Monday, March 13, 2000
Juicy plots abound in NCAA field
BY MIKE LOPRESTI
Gannett News Service
INDIANAPOLIS — Arizona, 26-6 and with an injured center, is a No. 1 seed. Cincinnati, 28-3 and with an injured center, is a No. 2. North Carolina, 18-13, is in the field for the 26th straight year. Virginia, 19-11 with two wins over North Carolina, is not.
The SEC was strong enough to put six teams in the tournament. But not one of them is seeded higher than No.4 in any region.
The NCAA Tournament will begin as the college basketball season ended; stormy, unpredictable and open to different opinion from coast to coast.
The map to March, and the Final Four here in the RCA Dome, was set Sunday, with Duke, Michigan State, Stanford and Arizona as the four No.1 seeds.
The last conference tournament week of upsets, surprises and injury was a nightmare for the selection committee, said chairman and Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson.
Thirteen conference tournaments were won by non-season champions. Ten of the top 16 ranked teams in the Associated Press poll were beaten in their first or second conference tournament games.
As for the 64 teams who did make it ...
East
• Top four seeds: Duke, a No.1 for the third straight year. Temple, 21-2 with point guard Pepe Sanchez in the lineup. Oklahoma State. Illinois, winner of 10 of its last 12.
• Sleeper: No.13 seed Pennsylvania. The Quakers' only defeat in their last 19 games was a four-pointer to Temple.
• Best first round game: Illinois vs. Pennsylvania.
• Summary: Arguably the toughest region, or no worse than second behind the Midwest. Temple was close to a No.1 seed. Florida looks awfully good for a No.5.
There is a liberal helping of traditional heavyweights, with Indiana at No.6, Kansas at No.8 and DePaul at No. 9. And the 12-13 seeds of Butler and Penn have won a combined 31 straight games.
South
• Top four seeds: Stanford, despite losing two of its last three games. Cincinnati. Ohio State. Tennessee.
• Sleeper: No.12 seed Utah State. One of the nation's best defensive teams and winner of 19 straight. The Aggies lost by only two points at Florida.
• Best first round game: Connecticut vs. Utah State. The Huskies' national title defense comes under instant siege.
• Summary: Stanford showed cracks at the end, Cincinnati is Martin-less, Ohio State was 6-3 down the stretch and Tennessee was 3-3. The region seems a tad pale.
North Carolina vs. Missouri is the ultimate first round game of big-name bubble teams. The Tar Heels were particularly questionable, losing four of their last six.
Tulsa is a genuine threat as a No.7 seed since Fresno State is somewhere else. Three of the Hurricane's four defeats came to Fresno.
Midwest
• Top four seeds: Michigan State, winning 14 of its last 16. Iowa State, with only two losses since November, both in overtime. Maryland. Syracuse, 19-0 to start but then 5-5 in a late swoon.
• Sleeper: No. 13 Samford. The Bulldogs won nine of their last 10 games and began the season by beating St. John's.
• Best first round game: Syracuse vs. Samford.
• Summary: The quality of the top three teams makes this a rugged region. Plus there's revived UCLA, which once seemed dead by losing six of seven but then won its last six and got JaRon Rush back.
West
• Top four seeds: Arizona, despite only seven scholarship players much of the season and only six now with Woods out. St. John's, winner of 11 of 12 despite the continual distractions over Erick Barkley's eligibility. Oklahoma. LSU.
• Sleeper: Gonzaga was last year's darling and is back in the same seed at No.10. But a better candidate is No. 14 Winthrop, winner of 13 of its last 15, with a victory over Missouri and an overtime loss at Maryland.
• Best first round game: Fresno State vs. Wisconsin. Look who's back in the tournament. The NCAA's old pal, Jerry Tarkanian. He and uptempo Fresno have a clash in style with hot Wisconsin — a slowdown team — and Dick Bennett.
• Summary: A long tournament run for Arizona would be an amazing story, with freshman guards and so few Wildcat bodies.
Tarkanian's last NCAA game was 1991, and UNLV's stunning Final Four upset loss to Duke.
The depth of this region depends on how well old football powers play basketball — Oklahoma at No. 3, LSU at No. 4 and Texas at No. 5.
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