European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 12, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Sunday March 12,1989 the stars and stripes. Page 23 commentary shooting to make the final 64 the old recipe for reaching the Mcaa tournament was simple win 20 games and Yot Trinvilla Tion almost certainly will be in the mail. The. New recipe in t complicated either win As Many As you can and Hope the victories arc against Good enough Competition to impress the selection committee. The magic of 20-win deat is Over said Jim Del any commissioner of the Ohio Valley conference and one of the nine members of the Mcaa Basket Ball committee who spent the weekend locked in Marathon meetings at Kansas City to pick the 64 team Field. The old formula is dead. Anybody who does t believe thai really in t paying of then pay attention. " if the committee simply were going to invite every team that reached 20 wins it would have had a nearly full earns from Akron to appalachian slate from Ball stale to Boise state be fore it began the deliberations. Going into the final weekend of the regular season 56 division i teams had 20 or More wins and 22 More teams were on the threshold of that nor All 20-win seasons Are created equally. The committee studies computer printouts that Eval uate not Only a team s wan loss percentage but also the percentages of opponents and the site where each aim plays the majority of its games. These so Rengh of sch Dulc factors prevent legitimate candidate from being overlooked. Some teams play 18 Home games and Olsen play Only 10," Delany said. If two teams Are both say it id and played common opponents the team that did better on the Road May be valued More then there is the Quality of the teams played. Runaway victories Over Cupcake stale arc devalued. The Way the system works out Pel any said beating a weak team Ai Home can lose it effectiveness and even reach a Point of diminishing returns. -.-. Look Back 15 years and you la find a lot of learns with much stronger records. That reflects two things the number of Quality teams and athletes arc greater and the committee s policy to Reward learns thai upgrade their schedules. Any school that avoid Strong opposition on the Road is not doing itself any favors in the committee s so if winning 20 games won t do the trick what will. Well if you win the title in a conference that owns one of the 30 automatic bids you re in. Thai s How first timer George Mason of the colonial athletic association and Southwest Missouri state of the association of mid Continental universities made in last week Well before the committee s deliberations began. -. -. -.-". Also in Early were Indiana of the big ten Buck null of the East coast conference Creighton of the 1 Missouri Valley conference East Tennessee state of the Southern conference la Salt of the metro at lactic conference Loyola mar Mont of the was coast athletic conference Princeton of the Ivy league South Alabama of the Sun Bell conference South Carolina slate of the mid Eastern at klic conference and Robert Morris of the Northeast conference \ besides Indiana none of those schools is ranked and Only Lasalle received Voles in the Yalcs associated press poll. You have to realize that 13 to 15 of the automatic bids arc going to be teams below the computer rankings of the lop 64 teams said Cedric Jempsey Allelic director at no. 1 Ari Zona and chairman of the selection committee ,. Other automatics were set before the committee arrived in Kansas City and More fell in place after its meetings began. But four tournament championship games the dig eight Pacific-10, Southwest conference and metro conference were to be in Progress when the Field was to be announced sunday evening and the southwestern athletic Conler Cnoc final game was t scheduled to Start until an hour aft that. /. The complicates things somewhat bul nobody said this weekend would a easy i Don t think i Veever seen a member of the committee who was t totally exhausted when we were finished said Dave Cawood assistant executive director of the Mcaa who sits in on the meetings. Besides dumps by and Delany rom Miniee. Mem Bers Are Tom butlers athletic director at Dyke Ken free commissioner of the mid Eastern athletic conference Fred Schaus Al Lulic director at West Virginia Hoy Kramer athletic director at Vander Bill Tom Frericks athletic director at Dayton bump Elliott athletic director Ai Iowa and Gary Cunningham athletic director at Fresno stale. Nut Lew Elliott and Cunningham Are serving for the first lime.". " they begin by identifying teams they think should be in based on Quality of their play regard less of what happens in postseason Louth Amonis Cawood said. A icam would need Siv votes from the nine members to get that s unless one of the committee member s schools is involved. Then they do not participate in the vote and the team would need sin of eight. Once on the Grid teams arc later subjected to a second Vole to stay the Rel that Cawood said is to be sure the committee is comfortable with the Selec tions.". Most of the