Game has undergone significant change

Friday, Jan. 9, 2004 | 10:17 a.m.

They vault into our top four because of their 3-0 mark against top-30 teams in the Sagarin computer, the only team in the country that can boast of such a sterling resume.

Hodge had 23 points, six assists and four boards in the Wolfpack's victory against BYU on Wednesday. He leads his team in all three of those categories, and locals might recall his summertime visits here for the Big Time Tournament with the New York Ravens.

The Scoop -- The Cardinal has won its past three games in Tucson. (What, you didn't read this space last week?) Stanford's stifling defense, currently 17th in the nation with a yield of 59.3 points, will be too much for the Wildcats, who struggled at home against St. Mary's and Louisiana-Lafayette.

Prediction (0-3) -- Stanford 88, Arizona 81.

A quick check of the classic sports television station one recent early, early morning resulted in two unintended consequences.

First, the joy of reliving, for 90 minutes or so, Marquette's victory against North Carolina in the 1977 national championship game. For a lad from Milwaukee, that wasn't minor.

Foremost, has the game really changed that much?

Sure, it took place a generation ago, before DVDs, cell phones, MTV, USA Today and laptop computers. A cassette tape of Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville," a top-20 hit in '77, for the rig was considered light years ahead of its 8-track brethren.

College basketball now seems light years ahead of the version that the Warriors and Tar Heels played that night in Atlanta.

Oh, it's the Golden Eagles now for Marquette. Sorry, PC police. Even the names have changed, along with the game.

(The Golden Eagles name and eagle mascot made their debuts in 1994, when Marquette played host to UNLV and won, 82-74, in overtime.)

Back to '77 and coach Al McGuire's swan song, when a young, rotund buck named Rick Majerus sat a Hank Raymonds away from McGuire on the bench and can be seen marveling over McGuire's last-minute emotions on the videotape.

There was Jerome Whitehead, Butch Lee and Bo Ellis for the Warriors, who wore those uniforms whose tops were designed to wear untucked, so the nickname -- along the bottom edge of the front -- could be seen.

For North Carolina, there was Walter "the Greyhound" Davis and Phil Ford, and coach Dean Smith whipped out his dreaded Four Corners stall offense with less than 10 minutes remaining.

The score was tied.

And boos inside The Omni grew louder and louder.

There was neither a shot clock nor a 3-point line. Also, there weren't any television timeouts. And, thankfully, those tight shorts have not made a comeback similar to many throwback items, mostly jerseys.

It was the decade when freshman ineligibility ended and the era when the rare athlete who left for the NBA without a college degree was dubbed a "hardship" case. Remember that designation, fellow old-timers?

"Courage the Cowardly Dog" nearly was a more-entertaining option.

"But if you had watched one of Duke's recent games, it was in Four Corners at the end," said UNLV coach Charlie Spoonhour. "They were winning, and they had three out and two in. It was the same premise as the Four Corners.

"It was a halfway decent game, they took it to halfcourt and took their time, broke their opponent down off dribble penetration. It's still a lot of the same ingredients, it's just done differently. A lot of it is better, so much better."

Rebels junior Odartey Blankson, a transfer from Marquette who has emerged as the Rebels' most important player, winced when asked about the late-'70s version of the game.

A Chicago native, Blankson was born almost exactly five years after the most important game in Marquette hoops history.

"The game was a lot more structured," he said. "No 3-point line, so you'd really have to execute on every play. In the (NCAA) tournament (today), even if you're overmatched you can still stay in the game if you hit a lot of 3-pointers.

"Without a 3-point line, it's pretty tough. (In '77), they played a lot of inside-out, made sure they get the ball to the big man first."

Blankson, a power forward who can display a deft touch from long range, prefers today's game.

"I wouldn't have liked it back then," Blankson said. "No 3-point line, just pounding it inside. It's a lot more freelance now. Everyone gets to 'play' and showcase his own skills, as well as play in a team atmosphere. I like it now."

The biggest change Blankson foresees, in the next generation, might be a widening of the free throw lane, to the international "trapezoid" model. Widening the court, Spoonhour said, could be around the corner.

