Birmingham Post-Herald from Birmingham, Alabama • 13

Birmingham Post-Herald Sports update C2 Basketball C4 Stocks C5 BuslnessC8 Wednesday March 18 1992 Sports Tournament winner will be And the NCAA So who will win it all? We try to answer that question every year and are usually wrong So why do it? Because March Madness the greatest three-week run of the sports year There are Clnderellas and dark horses villains and chalk teams There are Dale Brown and Bob Knight And wall-to-wall fun Maybe one day college football will take a cue from the NCAA Tournament and do something to spruce up its incredibly boring bowl season But bet on it Those guys are afraid of fun West: This is a fun regional It also may be an upsetting one for the favorites Look- for Louisville to shock UCLA in the second round while DePaul gets by Oklahoma On the other side Florida State beats Georgetown A second-round game that should be dramatic pits LSU vs Indiana Ini-this game you have the two most controversial coaches in the nation: Knight and Brown The LSU coach who despises Knight once said he would like to be locked into a room with the IU head man and wrestle him naked Wonder what the pay- --per-view television rights would be on that? -Anyway going with the Preacher man over the General this Battle of the Bulge In Albuquerque go with dark horse Louisville over DePaul and LSU over J-v3 Florida State LSU will rule the West (yes I know Pm Final Four In the semis Kansas beafer Ohio State while Duke blows away LSU Apd in the first repeat national title game sinfie i 1963 when Cincinnati and Ohio mate battled Kansas and Duke will go far the crown It will have a different result Kentucky will lose in the regional semis to because nobody expects anything out of it But put up your Duke as the champion Southeast: The top of the bracket sees Ohio State UConn Alabama and North Carolina moving on while Michigan Arizona St John's and Oklahoma State travel to the next round (Xiio State will have no trouble with Nebraska But something tells me North Carolina will topple Alabama Of course if the Tide defeats Stanford which should provide the most difficult first-round opponent for Alabama since well uh South Alabama Watch out Wimp! Beware of the Cardinal Arizona and St an upset winner over Oklahoma State move on to the regional semis In Lexington Ohio State brats UNC and Arizona edges St The regional winner: Ohio State Midwest: You can tell this is a tough regional when Arkansas is the No 3 seed Go ahead and save time by putting Kansas in the regional final The other side of the bracket is a little bit tricky Arkansas should blow past Memphis State before running into Georgia Tech an upset winner over USC The Hogs make the regional final against Kansas This could be one of the more much as I would like to go with the Hogs they have been too inconsistent this year Chalk one up far the Jayhawks five seconds Of fame Vk fifth-year senior making most of chance By Ray Meltck Poat-Hcrald hptte TUSCALOOSA The trade hardly aeems fair Five yean of frustration for five seconds of glory But Darby Rich will take it and laugh even though in yean to come those five seconds might grow into five minutes then five games and then who knows? a stellar five-year career Time has a way of changing the past making it easier to bear as truth fades into fantasy and fact gets lost somewhere in fiction For now the truth will do since the truth is strange enough bn its own For five seconds on Saturday Todd Day Arkansas All-America and future lottery pick of the NBA draft went one-on-one with Darby Rich Alabama English major Will slight fight ignite the Vols? Special to the Port-Herald Darby Rich has tried to make the most of nil limited playing time was out there with Todd Day in front of me and he was waving to clear out that side of the Rich said knew he was setting it up to take me and I just concentrated on playing defense he took too long and when the ref blew the whistle I believe Rich had gone face to face with Day for six seconds and the rules say five is the limit The result was a turnover by Day perhaps a crucial turnover in a game the Crimson Tide would win by onepouit 90-89 Please tin to RICH page C4 East It would be shocking if Duke make it out of this regional After playing Campbell a rather soupy trillion-to-one shot (according to the wizard of odds IheridanLthe Blue Devils should have an easy time to the regional final On the other side there is Kentucky Although you continue hear how little talent there Is on this team all the Wildcats do is win primarily because they have one of the best coaches in the nation: Rick Pitino But No predictions from Panthers Reboul just happy to be in NAIA Tournament Bill IngramHost-Herald Duane RebouTs Panthers are in their second NAIA Tournament in three years The winner over Duke 77-78 Paul Finebaum'i opinioncommentary on sports events fssties and personalities i appears in the Birmingham Post-Herald on Monday Wednesdays and Saturdays The Panthers have only two seniors Smith a guard and forward Brent Cooper like to have a few seniors whoVe been through it Reboul said are some similarities between this team and the team that won the national championship That team was a special team so almost unfair to compare We have