With a record 65 teams competing in this year’s tournament, basketball fans will have plenty of chances to catch the action. Here’s a quick look at who to watch in the tournament’s four regions:
EAST REGIONAL
It was 1992 when top seed Duke and second seed Kentucky met in the East Regional final in Philadelphia and Christian Laettner buried a jumper that sent his team to the Final Four in Minneapolis. Now, in 2001, the national title will again be settled in Minneapolis and–if form holds–top seed Duke, led by Shane Battier, will meet second-seeded Kentucky in the East Regional final. “I know you’re not going to believe this, but we don’t sit around and deliberate on pairings,” insisted selection committee chairman Mike Tranghese when asked if his group intentionally set up this enticing possibility. “Kentucky just happened to be there with Duke.”
MEET ME IN …
… Not St. Looie, but Greensboro, where old acquaintances will gather. Missouri coach Quin Snyder played for and was an assistant at Duke, whom the Tigers will meet in the second round if they get by Georgia. The Bulldogs, in turn, are coached by Jim Harrick, who was fired from his job at UCLA and succeeded by Steve Lavin. The Bruins and Lavin are also in this regional.
MONEY TALKS
Holy Cross was both the regular-season and tourney titles of the Patriot League, which began in 1990-91 as a conference that did not award athletic scholarships. But three years ago it gave its schools the option of doing just that in men’s and women’s basketball, and the Crusaders were one of two that decided their players should get paid to play. Lehigh was the other.
FAMILIARITY
Iowa coach Steve Alford will be bumping up against an old foe when his Hawkeyes meet Creighton in the opening round. He played the Bluejays and their coach, Dana Altman, twice a year when he coached at Missouri Valley Conference rival Southwest Missouri State.
AN OMEN?
Folks in Boston rarely have anything good to say about New York, home of the dreaded Yankees. But Boston College just won the Big East tourney in Madison Square Garden, and now is set to open tourney play just up the road in Long Island. Troy Bell, co-Big East player of the year, leads BC.
WEST REGIONAL
Call it the Mileage Plus regional.
Twelve of the 16 schools in the West are located east of the Mississippi River, and top-seeded Stanford and No. 12 Brigham Young are the only true Western teams in the group.
But don’t rule out the flatlanders.
Two years ago, Connecticut’s voyage to the West Regional didn’t slow the Huskies on their way to the national title.
Last year, Wisconsin bounced the West’s top seed, Arizona, out of the regional and used that upset as a springboard to the Final Four. Don’t look now, but the Badgers are back in the West.
Speaking of back . . .
Lefty Driesell of Georgia State joins Eddie Sutton and Jim Harrick as the only coaches who have taken four schools to the tournament. The ol’ left-hander also went with Davidson, Maryland and James Madison. Driesell is 15-13 overall in the tournament.
Hurryin’ Hoosiers
Indiana could not have improved its seed by beating Iowa in the Big Ten final, according to selection committee chairman Michael Tranghese. Because the game ended barely an hour before CBS’ live selection program, the committee had to find a spot for the Hoosiers, win or lose. “We can’t bracket that quickly,” Tranghese said. “They were playing for the [Big Ten] championship. They were locked into No. 4.”
Bearcat bombers
Bob Huggins is taking Cincinnati to the tournament for the 10th straight time. But this isn’t your usual banging bunch of Bearcats. Cincinnati relies mainly on guards Steve Logan and Kenny Satterfield, who take 40.5 percent of the team’s shots and score 42.4 percent of its points.
Howdy, neighbor
The Boise first-round site might be called the Beltway Invitational. Washington-area neighbors Maryland and George Mason will meet in the first round. And there’s more intrigue if the Terrapins advance and 11th-seeded Georgia State upends No. 6 Wisconsin. Driesell would face the school that fired him in the fallout from Len Bias’ cocaine-related death.
MIDWEST REGIONAL
Mystery seeps through this regional, which is filled with teams that look like true contenders one night and pretenders the next. After its performance against Indiana in the Big Ten tourney, top seed Illinois is clearly a case in point, and here the Illini have some impressive company. Second-seeded Arizona struggled early and flourished late, but the Wildcats have a history of tourney flameouts and enter this one with center Loren Woods pouting about his poor play. Third seed Mississippi surprised Florida in the semifinals of the SEC tourney but was routed by Kentucky in the final.
HISTORY GIVES HOPE
On paper, 15th-seeded Eastern Illinois figures to have little chance against second seed Arizona in their opening-round game. But though no No. 16 seed has ever risen up to smack down a top seed, three 15th seeds have dropped second seeds in the opening round. In 1997, Coppin State upset South Carolina, and in 1991, Richmond upset Syracuse, and that should give the Panthers some encouragement. Yet their biggest source of encouragement should come from this: In 1993 it was second seed Arizona that fell to Santa Clara.
PAYBACK POSSIBLE
After Notre Dame fired John MacLeod in the spring of 1999, Xavier’s Skip Prosser was one possible successor interviewed by the Irish. He did not get the job that eventually went to Matt Doherty, and later Prosser publicly complained about the way the school had treated him. Now he gets a chance to do it even more damage when his Musketeers face the Irish in the opening round.
FIRST-TIMERS
Cal State-Northridge is making its first appearance in the NCAA tourney. . . . After guiding Mississippi to the tourney in 1999, Rebels coach Rod Barnes is making his second appearance. But he does have an amazing first in his dossier. When he took over at that school before the 1998-99 season, it was the first time he had been a head coach–at any level.
SOUTH REGIONAL
Atlanta will play host to the Final Four next year. But if the seeds in this regional hold up, it would also be the site of a reunion of three 2000 Final Four teams March 23. Top-seeded Michigan State, second-seeded North Carolina and third-seeded Florida all made it to the Final Four in Indianapolis a year ago. Michigan State may be weary of seeing these teams. In the space of one week last autumn, the Spartans beat both in East Lansing, and they’ve won the last four meetings with the two schools. The law of averages being what it is, the Spartans can’t be relishing a rematch with either team.
Nice to be back
Michigan State didn’t gripe when it learned it would open its national title defense in Tennessee. In 1979, State launched its run to the national title in Murfreesboro. In 1989, State won first- and second-round games in Knoxville.
Sweet home, Chicago
The pairing of eighth-seeded California and ninth-seeded Fresno State has a Chicago feel. The Golden Bears’ Sean Lampley, the top scorer in school history, is from Chicago, as is Dennis Gates, who played with Quentin Richardson in high school. The Bulldogs answer with Melvin Ely, who played with Antwaan Randle El at Thornton High School, and Nick Irvin, a local product whose brother, Byron, is an assistant on Joey Meyer’s Chicago Skyliners staff.
Home in the dome
Like North Carolina, Penn State and Florida have fond memories of the Superdome. The Nittany Lions’ football team beat Georgia there to win the 1982 national title in the Sugar Bowl. And the Gators’ football team won the 1996 national title in the Sugar Bowl, annihilating archrival Florida State 52-20. That could be the halftime score of the Gators’ opener against Western Kentucky.
Walk like a Tarkanian
Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian has won 37 NCAA tournament games, although the official NCAA record book recognizes only 31 because Long Beach State’s participation from 1971-73 was vacated for NCAA violations. The other 15 coaches in the South Regional have won 58 NCAA tourney games combined.
