DATE: Sunday, March 16, 1997                TAG: 9703160048

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Paul South

                                            LENGTH:   91 lines

HOOP HYPE: A FEW REASONS WHY I'M MAD ABOUT MARCH

March is a marvelous month.

For one thing, businesses on the Outer Banks are dusting off the cobwebs, washing the windows and opening their doors, anxiously anticipating warm weather and the mass caravan of visitors that follows.

The third month of the year is also great because gardens begin to spring to life.

And, unless you've been extremely busy - like the accountants at the Democratic National Committee - returning checks - you know that March means the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

March Madness.

The 64-team rassle royale is the greatest sporting event in America. Where else can you see teams like the Fairfield Stags, Long Island University Blackbirds and the College of Charleston Cougars deal fits to the big boys of college hoops?

For the next three weeks, a great many of us will be glued to our television sets, watching the drama unfold. And even if you think a slam dunk is something tacky people do with coffee and doughnuts, most folks like underdogs who pull off big upsets. And the next three weeks will provide a kennel full of surprises.

Here's a Top 10 List of Reasons to Like the NCAA Tournament:

1. Princeton. The Tigers lost their first-round game by 3 to California. But Princeton has run the same offense since the days of Bill Bradley. Teams that draw the Tigers are as nervous as Bill Clinton these days in a roomful of Chinese checkbooks. Plus, Princeton players are true student-athletes - in school to get an education, not to hang out for a year or two before getting zillion-dollar sneaker deals. Every time I think of Princeton, I'm reminded of a cheer the Northwestern band chanted during a blowout in the 1980s their team suffered at the hands of football factory Oklahoma. ``That's all right, that's OK. You're going to work for us someday.''

2. No Dick Vitale. Since CBS is carrying the tournament, we don't have to listen to college basketball's biggest shrill rant and rave about ``Diaper Dandies'' (freshmen who can play) and ``Dipsy-Doo Dunka-roos'' (mindless drivel meaning ``slam dunk''). ESPN's Vitale sings the praises of corrupt coaches like Jerry Tarkanian, who, by the way, is now in the midst of a possible point-shaving scandal at Fresno State. To hear Dick Vitale talk, college basketball is a squeaky-clean game. But then again, Dick still believes Watergate was just a third-rate burglary.

3. Nicknames. Amidst all the Bulldogs and Tigers and Bears, there are some great team monikers - the Tennessee-Chattanooga Moccasins, the Boston University Terriers, the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. By the way, what's a Hoya?

4. Woody Durham. The voice of North Carolina basketball, Durham has a gift granted to great radio broadcasters: He can paint a picture with words. Longtime University of Kentucky broadcaster Cawood Ledford could work the same magic, weaving intricate detail with the action on the floor. Ledford, now retired, was the best radio man in college hoops. Durham is his worthy successor.

5. Dean Smith. The legendary Tar Heels leader became the winningest coach in college basketball history Saturday with a 73-56 second-round win against Colorado. His record of 877 victories surpasses the mark left by the late Adolph Rupp. Smith did it in five fewer years than Rupp. And, Carolina has never been on NCAA probation during the Smith era. To top it off, Rupp coached in the football-crazy Southeastern Conference, where basketball is always second fiddle. To this day, on some SEC campuses, when a basketball player dribbles, somebody in the crowd screams, ``Fumble!''

6. Office pools. Sure, it's low-level gambling. But filling out brackets draws attention to schools that get ignored more often than not. Plus, it's good for the economy. Not as profitable as being a commission-only marketing representative for the Lincoln bedroom, or the Arkansas franchise holder for those pictures of dogs playing poker, but it's good fun.

7. Duke basketball. The student section at Cameron Indoor Stadium is stuffed full of graduates of the Howard Stern Charm School, but Blue Devil coach Mike Kryzewski, like Smith at North Carolina, Jeff Jones at Virginia and Dave Odom at Wake Forest, does things the right way. He recruits good kids who graduate.

8. Tim Duncan. He's the best big man in college basketball. And he could have left school last year, lured away by the big bucks of the NBA. But the Wake Forest star wanted to complete his education and get a shot at an NCAA title. Sadly, Duncan is the exception, rather than the rule, in big-time college basketball.

9. Roy Williams. Kansas' all-world guard Jacque Vaughan paid the ultimate tribute to his coach a couple of weeks back, not in what he said but in what tears prohibited him from saying. ``You're not just a coach . . . ,'' Vaughan began. And then he choked up. Vaughan spoke volumes without uttering a word. Williams, who began his college coaching career as a $2,700-a-year assistant for Dean Smith, is the kind of guy I'd want my son to play for.

10. The chance to be a hero. Every kid who laces 'em up and takes the floor in the field of 64 has a chance, for a fleeting moment, to be a star. Some, like Wake Forest's Duncan, have their reputations secured. But the kids from St. Mary's and St. Joseph's and South Alabama and Coppin State have the opportunity for a moment in the sun.

We should all be so lucky.

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