THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 15, 1996 TAG: 9603150604
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Almost home: If the crowd makes a difference, North Carolina can thank the selection committee for placing the Tar Heels in Richmond. No other sixth seed (or fifth, for that matter) was positioned as close to home.
A hoops odyssey: When the time comes - make it 2001 - for the NCAA men's basketball tournament to expand to 72 teams, the Atlantic Coast Conference might just ask for its own regional.
Weighing in: William ``Refrigerator'' Perry, who has signed to play this spring in the World League of American Football, couldn't have found a better place to revive his career than London, where few things are more valued than the pound.
In passing: Fight the hype. Presume that every team in the NCAA tournament is at least a little overrated, and you won't be wrong very often.
TV timeout: A fact ignored in all the hoopla surrounding the event is that CBS's ratings for the NCAA tournament have dropped each of the last three seasons.
Time after time: UMass coach John Calipari, on those annoying two minute, 30 second commercial breaks mandated by CBS for the tournament: ``I don't have enough to say in the TV timeouts. I just stop and say, `Well, for the next minute and a half, let's hang out here.' ''
Futurewatch: With ESPN audiences and the national media eating up his one-liners, VCU's Sonny Smith may have used the NCAA tournament as an audition for his next job - in television.
The friendly skies: If the Portland Trail Blazers fail to make the playoffs, it won't be for lack of creature comforts. Portland's players travel in a customized Boeing 757 with two big-screen TVs, two lounge areas, and 35 seats with TVs built into the armrests.
The spring thing: The New York Mets are a cleanup hitter away from doing some real damage.
More name game: A player who is sure to leave people spellbound in Richmond this weekend is Kansas State's Aaron Swartzendruber. Call him ``Eye Chart'' for short.
The next generation: Now that he's retiring, Pete Carril will miss coaching Bill Walton's son, Nate, a 6-foot-8 forward who is enrolling at Princeton in the fall.
A great one: They already are dusting off a pedestal for Ronnie Lott in the Football Hall of Fame.
Monarchs shut out: For its annual all-state college basketball team, the Richmond Times-Dispatch chose not a single Old Dominion player. Norfolk State's Derrick Bryant holds down a spot on the second five. by CNB