National Collegiate Athletic

Joseph DiRenzo Jr., the referee who signaled touchdown on Doug Flutie's unforgettable "Hail Mary" pass in 1984 and officiated many other big games in nearly 30 years as a National Collegiate Athletic Association referee, died of a heart attack Friday at his summer home in Sarasota, Fla. The Severna Park resident was 62.Mr. DiRenzo, who had been an executive in several oil and real estate companies, was regional sales manager for Dynasplint Inc. at his death.He was active in the Severna Park community and was chairman of the Anne Arundel County Physical Fitness Commission in the early 1980s.

COLLEGE PARK - Now that the Atlantic Coast Conference expansion discussion has achieved a hiatus, I would like to describe my thinking during these complex and significant discussions. Much of the speculation on presidential motives presented in the media did not represent my thinking or that of my ACC colleagues. The most important overarching question is this: "Is a nine-team ACC viable for the future, or should the ACC morph to a 12-team conference?" I believe the answer is that both are viable, though each would lead to a different level of competitive play for the ACC. As I see the steadily evolving national picture in collegiate athletics, if we were to stay as a nine-team ACC (which could easily drop to eight or even fewer teams)

COLLEGE PARK -- They will be forever linked, their names so closely attached and their styles so vastly different that it's difficult to separate one from the other.Chris Corchiani and Rodney Monroe.Fire and Ice.The consummate point guard and the quintessential shooter.Apart, they can stand alone on their statistics: Corchiani, the all-time assist leader in National Collegiate Athletic Association history; Monroe, the all-time scorer at North Carolina State.Together, they are perhaps the most productive backcourt to play together in the Atlantic Coast Conference -- perhaps one of the best to play Division I basketball.

EXACTLY 3,535 fans turned out at Johns Hopkins' Homewood Field on Sunday to watch the greatest women's lacrosse dynasty of all time, the University of Maryland, beat Georgetown with eight seconds left in double overtime for its seventh successive national title. The growing interest in women's team sports, for participating and spectating, does not end with soccer. Young girls seek Jen Adams' autograph and imitate her hair style as their sisters did Mia Hamm. Ms. Adams, the finest woman player to wield a stick, came all the way from Australia to do it at College Park.

Coppin State's basketball team has been selected for the National Invitation Tournament, making it two straight years that the Eagles have been in a postseason tournament. Coppin, a National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament team last season, will play at Southwest Missouri State on Thursday night (8:05) in Springfield, Mo., in the first round of the NIT. (Article, 5C)

EWING TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Ursinus and Trenton State scored front-running victories in the semifinals of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III women's lacrosse tournament atTrenton State yesterday.Ursinus (12-8) and Trenton State (15-1) will play for th championship here at 12:30 today. It will be the fifth time in the past seven years that the two teams have met in the title game.

Ads for Maryland basketball say, "No lights, no camera, just action," a reference to the Terrapins' ban from live television appearances this season as part of National Collegiate Athletic Association sanctions. But the rest of the state's Division I basketball teams -- even if they aren't on probation -- are pretty much in the dark, too, when it comes to television coverage.Note: Coppin State's games are not broadcast on radio.

EXACTLY 3,535 fans turned out at Johns Hopkins' Homewood Field on Sunday to watch the greatest women's lacrosse dynasty of all time, the University of Maryland, beat Georgetown with eight seconds left in double overtime for its seventh successive national title. The growing interest in women's team sports, for participating and spectating, does not end with soccer. Young girls seek Jen Adams' autograph and imitate her hair style as their sisters did Mia Hamm. Ms. Adams, the finest woman player to wield a stick, came all the way from Australia to do it at College Park.

With their "Guiding Light" blacked out, lots of soap opera fans might have turned into "The Young and the Restless" yesterday, but apparently that wasn't the case.Maybe because there was plenty of advance warning that CBS' afternoon of soaps was going to be wiped out by network coverage of the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament, Channel 11 received relatively few complaints yesterday."It was not as many as we expected," WBAL-TV programming director Emerson Coleman said, adding the station didn't count the calls.

Stan Albeck resigned yesterday as Bradley basketball coach after three consecutive losing seasons.Athletic director Ron Ferguson said Albeck was not fired, but that the school thought the decision was the right one.Albeck, 59, didn't attend the news conference but said in a statement that his decision was extremely difficult."

