Teams arrive in Nassau Coliseum,

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- The "Did you know?" segment of today's NCAA Tournament notebook will delve into the history of the esteemed palace that will house the Penn team tonight -- Nassau Coliseum. Mainly used for hockey, the Coliseum's working crew can lay down a basketball floor over the rink in a scant 12 hours. Just simply cover the ice with hundreds of plywood squares, and the hardwood surface goes on top. A good floor yes, but it sure makes for some chilly feet. Nassau Coliseum has not seen some quality basketball for some time. The only other NCAA subregional held here was in 1982, when Villanova came out of a bracket that saw the Ivy champion Quakers lose to St. John's, 66-56. Besides the occasional New York Knicks exhibition game, a professional team hasn't graced Nassau's floor since the mid 1970s, when the New York Nets of the ABA called the Coliseum home. The star player for the Nets in those days? A man by the name of Julius Erving. For all his efforts in the ABA, the good Doctor has been enshrined in the Long Island Sports Hall of Fame, which is located right here in Nassau Coliseum. · The Quakers' practice went off without a hitch last night, as Penn ran through the motions from 7 to 8. The most notable event of the practice was a monster slam by junior forward Shawn Trice which shook the backboard so hard, paint chips fell into sophomore forward Tim Krug's hair. Don't worry, though, no asbestos is in the building. Penn coach Fran Dunphy was the media darling of last night's press conferences, as reporters from all over the East Coast asked the Penn mentor how he can successfully coach a team at a school that does not offer athletic scholarships. After dealing with the typical questions about whether Penn is a "typical Ivy League team" (read: like Princeton in that NCAA games are always close losses), Dunphy conducted practice with an emphasis on breaking the full-court press that the Quakers expect from Nebraska. He must have heard Nee during Nebraska's practice constantly yelling "push it, push it" at his players. "They push the ball up and down the floor very well," Dunphy said. "That means making good choices on offense is that much more important." · Nebraska didn't arrive at Nassau Coliseum until two hours before its scheduled 5 p.m. practice. Nebraska Sports Information people say the Cornhuskers couldn't find a flight out of Lincoln, Neb., last night. Nebraska media say the Huskers are trying to change their luck in the NCAA Tournament. Nebraska is 0 for 3 when it arrives two days before it is scheduled. The Cornhuskers seemed very loose at the beginning of their practice, as several players screamed out in the cavernous Coliseum, delighted with the echo they got back. Nebraska coach Danny Nee was in a jovial mood as well yesterday, joking with CBS's James Brown about the Quakers' chances. "Is we going to have a vocabulary test at halftime," Nee asked Brown. "If we do, then Penn is going to win." After joking with Brown and schmoozing with CBS's Billy Packer, Nee then proceeded to instruct his team to practice three-pointers for the last 30 minutes of their practice. · The most famous person to show up at Penn's practice last night was future Athletic Director Steve Bilsky, who is pulling double duty since his current school affiliation, George Washington, is also here in Uniondale as a No. 10 seed. (The Colonials face No. 7 Alabama-Birmingham this afternoon.) Bilsky, who said he would be rooting for both Penn and GW to advance to the Regionals in Miami (where, if that happened, they would meet), feels fortunate to be able to see both his schools in action. He also says he will never choose one school over the other when it comes to cheering. "I have two sets of clothes," Bilsky said. "In the afternoon I'll be wearing my GW clothes, and in the evening I'll be wearing red and blue." Bilsky, who will begin his duties at Penn on July 1, was overjoyed when he found out the Colonials and the Quakers would both be traveling to Nassau Coliseum. For as a longtime resident of nearby Roslyn, Bilsky spent many hours as a young fan inside the Coliseum watching the Islanders do battle. Today, he will watch his two schools do the same. · If you were unable to get tickets and don't have the guts (or money) to deal with the throngs of scalpers that are sure to show up here today, you can catch the game on Channel 10 at 7:34 p.m., with, of course, Brown and Packer on the play-by-play. Packer was looking quite fashionable yesterday, sporting a leather bomber jacket and grandma spectacles while combing over the squads of all eight teams here at Nassau Coliseum. While the matchups here may not be the best of all the eight first-round sites, Brown and Packer most likely are here because they will be in the CBS studio tomorrow and Sunday. And Nassau Coliseum is the closest Thursday-Saturday site to New York City. · The Quote of the Day comes from Rider coach Kevin Bannon. In talking about the differences between his 15th-seeded Broncs and their first-round opponent, No. 2 Connecticut, Bannon discussed how at lower-level Division I, schools such as Rider, the kids don't live in fancy dorms, don't get fancy cars and don't have extravagant meals prepared for them. Case in point: Rider's game against Wagner in the semifinals of the Northeast Conference Tournament. Three hours before game time, Bannon and his team's pregame meal consisted of tacos from the school cafeteria. And after the Broncs trailed by 13 points at halftime, Bannon was ready to walk into the locker room and scream until the cows came home. But his players were nowhere to be found. What was Bannon's reaction? "[At halftime], there were more people in the bathroom than in the locker room because of those tacos," Bannon said. "It must of worked, because we had a 20-1 run to start the second half?excuse me, I mean a 20-1 spurt."

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