hear that everybody in South Carolina is upset, I get upset," Jobe told New Orleans Times-Picayune reporter Ted Lewis. "They should be proud they produced a guy like Bobby with some integrity and feelings for his players.
"Instead, they're worried about some guy printing up T-shirts and then losing money. Who cares? . . . Forget about this and go out and support whomever they hire as coach."
That is now Vanderbilt's Eddie Fogler.
\ WIMP BACK? Former Alabama coach Wimp Sanderson was at the coaches-media reception Friday night, and said he's hopeful of returning to the sidelines in the near future.
Sanderson said the legal mess - he allegedly struck his longtime secretary Nancy Watts - that cost him the 'Bama job should be resolved soon. The Final Four is Sanderson's second basketball trip of the season. He also attended the SEC Tournament in Lexington, Ky., last month.
\ BIG NUMBERS: Entering Saturday's semifinals, this Final Four had a combined record of 121-17. That victory total ranks third. The best was 1986 - Duke (36-2), Kansas (35-3), Louisville (30-7) and LSU (26-11).
The winning percentage record of a Final Four is .945. The 1970 semifinalists were 103-6 - Jacksonville 26-1, eventual champion UCLA 26-2, New Mexico State 26-2 and St. Bonaventure 25-1.