West Region Notebook: NCAA Returns To Site Of Wooden's Final Victory

March 14, 2001

SAN DIEGO (AP) - John Wooden ended the most celebrated coaching careerincollege history with UCLA's victory over Kentucky for the 1975 NCAAchampionship at the Sports Arena.

Back then, workers were still hammering and working on seats 90 minutesbefore tipoff. One of the locker rooms only had enough space for sixplayers.University presidents had bought tickets for seats that didn't exist.

No wonder it was another 26 years before the NCAA took a chance on SanDiegoagain.

This time, things are going much more smoothly.

San Diego was the first of eight subregional sites to sell out, withticketsgoing in less than two days. Cox Arena, not yet built in 1996 when San DiegoState was awarded this year's subregional, seats 11,700. School officialsturned down additional requests for more than 10,000 tickets.

"This gets us on the map," San Diego State athletic director Rick Baysaid.

FAMILY AFFAIR: UNC-Greensboro's Fran McCaffery isn't your typical coachwho majored in teaching or physical education in college.

He earned a bachelor's in economics from The Wharton School of BusinessatPennsylvania.

"If I learned anything at the Wharton School, I wouldn't be incoaching,"he joked.

McCaffery's resume includes 11 years as an assistant at Notre Dame,where heunsuccessfully recruited Stanford twins Jason and Jarron Collins. He hadbetterluck off the court in South Bend.

McCaffery met and married Margaret Nowlin, who led the Fighting Irishwomen's team to its first NCAA tournament berth in 1992. She's been known towork on post moves with Greensboro's players and she reviews the Spartans'games.

The couple has two sons, including 2 1/2-year-old Connor, who alreadycandribble a full-sized basketball. A future recruit for dad, perhaps?

PHIL THE COMIC: St. Joseph's Phil Martelli brought a mini-version ofhisgoofy coach's show that airs on Philadelphia cable to the NCAA tournament.

Martelli, a bald guy with a face for radio, livens up his weekly"HawkTalk" show with bits stolen from Johnny Carson and David Letterman. Hisguests have included the team bus driver, the gym janitor, and familymembers -the most eclectic lineup since deposed Indiana coach Bob Knight invited adonkey wearing a Purdue hat on his show.

The Hawks are in the tournament for the first time since reaching thefinal16 in 1997. After not winning the Atlantic 10 tournament, they got in withtheir first-ever at-large berth.

"The same people that are patting us on the back right now were aiminglower on our bodies in the last three years," said Martelli, who added thatthe way he's changed since 1997 is "I'm probably a little better looking."

Martelli makes things fun for his players, even if some of them haveneverseen "HawkTalk."

"He's a very hard worker, but at the same time he knows that too muchofbeing serious can kind of drain a team, so he cracks more than a few jokes,"senior Frank Wilkins said. "It keeps us going through the year and has madethe season fly by."

ALVIN'S EVOLUTION: At 6-foot-11 and 265 pounds, Georgia Tech centerAlvinJones is big enough to have played football in Florida, where the sportrulesthe state.

But he didn't, and for that, St. Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said thecoachat Kathleen High in Lakeland, Fla., is in trouble.

"He should have been the left tackle or the left guard," Martelli saidofJones. "How they let him get away, that guy (the coach) should be absolutelycanned."

Jones, who broke John Salley's school record for shot blocking, blameshismother.

"She wouldn't let me play," he said. "If I would've played football, Iwould've gone to Florida and been a wide receiver."

Jones almost didn't stick around for his senior year under new TechcoachPaul Hewitt. It took a few visits to Hewitt's office, where Jones wouldwatchTV while Hewitt took phone calls, to change Jones' mind.

"I told him if you stay, you're going to get better," Hewitt said."We'renot here without him. Alvin is the focal point of our team."