sports
Battalion/Page 15
February 17, 1983
Parity’s the rule in today’s
college basketball spotlight
avetol
austl
ngioj
ipeai
JI bJ
> Mon
If Mr. Webster were a half-court bas-
iketball fan, he wouldn’tjust define parity
[as “equality in power.” He’d also say it
Idescribes accurately what’s happening in
the game of college basketball today.
[ Looking at the polls, the norm today
seems to be a new No. 1 team every week.
iBeing No. 1 in the polls is like a hot
)tato. Nobody seems to want it. Knock
ing at the door have been Indiana, Ken-
stucky, St.John’s, Mississippi, UCLA, Vir
ginia plus a flotilla of others.
The reasons for this are many.
I The most obvious one is the freshman
pie, which does not allow the dynasty
[colleges to stockpile the blue-chippers
like they did years ago. What you used to
do was bring in a great freshman team,
ibreak them in as sophomores and play
them as juniors and seniors. Today, a
[blue-chip freshman wants to play right
pway or he’ll go somewhere else where he
[will, because most keepers have their
eyes on the pros down the road. And,
junlike in football, turning a program
around and taking a trip uptown costs
only a couple of blue-chippers and the
jright complementary players.
What all this has done is spread the
high school blue-chippers throughout 50
Io60 schools in Division I, which is a first
big step toward equality.
Another thing is that the NCAA has
lowered the amount of scholarships you
pan give. At no time can you have more
pan 15 basketball players on scholar
ship. They can bring in 15 in one year, or
Spread it over four years, but at no time
ban there be more than 15 on scholar
ship.
I That’s step No. 2.
I Third, with the exception of states like
'allege.
-~Ba&ketUcUl
“Review
by Al McGuire
Indiana — Branch McCracken and Bob
by Knight country — and Kentucky,
where the late Adolph Rupp and now Joe
Hall are making it routine to go uptown
and almost common to make the Final
Four, basketball for years has been a city
game. An overwhelming majority of
thoroughbreds came out of Chi, the Big
Apple, L.A. and D.C. But today, there
are great ballplayers in states like Monta
na, Louisiana and Maine.
This has come about because basket
ball has come center ring, made the spot
light, gone SRO. It happened because
the game was made for TV and the
tremendous exposure of the boob tube.
Major sponsors prefer college basketball
because the ratings are strong and it hits
the right audience. Fans like it because
the ball is big, not like £ hockey puck you
can’t see. The lighting is excellent, the
court is small enough for good camera
angles, the players are always visible be
cause of their limited amount of clothing.
Also, with a few exceptions over the
last 20 years, basketball camps — special
ized basketball camps — have sprung up
by the thousands throughout the lana.
There used to be just a handful of guys
who had them, but not anymore. Now
the coach at East Cupcake has one, the
Little Sisters of the Poor have one —
everyone has one.
In addition, basketball coaches have
finally left the shadows of the goalposts.
It used to be, at many schools, that they
were also assistant coaches in football,
but now basketball coaches are extremely
well-paid, have competent staffs and the
schools have provided them with the
monies to promote, recruit and scout.
Most coaches, too, try to help them
selves by trying to keep their schedule
relatively soft. That’s because most teams
go to the NCAA on their record. Some of
the bids are based on conferences, but
the rest on record. So today, outside of a
regional hookup, non-conference book
ings are usually weak sisters. That’s why
so many schools today start their confer
ences with 10-0 records.
Finally, televised regional or national
games provide a big payoff and have
spawned larger recruiting budgets and
bigger facilities — some of them mam
moth in size. Syracuse is touching close to
30,000 at tip-off time, and the University
of Tennessee is building a new arena to
seat 25,000.
So, college basketball, welcome to the
major leagues, the heavyweight division,
the eighth race, the super bowl of college
sports. But forget about any consistence
in individual schools any more, the fabric
has been irretrievably changed. And par
ity will be the word for whatever college
basketball is for the next century.
Parity has already sent the word “up
set” the way of the buffalo. Today you
can never count a game an upset unless
it’s on the road. Even Chaminade beating
Virginia is not that much of an upset,
because it was at Chaminade. There is no
upset on the road. Only if you beat ’em
on their turf.
