THE BOYS pick …
FLORIDA-BUTLER
A snoozer from the git-go. Butler’s plain navy and white proves no match for the Gators, whose orange and blue dazzles our panelists. Florida’s blue stripe with orange detailing running down the side body and American flag patch also score big points.
OREGON-UNLV
Both teams take command early with colorful jerseys, but Oregon’s “eye-opening” yellow and green edge past the Runnin’ Rebels. One panelist, however, sneers: “Yellow is not a manly color to me. They look like big, rubber ducks out of the bathtub.”
KANSAS-S. ILLINOIS
The Salukis stumble badly with a plain, two-color uniform (“Jerseys look better with three colors”) and blocky typeface. The patriotic feel (there’s that American flag patch again) to Kansas’ uniforms, not to mention the little Jayhawk on the shorts, slam-dunks SIU out of the tourney.
PITTSBURGH-UCLA
A lackluster matchup. Pitt stays close with distinctive typeface and modern side-striping. The Bruins’ uniforms are “not too flashy” and “old school” (“Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wore that jersey!”). The American flag patch comes in off the bench for Pitt, but it’s too little, too late.
FLORIDA-OREGON
Florida proves tenacious with its nickname spelled out in orange on the shorts’ blue panel (did we mention they share our panelists’ school colors?). But the Gators turn “seasick” over the Ducks’ colors. The weight of Oregon’s yellow “underarmor” and headbands sinks Florida.
KANSAS-UCLA
The Bruins’ old-school look doesn’t stand a chance against Kansas’ red, white and blue motif. Also, the boys start noticing the UCLA uniforms fit a mite too tight. Not. Cool.
OREGON-KANSAS
Despite Kansas’ “patriotism,” the Jayhawks can’t quell Oregon’s color flash. The Ducks, despite their “goofy” look, waddle into the championship game.
THE GIRLS picks …
N. CAROLINA-USC
The Trojans roar out with their powerful colors, which provide a welcome contrast in the face of the Tar Heels’ powder blue and white. But eventually USC’s colors grate: “They look like flames running around,” and the Tar Heels snuff them out.
VANDERBILT-GEORGETOWN
A rout. The Commodores’ “powerful” black-gold-white color scheme and “current” look to the shorts rock these fashionistas. The Hoyas are crippled by a dull and old-looking uniform, and limp off the court.
OHIO STATE-TENNESSEE
Tiny type and plain look to the Buckeyes’ uniforms scream “high school” to these high schoolers. “Maybe it’s on purpose so the other team thinks they’re amateurs.” And though the Volunteers’ colors are a bit neon bright, Tennessee advances.
TEXAS A&M-MEMPHIS
A crisp game plan puts the Tigers ahead, though the Aggies stay close with their jersey’s V-neck cut and three-stripe trim. Memphis, however, uses the thick, blue swoop running from the top of its jerseys and cascading down along the bottom of its shorts to push out the Aggies.
N. CAROLINA-VANDERBILT
The Commodores immediately tar these Heels. Vandy’s colors are still working their magic, and while their numbers could be bigger, it’s no contest. Besides, with the “diamonds” running along the side of N.C.’s jerseys and shorts, they look “more like girls uniforms.”
TENNESSEE-MEMPHIS
An “exciting burst of color,” the piping and even the striping on the shoes help give Tennessee an early, and seemingly decisive, lead. But all that detailing eventually proves distracting — even “cheesy,” dare we say — and Memphis’ “more professional” aura lands the Tigers in the Final Four.
VANDERBILT-MEMPHIS
Can we apply the slaughter rule in basketball? Vanderbilt continues to crush all comers: The colors, letters, even the headbands are doing serious damage. Our previous Memphis backers concede that compared with Vandy, the Tigers just “don’t stand out anymore.”
OREGON VS. VANDERBILT
It’s like an 8th-grade dance: boys on one side, girls on the other. No, wait, it’s more like a bad episode of “The Real World,” with the girls aghast and disdainful of the boys’ choice: “They look like a highlighter!” “Who do you know who wears yellow and green?” “Look at that ‘O’; it looks like a wedding ring.”
The boys respond that their team’s players “look like Ducks. You have to look like your mascot.” Although both sides have come together to pick a winner, there’s no budging. It’s deadlocked. Time’s running out.
