WEST: WISCONSIN GREEN BAY ''CHARMS'' CAL OUT OF THE TOURNAMENT  
3/17/94

BY RAY PARRILLO
Knight Ridder Newspapers

OGDEN, Utah, The early darlings of March Madness are guys who look 
like the cast from ''Ozzie and Harriet'' or some other circa 1950s 
television series.

Their pep band wears spongy wedges of cheese for hats and plays 
polkas. The players are polite, patient and have a Midwestern 
charm. They'd rather pass the ball than dunk it. Mostly because 
few of them can dunk it.

They are the Phoenix of Wisconsin Green Bay, and if you've never 
seen them, you'll get a chance Saturday.

Thursday, in the first round of the West Regional at Dee Events 
Center, 12th seeded Wisconsin Green Bay (27-6) added an 
exclamation point to its hyphen by upsetting fifth seeded 
California, 61-57.

The victory was the first ever in the NCAAs for UW GB and quickly 
made the Packers the second most popular team in Green Bay.

UW GB, which will play Syracuse in the round of 32, overcame the 
flash and dash of Cal's Jason Kidd with poised, hard nosed 
defense. And it got clutch play at the end, after the Golden Bears 
had wiped out its 19 point second half lead.

''Right now, I don't have the words to describe what just 
happened,'' said UW GB coach Dick Bennett, a genuinely delightful 
man who for nine years has been coaching up a storm while 
practically no one outside Green Bay has noticed. ''I don't have 
the words to do it justice.''

Try this, Coach:

Someone named John Martinez, a skinny 6 foot guard who wears a 
cumbersome knee brace, appears to barely have the strength to 
reach the basket with his jumper, and admitted that he was nervous 
when he stepped to the free throw line with the game in the 
balance at the end, made the best point guard in college 
basketball, Kidd, look quite average.

Someone named Eric LeDuc made the most prolific scorer in Cal 
history, Lamond Murray, miss 15 of 21 shots.

And players with names that sound like leftovers from the Winter 
Olympics, Jeff Nordgaard, Gary Grzcsk, Logan VanderVelden, had 
their way with the Bears by dictating the pace.

''I guess we were considered underdogs,'' Martinez said matter of 
factly.  ''But it's not like that's something we haven't dealt 
with before.''

Three times, UW GB, a Princeton like team with a few more skills, 
buried the Bears under huge deficits. The Phoenix went up by 21-7 
while Kidd, who had four triple doubles this season, tried to 
figure out a tenacious man to man defense that left no room to 
maneuver in the lane.

''You have to be very selective against them,'' Kidd said. ''If 
you're not patient, they're very difficult.''

Case in point: Cal didn't get its first field goal until its 16th 
trip down the court, after 9 minutes, 35 seconds had elapsed. The 
Cal coaches were pleading with Kidd, who had almost as many 
turnovers (6) as assists (7) and shot a miserable 4 for 17, to 
settle down.

The Bears looked fried when the Phoenix, who were led by 
Nordgaard's 24 points, opened the second half by making their 
first five shots. UW GB's lead swelled to 47-29 before Cal went on 
a 22-3 run to set up a wonderfully tense finish.

With the score 57-57, Kidd made a steal but immediately turned 
over the ball when he tried to jam a pass down the crowded lane. 
Nordgaard made him pay for the mistake with a clutch baseline 
jumper over the outstretched arm of the 6-7 Murray, and it was 59- 57 
with 35 seconds remaining.

''I guess I sort of told the guys to get me the ball so I could 
shoot it,'' Nordgaard said sheepishly.

After a timeout, Kidd clanked a rushed three point shot with 14 
seconds to go. Martinez, nervous or not, then made both ends of a 
one and one with 13.5 seconds remaining. That made it 61-57.

''I was a little nervous on the first one, but once I made it, I 
felt a lot better,'' Martinez said. ''After the second one, I knew 
it was over.''

And after a driving layup by Kidd rolled off the rim, a 
desperation jumper by Murray also missed. LeDuc grabbed the 
rebound, and the Phoenix celebrated at midcourt while the sellout 
crowd of 12,126 wondered who these guys were.

Well, the Phoenix were no flukes. The Mid-Continent Conference 
champs beat Marquette, clobbered North Carolina State and Oregon, 
and scared the daylights out of Purdue and Wake Forest.

''As soon as I found out we were playing Wisconsin Green Bay, 
everyone I called said, 'Oh, man,''' Cal coach Todd Bozeman said. 
''Regardless of what the average fan knows about them, that's a 
very good team.

''The next team they play, Syracuse, just better beware.''