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News Nuggets, 04.05.04
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Straight skinny on NCAA title showdown

Keys to Monday night's national championship game in San Antonio:

CONNECTICUT (32-6) vs. GEORGIA TECH (28-9)

LAST TIME: Georgia Tech beat Connecticut 77-61 in the Preseason NITsemifinals in New York on Nov. 26. B.J. Elder and Isma'il Muhammad each had 22 points for the Yellow Jackets, who outplayed the Huskies on the perimeter and handed the nation's No. 1 team its first loss of the season.

CENTERPIECE: The matchup of true centers and their ability to avoid foul trouble will be vital to both teams. Connecticut's Ekema Okafor, limited to 22 minutes by foul trouble in the semifinal win over Duke, leads the nation in blocked shots and is the main reason the Huskies led the country in field-goal percentage defense. Georgia Tech's Luke Schenscher has improved throughout the season. His best game may have been his last, 19 points and 12 rebounds in the semifinal win over Oklahoma State.

BACKCOURTS: Georgia Tech's top four scorers are guards, and coach Paul Hewitt uses them in combinations, especially on defense to create mismatches. Connecticut's Ben Gordon and Taliek Brown are veterans with the ability to score in bunches.

LONG SHOTS: Georgia Tech isn't a proficient 3-point shooting team, but the long ball was key in the semifinals. An early barrage in the first half opened things up for Schenscher inside to go 1-on-1. The Huskies shoot 40.5 percent from beyond the arc, led by Gordon's 43.5 and Rashad Anderson's 41.5.

BENCH EXPERIENCE: Jim Calhoun led Connecticut to the national championship in 1999 in his first Final Four appearance and is trying to go 2-for-2. Paul Hewitt is in his first Final Four and the Yellow Jackets are in the title game for the first time.

THE SKINNY: It's hard to believe Okafor can get into foul trouble again and be limited to just over a half. Georgia Tech's big victory five months ago may prove to be their undoing because the Huskies will have seen that tape a few times before taking the court. The pick: Connecticut 78-73.

GLANTZ-CULVER LINE: UConn by 5.5 over Georgia Tech.

Badgers' coach adds AD title to portfolio

MADISON — Barry Alvarez is on his own now, and expects to be busier than ever.

Wisconsin's winningest football coach added the athletic director's job to his resume with the retirement of Pat Richter on Wednesday.

"The offseason won't be much of an offseason anymore," Alvarez said.

Alvarez was Richter's first major hire in 1990, and together they turned a downtrodden athletic department into a thriving, $50 million-a-year operation that is among the nation's elite.

Alvarez served the last 14 months as Richter's apprentice.

"Most directors don't have that luxury," Alvarez said. "Pat allowed me to put my administration in place last July, so my senior staff has been working for almost a year now. We gradually moved into this role. It's not like all of a sudden April 1 things change."

Alvarez insisted the football program won't suffer from his dual duties.

"I won't compromise being some place instead of football, whether it be a meeting, organizational time or whatever," said Alvarez, whose deputies will handle such matters and report to him.

"So, even though I may not be everywhere, I will have my finger on the pulse of everything that's going on," he said.

Richter endorses Alvarez's football-first approach.

"I mentioned to him the best advice as athletic director is to be a darn good football coach," Richter said. "If football's healthy, psychologically and financially things are in pretty good shape."

They were in terrible shape 15 years ago when the tenacious Donna Shalala, now the president at Miami, lured Richter out of his front-office job with Oscar Mayer to rebuild a department mired in debt and mediocrity.

"He turned me down three times," said Shalala, who had no fallback candidates. "I always had a backup plan. That time I didn't."

Richter inherited a department that was $2.1 million in debt, had no computers and an antiquated phone system and transformed it into a self-sustaining state-of-the-art program that has a multimillion dollar budget surplus and is among the healthiest in the country.

A Madison native who won nine letters at UW and was a two-time All-America tight end, Richter led a renaissance in facilities and on the playing field and made his reputation with good coaching hires.

The football and men's basketball teams became national powers and attendance climbed. Alvarez has won three Rose Bowls in his 14 seasons.

C-USA baseball standings & scoreboard

(Standings and scores through April 4)

                 CONFERENCE---   OVERALL-------
TEAM             W  L  T  Pct.    W  L  T  Pct.
Southern Miss    7  2  0 .778    24  4  0 .857
South Florida    7  2  0 .778    22  8  0 .733
Tulane           7  2  0 .778    22  8  0 .733
East Carolina    6  3  0 .667    24  6  0 .800
Louisville       6  3  0 .667    16 11  0 .593
Texas Christian  5  4  0 .556    17 13  0 .567
Houston          5  4  0 .556    12 18  0 .400
Memphis          3  6  0 .333    14 11  0 .560
Charlotte        3  6  0 .333    13 12  0 .520
UAB              2  6  0 .250    14 13  0 .519
Saint Louis      1  7  0 .125     8 20  0 .286
Cincinnati       1  8  0 .111     4 22  0 .154

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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.

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