University Daily Kansan, November 30, 1984
FAST BREAK
Page 10
Georgetown favored to repeat as NCAA champ
By United Press International
"You're not going to get any coach — unless Muhammad Ali starts coaching — saying, 'I'm going to win the national championship. It's not a chance.'" Thompson, coach of defending NCAA champion Georgetown.
NEW YORK — Logic says it is best to keep quiet about such things. And for those who take their basketball dynasties seriously, the subject may border on poor taste.
It has been more than a decade since the same school won consecutive NCAA championships, UCLA took the title in 1972 and 1973. The players were Bali Waltan, Keith Wilkes, Larry Farmer and Greg Lee. The coach was John Wooden and the empire was near the end.
The revolution was upon college basketball, tossing the old guard off the palace walls; scholarships were reduced, preventing schools from stockpiling players; blacks made their way in greater numbers into
athletic programs of southern universities; television and the college games discovered their mutual love in college sports, grew out of our colleges and deserts.
Talent found its way into places where basketball was previously a second-class sport. Winning became tougher, let alone winning an NCAA crown and then doing it all over again the next year.
"It's very difficult to repeat in anything," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim says. "Especially the national championship."
Says Washington coach Marv Harshman: "There is a parity now countrywide."
So for Georgetown to come back and win the title once more will be no small undertaking. The proceedings for the 282 Division I schools began Nov. 18 with the traditional opener in Boca Raton, home to boma and Illinus and will culminate next spring with the Final Four in Lexington, Ky.
And, be it sensible or not, there is good reason to think this could again be the year for Georgetown.
The Hoyas went 34-3 last season, becoming the first eastern school in 30 years to claim the title. They forced opponents to shoot less than 40 percent, an NCAA record. And if any doubts remained by tournament time, they were dispelled in the public dismemberment of Kentucky in the NCAA semifinals and the victory over Houston in the final.
Georgetown was a killer team baseline-to-baseline last year. And who's to say it won't be more gruesome this time?
In the middle is 7-foot All-American Patrick Ewing, the shotblocking aircraft carrier who makes the Hoyas go. On the front line are David Wingate, Ralph Jackson and Bill Martin along with swingman Reggie Williams and guards Michael Jackson and Horace Broadax.
Michael Graham, he of the bald head and glowing look, is not back because of academic problems. But, in all, seven return while the recruits are simply some of the country's best.
"Because it is a national championship you tend to think it's corn-
plete." Thompson says. "But it's not complete. We made a lot of mistakes. I'm not by nature the sort of person who can into anything overconfident."
If Thompson is looking for reasons to have his confidence shaken he need go no further than his own conference, the Big East, where St John's and Syracuse will have much to say.
And the rest of the country is lined up - from College Park to Champlain to Corvallis.
In the South, there's Duke, Memphis State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina State, North Carolina,
Kentucky and Virginia Tech. The troika in the Midwest is DePaul, Illinois and Indiana and moving across the country there's Arkansas, Southern Methodist, Oklahoma, Nevada-Las Vegas and Washington.
And breakthroughs could come from unexpected places: Oral Roberts or Santa Clara or George Washington.
Ewing is joined by two fellow Olympians and All-Americans this season; Chris Mullin of St. John's and Wayman Tisdale of Oklahoma will compete in the medal-winning squad are guard Steve Aflard of Indiana and centers
Jon Koncak of Southern Methodist and Joe Kleine of Arkansas.
Some other big men josting for position this year will be Benoit Benjamin of Creighton, Mike Brown of George Washington, Dallas Comegys of DePaul, William Bedford of Memphis State, Dave Hoppen of Nebraska and Blair Rasmussen of Oregon.
Along with Mulin and Alford at guard are Dwayne Washington of Syracuse, Mark Price of Georgia Tech, Johnny Dawkins of Duke, Bruce Douglas of Illinois, Milt Wagner of Louisville and Dell Curry of Virginia Tech.
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