EVERYONE who loves college sports applauds the opportunity afforded athletes who get scholarships to big time programs. Competition, travel and the challenges of university life in the NCAA's Division I surely broaden and educate. The joy of victory and the agony of defeat are lessons for life.The growth of international basketball leagues -- with many more jobs for players -- represent another reason to nurture hoop dreams.But the name of the game is still education -- and not just because the athlete will need another source of income some day. The nation's colleges and universities need to be held accountable for the bargains they make -- and too often break.

THE PROBLEM of unfairness and unequal opportunity for potential participants in college athletics doesn't lie in the minimum eligibility standards set by the NCAA.It's not that easy.The problem lies in the failure of this nation's high schools to adequately educate students so they can meet the admission requirements at the colleges and universities where they want to compete. Oh, and hopefully get an education at the same time.It lies with the universities that would be more than happy to turn a blind eye, if they could, to a potential star's dismal academic record in order to get him in pads and cleats and on the field.

Joseph DiRenzo Jr., the referee who signaled touchdown on Doug Flutie's unforgettable "Hail Mary" pass in 1984 and officiated many other big games in nearly 30 years as a National Collegiate Athletic Association referee, died of a heart attack Friday at his summer home in Sarasota, Fla. The Severna Park resident was 62.Mr. DiRenzo, who had been an executive in several oil and real estate companies, was regional sales manager for Dynasplint Inc. at his death.He was active in the Severna Park community and was chairman of the Anne Arundel County Physical Fitness Commission in the early 1980s.

Readers of the sports page are treated every year to stories that might be filed under the heading Agonies of the SAT.Star athletes are described grappling with the Scholastic Aptitude Test, not as a commentary on public education or the athlete's lack of attention to the books, but as a social and athletic melodrama: The Superstar's dream blocked by The Test.The reader is kept current on the first, second and third attempts, the remedial and tutorial measures taken and the resulting success or failure.

EWING TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Ursinus and Trenton State scored front-running victories in the semifinals of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III women's lacrosse tournament atTrenton State yesterday.Ursinus (12-8) and Trenton State (15-1) will play for th championship here at 12:30 today. It will be the fifth time in the past seven years that the two teams have met in the title game.

INDIANAPOLIS -- There were times during Billy McCaffrey's sophomore year at Duke when many wondered whether he was ever going to be a front-line player.Some compared the slender guard from Allentown, Pa., to senior Greg Koubek, who after a terrific freshman season slumped until the middle of this season. But nobody is worrying about McCaffrey anymore.By making his first six shots last night against Kansas in the championship game of the men's National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament, McCaffrey shot the Blue Devils into a 14-point lead and eventually to a 72-65 victory.

EVERYONE who loves college sports applauds the opportunity afforded athletes who get scholarships to big time programs. Competition, travel and the challenges of university life in the NCAA's Division I surely broaden and educate. The joy of victory and the agony of defeat are lessons for life.The growth of international basketball leagues -- with many more jobs for players -- represent another reason to nurture hoop dreams.But the name of the game is still education -- and not just because the athlete will need another source of income some day. The nation's colleges and universities need to be held accountable for the bargains they make -- and too often break.

INDIANAPOLIS -- There were times during Billy McCaffrey's sophomore year at Duke when many wondered whether he was ever going to be a front-line player.Some compared the slender guard from Allentown, Pa., to senior Greg Koubek, who after a terrific freshman season slumped until the middle of this season. But nobody is worrying about McCaffrey anymore.By making his first six shots last night against Kansas in the championship game of the men's National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament, McCaffrey shot the Blue Devils into a 14-point lead and eventually to a 72-65 victory.

I had a teacher in high school who had gone to Georgia Tech in the days when it was a perennial national football power. This state institution was also a respected engineering school, the type of place that seemed an odd match for high-powered athletics.But such marriages were those of convenience. That teacher told of taking a class with one of the football players. At exam time one fine spring day, the player positioned himself next to an open window and proceeded to hand his test paper out the window where some unseen person filled in the answers.

With their "Guiding Light" blacked out, lots of soap opera fans might have turned into "The Young and the Restless" yesterday, but apparently that wasn't the case.Maybe because there was plenty of advance warning that CBS' afternoon of soaps was going to be wiped out by network coverage of the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament, Channel 11 received relatively few complaints yesterday."It was not as many as we expected," WBAL-TV programming director Emerson Coleman said, adding the station didn't count the calls.