ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 16, 1996 TAG: 9603180037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
There are two once-beaten teams in Division I basketball. One is top-ranked Massachusetts. The other?
Even an NCAA bid and No.3 seed can't get Texas Tech much exposure. While the Red Raiders (29-1) were going inside to nip Northern Illinois on Friday night at the Richmond Coliseum, CBS had most of the nation's hoopheads watching Indiana-Boston College or George Washington-Iowa.
How much respect do the Raiders bring into Sunday afternoon's second-round date with North Carolina or New Orleans? After winning the last Southwest Conference tournament a week ago, they dropped from No.7 to 8 in the Associated Press poll.
``People don't think we're as good as our record says we are,'' said Red Raiders star Jason Sasser, a 6-foot-7 forward and one-time N.C. State committed recruit who made third-team All-America. ``We've used that as motivation all year.''
Tech has the nation's longest winning streak at 22. Only UMass and Connecticut have more victories.
The Red Raiders were one of the last teams left out of last year's Big Dance. Until Friday night's 74-73 victory, they hadn't won an NCAA game in two decades.
``We felt like we were a tournament team last year [20-10 after a first-round NIT loss],'' said Tech coach James Dickey. ``We just didn't control some things we should have, and didn't make it.
``We were excited about this season. I thought we'd win 20-plus and have a chance at the NCAA Tournament. I saw us in only one preseason poll, and I think we were about 40th. I knew we were better than that, but I didn't think we'd be 28-1 coming in.''
Sasser is one of four senior starters for Tech, the champion of a lame-duck league and already hearing they'll have trouble playing in the upper echelon of the Big 12 when the Big Eight and half of the SWC gets together next season.
Tech, however, may be the best team you - and others who listen to Dick Vitale and Billy Packer - have never seen. The Red Raiders' only loss was Dec.27 to Eastern Michigan, which thumped Duke in an NCAA opener Thursday.
Dickey, 41, is making his ninth NCAA trip as a coach, and second as the Raiders' boss. Tech upset its way through the '93 SWC tourney for an automatic bid, but few outside his profession can name the Texas Tech head coach.
Dickey aided Eddie Sutton's NCAA teams at Arkansas and Kentucky. He was on the Wildcats' staff when the infamous Emery Air Freight envelope stuffed with cash popped open.
Yes, timing is everything. Dickey, after a year away from hoops, was hired by longtime Tech coach Gerald Myers in 1990-91. The Raiders went 8-23, Myers was canned, and Dickey got the job.
Tech hasn't had a losing season since. The Lubbock program just picked a bad time to be so good.
``Our league was disbanding, and the TV contract ran out at the end of last year, so this year we didn't have one,'' Dickey said. ``It was unfortunate for this team.
``I tried to put together a good schedule, but it didn't pan out like we thought. Brigham Young usually is an NCAA team. Old Dominion has been good. Montana State usually wins the Big Sky [and did this year]. Some teams we played were just not as good as we'd hoped.
``Last year, I probably over scheduled for that team, and it probably cost us a bid. We played Wisconsin and Temple on the road, Kentucky in Cincinnati and in Arizona's tournament. That experience helped us a bunch this year, though.''
The Red Raiders are deeper than most clubs, and Texas coach Tom Penders, whose team lost three times to its state and conference rival, says Tech is better than North Carolina, Utah and Oklahoma, clubs the Longhorns played.
Dickey and his players know, however, that until they beat someone with a name - a North Carolina in the next round, for example - there will be those who wonder whether they really are a team with Texas-sized talent.
``We're trying to handle all of the requests and interest we're getting now,'' Dickey said. ``We're excited, but we don't want to get over excited about people wanting to talk to us now.''
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB