COLLEGE BASKETBALL / GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI : Spoonhour Show Again Has St. Louis Enthralled

You remember Charlie Spoonhour, of course.

Man of a thousand trailer park tales. . . . Mock turtleneck king of Missouri. . . . Winner of assorted 1993-94 coach-of-the-year honors.

Last season, people couldn’t get enough of Spoonhour or his St. Louis team. The Billikens started the year 14-0, finished 23-6, featured a 6-foot-3 power forward, led the nation in one-liners and earned their first NCAA tournament bid since 1957. Spoonhour became a local hero and a national curiosity. He was Mark Twain, but with a whistle and a better sportcoat.

This season, St. Louis is undefeated and should be 8-0 by the time it starts an early-January string of games against Massachusetts, Alabama Birmingham and Iowa State. Spoonhour acts as if he hasn’t noticed, but St. Louis has. Attendance in the new Kiel Center is averaging about 13,500.

“Well, right now we’re the only-game-in-town kind of surprise,� Spoonhour said. “There’s nothing else going on. We don’t have football. Baseball and hockey took some time off, so we’re sort of the only ones still playing. That’s our slogan this year: ‘We May Not Be Good, but at Least We’re Playing.’ �

The Billikens aren’t ranked--yet--mostly because of a December schedule as soft as cotton. Defeat UAB and split with UMass and Iowa State and all that changes. Until then, Spoonhour happily spreads holiday cheer and serves as the heaven-sent antithesis of every coach who thinks the world revolves around him and not the players.

Take the Jan. 5 made-for-TV Atlantic-10 vs. Great Midwest doubleheader at the Kiel Center. Marquette against Temple, followed by UMass against St. Louis. You know what that means: UMass Coach John Calipari and Temple Coach John Chaney in the same building. Last season, Chaney suffered a postgame meltdown and went after Calipari. This season, who knows?

“In fact, that was our one concession here with our game with them,� said Spoonhour, who is friends with both coaches and attended a Calipari roast during which Chaney arrived on the dais wearing handcuffs and a gag. “When we have the press conferences after the game . . . we’ll wave the standing eight count and the three-knockdown rule. We’ve got a 20-foot interview room rather than an 18-foot one, so we’re all right.�

Spoonhour on the Calipari-Chaney relationship: “I don’t know if they’ve kissed, but they seem to at least made up.�

Spoonhour on Spoonhour’s clout among organizers of a yet-unnamed all-sports conference that soon will include St. Louis: “Basically the league is like everybody else that knows me: They haven’t asked my opinion on anything. I’ve been shut out more times than the old ’52 Senators.�

Spoonhour on the power of the media: “Now do me a favor. With this baseball and hockey strike . . . well, as soon as we start losing, I don’t want you to write: ‘They’re not playing, either.’ I know some sick puppy is going to do that.�

And finally, since everyone else has offered an opinion on the subject, Spoonhour on the city’s newest possible import: “I think the Rams are coming.�

That’s nice. Maybe Spoonhour can lend them that season slogan, the one about not being any good. Unlike the Billikens, the Rams can use it.

THE BOEHEIM BLUES

Uh, oh. Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim appears to be serious about his annual woe-is-us stuff this season.

Never mind Syracuse’s 6-1 record or No. 14 ranking going into today’s game against Arizona. And never mind that we anointed the Orangemen as one of our preseason mini-longshots to go long and far in the NCAA tournament (which, as everyone knows, means zilch).

To hear Boeheim whine, Syracuse would be lucky to beat an intramural team.

“It’s early in the year, but I don’t think anybody is playing like they’d like to be playing, that’s for sure,� Boeheim said. “But (weary, long sigh), you know, gradually, hopefully, someday we’ll get better. We’re not very good right now. Arizona will be a good game for us. We’ve got to play well or we’ll get our (rear ends) kicked. That will probably be what happens if we don’t play better than we’ve been playing.�

Yes, well, that speech should go over big in the pregame meeting.

Actually, the Orangemen do have a few troubles. Senior swingman Lawrence Moten, probably the best player in the Big East Conference, is limping along with two bad ankles. Boeheim said Moten is only at 70% capability, which would be 100% to almost everybody else.

Boeheim also doesn’t have a lot of depth, though junior college transfer point guard Michael Lloyd is playing well (14.3-point average). But Lloyd, the first junior college transfer to play for Boeheim since 1981, can’t solve Syracuse’s biggest concerns: size, muscle and rebounding. The Orangemen have been outrebounded in two of their last three games (Princeton and Miami) and could be in for a long night against the Wildcats.

“I look around college basketball and I see four or five really good teams and then I see a lot of other teams that are OK,� Boeheim said. “(Sigh) But we’re not one of the four or five, that’s for sure. I think Arizona is, but I know we’re not.�

Boeheim’s top four, in no particular order: Arizona, North Carolina, Kentucky and Arkansas.

Boeheim isn’t exactly calling it quits. After all, it is only December. Big-name teams are dropping every week. Massachusetts beat Arkansas. Kansas beat Massachusetts. Indiana beat Kansas. Notre Dame beat Indiana. Canisius beat Cincinnati. Texas San Antonio beat Arizona State.

“That’s just what college basketball is,� he said. “It’s hard to tell. There’s just a lot of good teams, and we’re trying to be one of these teams. But that’s what December’s for, to try to get better.�

Anyway, it could be worse. He could be Arizona Coach Lute Olson, who is suffering from severe back pain.

“I don’t know, my back is starting to hurt already, but for different reasons,� Boeheim said. “I’m starting to get headaches.�

THE REST

Redshirt freshman guard Randy Livingston, whose scoring average is 6.5 points higher than Shaquille O’Neal’s first-year numbers and whose game has been given the seal of approval by Magic Johnson, is out for at least two weeks because of stress fracture in his right kneecap. Livingston felt the knee give during the first half of Saturday’s game against UCLA, but continued playing. It wasn’t until postgame X-rays were taken that doctors discovered the fracture. Livingston, averaging 18.5 points and 14.0 assists, missed last season because of reconstructive knee surgery on the same knee. Now this. LSU got senior forward Clarence Ceasar, who had been academically ineligible, back in time for Tuesday night’s wipeout loss to Oklahoma State, but Livingston is the key. If he can stay sound, Livingston is the next Southeastern Conference superstar. . . . With Livingston in mind, a very early all-first-semester freshman team: Livingston, St. John’s Felipe Lopez, Georgetown’s Allen Iverson, Kansas’ Raef LaFrentz, USC’s Cameron Murray. Honorable mention: Arizona’s Miles Simon, Duke’s Ricky Price, UCLA’s Toby Bailey and J.R. Henderson and California’s Tremaine Fowlkes.

Arizona State Coach Bill Frieder will think twice about scheduling four games in six days--even if three of them are against UC Irvine, Texas San Antonio and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (followed tonight by heavyweight Oklahoma State). Texas San Antonio upset the Sun Devils and the Cowboys could do the same in Tempe. Whatever happens, Frieder at least has an injury-free lineup, something of a rarity at Arizona State. Before the season, Frieder’s current roster of players had missed 139 games because of injuries and played in only 136. Four players have sat out entire seasons because of assorted surgeries. “Hey, Frieder, it’s happening to everybody else this year,� a friend told him recently. “Yeah,� said Frieder, “well, they have a lot of catching up to do.� . . . Arizona still is counting the minutes until heralded junior college transfer Ben Davis is academically eligible. The 6-9 forward, the first junior college player signed by Olson since 1987, took his last final exam of the semester Tuesday. If his grades are acceptable, Davis could be in uniform for tonight’s game against Syracuse. Davis, who originally played for Kansas, would fill the Wildcats’ one weakness: lack of defensive rebounding. One other Arizona note: According to assistant coach Phil Johnson, the play of Simon at guard has allowed defensive specialist Reggie Geary to return to his swingman position. Geary, perhaps the best defensive player in the nation, started the season in the backcourt with Damon Stoudamire. “He’s a guy that we needed to step up,� said Johnson of Simon, the former Mater Dei star. “We needed a perimeter player to be a very good player for us, and he has been.�

St. Louis guard H Waldman, the former Nevada Las Vegas transfer, returned to the lineup this week after a bout of walking pneumonia. . . . With the program in near ruin because of NCAA rules violations and the firing of coach Darrel Johnson, Baylor has put together an interesting collection of staff replacements. Harry Miller, Johnson’s No. 1 assistant whose entire head coaching experience came on the Texas high school level, now runs the team on an interim basis. Former Houston Rocket coach Tom Nissalke has been hired as a “consultant/assistant coach.� Brad Autry is the limited earnings coach. Somehow the Bears are 3-4. . . . For the Indiana fan who has everything (except a life), Treasure Me Dolls of Kendallville, Ind., presents a limited edition Bob Knight doll. Cost: $545, with $50 from each sale going to the university’s library fund, a longtime Knight charity cause. Of course, bullwhip is extra. As an added bonus, the doll is suitable for children, mostly because it doesn’t speak.

Top 10

As selected by staff writer Gene Wojciechowski

No. Team Rec. 1. North Carolina 6-0 2. UCLA 4-0 3. Arkansas 7-1 4. Arizona 7-1 5. Massachusetts 5-1 6. Kentucky 5-1 7. Duke 6-1 8. Connecticut 4-0 9. Kansas 6-1 10. Maryland 7-2

Waiting list: Florida (5-2), Wisconsin (5-1), Georgia Tech (7-1), Georgetown (5-1), Minnesota (6-3).