Small-college teams make do

Bandbox gyms, long bus rides, no TV define their game

Throughout the college basketball season, and especially at tournament time, most of the hoopla swirls around big-name teams.

Busing under the radar are smaller schools, such as St. Augustine's and Shaw -- competing in the CIAA Tournament this week in Charlotte -- or Barton and Mount Olive.

They play without extra frills and with less fanfare than major programs, but NCAA Division II athletes are just as dedicated, the coaches just as committed, the games often just as dramatic.

They play despite long bus rides, fast-food meals and shared access to gyms and locker rooms. They huddle in close quarters with coaches to watch film and are rarely seen on television.

"At this level you really see the love of the game,'' said coach Ron Lievense, who guided Barton to the Division II championship last season. "The players do it because they love it. They are truly student-athletes. It's not a job for them. [And] it's not all pie in the sky."

Consider that Barton took a 21 1/2-hour excursion this season and didn't spend the night.

When the Bulldogs played at Erskine (S.C), the men's and women's teams left together via bus at 8 a.m. Saturday, rode seven hours, played Saturday night, then bused back to Wilson, arriving at 5:30 Sunday morning.

Not all trips are marathon rides, but most small-college teams adhere to an up-and-back agenda on game day as they strive to stay within their budget.

That's different from the ACC. The big-league schools in this area have big-league trappings.

For example, N.C. State, Duke and North Carolina usually fly in on a charter the day before a game, stay in a top-of-the-line hotel and are served meals fit for royalty. They have a shootaround before night games, retreat for rest in comfortable rooms, then play and fly home after the game.

TV cameras zoom in, and a flock of reporters charts their moves and tapes their quotes and quips.

At UNC, several dozen members of the media assemble for coach Roy Williams' postgame news conference. Then they interview players in a lounge with leather sofas and chairs.

Close by is a new, multimillion- dollar basketball museum highlighting Carolina's storied history.

The amenities are also rich at Duke, which recently opened the $15.2 million, 56,000-square-foot Michael W. Krzyzewski Center.

That facility includes two practice floors, cameras to tape workouts, a 25-seat theater for film study, plus tutoring rooms and a banquet area sizable enough to accommodate 350.

Division II gymnasiums are much smaller and usually devoid of media madness.

"We don't have media rooms,'' Lievense said. "If there's more than one writer, I'm really surprised."

St. Augustine's men's team, which has enjoyed a successful run under coach Thomas Hargrove, plays its home games in a 750-seat gym built in 1962 and often has to turn fans away.

The intimate atmosphere provides a cozy homecourt advantage and serves as a practice facility for several St. Aug's athletic teams. As a result, the Falcons men have had to work out as early as 5:30 a.m. and as late as 10 p.m. in their time-sharing plan.

When watching film, the players crowd into a trailer that also serves as a coaches' office, or they lug the video equipment to a small locker room.

"We are able to make do; we make it work,'' said Hargrove, a Vietnam War veteran happy to be coaching. "I have a passion for what I do. I love to try to educate through athletics, [teach] citizenship and sportsmanship, [stress] education and graduation."

At Mount Olive, coach Bill Clingan is in his 18th season directing the Trojans program, but he does more than diagram X's and O's.

Clingan also is an associate professor who teaches six hours, which includes instructing entrepreneur, recreation and leisure classes.

And this Saturday, something rare will happen to his program. Mount Olive will play on national television, meeting rival Barton.

There are those magical moments when a small school transcends the norm, ascends to special heights and shares the spotlight with the big-time programs.

Barton did it last year, when it rallied behind "Miracle Man" Anthony Atkinson to erase a seven-point deficit with 45 seconds left and beat Winona State to win the national title.

That game also was on television, but it wasn't the glitz and glamour that drove Atkinson and his teammates.

"They are not doing it to see themselves on TV," Lievense said. "They [just] love to play basketball."