ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 13, 1996 TAG: 9603130050
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DALLAS
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
WITH SIX POSTSEASON berths in seven years, the Phoenix has shown there's more to Green Bay than Packers and cheese.
As the shuttle-bus driver tooled past Texas Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, he asked the passenger from Virginia about Virginia Tech's first-round opponent in Thursday's NCAA Midwest Regional at Reunion Arena.
"So who's Virginia Tech playing?'' the driver asked.
"Wisconsin-Green Bay,'' the passenger responded.
The driver laughed, then retorted: "Put it this way, you've got to like your chances playing a team from Green Bay in Dallas. Hey, everybody knows a team from Green Bay can't win in Dallas.''
If the Hokies buy that one, they might as well pack it in and make the U-turn to Blacksburg now.
This isn't the Packers. Tech isn't the Cowboys. And this isn't the NFL.
Contrary to popular belief, there's more to Green Bay, Wis., than football and the Packers. They play a pretty fair brand of college basketball in cheese country, too.
"It's a football town,'' said Wisconsin-Green Bay coach Mike Heideman, "but the people do love their basketball, too.''
For good reason. The folks in Titletown USA adore winners, and they've got one in the Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix.
"The town has sort of adopted us as its second sports team,'' Heideman said. "There's the Packers, of course, and then us.''
"Us'' can be translated as arguably the best program in the country that nobody's heard of.
Needless to say, the Phoenix is not your basic NCAA hypen entry. It's the real deal. Imposters don't go 25-3, 22-8 and 27-7 and earn NCAA bids the past three years. Counting NIT bids in 1989 and '90, and another NCAA trip in '91, Green Bay has reached postseason play six times in seven years.
"We've built a great basketball tradition here,'' Heideman said. "We've come a long ways, believe me.''
Heideman is in his 10th season at UWGB. He served as an assistant for nine years under Dick Bennett. When Wisconsin hired Bennett last spring, Heideman was elevated to head coach.
Bennett was responsible for the rise of the Phoenix. Green Bay, a former Division II power, had finished below .500 in its first four seasons in Division I when Bennett took over in 1985-86. Since, Green Bay has had only one losing season.
This season, Bennett left Heideman a most bettable hand - four seniors, all of whom had started most of their college careers.
Heideman had enough sense not to fix what wasn't broken. The Bennett system remains intact: be patient and take good shots on offense; play defense like a pack of junkyard dogs; and make your free throws.
Green Bay had all three covered this season. The Phoenix shot 47.7 percent, held their opponents to 55.7 points per game (second in the nation to Princeton), and ranked ninth in the country at the free-throw line (74.4).
"They really know how to execute,'' said Bill Foster, Tech's coach. "They pass the ball 10 or 12 times, then shoot the open shot, they screen you to death. On defense, they play tough halfcourt man. They're as good as anybody you'll see fundamentally on defense. It's not very hard to see on film why they're so tough to beat.''
Green Bay's suffocating man defense, with an assist from its time-sapping offense, held 14 teams to 55 or fewer points this season.
"If you want to see somebody score a hundred,'' said Heideman, "don't watch one of our games.''
Watching Green Bay's best player, Jeff Nordgaard, can be a delight, however. The 6-foot-7 senior forward averages a team-high 22.6 points and 6.4 rebounds a game. The Midwestern Collegiate Conference's player of the year works inside and outside.
"He's our great player,'' Heideman said. "Here's a kid who didn't get another Division I offer and he's made himself into a complete player. He can shoot it from 19-9, he can post up. There's nothing he can't do.''
When Green Bay's offense doesn't go through Nordgaard, the main alternate route is senior Ben Berlowski. The 6-3 guard is Heideman's only other double-figure scorer, averaging 15.3. Berlowski is a perimeter sniper, leading the MCC in 3-point shooting at 44.5 percent (61-for-137).
The Phoenix went 16-0 in the MCC regular season before being upset by Detroit in the second round of the league tournament. Green Bay's other two losses came at NCAA entries Marquette (64-44) and Kentucky (74-62). It was one of the closest games of the season for Kentucky (28-2), which, barring a monumental upset to San Jose State (13-18) on Thursday, will play the Tech-UWGB survivor on Saturday.
"We've had some luck in the NCAA before,'' Heideman noted. "We beat California two years ago and last year we lost to Purdue by one. So I think people have started to take notice of us now.''
``Bet the Texas ranch on that,'' said Foster, whose 22nd-ranked Hokies opened as a 21/2-point favorite.
"The average fan might not know much about Wisconsin-Green Bay,'' said Foster, "but coaches around the country do. Everybody knows Green Bay is a tough bunch to beat.''
Even in Dallas.
LENGTH: Medium: 95 linesby CNB