1997_03 The Daily Collegian March 1997

              THE DAILY      f
COLLEGIAN
Thursday, March 13, 1997
Sports Editor: Luis Hernandez
Telephone: (209) 278-5733
'Dogs claw Sycamores with offense
By Tom Sepulveda
• Lawrence Phillips
should be sent to a women's
correctional facility.
• Final Four: UCLA. Kan¬
sas. South Carolina. Utah.
• NIT who cares? That's
like picking the winner from
a tournament involving all
the NBA learns that lose in
the first round of the playoffs
Clippers or Bullets? Yuck
• Missouri's softball team
served as an example for the
rest of the country — with the
possible exception of Ari¬
zona, every team is just the
Bulldogs punching bag.
• Hidecki Irabu should be
banned from baseball for life
for failing to understand the
way major league baseball in
this country works. You do
not pick your team of choice
until you've accomplished
something in the big show
• The 49ers say Terry
Kirby is their starting *
tailback, but Garrison Hearst
will have the starting job
by — let me check my cal¬
endar — today.
• How did ihe WAC get
robbed and only get three
teams in the Big Dance?
TCU <2!-ll> and Hawai'i
(21-7) got left out. but prob¬
ably deserved it.
• Pe> ton Manning made a
smart choice. Chances are
Bill Parcells will help the Jets
to three wins this season, and
Manning will join the Saints.
• Spring training is great.
The As are playing .500 ball,
a far cry from the nightmare
season they'll have after Jose
Canseco trips on Mark
McGwire's heel, throwing
out his back while ripping
McGwire's Achilles tendon.
• Irabu's agent. Dick
Nomura, thinks San Diego rv
an internment camp? If the
Padres have any backbone,
they'll trade him to Kansas
City or Houston and he can
discover the least America
has to offer.
• On the way down.
Canseco loses the grip on his
bat and wipes out Geronimo
Berroa, ensuring the A's
won't score a single run all
year.
• Jake Plummer would
look damn good in a 49ers
uniform And he's cheaper
than Grbac.
SPORTS WRITER,
Several Daily Collegian
sports beats need to be filled for
the Spnng semester. All posi¬
tions pay and are pan-time
Apply anytime at The Daily
Collegian office located in the
Keats Campus pudding or call
Luis at 278-2486.
By Erik Pfeifle
The Daily Collegian
The Fresno State Bulldogs base¬
ball team played one of its most
complete games of the year last
night in beating Indiana State 10-2
to improve to 3-0 in the Johnny
Quik Classic Tournament.
Brad Tucker, who started on the
mound for the Bulldogs, pitched
seven plus innings while surrender¬
ing two runs - both in the seventh
inning - for the win.
Mark Parantala came in the
eighth inning, after Tucker walked
the lead-off man. to shut the door
on the Sy-
I camores.
"I started
to get tired
and get the
ball up at the
end." said
Tucker. "I
know I can do
better."
Derek
Feramisco,
who seemed at one point last week
to be dost for most of the season,
had three hits to pace the Bulldogs
offensive attack.
One of his hits was a triple in
the second inning with the bases
loaded. On the play. Feramisco tried
to score after the throw went past
the third baseman but he was
thrown out at the plate on a close
play.
"I think he is even hitting better
now than before he got hurt." said
Head Coach Bob Bennett.
The injury has kept Feramisco
from over-swinging and pulling out
on pitches, which has made him an
even better hitter.
"I think it (the injury) was a
blessing in disguise." said
Feramisco "I am more relaxed and
fluent. I am not jerking on my
swing."
The injury, once thought of as
being a complete tear of the liga¬
ment in the thumb, was determined
later to be only a partial tear.
"It hurts a little bit. In about four
or five weeks it will start reattach¬
ing (to the bone)." said Feramisco.
The Bulldogs also played error-
free ball to aid their cause in the
victory. The Sycamores, on the
other hand, committed five errors.
Fresno State will send Casey
Rowe to the mound against Port¬
land (2-1) tomorrow at 7 p.m.
Basketball team can't keep up with Nevada
Paul Martinez — T/w Daily Collegian
Fresno State's Daymond Forney wrestles with Nevada's Fern
Hand during Wednesday night's 98-86 loss.
By Tom Sepulveda
The Dailv Collegian
What a game!
With 26.3 seconds left. Nevada
guard Richard Brown hit adriving
lay-up lo give the Wolfpack a 40-
39 lead.
