Chopped Down, By George

As shocking as George Washington's 86-76 upset of previously unbeaten Massachusetts last Saturday may have seemed, it was, in many ways, predictable. Throughout the six years that Mike Jarvis has coached the Colonials, George Washington has made the Minutemen miserable. GW's record against UMass is now 7-5 under Jarvis, including two straight wins at Amherst. Those are the Minutemen's only defeats at the Mullins Center, which opened on Feb. 4, 1993. "They just have our number," UMass center Marcus Cam by said after Saturday's game.

Camby struggled for much of the game against the Colonials' 7'1", 296-pound center, Alexander Koul, and that could be an ominous sign for the Minutemen. Although Camby finished with 18 points, he made just 8 of 21 shots, reviving memories of UMass's East Regional final loss to Oklahoma State a year ago, in which Camby had trouble dealing with Bryant Reeves, another beefy center. Because of fouls, Koul played only 21 minutes Saturday, but he still had 14 points, six rebounds and two blocks, both on shots by Camby. "He had his way with me inside," said Camby later. "He's just big and strong."

A week before the trip to Amherst, Jarvis said publicly that he and his players were looking ahead to playing UMass, a no-no according to the coaching dictum: Play 'em one game at a time. That approach might have been responsible for George Washington's 76-70 loss at La Salle on Feb. 18, but no one was talking about that defeat last Saturday.

Hidden Gems

Their teams almost never play on network television. The national media know very little about them. Even in the hours and hours of highlights on ESPN's SportsCenter, they, rarely make an appearance. But that doesn't mean the NBA hasn't found them. They are the hidden gems of college basketball, players who may very well hear their names called on NBA draft day, just as Scottie Pippen of Central Arkansas and Lindsey Hunter of Jackson State have before them.

Most notable among the unnoted is Murray State guard Marcus Brown. A 6'3" senior who grew up in West Memphis, Ark., Brown dreamed of attending Memphis, where he served as a ball boy when he was a kid. (He still has a collection of about 100 wristbands worn by former Tigers star Keith Lee.) Brown decided to go to Murray State because Memphis didn't seriously recruit him until two days before the national signing date in April 1992. "Coach [Larry] Finch called and said there had been some kind of mix-up," says Brown, "and they thought I was actually some other player named Brown. Holy smokes, how could they not know who I was when I grew up seven miles from their campus?"

Through last weekend Brown was the nation's third-leading scorer, averaging 26.4 points per game and shooting 44.2% from outside the three-point arc—not bad for someone most colleges shied away from because he played low post in high school.

Memphis isn't the only college that missed a chance to get Brown. Arkansas offered him a track scholarship—Brown has high-jumped 6'10" at Murray State—but he turned it down because the Razorbacks' basketball coaches wouldn't guarantee him a chance to join their team, even as a walk-on.

Scott Edgar, a former Razorbacks assistant coach who took over the Racers' program in 1991, was more than happy to offer Brown a scholarship, however. "I was better off coming here, because I got an opportunity to play right away," says Brown. "At a bigger school I probably would have been on the bench for a couple of years. If I was coming out of high school today and getting recruited really hard by big schools, I'd still sign with Murray State. I've enjoyed myself." He's also made himself into a certain first-round NBA pick, according to many scouts.

Bradley's Anthony Parker, a 6'5" shooting guard, is only a junior, but he too is attracting attention from the pros—and eliciting comparisons to former Braves star Hersey Hawkins, who now plays for the Seattle SuperSonics. Parker caught a lot of people's eyes when he had 30 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals in Bradley's 84-82 upset of Georgia Tech in December. Twenty scouts and four NBA general managers turned up that night at the Cable Car Classic to see Stephon Marbury and Drew Barry of Tech, and Steve Nash of Santa Clara. They left talking about Parker.