News Nuggets, 09.22.04
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

'Pack, Pirates in opposite BCA tourney brackets

This year's Black Coaches Invitational will bring together a field from far and not so far for the early-season event at the RBC Center in Raleigh.

North Carolina State, host of the tournament scheduled for Nov. 17-19, will be joined by in-state schools East Carolina and Elon and five other teams from nation-spanning locations ranging from the Deep South to the the Northeast to the West Coast.

ECU Carolina will play Pepperdine and Oregon State faces Siena in one bracket, while the other has the host Wolfpack against New Orleans and Fairleigh Dickinson facing Elon.

The Black Coaches Association is a nonprofit organization whose primary purpose is to foster the growth and development of minorities at all levels of sport.

The tournament is produced by the Gazelle Group.

Compiled from ECU Athletics and Gazelle Group reports.

Knight criticizes Olympic team's priorities

SAN ANTONIO — Bob Knight said last week that the U.S. Olympic men's basketball team didn't win the gold medal in Athens last month because the players were too pampered on and off the court.

The Texas Tech coach, speaking to a gathering sponsored by the San Antonio Sports Foundation, said things would have been different had he been leading the team instead of Larry Brown.

For starters, the NBA stars representing the United States would not have been staying on a luxury ocean liner.

"They would not have been on the Queen Mary," said Knight, who coached the U.S. men to the gold in 1984. "They would have been in the Olympic village, just like everybody else."

He recalled his own Olympic experience in Los Angeles with a squad that included Michael Jordan, Chris Mullin, Sam Perkins and Patrick Ewing.

More than 70 players were invited to try out for the team, he said, and the hopefuls were pared to 12 over several strenuous months of auditions. He contrasted that to the 2004 team, whose players were assured roster slots.

The players that brought home a bronze medal from Athens did not practice together long, and he said for that reason they did not develop into a team whose players were toughened by a common struggle.

"You can't just pick a team and ask the players to play if they didn't earn a chance to play," he said.

Craig Miller, a spokesman for USA Basketball, said the basketball players' living situation in Athens was not all that different from other U.S. athletes.

"Most of the teams didn't stay in the Olympic village," Miller said by phone from an organizational retreat in the Colorado mountains. "It wasn't five guys to a room, like the village, but where the (basketball) team stayed was a USOC-controlled facility, just like the village."

Regarding the team selection, Miller said, "I'm sure USA Basketball will be looking at things down the road on what needs to be done differently, and input from a lot of sources will be given."

Knight was especially critical of the several nonstarters on the 2004 team who openly complained about limited playing time.

He didn't refer to anyone by name, but NBA rookie sensations LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony expressed their dissatisfaction about too few minutes.

Knight suggested that perhaps the United States should send the defending NBA champion to represent the nation at the Olympics.

"The Detroit Pistons would have won the Olympics," he said of the current champs, also coached by Brown. "They would have won because they are a team. ... Their bottom four or five players already know their role."

Knight did, however, have praise for the team-oriented play of one man near and dear to his listeners — San Antonio Spurs star forward Tim Duncan.

Not only did Duncan make his teammates better on the floor, Knight said, he did so while playing out of his natural position as the team's center.

"If we had a 12-man team with the approach Duncan had, we would have had a team that would have won," he said.

Bowden Bowl again pivotal for Clemson coach

For the second straight year, Clemson coach Tommy Bowden will look to turn around a faltering season at his father's expense.

The Tigers (1-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) entered the season No. 15 and expected to contend for the ACC championship. But after losing to Georgia Tech (28-24 on a last-second touchdown) and Texas A&M (27-6), they've fallen out of the rankings and are on the verge of their worst start since 1998.

Things look similar to a year ago for Bowden. His job appeared to be in peril after a horrible 45-17 loss at Wake Forest, and Bobby Bowden's Florida State squad was heading to Death Valley.

Clemson responded with a 26-10 victory that gave Tommy Bowden his first victory over his father and kick-started a four-game winning streak to close the season 9-4.

Now, Clemson is nearly as desperate for a victory and must travel to No. 8 Florida State (1-1, 0-1) for the sixth renewal of the Bowden Bowl.

"Whoever loses this game will at least be out of the (ACC) championship race," the younger Bowden said Tuesday.

It's not what he or his players expected at this point.

"We lost two games," Bowden said. "I don't think it's time to slash your wrists."

Since the final moments against Georgia Tech, the Tigers have been terrible.

They couldn't run out the clock against the Yellow Jackets, botched a snap on a punt that left Georgia Tech at the Clemson 11, and allowed the winning touchdown pass with 11 seconds left.

The poor play continued against Texas A&M. Clemson committed four turnovers and allowed 324 yards rushing. There were broken patterns and many missed tackles.

"I had three or four myself," safety Jamaal Fudge said. "When you're looking at the film it's kind of embarrassing."

Sounds a lot like last fall after the Wake Forest loss.

Tommy Bowden talked in the preseason about how critical it was to carry the momentum of last season's strong finish into a quick start this year. So far that hasn't happened.

Bowden said the double-overtime win against Wake Forest to open the season and the stunning loss to Georgia Tech the next week left his team listless against Texas A&M.

"We can't panic," defensive lineman Eric Coleman said. "If we look back on those games, it's going to affect the way we play next week. ... There's nothing we can do to change them. So we just have to continue to move forward and that's what we're going to do."

News Nuggets are compiled periodically from staff, ECU, Conference USA and its member schools, and from Associated Press and other reports. Copyright 2004 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Page Updated: 02/23/2007