So Tempo steps in and, based on overall tournament performance plus the girls’ superior trash-talking, declares Vandy the winner.
— Compiled by Maria Mooshil
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Know your colleges: The Nation’s Toughest Sweet 16 Quiz
Match the facts to the 16 schools remaining in the NCAA tournament (see the Tempo cover for the list of schools).
1. This school’s campus doubled for “Faber College” in the movie “Animal House.”
2. Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan was an undergrad here.
3. Its annual, four-day freshman orientation is called Fish Camp. Its most solemn tradition is Muster, honoring students and alumni who have died in the previous year.
4. Babe Ruth hit his 714th homer on the site of what is now Posvar Hall, the largest classroom building on this campus.
5. The basketball honcho at this school played for the same coach in college and in his one year in the NBA.
6. Carnicus (a word derived from carnival and circus) is a student skit competition held every spring here.
7. A future Nobel Prize laureate named Ralph Bunche once played for this school’s basketball team.
8. The art and literary magazine Vagus Nerve can be found on this campus.
9. A decade before his novel “Look Homeward, Angel” was published, he wrote and starred in his first play, “The Return of Buck Gavin,” at this school. Hint: If you know the writer, you’ll know the school.
10. This school’s marching band appeared in the movie “Forrest Gump.”
11. If your mug was in the Makio yearbook, then you were a student here.
12. Steve Finley played baseball and actor Richard Roundtree played football here.
13. This school’s chancellor, E. Gordon Gee, was the subject of news stories last fall regarding his high compensation, lavish spending on parties and the $6 million used to refurbish his campus mansion.
14. If you want a Larry Finch replica jersey, try this school.
15. This school’s Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society, now in its 155th season, claims to be “the oldest continually running student theatrical society in the United States.”
16. After a big football victory, this school’s students have been known to throw goal posts in Potter Lake.
Answers
1. Oregon
2. Butler
3. Texas A&M
4. Pittsburgh. The Bambino, then with the Boston Braves, hit his last homer in 1935 on a visit to the old Forbes Field. Forbes Field’s home plate is preserved on the first floor of Posvar Hall.
5. Florida. Coach Billy Donovan played for Rick Pitino at Providence College and on the New York Knicks.
6. Tennessee
7. UCLA
8. UNLV
9. University of North Carolina. The writer: Carolina native Thomas Wolfe.
10. USC. The Trojan band played the role of the University of Alabama band in the film.
11. Ohio State. The school says “makio” is derived from a Japanese word meaning “magic mirror.”
12. Southern Illinois
13. Vanderbilt
14. Memphis. Larry Finch played for the Memphis Tigers from 1970-73 and coached them from 1987-97.
15. Georgetown
16. Kansas
— Compiled by Charles Storch
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The judges
We were looking for high school fashion students to judge this year’s NCAA Sweet 16 team jersey tournament, but in a glorious twist of fate, we wound up with basketball players as well. We turned to Chicago’s Near West Side where Whitney M. Young Magnet High School fashion instructor Theresa Yaneck rounded up three fashion design students — one of whom also happens to play for the Dolphins’ girls basketball team — and three students from the boys basketball team.
The boys: Franklin Griffin, 16, is a sophomore and forward for the Dolphins; junior Julian Kenner (the name as published has been corrected in this text), 16, is a guard; and sophomore Stanford Brown, 16, is a center. All three took care to note how the uniforms fit the players, even how the jerseys would hang and look after getting sweaty and dirty. They even took points off for jerseys not being tucked in (yes, that means you, Derrick Byars of Vanderbilt).
The girls: Paula Guzman and Amanda Williams, both 17-year-old seniors, joined 16-year-old junior Krista Haldes, who is also a forward for the girls basketball team. All three take fashion classes taught by Yaneck.
In her judging criteria, Guzman considered color and style — whether the uniforms looked modern or old school, with modern style winning out for its cleaner, stronger look. Haldes, of course, brought a unique perspective to the panel, saying she considered “what do I want to put on and then what do I want to see.”
Interestingly, both groups of judges noticed the small type that spelled out team names on the behinds of some of the players’ shorts.
“It catches your attention,” said Brown, especially those of the ladies when a player “bends over at the free throw line.”
