Montclair State

Montclair State upset Rowan, 63-61, last night in the opening round of the New Jersey Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament. Top-seeded Rowan (22-3) had won the NJAC tourney the last two seasons. The Profs also won the conference's regular-season championship for the third straight time this year. But the fourth-seeded Red Hawks advanced to tomorrow's final at Jersey City State after B.J. Reilly forced Charles Grasty to throw up an off-balance, potential game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer.

The members of the Montclair State University fraternity who were punished this month for briefly displaying a Confederate flag agree with their detractors on one point: They absolutely do not get it. The stuff about the flag, they understand now. That the Stars and Bars - casually tossed over a cafeteria sign after being returned from a sorority scavenger hunt - is found offensive by many people was made very clear, very quickly. It's the punishment that's left the fraternity feeling victimized.

Rowan's softball team needs only one more victory to win the NCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament for the second straight year. But the Profs are still worried about the ride, despite being in the proverbial driver's seat. The Profs defeated Buffalo State, 8-0, in six innings yesterday morning, and topped New Jersey Athletic Conference rival Montclair State, 9-3, yesterday afternoon. The double-elimination tournament will continue at Rowan today with Montclair (29-18)

Rowan College football coach K.C. Keeler and his staff have a straightforward job the rest of the regular season: making sure the Profs don't collapse. The Profs are poised for a big finish, and they took advantage of an off date over the weekend to go over some fundamentals that were starting to slip. "I jokingly told the kids it was Training Camp Two, because there are some things we have to take care of to make ourselves better for the next three weeks," Keeler said. The Profs will face three New Jersey Athletic Conference teams that have a chance to unseat them as conference champs.

The Rowan College women's basketball team will play host to Montclair State at 7:30 tonight in the opening round of the New Jersey Athletic Conference tournament. Rowan (21-3), the defending tournament champion, cruised to the NJAC regular-season championship with a 17-1 record and earned the tournament's No. 1 seeding. But the seedings got muddled when William Paterson (16-8 overall), Ramapo (17-7) and Montclair (16-8) finished in a three-way tie for second place, each with a 13-5 conference record.

Dan Ryan could have been out there trying to make his mark in the real world by now. He had to take only four summer classes and he would have had his undergraduate degree in communications from Glassboro State College. For an academic All-America nominee who has interned at MTV (both on-air and behind the scenes duties), that would have posed no sweat. Trouble was, Ryan still had some unfinished collegiate business - on the football field. He'll get close to finishing that business this weekend, when the Profs (9-1)

Early this afternoon, the Glassboro State football team expects to hear some news it has never gotten before - that it will be making its first-ever NCAA playoff appearance. But the celebration didn't wait for the announcement. It began with a sideline shower for coach John Bunting after the Profs clinched the New Jersey Athletic Conference title yesterday with a 21-16 victory over Montclair State. Glassboro's defense cemented the victory. It scored the first touchdown of the game, on a 23-yard interception return by senior strong safety Joe O'Hanlon.

The New Jersey Athletic Conference football coaches believe that theirs is one of the premier Division III leagues in the country. And they may have a point, considering that the seven NJAC teams combined for a 26-4-1 nonleague record last year. Last year Trenton State won the title and earned a berth in the Division III playoffs, where the Lions fell in the second round to Hofstra. Both Trenton State and Ramapo finished with 5-1 league records, but the Lions were crowned champions by virtue of a 9-0 regular-season win over Ramapo.

Parity, a concept that may or may not work in the NFL, is a bit more of a reality in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. "Each year, the conference gets a little more competitive. It's not a one- team race," said Montclair State coach Rick Giancola. "There are enough quality teams in the league that one team can win one year, and the next year, another team wins. " Giancola's club may be the closest thing to a dynasty in the NJAC, however. Montclair won the championship outright last season and was tied for first place at the end of the 1988 season.

The coaches in the New Jersey Athletic Conference have this prediction thing figured out. They don't even try. "With three different teams having won the title in the past three years," Trenton State coach Eric Hamilton said, "we figure virtually every team in the conference feels capable of winning it all this year. " Maybe, but the Lions (8-2 overall, 5-1 conference), last year's co- champions, may break precedent. Since 13 starters are back and since the team is familiar with the tricky wing-T offense that Hamilton employs, Trenton State would be a good pick to repeat.