THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 27, 1995 TAG: 9503270129
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
When in doubt about the Final Four, go with the team from the superior conference.
By this logic, North Carolina will emerge from Seattle with another national championship, Dean Smith's third.
North Carolina brings to the Final Four the best pedigree. Anyone who says otherwise must have majored in ancient history.
Or is John Wooden contemplating a comeback?
More importantly for the purposes of handicapping this Final Four, Smith's Tar Heels are tougher for having played through an ACC schedule in a year when the ACC was easily the best league in the land. Also, no other team outside the NBA has two players as good as Rasheed Wallace and Jerry Stackhouse.
From here, it looks like North Carolina's party, though Arkansas, UCLA and Oklahoma State will try to crash it.
One semifinal is between UCLA and Oklahoma State, a Mercedes against a tractor. North Carolina vs. Arkansas features the champions from the last two years.
Three-fourths of the participants in the Seattle Soiree are basketball brand-names. If Eddie Sutton's Cowpokes seem out of place, it's for a good reason - Oklahoma State hasn't been to the Final Four since the Truman Administration.
Style also separates Sutton's team from the others. Oklahoma State, led by burly bouncer Bryant ``Big Country'' Reeves, is almost as short on finesse as its center is on hair.
To beat John Calipari's UMass team, the Cowboys roped and tied their opponent, forcing on them a typically ugly brand of ball. As badly as the Minutemen must have felt, though, they couldn't have suffered much more than a casual viewer who tuned in hoping to be entertained.
``A game of tempo,'' is what the talking heads at the CBS studio called it. Game of tempo is a euphemism for nap aid. Or wrassling match.
Oddly, with no Rick Pitino or Calipari in the Final Four, it falls to an Oklahoma State player to supply the best Italian name - Chianti Roberts.
Among the players, this Final Four features some of the biggest names in the country - Wallace, Stackhouse, UCLA's Ed O'Bannon, and Arkansas' Corliss Williamson. But athletes of this caliber may not be properly showcased if the play in Seattle resembles what has transpired throughout the tournament.
Everyone knows defense is important. It's obvious, though, that the rough play and all-purpose mugging that went on from first round games to the regional finals eventually detracted from the product.
With the pushing and shoving seeming to escalate with each game, it's little wonder shooting percentages have been pathetic. Games weren't this rough when the ball had laces.
Virginia thrives on physical play. But the Cavaliers, who bludgeoned Kansas to get to Arkansas, had the club turned against them Sunday.
U.Va. wilted in the final 10 minutes as the officials called the game according to the ``No-autopsy-no-foul'' rule.
That Arkansas is still standing surprises those who wondered if Nolan Richardson's team would ever return to last season's form. The Razorbacks did in the second half against U.Va.
North Carolina is explosive enough, though, to make Arkansas pay for its lapses, setting up a Tar Heels-Bruins final.
The most unlikely title game - Arkansas vs. Oklahoma State - would put CBS in a very foul mood. ... and the resident of the White House in a bind.
Besides being a big Razorback fan, Bill Clinton is a good friend of Sutton's.
Ultimately, though, the president's loyalties will not be at issue. If he calls any coach late next Monday night, it will be Dean Smith. by CNB