COLLEGE BASKETBALL : Sooners Must Wait Until Later

Ooooooooooooook-lahoma, where the wins used to come sweeping down the plain ...

And now? Don’t ask. Coach Billy Tubbs, his team a respectable but un-Sooner-like 16-12, has been reduced to hoping for a mercy invitation from the NCAA tournament selection committee. Without one, Oklahoma’s NCAA postseason streak ends at eight.

“We feel like we’ve got to do something to help our cause now,” said Tubbs, who is guaranteed a sub-20-victory regular season for the first time since 1981, his rookie year at Norman. “We’re as good as we can be, but we’re not a typical Sooner team.”

Tubbs began the year without a single starter from last season’s 27-5 team. Jackie Jones, Oklahoma’s third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder in 1989-90, flunked out and plays in Spain. Power forward Damon Patterson, a senior and perhaps the Sooners’ best player, is ineligible because of academic problems. So is guard Smokey McCovery, another would-be starter.

Still, Oklahoma was doing well enough until Jan. 19, when Terrence Mullins, the only player left from the Sooner team that advanced to the 1988 Final Four, suffered a knee injury in the first minute of a game against Oklahoma State. Then another senior, forward Kermit Holmes, strained a knee, and point guard Terry Evans suffered a deep thigh bruise.

Mullins and Holmes are back, but each wears a knee brace and can’t be considered 100%. Evans probably won’t play again until next season. All of which helps explain why Oklahoma, once 14-3 this season, has lost nine of 11.

“We were playing pretty good,” Tubbs said. “We were limited in our talent, but if we could have held it all together in one piece, we were a pretty good team.”

Instead, the Sooners have gone 87 days without having the same starting lineup on the court--in practice or a game.

“The season has pretty much been characterized by more injuries and sickness than any team I’ve ever had,” he said. “But it’s not like it’s a team that doesn’t care.”

If Tubbs is upset with the season’s events, he doesn’t show it. He knows the Sooners still could squeeze into the NCAA field of 64, although it may take winning the Big Eight tournament to do it. He also knows that isn’t likely to happen.

And if it doesn’t?

“Our program is not going to disappear from the face of the earth,” he said. “We’ll be back.”

Oklahoma won’t be the only team sweating it out when the selection committee announces its choices March 10. Our latest count has 14 other teams sitting on the soap suds, this close to a National Invitation Tournament invitation, or worse.

A breakdown:

Teams who can make tournament hotel and plane reservations--as long as a deposit isn’t required: Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Brigham Young, Arizona State and Vanderbilt.

Teams who can’t afford another loss: Oklahoma, Colorado, Wisconsin, Georgia, Providence, Ball State and South Carolina.

Teams in need of divine intervention: Wisconsin Green Bay, Radford and Southwest Missouri State.

We’re always looking for a few good sleepers. Our favorites as the tournament draws near:

(1) Alabama.

Sure, they lost to Kentucky on Tuesday, but Wimp Sanderson’s teams almost always peak at tournament time. Alabama has won the Southeastern Conference tournament three of the past four years and has advanced to the NCAA regional semifinals four of the past six. “We’ve worked very hard to get our basketball team to play good all year,” he said. “We particularly try to stress the end of the season.”

It shows. Also helpful are the underrated Melvin Cheatum and freshman star James Robinson.

(2) UCLA.

Unpredictable but talented. Don MacLean seemingly has that whiny look pasted to his face, but it doesn’t matter--he can play.

(3) Seton Hall.

P.J. Carlesimo gets the absolute most out of an overachieving lineup.

(4) Louisiana State.

You have to stop Shaquille O’Neal, which, said Florida Coach Lon Kruger, “is easy to say, very difficult to do.” Then, you have to deal with forward Harold Boudreaux, a former Parade magazine All-American who has played great since recently becoming a starter. Then you have to deal with Coach Dale Brown, who thrives in the postseason spotlight.

(5) Oklahoma State.

We’re repeating ourselves, but any team that has Coach Eddie Sutton’s defensive philosophy and forward Byron Houston has a chance to surprise. How good is Houston? Well, Big Eight coaches were asked the following question this week: If you could pick one conference player (other than one of your own) to build a team around, who would it be? The score: Missouri’s Doug Smith 4, Houston 3 and Kansas’ Mark Randall 1.

