Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 18, 1994 TAG: 9403180129
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LANDOVER, MD. LENGTH: Medium
"We're the same team we were Nov. 1," Chaney said of fourth-seeded Temple, which plays Philadelphia foe Drexel in a first-round East Regional game tonight at USAir Arena. "It's very hard to sit here and say we're a changed group."
When the Owls (22-7) began preseason workouts, Chaney said his 12th Temple team "would only be as good as [6-foot-11 center] William Cunningham" became.
Has Cunningham improved?
"No," Chaney said of the sophomore, who averages 1.5 points and 4.1 rebounds. "Believe it or not, becoming a really good team requires balance, not three guards running ring-around-the-rosy. Our great [matchup zone] defense carries us. We're not a team graced with a lot of talent.
"If you had asked me if this team could win 22 games, I'd have said no. It's just that the kids have worked very hard."
\ SPITTING SEEDS: How did Saturday's avalanche of conference tournament upsets affect the seeding of the 64-team field? Apparently, not much.
When Arkansas, Missouri, Duke, Michigan, Connecticut and Arizona lost, the bracket barely was altered. That's because North Carolina survived in an ACC tournament overtime semifinal against Wake Forest.
Had UNC lost, the word here Thursday was that the committee would have slid the Tar Heels into the Southeast as the No. 2 seed. That would have made Connecticut the top seed in the East, leaving Purdue as the top Southeast seed. Duke would have been the East's No. 2 seed instead of getting the same slot in the Southeast.
\ INTRACITY: In the City of Brotherly Love, Big Five college basketball is huge. How large are Temple, Penn, Villanova, LaSalle and St. Joseph's?
"They don't really pay attention to us," said Drexel star Malik Rose.
Drexel (25-4) is the only Division I program in Philadelphia not in the Big Five. In tonight's NCAA first-round opener here, the North Atlantic Conference champions get to play fourth-seeded Temple. The two haven't met since 1986-87.
"I was recruited by the Small Three," said Rose, a 6-foot-7 sophomore who ranks fourth in the nation in rebounding with a 12.6 average. "That's Drexel, Rider and Lafayette."
Rose is a graduate over Overbrook High School, which produced Wilt Chamberlain. However, that isn't the most impressive piece of his background.
When Malik was 13, his 18-year-old brother, Michael, was killed by a bullet meant for another youth in a fight over a girl. The younger Rose suddenly became the man of a single-parent home.
He just didn't play basketball. While his mother got her general equivalency degree and went to work on a highway construction crew before starting her own business as a general contractor, Malik learned to play the tuba and posted a 3.8 grade-point average at Overbrook.
The Big Five didn't notice Rose, then 6-5, 230 pounds. He's hoping to change that against the Owls tonight.
"Drexel's always been known as `that little engineering school,' " Rose said Thursday. "I just told myself I was going to make a name for myself and show the Big Five schools what they missed."
\ SAMPSON STRONG: It takes guts to reach the NCAA's 64-team field. How many coaches would have done what Washington State coach Kelvin Sampson did with his team on the bubble?
In late February, Sampson suspended starting point guard Dominic Ellison for two Pacific-10 Conference games. The Cougars went 1-1 without Ellison, who had cut several classes.
Sampson's decision came while Washington State was without another starter, injured forward Mark Hendrickson. The Cougars (20-10) won four of their last five to earn the East Region's eighth seed and a date today against Boston College (20-10).
"I wasn't a Phi Beta Kappa," Sampson said. "I had to go to class every day and take good notes. Ellison can be a good student, too. He just has to work at it."
\ TOURNEY TIPS: Is Indiana ripe for an upset by Ohio University in the 10 p.m. East nightcap? The Hoosiers are 6-8 away from home this season. . . . Drexel backup guard Matt Pearson is the son of former NFL running back Preston Pearson. . . . If North Carolina wins two games here, the Tar Heels will equal UCLA's record of 14 consecutive trips to the NCAA regional semifinals. . . . In the 16 years the NCAA has been seeding the field, UNC has been seeded lower than second only four times, and lower than fourth only once - No. 8 in the Midwest in 1990. . . . Boston College has four seniors on its roster and each - Bill Curley, Howard Eisley, Malcolm Huckaby and Gerrod Abram - has scored 1,000 points. Curley has 2,028. . . . Ohio U. takes a 13-game winning streak into tonight's game against Indiana. Only Penn, which played Nebraska on Thursday night at the Nassau Coliseum, had a longer success streak, at 15.
by CNB