DATE: Friday, March 14, 1997                TAG: 9703140866

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Bob Molinaro 

DATELINE: PITTSBURGH                        LENGTH:   56 lines

HERE'S AT LEAST ONE GOOD OMEN FOR THE ODU MEN'S TEAM

Dept. of Positive Thinking: Old Dominion basketball hopes should be raised by at least one New Mexico statistic: Away from The Pit in Albuquerque, the Lobos were 4-6 during the regular season.

Local connection: Longtime ODU fans may recognize the Tom Conrad who coaches Charleston Southern, Midwest Region 15th seed. Conrad was a Monarch guard in the late '70s.

Truthfully speaking: Lobos reserve guard Royce Olney hails from Truth or Consequences, N.M. Town's name was changed in 1950 in honor of Ralph Edwards' old radio show, ``Truth or Consequences.''

Not thrilled: The Pittsburgh media have expressed displeasure with the field the NCAA elected to ship in here. Compared with Duke and UCLA, No. 2 seeds sent elsewhere, South Carolina could use a charisma bypass. And instead of landing a third seed like Wake Forest or Cincinnati, the Steel City settles for the mystery of New Mexico. The local burghers are not amused.

Dissing the hosts: Fang Mitchell, coach of Coppin State, South Carolina's victim today, says of playing in Pittsburgh: ``It really doesn't do much for me.'' Of course, fans paying $35 per ticket are absolutely thrilled at the prospect of watching Coppin State.

Speaking out: Retired LSU coach, turned ESPN talking head, Dale Brown says, ``This has been one of the most uneventful years of college basketball.'' That's uneventful.

Dale revisited: In 17 years of attending the tournament, I recall fondly but a single NCAA mandated coach's press conference. Sometime in the mid-'80s, Brown used the opportunity to discuss his belief in the presence of aliens on earth. Either that, or he said he was an alien. Can't quite recall.

Idle thought: I take this column one item at a time.

Grapevine: Rumor mill must be on the blink. Lefty Driesell to Atlanta's Georgia State? Incredible, no?

In passing: If the NCAA tournament were sumo wrestling, my pick to win it all would be Utah coach Rick Majerus.

Mumbo jumbo: The mavens can go right on worshipping at the shrine of the RPI, but when all is said and done, the NCAA selection committee just uses the voodoo ratings system to justify its favoritism toward the big conferences.

Half and half: No team should be eligible for an at-large tournament berth unless it has won at least half its conference games. That includes ACC teams.

Get out of here: What's keeping the NIT alive, other than ESPN's need to fill its nightly wasteland? It can't be genuine fan interest.

Gone, not forgotten: Princeton, bounced Thursday by California, got into the tournament via the backdoor (backdoor play, that is).

Name game: What do you call a North Carolina team that includes Serge Zwikker, Ademola Okulaja, Makhtar Ndiaye and Vasco Evtimov? Guess America's Team is out of the question.

Quick hit: The Midwest Region is the weakest of the bunch.

Better win it: Coach Roy Williams deserves all the accolades, but let Kansas falter on the road to the national title and watch the critics begin to circle.

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