18
University Daily Kansan
Down to Dallas
Thursday, Mar. 27, 1986
Seniors carry Duke to top
United Press International
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Four springs ago, Duke's crop of recruits was hailed as the country's finest. Now those seniors are within two victories of proving they are really college basketball's best.
Led by four-year starters Johnny Dawkins, Jay Bias and Mark Alarie, the Blue Devils on Sunday completed their East Regional sweep ditch a 71-50 rout of Navy. They advance to the N.C.A.R. in a Saturday match with Kansas.
The two teams met Dec. 1 in the final of the Big Apple National Invitational Tournament, which Duke won 92-85. David Henderson, also a
senior, scored 30 points against the Javahawks.
The Blue Devils, 36-2, move on to Dallas without having had a real test in the NCAA Tournament, but the absence of a true challenge may confirm their No. 1 ranking rather than cast doubt on it.
After triumphs over Mississippi Valley State, Old Dominion, and DePaul, Duke's opponent in the regional final promised to be its most formidable challenge. But it wasn't the Midshipmen who did the cruising.
Despite shooting just under 35 percent during the first half, Duke effectively ended all of the outcome with an 18-2 run before intermission, when it held a 32-22 adven-
tage. Later, the Blue Devils, the Atlantic Coast Conference champions, had leads of 23 points on three occasions.
Duke is making its fifth trip to the Final Four, where it has lost twice in the semifinals and twice in the championship game. The Blue Devils are tied with the 1948 Kentucky team for most victories in a season.
The 6-2 Dawkins, chosen the outstanding player of the regional, collected 17 rebounds in the two games in the regional and displayed the shooting and ballhandling which made him a first-team All-America pick.
Crum didn't figure on LSU
United Press International
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When the pairings for the NCAA tournament were announced, Louisville coach Denny Crum was no different than any fan — he penciled in his picks for the Final Four.
He says he was 75 percent right. Louisville is there, so is Duke, and so is Kansas.
It's the 25 percent he missed that concerns Crum right now.
The team that defied the picks and made it to Dallas — Louisiana State — is the 7th-ranked Cardinals' (30-7) opponent in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Final Four on Saturday in Dallas.
But despite the fact that he didn't
pick them, and that the Tigers were overlooked in the ratings, and were seeded only 11th in the Southeast Regional, Crum says they are no surprise.
"Even when they were losing all those games they were playing well." Crum said Monday.
Asked again if the Tigers, 28-11,
were a surprise because they were
seeded so low, Crum only smiled and
shook his head.
"The rankings have nothing to do with it," Crum said. "It's how you're playing now. That's what's great about our tournament. We decide things on the floor."
What will be decided Saturday is whether LSU can continue to overcome the casualties that turned a 14-0
team into a 22-11 team before the NCAA tourney began, or whether Louisville will transform its glass shoes back into ordinary sneakers.
Crum calls the 1986 Cardinals "fairly typical of the teams which have got to the Final Four."
"We have balance, we have a good inside game, we have a good outside game," he said. "We're playing as well as we can right now. If that's not good enough, we won't win."
And Crum, more than any of the other coaches in the field, knows what it takes to win in the Final Four.
His six appearances are more than any of the three other coaches, and his four this decade, including a national title in 1980, are the most of any coach in the nation.
Problems don't stop Tigers
United Press International
ATLANTA — Louisiana State's road to the Final Four was cluttered by adversity.
they lost a potential superstar,
7-foot-1 Dominican Tito Horford,
when he dropped out of school shortly
before the season began; lost 7-1
Zoran Jovanicov who he suffered a
season-ending knee injury in a pickup game during Christmas
break; and lost 8-6 captain Nikita Wilson when he became academically inelegible at midseason.
Then, there was a chicken-pox outbreak that affected half the squad and kept LSU scoring and rebounding leader John Williams, a 6-8 sophomore, out of the Tigers' first game against No. 4 Kentucky. There
was also an NCAA investigation about the recruitment of Horford, who, at last report, is now at Miami of Florida.
Because of all that, the Tigers, after a 14-0 start, lost eight of their last 13 regular-season games and were knocked out of the Southeastern Conference tournament in the semifinals. But LSU's 22-11 record was good enough to attract an NCAA bid — and the Tigers have been on a roll ever since.
"With all the changes, there had to be adjustments," LSU Coach Dale Brown said. "Those adjustments took time. They feel the magic now. They believe in the system and each other."
LU supset Purdue, 94-87, and No.
12 Memphis State, 83-81, at Baton
Rouge, La. The Tigers continued what Brown calls, "the magic," in Atlanta by upsetting No. 6 Georgia Tech, 70-64, and Kentucky, 59-57, in the Southeast Regional semifinals and finals.
and imab. On Saturday, LSU takes on No. 7 Louisville, 30-7, in the first game of the Final Four at Dallas.
"I don't think I've ever felt more pride than I have this year," Brown said. "I really care for this team. It's the smartest team I've ever had and mentally the toughest. I guess this is the greatest feeling I've ever had."
"We've been through some tough times this year," said LSU senior forward Don Redden, who was voted the regional tournament's most valuable player. "That's what makes it special."
I
Chris Magerl/KANSAN
Reservation confirmed
Becky Chadd, a 1978 KU graduate, shows her support for the Jayhawks during the Big Eight tournament at Kemper Arena.
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