Great season, past success not enough to get LU in top 20

[Guest abovetherim]

Best of West for Friday, Feb 22

The Port Arthur News

Editor’s note: The following column from the Best of West collection was originally published in the Port Arthur News on Feb. 22, 1984.

  Whatever Lamar University's destiny in a basketball season that could wind up being its best ever, landing a spot in the national top 20 doesn't appear to be part of it.

  The Cardinals, even if they win their last four regular season games, are doomed to be also rans in the final three wire service polls.  Despite all the NCAA success, a 20-3 record and the home court winning streak, LU is still basically unknown and disrespected nationally.

  And, yes, I was the guy who said last week beating Louisiana Tech and going to 20-3 would be enough to get Lamar ranked.  I was so convinced, in fact, I lost a bet on the matter with Cardinal coach Pat Foster backing up the conviction.  Foster, obviously, has a better insight into pollsters than I do.

  What didn't make much sense when the latest Associated Press poll was announced Monday afternoon is crystal clear now.  Short of beating two or three top 10 teams, there's no way Lamar can do enough to overcome the Southland Conference and a lack of television exposure.

  Those conclusions are the result of talking with four of the five writers in the Southwest who vote in the AP poll, and listening to Al Biera of USA Today.  Biera, who tabulates the votes in the USA Today/CNN poll — a listing which does not have Lamar in its top 25 — offered his thoughts on KLVI's Sportsline 56.

  The common theme among all five portrayed Lamar paying the price because the Southland Conference is a league not taken seriously in the realm of big time college basketball.  Stop to think about it, and the point has some merit.  

Outside of Lamar, the league's record against respectable opposition is appalling.

  "When Lamar loses in that conference, it's like anybody else losing two games," said Jim Laise of the Fort Worth Star Telegram .  "I was ready to vote for them just before they got beat so bad at Louisiana Tech.  I'm not impressed with Louisiana Tech, so I haven't put Lamar in my top 20."

  Laise was the one of the writers contacted who didn't vote for LU this week.  Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News had the Cardinals 18th, Mickey Humphrey of the Waco Tribune-Herald listed them 17th and Alan Cone of the Fort Smith Southwest Times Record voted them 19th. The Houston Chronicle's Jerry Wizig, who casts the other ballot in the Southwest, couldn't be reached.

  For Lamar to have a chance at cracking the AP poll, it would have to be voted much higher in its own region.  Whatever else the rankings reflect, regional bias is ever present.  If the Cardinals don't carry more weight in Texas and Arkansas, there's no way to expect voters in another part of the country to give them much consideration.

"Lamar is hurt because nobody knows much about the Southland Conference," said Horn.  "A lot of the voters are back East and never see them on television.  Apparently, what Lamar's done in the NCAA doesn't have much carryover value.  It seems they go right back to the bottom of the ladder at the start of the season."  Waco's Humphrey was Lamar's staunchest supporter among the writers polled.  He said he put Lamar in his pre-season top 20 and estimated he's voted for them 10-to-12 weeks of the season.

  "I think Pat Foster's becoming one of the top coaches in the nation," noted Humphrey, who was aware two of Lamar's three losses were by one point.   "I've voted Lamar higher than Arkansas a couple of times. What hurts them is that people in other places don't give the Southland Conference the respect they do a lot of other leagues."

Fort Worth's Laise, unaware two the three losses came by a single point, was also sketchy on Lamar's NCAA triumphs prior to last year's rout of Alabama.  That's not presented as a criticism of him, but more to illustrate what's taken for granted in these parts isn't everyday knowledge.

  Fort Smith's Cone was similarly in the dark. Cone, who put Lamar in his top 20 for the first time this week, said he did so after reading a story about them in the Arkansas Gazette.  A transplanted Georgian, who's been in Arkansas two and a half years, he was somewhat familiar with the Cardinals because of Lonoke's Brian Kellybrew.

  "I know they beat Alabama and that Villanova had to struggle against them in last year's NCAA.  I know the home court wining streak was started by Billy Tubbs," said Cone.  "Didn't they win some other NCAA games?"

  Case closed.

Sports editor Bob West can be e-mailed at [email protected]. His Sportsrap radio show airs Mondays at 8:05 p.m. on KLVI (560-AM).

http://www.panews.com/sportsbobwest/local_story_052205217.html