Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 16, 1991 TAG: 9103160144
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: BILL BRILL and JOHN SMALLWOOD SPORTSWRITERS
DATELINE: COLLEGE PARK, MD. LENGTH: Medium
"When we won that game it was more than just beating Indiana," said Tarrant. "We beat a mystique. John Fienstein's book `A Season on the Brink' was a best-seller. Hoosiers was the top movie. They were the defending champion. Personally, I don't think anything can ever top that. This is just another feather in our cap."
Temple has been to the Tournament seven times under John Chaney. The Owls are 6-1 in first round games, but have been eliminated in the second round five times. . . . Junior forward Mik Kilgore needs three points to become Temple's 29th 1,000-point scorer.
This is the first meeting between Oklahoma State and North Carolina State. Both were participants in the 1989 Tournament of Champions in Charlotte, N.C. but did not meet. . . . Eddie Sutton is 0-1 against N.C. State. His 1985-86 Kentucky team lost 54-51 in Raleigh, N.C. . . . The Cowboys are 4-1 all-time against ACC competition, beating Duke, North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia Tech and losing to Maryland.
Byron Houston needs 17 points to become Oklahoma State's all-time leading scorer. Houston has 1,653 points. Bob Kurland, who finished his career in 1946, has 1,669.
Only two starting guard combinations have combined for better than 50 percent shooting against Oklahoma State's outside pressure. Tulsa's Reggie Shields and Marcell Gordon were 14-of-22, and Jacksonville's tandem was 5-for-8.
Temple and Richmond have one common opponent this season. Both beat Georgia Tech by two points. . . . The Spiders victory over Syracuse was its first at Cole Field House in five games. . . . Richmond senior captain Terry Connolly is 5-0 at Cole Field House. As a junior and senior at Thomas Johnson High in Frederick, Md., Connolly won Maryland State semifinal and championship games at Cole.
The sellout crowd at Cole on Thursday was definitely pro-Richmond. "Our whole game plan was to get the lead early and pick up those 12,000 neutral fans. We came out of a huddle and all these Purdue fans behind our bench were cheering for us. It's the American Way. Everybody gets behind David as he tries to slay Goliath."
Richmond is 18-0 when holding opponents under 70 points. Temple averages just 69.6 points. The Owls are 14-2 when they score 70 or more points.
Curtis Blair of Roanoke became the 28th Spider to go over 1,000 points for his career when he scored 8 against Syracuse. Blair with 509 points, 128 rebounds and 101 assists joins John Schweitz as the only Richmond player to have a triple-triple season.
Perhaps they will play head-to-head if each wins today, but N.C. State's Rodney Monroe and Temple's Mark Macon are winding down spectacular college careers.
Each is his team's designated shooter. And, in an interesting statistic, Monroe and Macon each has played 123 games in college and each has scored 2,532 points.
Monroe needs 26 today to pass Duke's Johnny Dawkins as the ACC's No. 2 career scorer, and, should the Wolfpack beat Oklahoma State, has a chance at the record of Wake Forest's Dickie Hemric. Monroe trails Hemric by 55.
When Richmond reached the Sweet 16 in '88, the Spiders lost to No. 1 Temple, 69-47. The next year, they beat the Owls, 70-56, in a first-round NIT game.
by CNB