Kerry Kittles

At one point late in the second half, as his nationally ranked Villanova Wildcats were stumbling against the worst team in the Big East, coach Steve Lappas hollered at star guard Kerry Kittles. "Kerry, this is your team. Make something happen. " So, after 37 minutes of submitting to a gutsy Pittsburgh team, Kittles started to obey his coach. He hit a layup, launched a three-pointer, then forced overtime with two free throws 22 seconds from the end of regulation. Now he had 16 points, and the Wildcats - who had trailed by six with 50 seconds left on the clock - had a another chance.

Villanova center Jason Lawson slumped in his chair late last night, rubbing his lower back, his eyes closed. He had just gotten the best of Miami's spidery center, Constantin Popa. The statistics sheet showed 21 points for Lawson and just one field-goal attempt for the 7-foot-3 Popa. Utter domination never felt so bad. "He sure has some sharp bones," Lawson said, wincing and massaging his back some more. Popa, who had scored 19 points in the Hurricanes' upset of Georgetown on Saturday, did little but foul Lawson in last night's 73-63 Wildcats victory at duPont Pavilion.

This wasn't a game for big guys or layups or pushing and shoving. This was a game for the guys with skinny legs and skinny arms, a game for the guys who could dart here - oops, over there . . . no, no, he's over here again - the guys who shoot fearlessly, over and over. Guys like Kerry Kittles and Jonathan Haynes. Guys like DeJuan Wheat and Tick Rogers. This was a shooting feast, with threes being scored everywhere in the second half. And if they'd let them, Kittles and Haynes and Wheat and Rogers would still be out there, calling for the ball, looking for the line, taking a step back, burying the trey.

The local hero was back in town. He might still be there at the Lakefront Arena, shaking hands and signing autographs and posing for pictures and hugging his mom. "When are we going to call this off?" Villanova coach Steve Lappas asked with a smile last night as he watched Kerry Kittles sticking up from a crush of friends and relatives, almost an hour after the seventh-ranked Wildcats had slipped past the University of New Orleans, 80-72. The evening must have been like a dream sequence for Kittles.

Kerry Kittles hadn't scored in ages - a whole 10 1/2 minutes into the second half. Pretty passes kept coming off his hands, for someone else to deposit in the hoop. But no buckets of his own. All the while yesterday, 16th-ranked Villanova was having trouble shaking Seton Hall. The Wildcats would go up by 10 or 11 points, usually with a big three from Eric Eberz, and the Pirates would come back and cut the lead to five or six. Then Kittles took aim, lofting a three-pointer from the right wing - a big- arcing shot that swooped down on the hoop like a vulture.

Those two Miami Hurricanes knew Villanova sharpshooter Eric Eberz shouldn't be out in the corner all alone. Desperate to get to Eberz, they found themselves smack up against Wildcats center Jason Lawson with no obvious path around him. All alone, Eberz buried the three-pointer. It went about like that all game yesterday. Lawson's numbers were hardly awe-inspiring as No. 7 Villanova took out Miami, 90-62, at duPont Pavilion. Kerry Kittles had the starring role, scoring 25 points, including a string of three-pointers in the second half that did in the Hurricanes.

With their two banished big men in the locker room watching on television, the rest of the Villanova Wildcats provided entertaining viewing last night. The smaller the Wildcats got, the more easily they zipped past the St. John's Red Storm, ultimately prevailing, 83-68, at duPont Pavilion. Villanova won its Big East opener without center Jason Lawson and power forward Chuck Kornegay, who were sitting out a one-game suspension for their roles in Wednesday's fight with Bradley.

The rising star and the invisible man came through for Villanova last night. On the wing and in the break, the Wildcats had Kerry Kittles, the graceful guard with the big-time reputation. Inside, they had Ron Wilson, the slender nonentity posing as a power forward and fooling an awful lot of people. Make that the former nonentity. Last night against Mississippi State's very substantial frontcourt, Wilson had the biggest game of his college career, scoring 16 points and pulling down eight rebounds to help the Wildcats gain a 90-82 victory in the opening game of the Arizona State Tribune Classic.

Kerry Kittles and his New Jersey Nets teammates returned to practice yesterday for the first time since completing a sweep of the Boston Celtics on Monday in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Now they await the winner of the series between the 76ers and Detroit Pistons. "You let your body rest for a couple of days, and then you come back and you get your mind ready to focus on the next series," said Kittles, the former Villanova star who was drafted by New Jersey with the eighth overall pick in 1996.

The Villanova Wildcats, who got on a bus for New York yesterday and left the regular season behind, realize they cannot automatically switch on a button and get themselves back where they were before Kerry Kittles was suspended. After being blasted in two of the three games without Kittles, 'Nova players talked of how the Big East tournament, beginning today at Madison Square Garden, certainly has grown in importance as they try to get back their timing and their swagger. "It's going to be hard just to flick it back on," forward Chuck Kornegay said.