anybody like Stacy Butler Brent Carter and Fried Martinear team is a good team It has overachieved We ranked anywhere to start the season and we lost four starters off last team We were picked to finish third or fourth in the district but we reached the district final team has the kind of character good chemistry and a lot of depth as that team two years ago" Reboul said BSC will be minus two key players Junior Les Porter and junior swingman Bradley were suspended for breaking undisclosed team rules and did not "mi the trip to Kansas City Bradley had started all 33 games this season and was the third-leading scorer averaging 10 points per game Porter was one of the fop three-point shooters Please tvi to BSC page C4 Still with 9:24 remaining Albany was ahead 95-89 and seemingly had the game under control But after a timeout the Skeeter Henry sank a three-pointer from out front and that seemed to turn the momentum shot turned the game McHone said that point we looked dead like we were losing our basket started a 6-0 run that put the Bandits ahead 96-95 free throw with 7:41 remaining tied it 96-all and teams stayed tied at 98 and 100 Then Thomss took controL His short baseline jumper with 5:15 to play snapped the fie and put the Bandits ahead to stay Thomas scored 14 points down the stretch including three rim-rattling dunks off passes from Henry who had nine assists to go along with 25 points and 10 rebounds Although the Bandits had to play in a shootout they will have the home-court advantage against Quad City because the Thunder elected to play the first two games at home really McHone said: like playing at their place If we can win one up there well be in good -4 i '-j It- WK a By Cary Estes tat-Hmld Reporter Shaquille and DaleBrown took the fight to the Tennessee Volunteers but the NCAA might have taken the fight out of them On Saturday the NCAA imposed a mandatory one-game suspension on junior forward Carlus Groves for his part in the melee against LSU the day before in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament Then on Sunday the NCAA left Tennessee out of its 64-team tournament a move that surprised the Vols even though they had won only three of their final eignt games with two of the victories coming against last-place South Carolina So Tennessee (18-14) takes a slimmed-down lineup and a bad attitude into its National Invitation Tournament first-round £me against UAB (30-8) at 6:30 pm CST to-y in Knoxville Junior guard Allan Houston the Vols! top scorer this season with 208 points per game said he was when Sunday announcement was made "It's a major Houston said was really looking forward to going Now the only chance I get is my senior year disappointing because I thought two of the three years been here we were definitely one of the top 64 teams in the country tell me if they had a poll we be in the top 64 this year and my freshman year The Vou finished 16-13 in 1986-90 freshman season then beat Memphis State before losing to Vanderbilt in the NIT Last year Tennessee finished the regular season 9-21 then won three consecutive games in the SEC Tournament before losing to Alabama in the championship game If the Vols had defeated Alabama then they would have received an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament This year many people believed a victory over LSU would nave clinched a berth for Tennessee So for two consecutive years the Vols were only one victory away from every player's aream kind of hard to focus so soon on the NIT when you've spent the whole season thinking about the Houston said our name go up for that last spot I even thinking about the UAB has the same problem but the Blazers say 1 UAB said want to beat some of the so-called big-name teams and show we should have been in the NCAA unclear whether the Blazers will be able to send such a message by defeating a 14-game loser Plus Tennessee has been weakened by the loss of Groves a solid sixth-man who is the second-leading scorer with 148 points per game i to VOLS page C4 Holland the puft Owning on Pattrafflns By Rubin Grant Piat-Hnld Reporter Duane Reboul making any predictions about his chances in the NAIA Tournament He was just happy the Birmingham-Southern College Panthers were back in the national tournament for the second time in his three years as the head basketball coach great to be a part of Reboul said yesterday morning the national championship would be something but being here is exciting The 14th-seeded Panthers (27-6) open play at 12:30 pm today against unseeded Malone College (28-8) of Canton Ohio at Kemper Arena in Kansas City Mo Only 16 teams are seeded in the 32-team tournament Birmingham-Southern won the championship two years ago in first season but he said he has a much different team now got just two players Chris Smith and Bill Condon from that team so a new experience for the other Reboul said feel still got a young team Most teams that do well here are senior we did was we cleared the weak side away and I went to the weak side and when the cutter went off the pick I'd flash in and catch the pass" Thomas said on the outside making the And when Thomas got the ball he was unstoppable He sank 13-of-19 shots from the field and 13of-19 free-throw attempts "Basically we were