With the basketball season’s curtain closing over the majority of the country’s teams, couch-potato coaching staffs watch as their nightly entertainment options dwindle.

Without the glowing ambiance offered by the midnight Mountain West game of the week, they beg glowing television screens to offer them a crumb of water-cooler conversation with fellow sports fiends. No more injuries to agonize over or matchups to analyze.

Unable to bear the silence and boredom, basketball fans move on to the next best thing — rumors.

It doesn’t matter what kind. Potential rule changes are debated with the zeal of a Khrushchev-Kennedy confrontation, and defections to the NBA are protested as vividly as any environmental issue.

With the NCAA Tournament occupying attention on the weekends, here are a few mid-week munchies for your waterside chat and the likelihood that they’ll happen:

West Virginia

With the surprising midseason retirement of Gale Catlett, the Mountaineers begin their first search for a new coach in 24 years. Catlett was worn down by his players’ misbehavior off the court and mistakes on it.

Freshman recruit Jonathan Hargett, the most highly touted freshman in Morgantown since Jerry West, didn’t respond to coaches, hoisting jump shots with reckless abandon. Off the court, Catlett suspended senior captain Lionel Armstead and Tim Lyles for behavior detrimental to the team.

Enter Bob Huggins.

Yesterday, Cincinnati Athletics Director Bob Goin gave Huggins permission to speak to West Virginia about the job opening.

He certainly knows plenty about dealing with modern players. Cincinnati often appears undisciplined, unorganized and even unruly, but Huggins has still produced winning season after winning season for the Bearcats, finishing this season with a best-ever 31-4 record.

Whispers associating Huggins with West Virginia circulated all year, but the Bearcats’ 105-101 double-overtime loss to UCLA in the second round of the NCAA Tournament launched further debate.

Huggins would be a good fit for West Virginia. He was born in Morgantown, less than 10 minutes from the campus, played for WVU, and landed his first coaching job as an assistant at his alma mater. He brought the Bearcats back to national prominence, a feat West Virginia Director of Athletics Ed Pastilong wouldn’t mind happening to the Mountaineers.

West Virginia’s choices are slimming. Former Miami and Washington Wizards coach Leonard Hamilton has signed on to coach Florida State next year.

Neither Pastilong nor Goin returned phone calls yesterday afternoon.

Huggins has reportedly told Cincinnati President Joseph Steger that he would like to coach the Mountaineers someday. That someday may be coming soon. ESPN’s Andy Katz reported yesterday that Huggins might be upset that fellow coaches Rick Pitino and John Calipari are making more money than he is.

Still, it’s hard to see Huggins leaving Conference USA’s dominant team to take over a struggling West Virginia program. Either way, with the recruiting season underway, answers should be a couple weeks away.

Probability — 50 percent

Georgetown

Another surprise comes from the nation’s capital, where it is rumored that Hoyas head coach Craig Esherick plans to resign. The rumors stem from his decision not to enter the NIT, only the second time a team has rejected a bid.

Esherick said players could not afford to miss the class time required for NIT road games. Because first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games were held in Washington’s MCI Center, the Hoyas could not host NIT games and instead would have visited Richmond or Iowa.

Last year Georgetown was sent to the West Region for the NCAA Tournament and players missed two weeks of classes. Esherick said he hoped to avoid that scenario this year.

Although the decision seems to indicate Esherick cares little about the opportunity to improve his squad for next year, he has denied rumors that he will resign. If he really did plan to, he probably would have by now.

Probability — 5 percent

Rule of five

A limit of five teams from any one conference in the Big Dance? You can’t be serious, Dickie V. Everything emanating from the ESPN expert’s mouth, including this latest gem of an idea, seems to grow legs and take on a life of its own. This one has caused quite a stir, getting plenty of media attention and even drawing criticism from CBS commentating competitor Billy Packer.

While an interesting conversation piece, don’t expect the NCAA or coaches to consider it anytime soon. That system would create a whole new problem.

Rather than teams being eliminated subjectively — which at least means there is some sore of rationale — clearly superior squads could be excluded because of the new rules. Imagine Connecticut, Syracuse and Georgetown, all at their traditional levels of power, clamoring with Pittsburgh, St. John’s, Boston College, Miami and Notre Dame for spots. Six or even seven quality teams from the Big East are often a possibility. With all due respect to the Butlers of the world, tradition must stand. Besides, Vitale’s change would hurt the NCAA’s moneymaking conferences and thus, the association’s wallet.

Probability — 15 percent

Numbers never lie

10, 11

The basketball gods must love the Big East’s two remaining NCAA Tournament teams. No. 2 seed Connecticut and No. 3 seed Pittsburgh both benefit from the first-weekend upsets and face low seeds in the Sweet 16 round. With apologies to No. 11 Southern Illinois and No. 10 Kent State, there’s no one we’d rather play.

2

The number of Big East teams left in both the NIT and NCAA tournaments. Not bad for a conference that according to some didn’t have a potential Sweet 16 squad.

On tap

Pittsburgh vs. Kent State, Thursday, 9:55 p.m.

Both teams are undersized and very quick. This should be a better game than the seeding indicates. Pittsburgh can play at different paces but might try to slow the game down against the uptempo Golden Flashes.

Connecticut vs. Southern Illinois, Friday 7:38 p.m.

UConn’s managed to keep nearly every game close this year, winning only eight games by 12 points or more. If this one follows that trend, the Huskies might be in trouble. It’s always a chore to get that party-girl Cinderella to go home.

Yup, he said It

Villanova head coach Jay Wright, courtesy of the Delaware County Daily Times:

Wright’s teams have always followed a tradition where the basketball team claps for the student section after each game to thank them for coming out. We’re not sure, but maybe Wright heard one too many bad things about Philadelphia.

‘I was pleasantly surprised and uplifted by the patience we received,’ Wright said. ‘I remember early in the season, we lost to BC here in overtime. Afterward, we went over to the student section to thank the students, and I was thinking, ‘Maybe this is the time that they turn on us.’ “

Published on March 19, 2002 at 12:00 pm