THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 24, 1995 TAG: 9503240582
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
A pox on Randolph Childress - but not, apparently, the chicken pox.
``I think I have chicken pox. . . . I think I have chicken pox,'' the Wake Forest star guard shouted at startled Demon Deacons coach Dave Odom moments before practice Wednesday. Before Odom could respond, Childress lifted his shirt to display several ugly bumps and blotches on his stomach and back.
Then he opened his mouth as wide as he could to reveal more of the same inside.
``People say they've never seen Randolph scared,'' Odom said Thursday at a news conference at Brendan Byrne Arena, site of tonight's NCAA East Regional games. ``Yesterday, I saw fear in his eyes. He was afraid he had played his last game for the university.''
Odom's reaction was far more subdued. He told his star: ``You don't have chicken pox,'' and repeated it several times when Childress insisted that the team trainer had confirmed his self-diagnosis.
Finally, the team physician arrived and told Childress that he didn't have chicken pox, but that this was his body's way of ridding itself of the virus Childress has suffered from the last couple weeks. He pronounced Childress more than well enough to play against Oklahoma State tonight.
But Childress' cool image, born of many game-winning buckets for Wake this season, has been blown.
MESSAGE SENDING: Tulsa coach Tubby Smith, for 12 years an assistant to J.D. Barnett at Virginia Commonwealth, was asked if the upsets that marked the first weekend of tournament play could be seen as a message that the NCAA could have a competitive tournament without inviting six teams from the major conferences.
``I think what we saw is a by-product of all the NCAA regulations the last few years, like cutting scholarships from 15,'' Smith said. ``I think the answer is, yes, you can have a competitive tournament without six teams from what you'd call the power conferences. The playing field's more equal now. Because of scholarship limits and limits on recruiting time, teams like Tulsa can be in the Sweet 16.''
BAD MEMORY: The last time Oklahoma State played in the East Regional at East Rutherford, they came within a toe of the Final Four.
Trailing Temple, 53-51, in the 1991 regional semifinal, Cowboys guard Corey Williams scored what he thought was the game-winning 3-point basket with two seconds to play. However, one foot was over the line, the basket counted for just two, the game went into overtime and Temple won.
Actually, Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton has had no luck up East. His Arkansas team lost an overtime game to Virginia here in the first round of the NCAA tournament here in 1984. ``I hope the third time's a charm,'' he said Thursday. by CNB