The Daily Oklahoman from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma • 33

THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN Sports (460-1212 RECORDED WKY OKLAHOMA CITY TIMES SPORTSLINE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1985 There's No Explaining How These 64 Teams Made It Jim Lassifer Tournament is not to figure it at all. The more thought you put into how the field was chosen, the less you understand about it. The more logic you use in studying the selection process, the less logical it seems. Each year the NCAA Selection Committee certainly leaves us something to discuss and cuss. This time was no exception.

Consider, if you will, the following ice-breaking topics you might bring up if you happen to find yourself surrounded by basketball coaches at a party this weekend. The haven't I seen you someplace before Regional: That's in the West, where in the first round Tulsa plays Texas-El Paso. Back when he was a collegiate player, TU coach Nolan Richardson attended UTEP where Don Haskins was and remains the head coach. Did you glance over the list of teams drawn to play for the '84-'85 collegiate basketball championship? Hard to figure, isn't it? Were you more amazed that 12-18 Lehigh is in the field or that 20-8 West Virginia was left out? What did you think about Virginia and Houston, who were Final Four teams last year, not being included? Did you believe politics to be a factor for getting 16-12 Kentucky, which plays host to the, Final Four this year, into the tournament? If you feel that way, why were the West Virginia and TCU representatives on the Selection Committee unable to politic their teams into the 64-team field? After watching the selection process, and looking carefully at the field, it's easy to see why the best way to figure this year's NCAA Carolina, Brown played for Smith. The what car are you talking about Regional: That's in the East, where Wichita State plays Georgia.

The Shockers are just off NCAA probation for illegal recruting while the Bulldogs have been under investigation for allegedly bending the rules. The not those guys again Regional: That's in the East, where SMU and Georgetown would be matched up in the semifinals. A year ago the Hoyas came within a heartbeat of losing to the Mustangs out in the West Regional. But once Georgetown survived that, it streaked on through the tournament to the national championship. The just thought you might could help us out Regional: That's in the Midwest, where Oklahoma plays North Carolina in the opening round.

Back before Ed Manning became an assistant coach at Kansas, he drove a truck. But before he drove a truck, he was assistant coach at Do you suppose he'll give the Aggies a scouting report on the Sooners? The how about those guards Regional: That's in the Midwest at Houston. On display there will be Johnny Dawkins of Duke, Steve Mitchell of Alabama-Birmingham, Andre Turner of Memphis State, Sam Vincent of Michigan State, Bubba Jennings of Texas Tech and Michael Adams of Boston College. The what did you say that man's name wan Regional: That's in the Southeast where Michigan is paired against someone called Fairleigh-Dickinson. The shame, of course, is See Page 35, Column 3 The haven't I seen you someplace before Regional, chapter two: That's also in the West, where in the first round Arkansas plays Iowa.

Back in December, in the fifth place game of the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii, the Hawkeyes beat the Razorbacks, 71-52. The haven't I seen you someplace before Regional, chapter three: That's the potential matchup in the Southeast, where Kansas and North Carolina have been placed. By winning two games each, KU coach Larry Brown would play UNG coach Dean Smith in the Regional semfinals. While in college at North Daughter's Illness Stuns Richardson Sooners Ready For Tourney Run Georgia Tech Win Serves as Catalyst Channel 9 to Air Sooners' Opener KWTV-TV, Channel 9, in Oklahoma City will telecast Oklahoma's opening-round NCAA basketball tournament game Thursday beginning at 7 p.m. The fourth-ranked Sooners will tip off against North Carolina at 7:07 p.m.

Thursday in an NCAA Midwest Regional game from Oral Roberts University's Mabee Center in Tulsa. OU is seeded first in the 16-team regional and is seeded 16th. If OU beats the Sooners will play again Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against Southern California or Illinois State. The Saturday game, tipping off at 3:35 p.m., also will be carried by KWTV, the area's CBS affiliate.

Staff Photo bv Doua Hoke Myriad workers Ted Wallace and Richard Brady ar- onships. The tournament begins Thursday at 10 a.m. range support structures for officials and media that and continues, with two sessions a day, through Satur-will be on hand for this, week's NCAA wrestling champi- day's 7 p.m. championship finals. Score It a Reversal OU's Chaid Prospers in New Leadership Role By Tom Kensler Nolan Richardson's Tulsa Hurricane will open NCAA tournament play Friday in Albuquerque, N.M., but he hasn't had his mind on basketball the past few days.

On Monday, his 13-year-old daughter, Yvonne, was diagnosed as having leukemia. "Thank God, the doctors are pretty sure it's a curable form and they think they've caught it in time," Richardson said. "It makes you realize there are things a lot more important than basketball. "She's been the apple of my eye. I've been doing a lot of praying lately." Tulsa, 23-7 and ranked No.

