COLLEGE BASKETBALL : They Have Jumped Out to a First-Half Lead

Every road, even the one that leads to Minneapolis, home of this year’s Final Four, should have a rest stop. With that in mind, we present the midseason pause that refreshes: a look at this season’s winners and losers.

By major conferences . . .

PACIFIC 10

Best team: UCLA

Best player: The gutless pick would be a tie among USC’s Harold Miner, Stanford’s Adam Keefe and UCLA’s Don MacLean. But what’s the fun of that?

Miner leads the league in scoring, averages 7.3 rebounds and is perhaps the most exciting offensive player in the country. Keefe is second in scoring, first in rebounding, ninth in assists, fifth in field-goal percentage, first in steals and sixth in free-throw percentage. And the guy plays hard every minute. MacLean recorded the performance of the midseason when he scored 38 points in the Bruins’ victory at Arizona. He is third in the conference in scoring, seventh in rebounding, 10th in field-goal percentage and first in free-throw percentage. He was ill when the Bruins beat Stanford but still scored 17 points.

And our choice, by the narrowest of margins: Keefe.

Biggest surprise (team): Stanford.

Biggest surprise (player): Duane Cooper, USC. Everyone knew he was a great defender, but his 11.4-point average, second-best on the team, is a pleasant bonus.

Biggest disappointment (team): California. The Golden Bears had a boffo recruiting year, haven’t had any notable injuries and still haven’t won a conference game. Runner-up: Arizona State.

Biggest disappointment (player): Billy Dreher, California. He led the conference in three-point shooting last season. This season, he has hardly made a dent.

Coach of the midseason: Jim Harrick, UCLA. The Bruins have beaten Indiana, ended Arizona’s home winning streak at 71 and recovered from last season’s embarrassing NCAA tournament loss to Penn State. Harrick deserves the credit.

By season’s end, everyone will be talking about: UCLA and Miner.

ATLANTIC COAST

Best team: Duke.

Best player: Christian Laettner, Duke. A 20-point, eight-rebound average . . . and he plays only about 28 minutes per game.

Biggest surprise (team): Florida State. The Seminoles, newcomers to the competitive ACC, enter tonight’s game against Duke with a 5-2 conference record, including road victories against North Carolina, Wake Forest, Maryland and Georgia Tech. Wake Forest Coach Dave Odom said the three-guard setup that Florida State uses is “almost like playing a wishbone team for the first time.” That makes sense: Point guard Charlie Ward is a backup quarterback on the Seminole football team.

Biggest surprise (player): Sam Cassell, Florida State. Despite being rated perhaps the best junior college guard last season, Cassell’s scoring success has turned more than a few heads.

Biggest disappointment (team): Wake Forest.

Biggest disappointment (player): Anthony Oliver, Virginia. The senior guard has struggled like a freshman.

Coach of the midseason: Mike Krzyzewski, Duke. And Florida State’s Pat Kennedy isn’t far behind.

By season’s end, everyone will be talking about: Duke and Blue Devil forward Grant Hill.

BIG EAST

Best team: Connecticut.

Best player: Alonzo Mourning, Georgetown. The Hoyas will go as far as Mourning’s shoulders can carry them.

Biggest surprise (team): Syracuse. Picked sixth in the coaches’ preseason poll (the lowest ever for the Orangemen), Syracuse has confounded even Coach Jim Boeheim.

Biggest surprise (player): Lawrence Moten, Syracuse. This is a freshman? Connecticut’s Donyell Marshall is a close second.

Biggest disappointment (team): St. John’s. Picked to win the conference by the coaches, the Redmen can’t even beat lowly Miami.

Biggest disappointment (player): Luther Wright, Seton Hall. Wright, the Hall’s 7-foot-1 center, still suffers from a severe case of inconsistency.

Coach of the midseason: Based on what he has and what he has done with it, Boeheim squeaks past Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun.

By season’s end, everyone will be talking about: Connecticut and Mourning.

SOUTHEASTERN

Best team: Arkansas.

Best player: Todd Day, Arkansas. Has played with a vengeance since returning from a suspension.

Biggest surprise (team): Mississippi State. The Bulldogs, conference champions last season, lost all their starters but have managed to stay within striking distance of the Western Division lead. Included in their victories is one at Vanderbilt, which didn’t lose a game at home last season.

Biggest surprise (player): Joe Harvell, Mississippi. Who leads the SEC in scoring? It isn’t Day or Louisiana State’s Shaquille O’Neal; it’s Harvell. Already he has had five 30-point-plus games.

Biggest disappointment (team): Georgia. True to their name, Hugh Durham’s team has played like Dawgs. South Carolina, which started the season 8-1 but is now 10-6, also deserves mention.

Biggest disappointment (player): Allan Houston, Tennessee. Scored 36 points against Kentucky. Against Auburn one game later, he scored six. One of the best guards in the country, Houston has underachieved in 1991-92.

Coach of the midseason: Wade Houston, Tennessee. The Volunteers won only three conference games last season. This time they are 4-3 in the SEC and 12-7 overall.

By season’s end, everyone will be talking about: Arkansas and O’Neal.

BIG EIGHT

Best team: Oklahoma State.

Best player: Anthony Peeler, Missouri. Sincere apologies to Oklahoma State’s Byron Houston.