obvious heavyweights full into place quickly. The toughest part comes when the Grid is almost full and there arc four spots a i. Inc lust place in each of the. Four geographical regions. There arc often 12 to 15 Cattis thai Are still on he Bubble Al that Point. It s not uncommon for the committee to spend As much As two hours on those four places Cawood decision is vital because Irani eliminated in the first round of the tournament still takes Home $250,000 from an affair thai is Worth in excess of 11.25 million for each team reaching the final four the greatest dilemma of All for the com Mittee this year conc cams the Recac North Atlantic. Conference which played its postseason tournament in privacy at the Hartford civic Center. Spectators were prohibited because of a measles outbreak on the campuses of several member schools. what Slot on the tournament Grid do you Reserve for a team that might be contagious. John son Fri q be s h i s p p i p t w i t h Sun s Phoenix guard Kevin Johnson.,. 19,4 Points 12.1 assists by Bill Barnard a basketball writer Kevin Johnson is making Phoenix for get that the suns traded Larry Nance to Cleveland ,.-./ never mind that Kevin Johnson in t even the Best Point guard Nan cd John Sonin never mind thai Nance is a two time ail Star including this season for the Cava liars who have Heb Sci record in the league never mind hat Nuncci who turned 30 last month lends the hand of experience to a team that barely made he playoffs last season .-.-y. What should be remembered is thai7 Kevin Johnson who just turned 23 last sat urday already is among the Best Point guards in the Aba and May be the quickest. Last year1 Trade that brought Johnson to the suns and sent Nance to Cleveland is being hailed As the Best of All possible deals one that improved both teams the Cavaliers have been outstand ing they have moved up to another level suns coach Cotton Fitzsimmons said. The suns have done thai too we re 16 games Over .500 after missing the playoffs three straight seasons. This Deal benefited both it was one of the greatest trades of Oil Lime Johnson save. They have the Busti Riccord in the East and we have the second Best record in the West and both teams Are Johnson arrived in new York last week with the City s newspapers full of Praise for the quickness of Rookie Rod Stricklind who had 20 Points and 14 assists against Chicago in his first Star in Relief of injured All Star Mark j action. Although Phoenix lost to the kicks Johnson had 31 Points and 11 assists and ran circles around Strickland. Here was kicks coach Rick piling after Strickland finished with so assists and As Many fouls As Points against the suns of. is Quick but Kevin Johnson is v Johnson is averaging 19.4 Points arid is third in the league in assists with 12.1 per game trailing Only John Stockton and magic Johnson. And those numbers have been going up in february when he was the Aba s player of the month he averaged 24.5 Point Sand 13 assists. Unquestionably Nance has been valuable to the Cavaliers but Johnson filled a historical Gap at Point guard for be suns he set the suns single game record with21 assists on feb. 26 and broke Jay Humphries single season assist Mark alter just 53 Garnet. While Johnson is averaging More than 12 assists no previous suns player has Ever averaged As Many As eight. Johnson s outstanding performance in no Accident. Although he did t make a scene about it he admitted he was disappoint cd a no making the All Star team especially after magic Johnson was injured. Anytime things Don l go your Way you have to make n work for you Kevin Johnson said. In inc three games just preceding the All Star break Johnson had 35 Points and 13 assists 19 Points and 12 insists and 34 Points and is assists. But Johnson went Inlo the season Wilh far fewer expectations than fizz Simmons i expected a lot of Kevin the coach said. Going into the season i was concerned about hit being too Young no one has More Speed or quickness than heroes. No one has a bigger he told me that a int. And j started id believe him Johnson said. I thought i would come More gradually for Mel Bulhe gave me Confidence in myself some Nua Point guards with the Lac no to score Are reined in by their coaches for the Good of the learn. Chuck Daly at de troit believes the prs Lons can twin Wilh Isiah Thomas scoring More than he does for so Fitzsimmons. Coach wants his Point guards to score in lot Johnson said. I try to keep the bal distributed Well but us play such a fast Tempo game that i can keep everyone involved and still score knows How to gel people fired up suns assistant Paul we Alphal said. For second year Plajer its unbelievable thin he s come in and done so Well. He s our offence at age 23, Kevin Johnson is also the suns future. An sport television. Baske Bull allanic coast conference final 7 . Sunday big Easl conference final 12 20 . Monday tic a de Road to the final four 2 non. Motif Day radio College basketball Southeastern con Ference final 8 . Sunday big eight conference final 10 06 sunday pro basketball Cleveland at port land 2