18 by The Associated Press, will play Texas-El Paso, 21-9, beginning at 3:30 p.m. CST Friday in the University of New Mexico arena in Albuquerque. Richardson played at UTEP during 1961-63, the last two under Don Has-kins. "Yesterday I didn't know if I'd be there (for Friday's game)," Richardson said Tuesday. "But now it looks like they've got it under control.

She's been ill and feeling weak for about two weeks. We thought it was mono (mononucleosis). But then her white blood count went sky high. "She's doing a lot better," he said. "They are doing things (in medicine) these days I never dreamed about.

I hope to be there with the team, but I'm not sure I can go out with them Thursday. I might be needed here. My wife hasn't slept for two days." Richardson did not attend Monday's practice. He spent most of the time at the cancer center of St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa.

TU assistant coaches Scott Edgar and Rob Spivery directed the team through a spirited workout. "You never know how a team will react to this kind of thing," Richardson said. "They all know about it and how it's affected me." Edgar said the Hurricane had one of its best practices of the season Monday. "They reacted well to the situation and worked hard," he said. If Tulsa wins Thursday, it will face the winner of Friday's game between North Carolina State and Nevada-Reno in a Sunday afternoon second-round game.

Second-round winners advance to Western Regional play March 22-24 in Denver. Tulsa is seeded No. 6 among the 16 See Page 34, Column 4 By Bob Hersom Oklahoma didn't earn the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Midwest Regional just by playing basketball, you know. The Sooners didn't get the top seed on any turnaround jump shots by Wayman Tisdale or double-pumps by Tim McCalister or rebound-slams by Anthony Bowie or fadeaways by Dar-ryl Kennedy or alley-oop passes by Linwood Davis or David Johnson.

The fans did it. It happened on a foggy, drizzly Sunday afternoon, March 3, when the Sooners rallied from a seemingly impossible deficit to beat Georgia Tech 87-80 at Lloyd Noble Center. With just over seven minutes left in that game, OU trailed by 12 points, 72-60. A few moments later, the capacity crowd found its vocal chords and the Sooners regained their confidence. Result: A 27-8 OU spree over the final seven minutes and 17 seconds.

After that game, OU coach Billy Tubbs said the crowd won the game that Tech would have prevailed on any other court. Tisdale called the crowd "our sixth, seventh and eighth man." This week, Tubbs said, "That game definitely affected us from the standpoint that we knew they were a good team. And usually when one good team gets another good team down by 12 the team that's behind isn't going to come back." But the Sooners and their fans did come back. If they hadn't, OU would not be top seeded in any of the four NCAA regionals. OU may not have even won the Big Eight tournament.

The Sooners, remember, took a three-game slump into those final seven minutes against the Rambling Wreck. After losing 82-76 at Kansas, they were sluggish in victories over Oklahoma State (89-84) at home and Nebraska (65-62) on the road. During those three games, OU's sluggishness was apparent in the three most telling numbers on the Sooner statistics sheet: turnovers, steals and points. The Sooners, who had been forcing 18.5 turnovers per game, totaled only 26 in the three games. After averaging 10.6 steals per game, they had just 13 in the three games.

And the Sooners' scoring average dipped from 92.3 to 76.7 during the three-game Chaid, the country's second-ranked 190-pounder with a 34-1 record, has never been what one could call a problem for Abel, but his willingness to accept responsibility, both to the team and to himself, has been welcomed. "He's been real fun to be with this year," said Abel. "I think he likes himself better, he likes school better, he likes wrestling better, his teammates and everything." "You mature as you go through college," Chaid said. "I'm not doing the wild and crazy things I used to do in my younger days. I've taken on more responsibility and I'm more serious about school, more serious about my goals in wrestling.

I've just pretty much gotten serious about life." Chaid, "the best wrestler at his weight in high school," according to Abel, came to the Sooners largely because of the Schultz brothers, Dave and Mark. They were from Palo Alto, not far from his hometown of San Jose. Their lifestyle got him off on the wrong track, said Abel. "The Schultzes were more individual guys. They weren't really that re-See Page 35, Column 6 By Mac Bentley One of the biggest jobs Stan Abel faced this year with his Oklahoma Sooner wrestling team was just holding it together.

