Fang Mitchell

Coach: Fang Mitchell (164-101, 10th season)Affiliation: Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference1994-95 record: 21-10, 15-10 MEACRadio: WOLB (1010 AM)Arena: Coppin CenterTickets: $5, $3 with student ID; $1 children under 12. Call (410) 383-5688.Starters lost: Five.Outlook: The Eagles have four freshmen, two sophomores who were academically ineligible last season and three transfers, and Mitchell said "my tolerance to mistakes has to be greater." Allen Watson started at the point when Coppin State used a three-guard rotation last year, and fellow senior Kyle Locke sounds content with being a role player again.

Well, that about wraps up another season in the worst college basketball state in America. Barring a major upset by Maryland in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, only one of the state's nine Division I men's programs will qualify for the NCAA tournament.The local populace should be delighted.This qualifies as a banner year.If not for Fang Mitchell and Coppin State, we'd be looking at a two-year drought. Five state schools -- Loyola, UMBC, UMES, Morgan State and Mount St. Mary's -- have never been to the Division I tournament.

Coppin State's Jordan Lee didn't play the first time the Eagles played Morgan State this season, and he was scoreless in five minutes of the first half Thursday night. The second half, it turned out, was all he needed. Lee, Coppin's version of Instant Offense, erupted for 19 second-half points and helped deliver a 73-60 victory over the rival Bears in front of an announced — and raucous — 3,118. The victory sends the Eagles (16-13, 11-5) into the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament as the third seed.

Fang Mitchell rejected an offer Thursday to remain as coach of Coppin State's men's basketball team, saying the contract was "unacceptable" but that negotiations will continue. "It wasn't done in good faith," Mitchell said of the offer after a scheduled meeting with university president Reginald Avery. Mitchell has coached at Coppin for 25 years, won 395 games, gone to four NCAA tournaments and captured 10 regular-season championships in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

Coppin State coach Fang Mitchell often can be difficult to please, but even he wore a big smile after Wednesday night's game against UMBC. The Eagles quickly eliminated any suspense, scoring the game's first eight points and making their first eight shots from the field in an 80-61 victory at RAC Arena. Michael Murray had 19 points and 13 rebounds to lead Coppin State (2-8), which snapped a four-game losing streak in the midst of a tough early-season schedule in which 12 of the team's first 15 games are on the road.

Coppin State lists Antonio Williams as a 6-foot-6 forward, although by his own admission, he probably is a shade under that. Whatever his true height, Williams played like a giant Saturday night, grabbing a career-high 18 rebounds in Coppin's 88-70 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference rout of North Carolina A&T in the Physical Education Complex. His athleticism and quickness were too much for Aggies big man Thomas Coleman (6-9), who scored 21 points but answered Williams' strength inside with just eight rebounds.

BUTCH BEARD and Fang Mitchell know the score. Coppin State at Morgan State tonight at Hill Field House in the regular-season finale for both Baltimore schools. No time for love. No time for sharing scouting reports or film. No time for blowing kisses to a cross-town rival, even if, for the rest of the year, Beard and Mitchell are road-game partners, friends. "You think I really [care]?" Morgan's Beard said about Coppin's chances of getting back to the NCAA tournament. "We're trying to get some momentum, go into the conference tournament on a high note.

In a quiet bid to save the job of Coppin State College President Calvin W. Burnett, Coppin basketball coach Ronald L. "Fang" Mitchell has offered to pay $33,500 of his own money to repay the struggling West Baltimore school for consulting fees paid to former State Sen. Larry Young."

After a damaging home-court loss to Bethune-Cookman on Saturday, Coppin State was pretty much resigned to playing for the second seed in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament. With a two-game deficit to Delaware State and a defeat in their only meeting of the regular season, the Eagles' hopes of landing on top now appear slim. So Coppin took care of one of its primary challengers for the No. 2 spot last night at the Coppin Center, pulling away in the second half for a 68-57 victory over Florida A&M. After a helter-skelter first half in which neither team performed particularly well, Coppin State (8-14, 8-3 MEAC)

Fang Mitchell opened his second arena in 24 years at Coppin State on Saturday. When he emerged from his locker room in the early evening, he had to ask directions to the interview area in the spanking new Physical Education Complex. Home-court advantage it isn't, at least not yet. In fact, Morgan State came away with all the perks in an 80-67 win that opened a new era at Coppin before an announced 3,189 and another Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference basketball season. Perks? Reggie Holmes celebrated the first dunk of his four-year career at Morgan, courtesy of a breakaway pass from freshman DeWayne Jackson, and scored a game-high 24 points.