December 01, 2000|By Paul McMullen | Paul McMullen,SUN STAFF
College basketball tournaments in far-flung destinations such as Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico turn over their marquee teams, but local draws Maryland and George Washington have given the BB&T Classic a sense of stability since its inception in 1995. Thanks to the return of Brian Ellerbe and Mike Jarvis, this year's affair is even cozier than normal.
No. 14 Maryland opens the sixth annual BB&T Classic tomorrow (1 p.m.) at Washington's MCI Center against Michigan, which is coached by Ellerbe, a Bowie native who landed higher than expected after he left Loyola College.
For once, the semifinal focus isn't on the Terps, as tomorrow's second matchup sends George Washington against No. 19 St. John's and Jarvis, the coach who made the Colonials a player in the first place.
"I'm still in the area a lot, three or four times a year," Ellerbe said. "I'm the youngest of nine, and all of my family still lives there."
Ellerbe could stand to see some friendly faces, because it has been a rocky year for him and the Wolverines. Whereas Maryland's semifinal victories in the BB&T the last three years were over then-No. 2 Kansas, No. 5 Stanford and No. 16 Illinois, Michigan (2-2) is unranked and about to run into a Terps team desperate to shake off its worst four-game start (1-3) since 1968.
The Wolverines dropped their opener to Mid-Continent Conference upstart Oakland, and fell at home Tuesday by 11 to No. 12 Wake Forest in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. This is its first trip out of state; after two games in the BB&T, Ellerbe takes a young team to No. 1 Duke next week.
Ellerbe has a pair of fine young forwards in Big Ten Freshman of the Year LaVell Blanchard and Washington, D.C., native Bernard Robinson Jr., but he is encountering some of the same personnel problems that he had at Loyola. A three-year run (34-47) at Evergreen was marked by the departure of several premier players and an icy relationship with administrators.
Four months after he left Loyola in 1997, Ellerbe was the interim coach at Michigan, elevated from an assistant's position after Steve Fisher was fired in the fallout over payments to Wolverines players.
After a 25-9 rookie season, Ellerbe was installed as permanent coach and given a six-year contract by athletic director Tom Goss. Last February, Goss resigned under pressure, in part because of his handling of the Jamal Crawford eligibility imbroglio.
Crawford led Michigan in scoring as a freshman, but was limited to 17 games after he was swept up in last winter's NCAA crackdown on improper benefits. The eighth player in last June's NBA draft, Crawford was part of a stellar recruiting class that included Kevin Gaines, who was involved in a Labor Day drinking and driving incident. Ellerbe didn't pull Gaines' scholarship, but he did kick him off the team.
"It was a buildup of disciplinary problems," Ellerbe said. "He [Gaines] could have been one of the two or three best point guards in the country. He would have made a large contribution."
Michigan has 21 losses in the Big Ten over the last two seasons, its worst stretch since the early 1980s, as the Wolverines' dip coincided with banner years for the conference. In each of those two years, the Big Ten sent two teams to the Final Four.
"The emergence of the Big Ten tournament saw a big change in the league, in how the conference has dealt with the NCAA tournament," Ellerbe said. "It's very difficult winning on the road in the Big Ten. There are a lot of small towns that live and breathe college basketball. You can lose every road game."
Ellerbe said he expects to find a similarly charged atmosphere at the MCI Center.
"Everyone has ties to the area, and that's unique," he said. "In my mind, one of the things about the tournament that gets lost is that George Washington has won it two of the last three years."
That tidbit is not news to Maryland, which dropped both of those championship games to George Washington. Last year's loss to the Colonials could have been tabbed an upset; the one in 1997 wasn't, as Jarvis' last GW team featured Baltimore's Shawnta Rogers and went to the NCAA tournament.
Jarvis, who first gained notice as Patrick Ewing's high school coach in Boston, took his clam chowder voice to St. John's in 1998. The last win in his first season with the Red Storm came at Maryland's expense, as the Terps were humbled in the 1999 Sweet 16. The previous weekend could have been uneasy, as the sub-regional included both St. Johns and GW, but Colonials coach Tom Penders invited Jarvis into his locker room.
Jarvis recruited some of the Colonials' upperclassmen, including Lake Clifton's Mike King and Calvert Hall's Patrick Ngongba.
"We respected coach Jarvis when he left us, and nothing's changed," King said.
Actually, Jarvis would rather be elsewhere, but he and Maryland's Gary Williams were two of the architects of the BB&T, and he agreed to do the tournament that benefits the Children's Charities Foundation as one more favor.
"I would not use the word hesitant, but I'm doing it with mixed emotions," Jarvis said. "It's not a day that too many coaches look forward to. You want the kids that you recruit and coach to do well, then one day that changes. "
Jarvis nearly moved his office to the MCI Center last summer. He was wooed by the Washington Wizard's, but one of the NBA's worst rosters weighed more than a lucrative offer from Michael Jordan.
"I was very, very, very, very close," Jarvis said. "It was a win-win situation for me. I said it wasn't time to leave New York. The time wasn't right."
BB&T Classic
Tomorrow's semifinals
Maryland vs. Michigan, 1 p.m.
George Washington vs. St. John's, 3:30 p.m.
Sunday's games
Consolation, 3 p.m.
Championship, 5:30 p.m.