The losses of Johnny Johnson, Michael Gomez and, for a time, Nick Neville and Glenn Goodman, racked the Sooners just when they were gearing up for the most serious portion of their schedule. Fortunately for Abel, this season also marked the emergence of Dan Chaid, who has always had the ability on the mat, as a team leader. So when Abel and his staff were working to patch up the team from the outside, Chaid, along with Melvin Douglas, was keeping it from coming apart on the inside. Like a beaming father, Chaid is "especially proud of how the team has performed all year, it showed a lot of guts," he said Tuesday afternoon. With the 55th NCAA championships beginning at the Myriad Thursday, the easy-going, out-going, Big Eight champion and two-time AU-American will be concerned not only with his own matches, but with those of his teammates as well.

It wasn't always that way. "He's really turned into a heckuva slump, or "sinking spell," as Tubbs calls it. The defense was forcing half its usual number of steals and turnovers. The offense was scoring 15 points below its nation-leading average. Translation: The Sooners were a half-step slow on both ends of the floor.

Then came the Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech and a bandwagon effect for the Sooners. Since those final seven minutes against Tech, OU has played its best and, as it turns out, most important basketball of the season. Though OU's best has never come in spurts of more than 20 minutes, the Sooners, at their best, are more fun to watch that any college basketball team in the country. "I don't think our team has peaked, but I think we'd better peak pretty quickly," Tubbs said. "At times we have played as well as we're capable of playing, but we haven't put together five 40-minute games yet, and I've always said a good team should have five good 40-minute games a season.

In fact, I don't think we had any last See Page 34, Column 4 OU -190-pounder Dan Chaid team man," said Abel. "He came here a little bit more self-oriented, a little bit more with the attitude 'What can the program do for "This year he's taken a real leadership role, he's more demanding in the wrestling room and he's turned into a heckuva good captain for us." Litsch, Lady Bulldogs Head Into NAIA Play Acres Resigns Position As Oral Roberts Coach and if we can't beat them, we don't belong in here," said Litsch. Litsch will surely record an NAIA first at the end of the season when the all-America team is released. The six-foot senior from Thomas has a chance to become the first NAIA athlete man or woman in any team sport to be named a first-team ail-American for four consecutive years. "That would mean an awful lot to me," Litsch says.

"We really want the national championship because of what happened here last year." Southwestern rolled to NAIA titles in 1982 and '83, but dropped a three-point decision to UNC-Asheville in the second round of last year's tournament. Asheville went on to win the championship. "There are probably five or six good teams here capable of winning itt' she says. "Last year we weren't See Page SS Celamn 1 By Bob Colon Sports Editor CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Kelli Litsch's brilliant basketball career is nearly over and she is just hoping for "four more good games" here this week. Litsch has helped turn Southwestern into an NAIA women's basketball power, and the Lady Bulldogs play Southern Maine tonight at 8:30 in Five Seasons Center in the first round of the NAIA tournament.

Southwestern, 30-0, is top-seeded in the 16-team field and is shooting for its third NAIA women's basketball title in four years. Southern Maine is 23-5 and isn't expected to provide much competition. "We don't know much about South-em Maine," Litsch says. But that's the way Southwestern coach John Lot-tin wants It. ''He (Loftin) said earlier that we were seeded No.

1 and they were 16th said Oral Roberts hopes to hire a replacement who was "a national figure with experience and expertise." Cochell said assistant coaches John Block and Dolph Carroll will be asked to stay on to continue the university's recruitment efforts. He said the university's administration is "thankful for the contributions Dick Acres and his family have made" to Oral Roberts' program and pointed out he "assumed his position under extremely difficult circumstances." Acres, 50, was a high school coach at Carson, for 12 years before joining Oral Roberts' staff as an assistant in 1981. He took over as interim head coach in 982 when Ken Hayes was fired Roberts for the opportunity to coach at the university and said the experience had "been a great growing experience for me and my family." His sons, Jeff and Mark Acres, played as seniors for Oral Roberts this season. Mark Acres was a three-time all-America honorable mention. There had been speculation that Acres would not return next season after the Titans' finished the season with a break-even record.

In a statement released during the news conference. Oral Roberts athletic director Larry Co-chell said no timetable has been set for hiring a new coach. However, he says the university Jjopes to have a new coach by national signing day. Reached at his home, Cochell TULSA (AP) Oral Roberts University basketball coach Dick Acres resigned Tuesday, ending 2 years of coaching the Titans of the Midwestern City Conference. Acres' exit as head coach came three days after the Titans ended the season with a 15-15 record.

His final outing as coach was a loss Saturday to Loyola, 111., for the Midwestern City Conference tournament championship. Acres was Oral Roberts' sixth coach since the school opened in 1965. He leaves the university with a record of 47-34. Acres read an emotional statement during a news conference at the university Tuesday night. He refused to answer questions and did not give a reason for his resignation.

Acres thanked evangelist Oral Ft Photo as barnetball Dick Acres resigned Tuesday coach at ORU..