STEVE LAPPAS got the job late, after Rollie Massimino had surprisingly left Villanova for UNLV. One of his first tasks was trying to convince Kerry Kittles that Villanova was still the right school for him. So he went to New Orleans. "As soon as I walked in [to the Kittles' house], he wouldn't even look at me," Lappas said yesterday at the Palestra before the Big 5 Hall of Fame inductions. During the meeting, Kittles warmed up to Lappas. When Lappas left, the local media were waiting on him. He told them he thought the time with Kittles and his family went well.

NEW YORK - Villanova's constant term this season has been "next game," the idea of forgetting what happened in the previous contest and coming out focused on the one that follows. After yesterday's 80-76 loss to Marquette in the Big East tournament quarterfinals, that saying for the 10th-ranked Wildcats has become "next tournament. " "Your goal in the Big East tournament is not to win one or two games; you want to win the whole thing," senior co-captain Reggie Redding said.

A day after signing his first long-term contract as an NBA head coach, Lawrence Frank wasn't in a mood to celebrate. Between the joy of extending his childhood dream and the news conference to announce it yesterday, Frank had to watch his New Jersey Nets play a horrid game in a 100-77 season-opening loss to Shaquille O'Neal and the Miami Heat, the franchise's worst Opening Night loss since joining the NBA in 1976. "You can search for reasons and I take responsibility, but we just played out of character," said Frank, who signed a 4-year, $10 million extension.

The New Jersey Nets spawned a backlash among their fans with off-season trades of Kenyon Martin and Kerry Kittles. And it could get worse. In what would be considered a complete dismantling of the team, the Nets have discussed a blockbuster trade that would send superstar point guard Jason Kidd to the Portland Trail Blazers for Shareef Abdur-Rahim, ESPN.com reported last night. Trail Blazers president Steve Patterson acknowledged that the teams have talked about it. Nets CEO Rod Thorn declined to comment.

The New Jersey Nets made sure to keep Richard Jefferson. The Nets and Jefferson, a member of the U.S. Olympic team, agreed to a multiyear contact extension yesterday that will pay the small forward $78 million over the next six years. The team lost two of its other starters - power forward Kenyon Martin and shooting guard Kerry Kittles - in trades last month. "Richard is a cornerstone player for us," Nets president Rod Thorn said. "We felt it was very important that we reach an agreement with him. We think he is a player on the cusp of being one of the top players in the league.

Former Villanova star Kerry Kittles yesterday was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for a second-round draft pick, another step in the dismantling of the New Jersey Nets. Kittles is the second starter to leave the Nets this month. Power forward Kenyon Martin went to the Denver Nuggets for three first-round draft choices. To try to fill the void left by Kittles, who spent 8 years with the Nets, the club signed free-agent guards Jacque Vaughn and Rodney Buford. "We're going to try to win every game we can," Nets CEO Rod Thorn said.

The New Jersey Nets are getting better and better under new coach Lawrence Frank. Jason Kidd had 18 points, 13 assists, six rebounds and a three-pointer that cracked the 100-point mark at the end of third quarter, leading the Nets to 120-99 win over the visiting Orlando Magic last night. The victory was the Nets' seventh straight, and their sixth in a row since Frank replaced Byron Scott less than 2 weeks ago for the two-time defending Eastern Conference champions. "You have to give him credit," veteran guard Lucious Harris said.

While it's too early to give teams a final grade for how they have performed in just the opening week of free agency, it's not a reach to suggest that some of the games in the NBA Finals will be played in East Rutherford, N.J., for the third straight season. Championships aren't won in July, but title teams are built then, and it's no revelation that the New Jersey Nets have been the early Eastern Conference winners during the NBA's free-agency period, which began on Wednesday.

Kerry Kittles and his New Jersey Nets teammates returned to practice yesterday for the first time since completing a sweep of the Boston Celtics on Monday in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Now they await the winner of the series between the 76ers and Detroit Pistons. "You let your body rest for a couple of days, and then you come back and you get your mind ready to focus on the next series," said Kittles, the former Villanova star who was drafted by New Jersey with the eighth overall pick in 1996.

EASTERN CONFERENCE Detroit Pistons Record/seeding: 50-32/1st. Coach: Rick Carlisle. Starters: F Michael Curry, F Clifford Robinson, C Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups, G Richard Hamilton. Key reserves: F Corliss Williamson, Jon Barry. Outlook: Wallace, the Pistons' best player, averaged 6.9 points per game. So how did these guys get to contenders? With their defense and a bench that?s almost as good their starting lineup. But Wallace their engine, and he needs to come back at close to 100 percent from a knee injury.