TANK MPNAMAKA
by Jeff Millar & Bill Hinds
p 7 "
rUEK) I rOJMP OUT TMU
R&MCmse F2MS
A <50 PER CEKir REBATT )F
TM£ TEAM POE&J'T WlM
AT L£A£>T 20 GAMES TAlS
TCU still
in third
after win
FT
-8 Mil
■ lOILlj
:Hennj
:td m]
leveland trips up Dallas, 99-96
United Press International
fhere’s no time like the pre-
tiie
jver!-!
t for the Cleveland Cavaliers
hange owners.
lM0.i IWith a deal between current
Mw wner Ted Stepien and real
1 (state developer John Ferchill
earing completion, it appears
new owner will inherit a
|am on the upswing.
While Ferchill was saying
d and I shook hands on the
... I signed the documents
sent them to Ted and I
me he will sign them,” the
aliers went out Wednesday
ht and posted their fourth
/}t| raight victory, a 99-96 decision
1 vet the Dallas Mavericks.
|Four victories in a row may
ot sound like much, but the
avaliers have won just 13 of 52
| antes. The four-game surge is
leveland’s longest winning
teak since Jan., 1981.
h a snoi I World B. Free scored 23
hofjl lints, including four free
glafh tows in the final 19 seconds,
Willi! id Cliff Robinson added 23
n ' t |ool lints and 22 rebounds to spark
leveland to its home triumph
at rep! 1 «ore a crowd of 3,587.
p all felt we had a chance to beat
las all through the game, but
bench did a super job,”
inson said.
fter Dallas took a 76-70 lead
to the final period, the game
’ tied five times before a drive
ree put the Cavaliers ahead
tay, 93-91, with 1:59 left. A
per by Jay Vincent pulled
las to 95-94 with 34 seconds
but Free connected on a
nical foul shot when Dallas
vas called for a zone with 19
econds left.
jNo time ran off the clock as
ee sank another technical
en Mark Aguirre fouled Lar-
' enon on the next inbounds
!y. Free then added two more
shots with seven seconds
Mark Aguirre’s 29 points
pace Mavs in loss to Cavs
saw him sitting on the bench for
the first five minutes of the
fourth period,” said Motta. “I
knew he was rested.”
Aguirre led Dallas with 29
points and Rolando Blackman
had 26 as the Mavs’ record fell to
25-25.
BUCKS 126, PISTONS 121
— At Milwaukee, Marques
Johnson scored 39 points, in
cluding the go-ahead basket in
overtime, to lift Milwaukee. Vin-
nie Johnson’s 3-point shot at the
buzzer tied the game, 108-108,
after regulation.
CELTICS 108, SUPER-
SONICS 100 — Robert Parrish
scored 34 points and Boston
held the SuperSonics to just two
points in the final four minutes
as the Celtics registered their
first victory in six years at
Seattle.
76ERS 116, NUGGETS 95 —
At Philadelphia, Moses Malone
scored 21 points and combined
with Maurice Cheeks to spark a
19-0 spurt in the opening quar
ter to lead Philadelphia.
SUNS 111, KINGS 102 — At
St. Louis, Larry Nance had 23
points and Kyle Macy fueled a
fourth-quarter rally that carried
Phoenix.
United Press International
Dennis Nutt has begun to play
like he never has before — at
least not in a TCU uniform.
Nutt was the key Wednesday
night to a 72-50 TCU victory
over Rice, as the Horned Frogs
stayed alive in their fight for
third place and the last bye past
the first round of the Southwest
Conference postseason tourna
ment.
With Texas A&M’s victory
over Baylor, TCU stayed in
third place,, one game ahead of
the Aggies. Texas A&M needed
forward Claude Riley’s streak
shooting in two important
stretches of Wednesday’s game
to fight off the Baylor Bears, 74-
62.
And TCU used the early
scoring of Nutt to race to a quick
lead over the Owls, the league’s
last-place team.
TCU scored the first nine
points in its meeting with Rice,
allowed the Owls just five points
during the first 10 minutes and
coasted to one of its most com
fortable victories of the season.
Dallas Coach Dick Motta said
feared Free in the final
riod.
MSC Amateur Radio Committee
will have a tour of the
Zachry Solid-State Labs
Thursday February 1 7
7 lOO PM Meet in Zachry Lobby
Visitors welcome!
Join us for half price on mixed drinks and
oysters on the half shell. Only at Pelican’s Wharf
every Monday thru Friday 5 — 7 p.m. Enjoy
Margaritas by the liter just $7.00.
PRICE.
Mixed DrinKs-n-Oysters
*
‘half price does not
include beer or wine
JiconV
2500 Texas Ave., 693-5113