NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : THREE AT A TIME : For Providence and UNLV, Long Shots Are the Surest Way to NCAA Final Four

Who has the best offensive line in college basketball?

In the land of point guards, not pulling guards, Providence and Nevada Las Vegas used the three-point line better than anyone else this season. Check out the numbers and multiply by three. Providence led the nation with an average of 8.2 three-pointers a game, and UNLV was close behind with 7.8.

Did it do either of them any good?

Only if you consider it relevant that Providence and UNLV both made it to the Final Four with their get-points-quick scheme. Maybe they’ll even meet in the championship game Monday night.

Two things have to happen first, though. The Runnin’ Rebels must run up their long-distance bill to defeat Indiana, and the Friars need to convert enough three-pointers to stop Syracuse. Then it might be a great matchup, all right: The let-’em-fly Friars against the gunnin’ Rebels.

Yeah, but the chances of such a game being played are really slim, aren’t they?

No, not by a long shot.

Somehow it seems fitting that in the first year of the new fashion, the two most style-conscious teams should be in the Final Four. It’s almost as if by design.

UNLV and Providence will arrive in New Orleans as the favorite and the underdog, respectively, although in this case the underdog is about the size of a Great Dane. UNLV is 37-1 and the nation’s No. 1-ranked team. The Friars are 25-8 and known for upsetting a lot of people, most of them opponents. And they have done it mostly from behind the three-point line, where, it appears, Providence is divine.

Consider that Providence was supposed to finish fourth in the Big East Conference, not in New Orleans. Some even believe that the Friars aren’t close to being finished yet, no matter how they compare to UNLV, Indiana and Syracuse, the other three-fourths of the Final Four.

“I think right now they are the only legitimate Cinderella team,” North Carolina State Coach Jim Valvano said. “A legitimate Cinderella has to have more losses in a weekend than most of those have in a year.

“You have Rick Pitino, who’s only in his second year. They were ugly when he got there, and now they’re beautiful, so they are the Cinderella.”

If so, Cinderella has a terrific jump shot. Just as UNLV did, Providence looked at the new three-point shot, saw it as an awesome weapon and made it the cornerstone of its attack.

Pitino, the Friars’ coach, is a former New York Knicks assistant who grew accustomed to the three-point line in the National Basketball Assn. But in the NBA, the line is 23 feet 9 inches from the basket. In the NCAA, it’s only 19 feet 9 inches distant, measured in an arc from the center of the basket.

Pitino says that each of his players have shot 40,000 three-pointers this season in practice, give or take a couple of thou. How Pitino arrived at such a figure is uncertain. The affect certainly is not.

In four tournament games, the Friars have made 39 three-pointers, 14 of them in an upset of Alabama. If they were a mystery before, that game exposed the Friars’ for what they truly are, the three kings.

Chief among them is 6-foot guard Billy Donovan, who sank all five of his three-pointers against Alabama in what turned out to be an almost symmetrical game for Providence. Donovan made all of his three-pointers in the first half. Then Delray Brooks made 4 of 5 in the second half.

Ernie (Pops) Lewis, who had six three-pointers when Providence got past Austin Peay in overtime, completes the group, if you don’t count center Darryl Wright, although that really would not be wise.

Wright made all four of his three-pointers in the Friars’ upset of Georgetown when Pitino correctly figured that the Hoya defense would congregate at the three-point line. He chose to use the inside game in that one, and the Friars launched only nine three-pointers against Georgetown, after previous games shooting 22, 25 and 22.

For the Rebels, Freddie Banks tries nearly that many himself. If he’s not in double figures in three-point shots, there must be something wrong.

The problem lately for UNLV is that something is wrong. Since UNLV’s first-round blowout of Idaho State, neither Banks nor Gerald Paddio has really been very consistent from the line.

It hasn’t hurt the Rebels very much, though, since they are where they are. And both Banks and Paddio came around in the second half of the West Regional final against Iowa. Four three-pointers by Paddio and three by Banks helped get UNLV out of a 19-point hole and into an 84-81 victory.

As usual, the strategy of Coach Jerry Tarkanian was simple.

“Coach told us if we wanted it badly enough, then to go out and do it,” Banks said. “I was amazed when they were falling. I’m always surprised when a three-pointer goes for me.”

Banks shouldn’t be surprised. Not this season. He made 126 three-pointers before the tournament even started. And now that it’s nearly over, maybe he has a few more left.

One thing seems certain: It’s going to be interesting behind that line.

For Providence and UNLV, it’s also going to be kind of sentimental. They will take their final threes at the Final Four. Who could ask for anything more? Except maybe for next year, how about a four-point line?