OK, you lathered-up electorate out there, it`s that time again, time again to exercise your inalienable right to ballot stuffing. Vote once, vote often. Use your head, use your heart. Be objective, be subjective. But, be assured, the result already is in when it comes to this precinct. Top to bottom; day in, night out; boring rout to mesmerizing gut churner, the Big 10 is this season`s best basketball conference.
Now stop your booing, you boosters of the Big 8. We, as you, feel your league has three of the nation`s Top 10 teams, and would pay to see a round robin matching Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State against Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. But after that? Those games would be no more suspenseful than watching an old Star Trek for the 45th time.
The same order goes for you too, you big, bad behemoths of the Big East. Last year you got the nod in this precinct, but this year, this year your co- leader-surprising Connecticut-finished fourth in the Great Alaska Shootout that was won by the Spartans. Sure, we know those Huskies have improved since then, but so has State, and after them and those slightly schizophrenic bunches at Georgetown and Syracuse, just exactly what do you have?
And as for all you followers of tradition, all you aficionados of the sacred Atlantic Coast, you hardly make it onto this ballot. Sure, you have a nice leader in Duke, which again is positioning itself for what has become a traditional run at the Final Four. But then there`s Clemson, which has a pair of big-time inside players but little clue on how this game is played. And Georgia Tech, which has a splendid triumvirate of guards but a suspect inside game. And North Carolina, which still has Dean Smith but is without the talent to which it is accustomed. And North Carolina State, which has its own glamorous guards but is ineligible for post-season play.
Seven teams in the NCAA`s post-season party, that is a possibility for the Big 10, and one reason its ranking is unassailable. No way, you say? Well, let`s argue.
Indiana, in case you hadn`t noticed, is now the league`s seventh-place team, and, in case you don`t remember, it was undefeated entering the conference wars. Ohio State, just ahead of the Hoosiers, was admittedly awful during parts of its own pre-conference schedule, but it continually has improved (witness its recent upset of Michigan). And tourney selectors favor teams on the uptick. Illinois, in fifth, has been alternately brilliant and banal, but if it can shake off the considerable shock waves emanating from The Letter, it is sure to receive an invite. Which leaves Minnesota and Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue, who are mortal locks.
Be assured, too, that each of those seven would deserve its invite, for they would be the survivors in a league where the improbable is always possible, where the unexpected now is accepted as the expected. Take those Boilermakers, for prime example, those picked-to-finish-sixth-but-firmly-league-leading Boilermakers who by themselves symbolize all that is wonderful about the zaniness that courses through this conference.
Their center entered the year best known for his bulging biceps, but now Stephen Scheffler is threatening the single-season shooting percentage record set nearly three decades ago by Ohio State All Everything Jerry Lucas. His teammates call their point guard ”Skillet” because his head is shaped like that pan, but now Tony Jones is regarded, with Kendall Gill and Stephen Bardo of Illinois, as one of the league`s best defenders. And their under-appreciated mucker is called ”Elbow Necker” after his Adam`s apple or
”Ryno” after his first name, but the moniker used that best fits forward Ryne Berning is ”Tin Man” because he performs with the Ozian-sized heart of that character from the L. Frank Baum novel.
There wasn`t a hint, a whisper, an insider`s breath of information these guys would lead anything but a bunch of second-division Boilers, but here is one of this precinct`s current wishes: A matchup between Purdue and No. 2 Kansas, another of this season`s surprises. Both have wide bodies willing to give and take bruises; both play defense as if they`re protecting their child`s milk money; and both use offenses predicated on unselfishness and making the extra pass.
They, and their styles, prove that old fashion still can be every bit as pretty as new fashion, which also is the case with Michigan State coach Jud Heathcote. Way back in the fall, when his Spartans were getting some votes as conference dark horse, he was busy looking at all the coaches` books and making jokes about writing one of his own. ”From Magic to Tragic,” that is what he was going to call it, and he was going to let the reader decide who exactly was Magic, who exactly was Tragic.
The Lakers` Earvin Johnson would have been handed the magician`s mantle back then, but who knows now that Heathcote is guiding the Spartans toward their most glorious season since their title year of `79. One of their guards, Steve Smith, fractured his left pinkie just before their conference schedule started, but he has returned and developed into one of the least-known major talents in the country. Their other guard, Kirk Manns, helped hold them together while Smith healed, and now he is the conference`s best three-point shooter. Toss in steady hand Ken Redfield, young stud Matt Steigenga, and coming-off-rehab Ken Peplowski, and together you have the reasons Michigan State is known for something other than Heathcote`s wit.
Michigan coach Steve Fisher, on the other hand, entered the year 6-0 and known for the steady hand he provided after Bill Frieder`s departure and during the Wolverines` run to the 1989 national title. He, and they, have stumbled some, yet even after their recent loss to the Buckeyes, be assured they are powerful enough to encore their March miracle.
The top of their cast is familiar, and forged by tournament experience. There is Rumeal Robinson, whose will is as strong as tempered steel. There is stripped-down Terry Mills, whose recent performances laugh at his past detractors. And there is Loy Vaught, an under-valued rebounder and high-percentage shooter.
They often perform (and performed last year) with muted emotions, but now they are surrounded by youthful bit players who manifest their emotions with all the exuberance of their age. One of them is starting point guard Demetrius Calip, the others are backup guards Michael Talley and Tony Tolbert; and the ingredient they add to the Michigan mix should not be discounted.
The question they raise, inexperience, is hardly a problem at Minnesota, where four sturdy seniors were themselves forged by the lumps they took while preparing themselves for this season. Two of them, Willie Burton and Melvin Newbern, are certified scorers. The third, forward Richard Coffey, is just as certified a rebounder, and the last, center Jim Shikenjanski, has proven big enough (6-foot-9, 205) to face down Scheffler, which is big enough, period.
No conference has four top teams as good as these top four, nor does any consistently play with the screaming, lung-searing, gasping-for-air fervor of the Big 10. Even Northwestern has one of the league`s top scorers in guard Rex Walters.
Nixon-McGovern? Reagan-Mondale? The 49ers and Broncos? Those were nip-and-tuck affairs compared to this race. This season, this race for league honors is strictly NC. No contest.
The Big 10 is the Big One, and not even a Chicago-style election could change the result.