Biggest surprise (team): Iowa State. Contrary to the preseason poll, the Cyclones won’t finish sixth in this league.

Biggest surprise (player): Rex Walters, Kansas. The coaches at Northwestern still mourn the day Walters decided to transfer.

Biggest disappointment (team): Kansas State. We thought the Wildcats were NCAA bound. Not this season, they aren’t.

Biggest disappointment (player): Darryl King, Kansas State. He could have been a contender. Instead, he got booted off the team.

Coach of the midseason: Johnny Orr, Iowa State.

By season’s end, everyone will be talking about: Oklahoma State and Byron Houston.

BIG TEN

Best team: Indiana.

Best player: Jim Jackson, Ohio State. If you ask us, the best player in the country.

Biggest surprise (team): Minnesota. Deadly at home.

Biggest surprise (player): Voshon Lenard. Michigan’s Jalen Rose and Chris Webber got much of the preseason hype, but Lenard, another Detroit prep star, has earned our midseason nod.

Biggest disappointment (team): Iowa. The Hawkeyes have experience and Acie Earl but not enough victories to show for it.

Biggest disappointment (player): Matt Steigenga. Michigan State expected more.

Coach of the midseason: Clem Haskins, Minnesota.

By season’s end, everyone will be talking about: Indiana and Michigan’s Webber.

THE REST

Best team: Tulane.

Best player: Tony Bennett, Wisconsin Green Bay. Who? Bennett, the starting guard on last year’s U.S. Pan American team, shoots 56.5% from the three-point line, rarely makes mistakes and is the main reason the Phoenix nearly upset Michigan State in the NCAA tournament last year. He also is the reason Green Bay, 15-1 at last look, will earn another tournament berth this season. Honorable mentions: David Booth, DePaul; Dwayne Morton, Louisville.

Biggest surprise (team): North Carolina Charlotte. If you say you picked the 49ers to have this kind of year, you’re lying.

Biggest surprise (player): Anfernee Hardaway, Memphis State. We’re stretching things here (Hardaway was one of the most sought-after high school recruits in the country two years ago), but we didn’t know he was that good.

Biggest disappointment (conference): Southwest. Not a single team in the top 25 . . . 35 . . . 45 . . . and counting (We’d take Houston, maybe). P.S. to SWC--Take Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson’s advice and join forces with the Big Eight. Soon.

Biggest disappointment (team): South Alabama. Should have been a top-25 team.

Coach of the midseason: Perry Clark, Tulane.

By season’s end, everyone will be talking about: Texas El Paso and UNLV’s Jerry Tarkanian.

Late last Monday night, hours after third-ranked Oklahoma State had beaten Oklahoma at Norman, the Cowboys’ charter bus reached the city limits of beloved Stillwater. Waiting for the team was a police escort and later, as the Cowboys arrived on campus, an estimated crowd of 3,000. “We rode in and as we were riding in, people were blinking their lights, blowing their horns,” Oklahoma State guard Corey Williams said. “When we got there, it was unbelievable. They rocked the bus back and forth.” . . . Williams on the Cowboys’ chances of going undefeated: “The team that probably has the potential of playing extraordinary and beating us: Kansas . . . and Oklahoma and Missouri.” . . . Former Cal State Long Beach Coach Joe Harrington, now at Colorado, is finding his second season a little more difficult than his first. Asked if there were any similarities between the Buffaloes and upcoming conference opponent Kansas State, Harrington said: “Yeah, I see some similarities: We’re both 0-3.” . . . In case you’re keeping count, the last Big Eight team to go undefeated in league play was Kansas (14-0) in 1970-71.

Beaten by 39 points earlier this week at Duke, Clemson Coach Cliff Ellis praised not only the powerful Blue Devils, but the building in which they play: Cameron Indoor Stadium, capacity 9,314. “I think Cameron Indoor Stadium is worth 12 to 15 points, without the team,” Ellis said. “I thought our players were scared to death.” . . . Duke’s Krzyzewski is doing his best to downplay the growing feeding frenzy regarding the Blue Devils’ chances of going undefeated. It isn’t working. “I can tell you definitely that undefeated has never been a major goal, any type of goal in our program,” he said. “Those are goals that other people have tried to set for our basketball team.” The Blue Devil schedule during the next 30 days is probably the most difficult in the country: at Florida State tonight, Notre Dame, at North Carolina, at LSU, at Georgia Tech, at North Carolina State, Maryland (OK, so that’s not so hard), at Wake Forest, Virginia and then the March 1 game against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. Said Krzyzewski: “If a number of teams beat us, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to show up in March (for the NCAA tournament).” . . . Charles Harrison, who left Georgetown Jan. 17 because of academic difficulties, will transfer to Wake Forest. Harrison was the Hoyas’ second-leading scorer.

Top 10

As selected by staff writer Gene Wojciechowski

No. Team Record 1. Duke 15-0 2. Oklahoma State 18-0 3. UCLA 14-1 4. Indiana 15-2 5. Kansas 15-1 6. Connecticut 16-1 7. Arkansas 17-3 8. Arizona 13-3 9. Missouri 14-2 10. Michigan State 13-3

Waiting list: North Carolina (14-3), Ohio State (12-3), Tulane (15-1), Syracuse (14-3), Kentucky (15-4)