DATE: Saturday, November 22, 1997           TAG: 9711220659

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C2   EDITION: FINAL 

SERIES: Norfolk State: A season on the road

SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE,STAFF WRITERDATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: 48 lines

THE CARE AND FEEDING OF A BASKETBALL TEAM TAKES PLENTY OF DOUGH NOTHING GOOD COMES CHEAP IN L.A.: $5 PIZZA IS PANNED, WHILE SOUL FOOD IS A

SPICY $12.95 A PLATE.

What does one need to feed 2,512 pounds worth of Norfolk State Spartans when the NSU cafeteria is more than 3,000 miles away?

A little creativity, a willingness to engage in a little trial and error, and money.

Lots of money.

Especially when you have to dine in an costly city like Los Angeles, where premium gasoline costs $1.63 a gallon and the souvenir athletic director Dick Price said he could get for $4 in Norfolk stayed on the shelf because the salesperson wanted $10.

``It's not easy finding places to eat, especially since we don't know where we're going,'' said Mel Coleman, the Spartans' assistant coach and West Coast trip money man. ``And yeah, it's costing a lot, too.''

Not all the Spartans' meals have been costly. At California Pizza, for example, the price was right. The taste, however, was all wrong.

``Well, the dessert was good,'' Spartans center Sean Blackwell said.

The food was much better at the Hyatt Regency, the hotel where the team has taken its breakfasts the past two days. They can eat as much as they want, too, as long as no one minds paying $15 per player. And we're talking 12 players, among a traveling party of 20.

``Absolutely, I mind,'' Coleman said.

So much for future Hyatt Regency breakfasts.

Late-night pizza after Thursday night's practice, on the other hand, averaged about $5 a person. Denny's, the site of Friday's pregame meal, also fetched a reasonable bill.

Price considerations aside, the Spartans have learned that when it comes to chowing down, the trick is in knowing where to go. Thursday, the predominantly black team went to a predominantly black neighborhood and struck gold - Dulan's, a Southern-style restaurant where forward Darrell Neal happily loaded up a plate with fried chicken, collard greens, black-eyed peas and ``sock-it-to-me'' cake.

``It was the bomb,'' Neal said.

It was also $12.95 a man, too expensive perhaps to make an everyday staple but too tasty to not sample at least one more time.

The Spartans will have their next date with Dulan's on Sunday, for brunch.

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