Page 14/The Battalion/Wednesday, April 6, 1983
_
Houston-N.C. State final
helps basketball’s popularity
TANK MCNAMARA
by Jeff Millar & Bill Hind
'i
United Press International
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —
pollege basketball is riding a
crest of popularity unmatched
in its history and contests such as
ihe one which decided the
^sICAA championship can only
jerve to enhance the sport’s
•reputation.
»• For the Second straight year
Ithe NCAA final provided high
yframa for the nation’s television
^viewers and the collegiate game
^gain demonstrated why it has
"such appeal.
v On the day before his North
^Carolina State Wolfpack took on
Hhe Houston Cougars in the title
Xgame, coach Jim Valvano
^sounded as if he had embarked
^bn a crusade.
*. “We aren’t playing for just
'^North Carolina State and the
i Atlantic Coast Conference,” said
' Valvano. “We are playing for all
*bf college basketball.”
»; And when the Wolfpack out-
'/scrapped the Cougars, 54-52, it
^.showed once more that college
• basketball is not always domin-
• hted by the giants who slam into
leach other under the hoop.
When nerve endings get raw
and the outcome is in doubt,
poise on the floor and on the
bench often have more to do
with the outcome than the
height of the player.
“To beat us you’re going to
have to do some good things,”
said Valvano in summing up his
team’s play. “This team has a lot
of heart.”
It wasn’t the ferocious slam
dunks preferred by the huge
Houston front line that helped
decide the game last Monday.
Instead, the big shots were the
artistic, long-range jumpers that
seemed to stay in the air for
three or four seconds — shots
launched by 6-1 Dereck Whit-
tenburg, 6-0 Sidney Lowe and
6-0 Terry Gannon.
The long distance shot had
become so commonplace during
the second half of the cham
pionship game that when Whit-
tenburg tossed up a 30-footer in
the final seconds, no one seemed
to consider what might happen
if it didn’t go in.
At least no one considered it
except Lorenzo Charles, who
grabbed the short shot and stuf
fed it through for the winning
points.
The two competing teams left
Rangers
win 2nd
over Sox
United Press International
ARLINGTON — The chill of
a second loss in as many efforts
for Chicago this season re
mained on the Arlington Sta
dium field, where temperatures
had fallen to the mid-40s by the
end of the game.
In the White Sox locker
room, catcher and team leader
Carlton Fisk, said he had “no ex
cuses” for the heads down play
which has allowed baseball’s best
team in the preseason to start
regular play 0-2.
“I think we’re over trying,” he
said after Chicago’s 4-1 loss to
Texas Tuesday night. But there
is no reason to panic. We’re get
ting good pitching and there’s
160 games left this year. We
can’t panic over two losses.”
Fisk said errors (four in the
two games), missed double plays
and general sloppy play had
given Texas game-winning
Albuquerque Monday for their
respective homes, the Wolfpack
basking in its upset decision and
Houston still in a mild state of
shock.
And in the aftermath of the
championship game, the bricks
were quickly hurled at Houston
coach Guy Lewis.
Lewis’ team had won 26
games in a row going into the
meeting with North Carolina
State and had — in the course of
a few weeks — risen dramatical
ly in stature. But the coach’s de
cision to go into a delay game
midway through the second half
was roundly criticized by media
and players alike.
North Carolina State, which
lost an eight-point halftime lead
and trailed by seven at one
point, rallied during Houston’s
slowdown attempt.
In Tuesday’s game, for ex
ample, Fisk had a pitch ricochet
off him toward the Ranger dug-
out. Bucky Dent on second base
broke for third, but then held
up. Billy Sample at first broke
for second and was caught in the
middle of the baseline.
Fisk threw the ball to second
baseman Tony Bernazard who
charged Sample back toward
first, flipped the ball to first
baseman Tom Paciorek who
chased Sample back toward
second before throwing the ball
again to Bernazard.
Sample made a quick pivot
and ran past Paciorek back to
first base which was uncovered.
In the confusion, Dent moved
up to third and scored on Buddy
Bell’s two-out single.
“I don’t know. You can go to
the chalkboard to figure out
how that should have been play
ed. (Pitcher Floyd) Bannister
should have been at first, but he
thought the play was going to
third and he was backing up
there. We ended up giving up a
run when we should have had an
out,” Fisk said.
The unseasonably cold tem
peratures, supported by 20 mph
winds, was far from the sunny,
warm weather of spring season.
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