Al McGuire finished his 20 years of college-basketball coaching by leading the Marquette Warriors to the N.C.A.A. championship in 1977. Now, at 54, he's the busiest one-man media conglomerate in sports. In addition to his uniquely colorful courtside philosophizing on NBC's televised college games, he hosts the weekly Al McGuire OnSports magazine series on that network, handles a daily syndicated radio show and even moonlights as a sports reporter for Entertainment Tonight.

Bill Zehme caught up with McGuire in Chicago and followed him through a day of segment taping for OnSports. Zehme reports: "The coach doesn't waste any time in letting you know who's in charge. He decided to take the wheel of my Toyota and drive to a taping site while I asked the questions. He proceeded to lock the transmission into third gear on the expressway as his mouth raced along in overdrive. Later, he confided to me that he believes that all successful people have holes in their underwear. If that's the case, his must be in tatters by now.

Q 1

PLAYBOY: You once claimed that extremely intelligent people don't make exceptional athletes. Is education at odds with physical prowess?

Al McGuire: No. Athletes are smarter than the eggheads--but it's a different type of smartness. The more academically sound an athlete is, the more he's apt to know the pressures of a particular game situation. If you put a Rhodes scholar on the foul line with the score tied and with five seconds to go, he couldn't get the ball over his shoulder.

An athlete's intelligence is one that society does not accept, because it's not the norm. The guys with street intelligence have gone through high-pressure experiences many times. For them, it's a flow.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: Is basketball still the best way out of the ghetto?

Al McGuire: No, basketball hurts the black race. It puts a veil or a cataract or mucus in front of all those hundreds of thousands of little black boys and girls thinking that their world is the hoops. But only one out of 25,000 will ever become a pro. It gets handled backward. Blacks truly have governed only poverty and basketball. And basketball has become an afterburner for a very, very small percentage of them. By being glamorized so much, it leads a lot of young black people into a dreamworld that will crush them. They end up in tapioca.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: Why are blacks better basketball players?

Al McGuire: Because they play. Their neighborhoods are usually one-sport oriented. Basketball is a city game. It's inexpensive. It can be played all year round. There isn't any difference in the natural ability; it's the specializing. Every time you ride by a blacktop, you'll see black guys out there playing. If the weather is right and the time is right, then you may see some white guys. But if it's a little chilly or uncomfortable, the white guys are not there. They have too many other things to do.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: Is greed ruining sports?

Al McGuire: No, because greed is human. Everybody wants more. That's what America is all about. Very seldom do you hear anyone say, "I have everything I want." Moses Malone breaks through the sound barrier and it doesn't take more than six months before 15 to 20 more follow. Because no matter what a Malone or Magic Johnson gets, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is worth twice that.

The dollars are there for most sports but not for basketball. In basketball, the owners are ego-oriented. They like to smoke their cigars and walk around the arena and talk about "my boys." They don't run their teams as a business. Usually, the dollars involved are family dollars or dollars from another business. The sport is the owners' mistress. It's something exciting that they run to, something that quivers. The little redheaded guy in the corner may be a multimillionaire and he may be running four shoe factories, but who knows him? Now, all of sudden, this guy has $30,000,000 and he wants someone to blow smoke rings at him. He wants someone to hug him and feed him eggplants. The guys says, "Hey, how can I get this? The only way is to own a pro team. So he parlays a tax write-off, buys a pro team and, suddenly, he has an identity.

You know, it's very lonely to be an extremely wealthy person and nobody pay homage to you. It's like getting off a private jet: It always lands at a side hangar and there's nobody there to greet you. What good would it be to date Jacqueline Onassis if no one saw you? That's why owners like to stand up in their private boxes through the whole game. They don't sit down, because if they do, no one can take their picture.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: What's your feeling about putting college players on a payroll? Would that wipe out under-the-table recruiting abuses?

Al McGuire: No, it would create bigger problems than there are now. More often than not, the college athlete would have to pay the school, because there's no money. See, everyone looks at the top 40 or 50 schools. When you hear about something going wrong in recruiting, it's always about a coach in the top 30, a coach who has everything. He is not recruiting, he's selecting. The tradition of the school is there, whether it's the University of Nebraska or Virginia or UCLA. But if you start naming the Loyolas, the Northern Michigans, the Bowling Greens--hey, they count every sweat sock and every jockstrap; they're playing in the minus pool with finances and recruiting.

Solving recruiting-abuse problems is very easy: The president of the university says, "Thou shalt not cheat. If you cheat, you will be fired." That's all.