Georgetown, St. John’s Expected to Play It Again ... and Again

In lieu of a great game, New York was treated to one of your average Super Bowls. The hype and hysteria preceding the St. John’s-Georgetown game ultimately proved more satisfying than the event itself. This was the nutritional equivalent of cotton candy, attractive to the eye but a disappointment to the stomach.

So devoid of competition was the second meeting of the season between the No. 1 and No. 2 college teams in the land that it virtually demanded a rematch. Fortunately, the Big East Conference may arrange just such a game on the same Madison Square Garden floor next Saturday night.

Coaches Lou Carnesecca of St. John’s and John Thompson of Georgetown would not be displeased by another showdown at the Final Four in Lexington, Ky. That also is not out of the question.

Despite the relative ease of Georgetown’s conquest and the Hoyas’ likely return to the top spot in the wire-service polls, the Redmen did not suffer a devastating loss to their reputation. The two Big East rivals still appear on a higher plateau than the opposition and, no matter what happens in the next 10 days, both figure to be among the top four seeded teams when the NCAA announces its tournament selections a week from Sunday.

One, likely the winner of a third engagement or the champion of the Big East Tournament in the event of an upset en route to the finals, will be bracketed atop the East Regional. The other will be shipped to a distant regional, probably the weak, weak West, in order to balance the national field.

For the sake of the student body, the fans and the appetite of Carnesecca, who can’t be expected to trust the pasta in Salt Lake City or even Denver, the officials at St. John’s would like to remain on the East coast. The menu here is for first and second-round games at Hartford, Conn., and the regional at Providence, R.I., where fine Italian restaurants abound. Thompson, however, prizes the peace and contentment, not to mention the privacy, available on the far side of the Mississippi.

It is no coincidence that in each of the past four seasons, the West Regional has been represented by an Eastern team at the Final Four. All of those teams -- North Carolina in 1981, Georgetown in 1982 and 1984 and North Carolina State in 1983 -- reached the championship game. Two of the teams -- N.C. State two years ago and Georgetown last year -- won the title. They had followed the path of least resistance.

This season, more than ever, that road is inviting. The Pac-10 has been a wasteland, with only one team (Arizona) gaining a toehold in the Top 20. Nevada-Las Vegas is the frontrunner in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference, the same Nevada-Las Vegas that almost died of fright in an early-season game at Georgetown. Other hyphens likely to gain entry include Texas-El Paso of the Western Athletic Conference and Nevada-Reno of the Big Sky Conference. When Horace Greeley invited New Yorkers to go west, he might have been thinking of the NCAA Tournament.

If ever there was a year for two Big East teams to crack the Final Four (three came within a game in 1982 but only Georgetown found its way to the Louisiana Superdome), this is it. Patrick Ewing, the Georgetown destroyer, is a senior. So, too, is Chris Mullin, the St. John’s nonpareil.

A conference has produced two Final Four participants on three different occasions in the past decade. In 1976, Big Ten foes Indiana and Michigan even met in the national championship game at Philadelphia, with the Hoosiers prevailing for the third time that season. Another Big Ten duo qualified in 1980 at Indianapolis but both Iowa and Purdue were defeated in semifinal games. The following year, at Philadelphia, Atlantic Coast Conference representatives North Carolina and Virginia were semifinal opponents; North Carolina was the winner.

This season, it already has been determined East will meet West in one semifinal at Lexington. So if the Big Ten champion, Michigan, the third-ranked team in the country, is consigned to its traditional spot in the Southeast (formerly Mideast) Regional and Memphis State or Oklahoma is top seed in the Midwest, that would make a Big East semifinal a distinct possibility. And the pressure would be greater on the team that stayed home to play in a field that included the ACC’s best (Georgia Tech, Duke or another tested team).

But that’s looking far ahead. Georgetown, which responded to the challenge with its finest offensive game of the season against St. John’s, is scheduled for a rematch against Syracuse before the start of the Big East Tournament. Mullin and St. John’s will say goodbye to Alumni Hall Saturday against Providence.

What will be interesting is the way both teams react in the aftermath of the publicized blowout. Georgetown, whose 29-game undefeated streak and No. 1 ranking were terminated by St. John’s in January, used that defeat as a motivational tool on Wednesday. Afterward, Thompson suggested his team may have done St. John’s a favor, to which Carnesecca said, “Please, no more favors.” But there may be something to what the Georgetown coach said. Even if the sight of Ewing’s long arms continues to haunt their dreams for a while, it’s not a bad thing for a team to discover it is beatable as it heads into the most important stretch of the season.

And imagine how relieved Niagara feels. The Purple Eagles have suffered several black eyes this season while defending the honor of being the only team to knock off St. John’s. Georgetown’s triumph was considerably more impressive. After all, both Mike Moses and Looie’s sweater dressed for the encounter at the Garden.

As for the sweater, a sore sight for sensitive eyes though it may be, it’s nice that Carnesecca plans to give it another chance tomorrow. It has become a symbol of the winter of 1985 to beleaguered New Yorkers, certainly a more palatable one than the unseemly saga of Bernhard Goetz. And if Thompson wants to get into the act with his own cheap replica, that’s all right, too.

But should St. John’s and Georgetown meet again, I’d like to suggest a bit of one-upmanship for the little guy. Looie should drag onto the court the longest, widest white towel he can find and wear it over his shoulder like a toga. Betcha Reggie Williams doesn’t run wild and Ewing doesn’t shoot 77 percent from downtown.