Colleges

Double dribbles: Men

By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published March 3, 2007

North Carolina State coach Sidney Lowe had a couple of scares in recent days that have made him re-examine how he does his job. A good thing.

A day after he had to go to a hospital at halftime of his team's game at North Carolina due to dehydration, former Celtics and Sonics great Dennis Johnson, a coach in the NBA's Developmental League, died suddenly after a workout.

"It kind of reminded me just how fragile this thing is," Lowe said of those events. "Talking about the body and the heart and just making sure that you take time out to take care of yourself. We coaches, you get into a rut sometimes where that's all you're doing, it's 24 hours a day, watching film, working, thinking about it. You don't take time out for yourself."

North Carolina coach Roy Williams visited Lowe after the game and told Lowe he had to do just that, mentioning that he breaks up his day with a walk or a workout. Williams came back the next day to check on his rival and brethren. Other coaches also called Lowe, including Georgia Tech's Paul Hewitt, to express their concerns.

"It really just put things in perspective and made me take a look at things, and certainly I'll have to make some changes in the way I'm doing it right now," Lowe said. "That doesn't mean I'm not going to continue to work as hard as I'm working, but I'll take a little break in there."

The un-Commonwealth

Virginia leads the ACC race and can win its first league regular-season title outright since 1981 with a win today at Wake Forest. No. 21 Virginia Tech is tied for second. Both are NCAA Tournament locks. But consider what else is going on in the Commonwealth.

VCU, led by former Florida assistant and first-year coach Anthony Grant, won the Colonial Athletic Association regular-season title, and Old Dominion was second. Both could make the NCAA field. Even VMI is alive for a bid if it upsets Winthrop in the Big South final today. Since the NCAA field expanded in 1985, four Commonwealth teams is the benchmark.

"There's just very good basketball being played in our state right now," Virginia Tech coach and former USF coach Seth Greenberg said.

By the numbers

.722 Winning percentage for Iowa coach Steve Alford in the Big Ten tournament. That's the best, and he had better improve upon that if the Hawkeyes hope to earn an NCAA bid.

16-0 Home record for UCLA, the first time the Bruins have gone undefeated at home since John Wooden's final season 1974-75. The record book shows a 15-0 mark in 1994-95, but Cal beat the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion and later had to forfeit it.

18 Winning streak for Memphis, longest in the nation and longest this season by any team. Up next: at Southern Methodist today.

30 Homecourt winning streak for BYU, longest in the nation. Up next: Utah today.

25,000 Dollars Tennessee saved when its fans didn't rush the court after upsetting Florida on Tuesday and acted like they've been there before. Hey, they have.

He said it

"I don't know if we're going to make it into the (NCAA) tournament, but I feel about this team the way I felt about our team in '04. We lost a couple tough games down the stretch, and I kept telling people, 'We're playing really good basketball; we're playing as well as anybody in the country.' I'm not ready to say this team is playing as well as anybody in the country, but I'm telling you right now, this team is playing very well, and if we do enough to get into the tournament, I'm very confident we'll be successful in that tournament." - Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt.

His team has won six of its past eight, including Thursday against No. 8 North Carolina, and closes the regular season Sunday at Boston College. A reminder: In '04, the Yellow Jackets reached the NCAA final.

Brian Landman can be reached at landman@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3347.

[Last modified March 3, 2007, 05:57:48]