Of course, not everyone was excited about the question.

“I’m reading my mail,” Missouri Coach Norm Stewart said. “I’m not really thinking about that.”

Kentucky Coach Rick Pitino, whose team is ineligible for postseason play because of NCAA probation, is using the spare time to become an ESPN color commentator for assorted conference championship games and to act as a guest columnist for the Sporting News and the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader. You don’t think the exposure will help Kentucky’s recruiting, do you? . . . Florida’s Kruger said that if Kentucky were eligible to play in the NCAA tournament, the Wildcats would go far. “They play a way that’s a little different (from) everyone,” he said. “Because of that, I think they would have good success in the tournament.” . . . How thrilled SEC coaches must be with this season’s conference tournament site: Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gymnasium--the arena that time forgot. This is the place where teams are seated behind the baseline, rather than at courtside. Kerosene, matches and a good insurance policy would do wonders for Memorial. In the meantime, the coaches, who voted, 10-0, to move the benches somewhere, anywhere but on the baseline, grit their teeth. “The configuration cannot be changed,” Vandy Coach Eddie Fogler said. “It’s been studied forever.” One alternative, offered by Georgia’s Hugh Durham, is to extend the coaching box from baseline to courtside.

We’re still not sold on Nebraska, which has won a school-record 23 games, but we’ll give them this much: The Cornhuskers play a much tougher schedule than their football counterparts. At last look, Nebraska was 11-4 against teams that played in the NCAA tournament or the NIT last year. Also, the Cornhuskers didn’t play a Division II team and are 3-0 against the Big Ten. Are you listening, Coach Tom Osborne? . . . You make the call: Oklahoma State’s Houston elbows Kansas State’s Wylie Howard a week ago Tuesday. Howard retaliates with a slug to Houston’s head. The officials review the play on a courtside television monitor. Houston is allowed to stay, Howard is thrown out. What gives? We thought it was a mistake, too, but according to NCAA rules, the referees are allowed to watch a replay if they can prevent or rectify a scorer’s or timer’s mistake, correct a malfunctioning clock or determine who started or participated in a fight. Replay equipment can’t be used for judgment calls.

For those hoping for a Nevada Las Vegas vs. Ohio State championship game, forget it. The way the brackets are set up, the winner of the West Regional--presumably the Runnin’ Rebels--will play the winner of the Midwest--probably the Buckeyes--in the semifinals. Ohio State’s chances of advancing to the Final Four are helped by geography. It’s possible the Buckeyes could spend the first round in Dayton, Ohio, the second round in Pontiac, Mich., and the Final Four in nearby Indianapolis. . . . Quiet Iowa has beaten Temple, Creighton, UCLA, Michigan State twice and Indiana at Bloomington. . . . We’re not kidding: We would take the Big West all-conference team against any other conference’s all-stars. Our starting five: UNLV’s Stacey Augmon, Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony, Anderson Hunt and George Ackles.

Wisconsin travels to Purdue tonight. The Badgers won the last meeting, which prompted Purdue Coach Gene Keady to call an 11 p.m. practice session when the Boilermakers returned home that night. “And we won the next game,” Keady said. Uh, no, Gene, you didn’t. In fact, you lost the next four games. “Well, at least I felt better,” he said. . . . After last Saturday’s loss to Ohio State, Minnesota’s Clem Haskins called the officiating crew “three jackasses” and “a disgrace to basketball in the Big Ten.” For this, he gets only a reprimand? “Clem overreacted,” Michigan State Coach Jud Heathcote said. Wisconsin’s Bill Yoder, while sympathetic, said Haskins’ outburst is potentially dangerous because it could incite a crowd. “You would soon have fans reacting worse than they do in some places,” he said. In retrospect, Haskins says he apologizes for calling the crew “jackasses,” but nothing else.

Our top 10: (1) Nevada Las Vegas, (2) Ohio State, (3) Arkansas, (4) Syracuse, (5) Indiana, (6) North Carolina, (7) Kansas, (8) Arizona, (9) Duke, (10) Kentucky.

Our waiting list: Oklahoma State, UCLA, Utah, New Mexico State, Seton Hall, St. John’s.