"At least, at the pro level ... if you look at how big those guys are and how much space they take up," he said. "Most things come down to us from the pros, to college, to high schools. You could see a modification of the 10-second rule, to eight or nine.

"It'll be interesting to see what happens."

Pushing the 3-point line back to 20-feet-6 (it's currently 19-9) and widening the lane have been postponed by an NCAA rules committee to 2004-05.

"The 3-point line is something that, obviously, will happen," Spoonhour said, "even though we haven't mastered the 3-point shot."

With all due respect to John Wooden, who has long believed that the rim should be raised from 10 feet to 11, Spoonhour isn't certain that such a dramatic change would benefit the game.

"They always thought that would help the little guy," Spoonhour said. "I'm not so sure it does help the little guy. The big guys will just jump higher, and the little guys will get hernias trying to get the ball to go in. You need to be careful in raising or lowering the rim.

"I'm not downgrading coach Wooden's opinion, but it's too easy to sit around and say, 'Let's do this, let's do that.' It's a pretty good sport as it is. I just think smart people need to keep looking at it. When they make decisions, for the most part, they've been good."

BLAME IT ON IZZO: At least, that's what Michigan State's boss says about the schedule he concocted this season.

It doesn't get any easier for the Spartans, though, as they open Big Ten play Saturday at tough Wisconsin. Michigan State dropped to 5-6 with its defeat at Syracuse last weekend, and it begins the league slate with a losing record for the first time since 1976-77.

Spartans coach Tom Izzo has suffered defeats to Kansas, Duke, Oklahoma, Kentucky, UCLA and, at the Carrier Dome, the defending national champion Orangemen. Four of those, at least, were by single digits, with one in overtime.

The non-conference schedule has been debated among veteran observers as the most difficult in college basketball history.

"There's nobody to blame this schedule on but me," Izzo told the Lansing State Journal. "I still think it's a good schedule for us. In my wildest dreams, I did not think we'd go 0-6. But we did."

He probably didn't think he would have lost so much talent early, in recent years, to the NBA, either. But Izzo has, in point guard Marcus Taylor, big man Zach Randolph, electric finisher Jason Richardson, blossoming European Erazem Lorbek, et al.

EXPANSION CANDIDATE: When Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson and his crew take a closer look at expansion, they might want to give Denver a serious look.

The Pioneers (8-4) have beaten Colorado State and Wyoming this season. The defeat to Gonzaga was ugly, but it was the season opener for Denver. BYU's loss to North Carolina State on Wednesday was just as ugly.

Among the record crowd of 6,319 at Magness Arena for Tuesday's 63-62 thriller against Wyoming was Dick Vitale. Pioneers coach Terry Carroll won back-to-back NJCAA titles, at Indian Hills Community College, in 1997 and '98.

BARE: Baylor lost senior starters Terrance Thomas and R.T. Gunn for the season, as academic casualties, last Saturday, dropping the Bears' roster to five scholarship players.

Then the Bears lost at home to Purdue, 76-65.

"Baylor had nothing to lose and everything to gain," Purdue coach Gene Keady told the Waco Tribune-Herald. "Division I basketball is a funny thing. I think you're going to see Baylor beat some people here that you (wouldn't) think they'd beat."

LAST ADD GENERAL: Which gives us a smooth transition to Texas Tech coach Bob Knight, whom Keady always relished beating.

Tech pulled one out, 80-72, at Ohio State last week despite shooting 26 fewer times than the Buckeyes. In addition, the Red Raiders were only 1-for-3 from 3-point land.

"One of my greatest memories as a coach is (Indiana) playing against Nevada-Las Vegas in the NCAA semifinals (in 1987)," Knight told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. "(The Rebels) shot 36 '3s.' We only shot four, and won the game."

Freddie Banks attempted 19 of them in the Rebels' 97-93 defeat in New Orleans. Thought Knight had forgotten that one, huh, UNLV fans?

Actually, Knight was mistaken. UNLV attempted 35 3-pointers against the Hoosiers.

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