At St, John's, madness begins before midnight

Sporting News, The, Sept 26, 1994 by Gene Wojciechowski

Do you think anybody noticed the arrival of St. John's recruits Felipe Lopez, Zendon Hamilton and Tarik Turner?

The New York Daily News devoted a full page to their first day on campus. ESPN plans to be at Alumni Hall for St. John's first Midnight Madness. Season ticket sales are up. So are expectations.

Lopez, an off-guard from New York's Rice High School, was considered the No. 1 prospect in the country. Hamilton, a forwardcenter from Sewanhaka High in Floral Park, N.Y., was in the top five. Turner, a point guard from Charlottesville, Va., also earned rave reviews.

Without having even suited up for practice -- it begins October 15 -- Lopez, Hamilton and Turner have helped energize a program in need of some good news. For the first time in 31 years, St. John's (12-17) had a losing season. For the first time in 30 years, St. John's didn't earn an NIT bid or NCAA Tournament invitation.

Now this -- preseason bedlam. Sellouts are expected for all the games at 6,000-seat Alumni Hall. The same might happen for the seven games scheduled at Madison Square Garden, capacity 19,763.

Putting a lid on it

That sigh of relief you heard came from Bill Hancock, NCAA director of the Division I men's basketball championship.

With this season's Final Four scheduled for April 1 and 3 at the Kingdome in Seattle, Hancock was beginning to get a teensyweensy nervous about a repairs schedule that suffered from delays and financial difficulties. Then came the news that the Metropolitan King County Council would commit $34 million to the project, all in hopes of having the 19-year-old dome reopened by November 1.

"The Cougs won on Saturday, the Huskies won Saturday, the Seahawks won Sunday and I think King County won today," Councilman Pete Von Reichbauer said.

Von Reichbauer didn't say it, but the NCAA won, too. The lead time needed to stage a Final Four is months and the NCAA, as well as the Seattle Final Four organizing committee, couldn't afford continued uncertainty about the Kingdome's availability. The Council's vote changed all that -- or so they say.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the Kingdome, which has been closed since July 19 because of a ceiling-tile problem, was supposed to be ready by mid-September. Now they say November. What happens if that date arrives and the facility still isn't ready?

Hancock has said there is no contingency plan for the improbable -- that is, the Kingdome not being available for the Final Four in April. Just for the fun of it, maybe it's time to start.

Better late...

Duke's three heralded freshmen -- guard Steve Wojciechowski (no relation), guardforward Ricky Price and guard Trajan Langdon -- arrived at school a week late, but did so with an excused absence.

Wojciechowski, Price and Langdon were part of the USA Junior National Team that played in the World Junior qualifying tournament in Argentina. Clem Haskins of Minnesota coached the team.

For Duke players to agree to international play isn't unusual. Blue Devils Coach Mike Krzyzewski, a member of USA Basketball, has long encouraged his players represent to accept invitations for tournaments such as the World Juniors. The way Krzyzewski figures it, everyone wins: The players gain some international experience, and USA Basketball gets some future stars.

Wojciechowski didn't score much, but he had six assists against Panama and five against Uruguay. Price was in double figures five times and scored 19 points against Brazil. Langdon, who also spent part of his summer playing minor league baseball in the Padres organization, scored 15 points against Venezuela.

Now they're back in Durham, where they find themselves in pickup games with former Blue Devils stars. So far Johnny Dawkins, Christian Laettner, Tony Lang, Grant Hill, Brian Davis and Thomas Hill have made appearances.

It's automatic

There will be no play-ins for the 1995 NCAA Tournament.

The Division I Men's Basketball Committee recently designated 29 conference champions for automatic bids, which is one less than the limit. More than 30 automatic qualifiers would have meant a play-in game for the lowest-ranked qualifying conferences (as determined by an NCAA computer program).

Three conferences of note failed to receive automatic bids for 1995: The Big South, the Mid-Continent and the Great Midwest.

The 29 with berths: Atlantic Coast, Atlantic 10, Big East, Big Eight, Big Sky, Big Ten, Big West, Colonial, Ivy, Metro Atlantic Athletic, Metro, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern Athletic, Midwestern Collegiate, Missouri Valley, North Atlantic, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Pacific 10, Patriot, Southeastern, Southern, Southland, Southwest, Southwestern Athletic, Sun Belt, Trans America Athletic, West Coast and Western Athletic.