just taking advantage of their weakness and breaking them down on the Thomas said Albany Orach Herman Kull was disgusted with the play of his big men defend anybody on the low Kull said the 16 games since been here every team played that has any kind of low post game has kicked like to point fingers but we got no help inside We have anybody who can score Inside or defend on the tow The three guards Johnnie Hilliard (40 points) Kenny Travis (31) and Mark Tillmon (21) combined far 92 points But Albany was helpless against Thomas who also collected 11 rebounds as the Bandits outrebounded the Patroons 47-31 a nice Kull said of Thomas was smart enough to keep going to ISanndDils SCORE: Bandtts 131 Patroons 122 ATTENDANCE: 405 STAR: Bandits forward Irving Thomas scored 39 points sinking 13-of-19 shots from both the field and free-throw Ine KEY STAT: The Bandtts outrebounded the Patroons 47-33 inducing 26-12 in the first half NOTE: There were 14 ties and 14 lead changes before short basefine jumper with 5:15 to play snapped a 100-100 tie and put the Bandtts ahead to stay QUOTE: couldn't defend anybody on the low poet In the 16 games I've been here every team that we've played that has had any kind of low poet game has kicked our Afoaiy Coach Herman Kii said NEXT: Bandtts at the Quad City Thunder 7:05 pm CST Friday In the first game of the best-of-five second-round CBA playoff series Rubin Grant has By Ruble Grant Fort-Hmld Reporter Irving Thomas said his back was still sore But it was nothing compared to the hurting he put on the Albany Patroons last night Thomas scored a career-high 39 points to lead the Birmingham Bandits to a 131-122 victory over the Patroons in a one-game Continental Basketball Association playoff shootout at State Fair Arena The victory sends the Bandits into a best-of-five series against the Quad City Thunder the Midwest Division champions That series opens FYiday night at Quad City The teams also will play at Quad City Saturday before the remainder of the series moves to Birmingham on Monday Bandits Coach Bib McHone had said on Monday that Thomas would be the key player against Albany if his back were OK Thomas had been haring back spasms in the past week that had limited his effectiveness Kit he showed no ill effects of the injury last night completely dominating the Patroons in the low post Thomas was able to get the ball without much difficulty because of a slight change in the half-court offense plenty to talk about part of why he finally is getting the attention he has sought for so tong When the Fire plays the Sacramento Surge on Saturday at California Hornet Field return to his hometown and his alma mater will bade bring all the memories of what he had to do get noticed From high school to junior college to Division II Cal State-Sacramento to the British Columbia Lions Holland has had a hard time getting people to pay attention and take his talent seriously When Holland discovered Sacramento had a World League franchise he was the one to make the telephone call to the Surge offices and inform the team he wanted to play in Sacramento and would prove it at the World League draft combine When he got to the combine scouts and coaches were talking to the players from the bigger schools while Holland sat by himself alone and ignored So Holland sought out the Surge coaches and introduced himself Basically Holland says they tuned and walked away was kind of Holland says that I figured out what it was all about I realized it was going to be all about guys who had NFL experience guys they knew or had been told about figured I had to impress somebody Every drill I was in I made sure I was going to be Holland did everything he could think of to get noticed He sprinted from (frill to drill dived for passes he had no chance to catch got up and ran after the ball yelled out his name when he passed coaches noticed him Fire Coach Chan Galley says guy had some enthusiasm and he had a little fin in his eyes and you could see that He looked like be an interesting guy to have Sacramento must not have noticed because the Surge ricked four defensive backs before the Fire picked Holland in the fourth round Holland was the third cornerback picked by the Fire and it tod: an injury to Anthony Newsom to give Holland a chance in the starting lineup Please tun to HOLLAND page C3 By Richard Scott Port-Kara Id Reporter He might not be the best player on the field but probably the one people remember when they leave a Birmingham Fire game the one making the most noise with his mouth and his actions talking trash to wide receivers or a mile a minute to reporters when he shooting his imagi- Robert Holland and the football field is his stage no wonder his nickname is know why? just so I can be on minds for one reason or Holland says good or bad you know who John Robert Holland is that guy I There's that good that guy that does the thing with the got to have a gimmick in this game other than just playing footbalL This is For Holland talking the talk helps him walk the walk part of who he is an extension of the enthusiasm and energy that helped make him a second-team all-World League cornerback in 1991 1 Karim Shamai-BaihaPoat-Herald Fire cornerback John Robert Holland thriven on the attention hie play drawe 4.