Only down by one. Fresno State
had a chance to take the lead in the
closing seconds and be well on its
way to advancing to a second round
NIT match-up with Nebraska
And then the second half started
Nevada shot the lights out in the
last 20 minutes, hitting 55.9 percent
of its field goals." including 7-of-
11 from three point range.
Brown, shooting guard Jimmy
Carroll, reserve guard Tun Barnett.
and even forward Paul Culbertson
were spotting up beyond the arc
without a single Fresno State de¬
fender in their face.
Culbertson was 1-2 on three-
point attempts. Brown was 3-4
Carroll was 4-10. and Barnett was
2-3.
. But on the season, in 29 games.
Culbertson only made 22 (314
shooting percentage) three-point
shots.
Brown only made 35 (330)
Barnett only made 42 (.3331
See a trend—bad defense turns
bad shooters into good ones.
Compare that with Carroll hit¬
ting on 90-of-196 (459). or with
Bulldog Terrance Roberson's
500(33-66)
Not a pretty picture
How did these shooters get so
open, especially considering that
Brow n. Barnett. and Carroll each
launched over 100 three-point
attempts this season?    .
Picks.
Nevada is adept at the lost
art of setting screens
Center David Morgan and
Culbertson set great screens all
night, preventing the Bulldogs
defenders from getting a hand in
the shooters face
But even more important was
the first half forward Feron Hand
had. He scored 10 of Nevada's
first 13 points, and forced the
Bulldogs to collapse more into
the paint to help out Rashaan
Smith.
In other w ords. the lack of an
interior defensive presence that
had hindered the Bulldogs all
season finally caught up with
them.
By collapsing into the paint,
the Bulldogs guards and for¬
wards were more susceptible to
picks.
And with the excellent work
done by Nevada's front court,
the Bulldogs didn't have a
chance.
Analyzing NCAA tournament regional match-ups
By Dick Weiss
New York Daily News
Knight-Ridder/Tribune News
After a season of parity in which
college basketball teams pounded
the dickens out of each other in their
conferences, the biggest surprise in
the selection of the top seeds for the
NCAA tournament was that there
were no surprises.
tournament play begins today.
Here's a run down of some of the
hot teams at this year's Big Dance:
EAST REGIONAL
HOT TEAM: North Carolina.
Top-seeded Tar Heels have been
sizzling, winning 11 straight since
the start of February and capturing
ACC tournament yesterday with
64-54 victory over N.C. State.
BIGGEST ENIGMA:
Villanova. We thought fourth-
seeded Wildcats had turned the cor¬
ner during the first two games of
Big East tournament, but they
struggled badly from the perimeter
against inspired BC team in 70-58
championship game loss.
SALARY DRIVE: Villanova's
6-10 freshman forwartl Tim Tho¬
mas has been hinting he wouldn't
mind playing for the 76ers; now
we'll'get a chance to see if former
Paterson Catholic star is indeed an
NBA lottery pick or just another
talented player in need of maturity.
BEST BET FOR UPSET;
We've got two for you. Princeton
(12) over California (5). UMass
(11) over Louisville (6).
PICK: North Carolina. This is
Dean Smith's best team since 1993
championship year. Heels have ex¬
ecuted their offense as well as any¬
one since Cota became consum¬
mate point guard in Smith's system.
MIDWEST REGIONAL
TROUBLE BRUIN: UCLA is
the hot team in this region. Second-
seeded Bruins (21-7), who have
four potential NBA draft choices in
lineup JR. Henderson. Jelani
McCoy, toby Bailey and Charles
O'Bannon have been on fire lately:
cruising to Pac-10 title.
LOCAL TIES: Minnesota coach
Clem Haskins called lead guard
Eric Harris from St. Raymond's his
MVP. Harris has helped fuel Go¬
phers' man-to-man defense, which
is best in Big Ten.
BEST BET FOR UPSET: Illi¬
nois State (11) over Iowa State (6).
Tim Floyd may be next coach of the
Bulls, but his team, which was
clocked by Kansas. 72-48. in Big
12 semis, looks like an easy out.
KEEP AN EYE ON: A possible
second-round matchup between
Temple (9) and Minnesota. Owls'
matchup zone have already taken
apart C-USA powers Cincinnati
and Louisville.
PICK: UCLA. That's if lead
guard Cameron Dollar, who went
length of the floor in final four sec¬
onds for winning hoop against
Please see NCAA page 8.