Section B · Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, March 5, 1998
NCAA Countdown
days left
Duke top seed in ACC
Upsets probable in tournament, coaches predict
The Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. — Yes, there's Duke and North Carolina. And Mike Krzewski insists there's a whole lot more.
The coach of the top-ranked Blue Devils argues the Atlantic Coast Conference should send at least five teams to the NCAA tournament.
"It has been a unique year in the league," Krzyzewski said. "That's just not going to happen very often. As a result, the perception of the rest of the league is skewed.
"The league is the best in the country. I don't see any type of scenario — ever — where the ACC should get less than five teams."
The rest of the conference gets a chance to prove its worth starting today, when the opening round of the ACC tournament in Greensboro starts.
Duke and North Carolina are seeded first and second respectively. The top two seeds in the ACC have met 18 times in 44 tournament title games. Eleven of those match ups occurred before 1975.
Although Duke and North Carolina dominated league play, several coaches say another showdown between the powers is far from guaranteed.
"You can probably get some pretty good odds in Las Vegas that that won't happen," North Carolina coach Bill Guthdroide said. "It would
be a bad mistake for us, for Duke or for anyone to assume that's going to happen.
Added Wake Forest coach Dave Odom, "This tournament is, if anything, a tournament of surprises. This year with the unusual, high parity in the middle of the league, the chance of a major surprise being sprung in the early rounds certainly exists, and it could be at the expense of one of the top two teams."
That happened last season, when Duke was the No. 1 seed and was knocked off in the quarterfinals by No. 8 seed North Carolina State, which reached the title game before losing to the Tar Heels.
The 45th annual tournament has a new format, and will be without Dean Smith for the first time in 36 seasons.
The ACC eliminated the Thursday game between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds, choosing first round games against No. 7 vs. No. 8 and No. 1 vs. No. 9.
North Carolina State plays Florida State while Virginia takes on Duke. The winner of the latter game gets a bye into Saturday's semifinals.
There are three games Friday. No 3 seed Maryland takes on No. 6 seed Georgia Tech, followed by No. 2 seed North Carolina playing the winner of Thursday's first game. Then Wake Forest meets No. 5 seed Clemson.
Duke is riding the emotion of its 77-75 comeback victory over North Carolina last Saturday.
"We're a better team, by far, than we were last year." Krzvieseki said.
"Last year the team did an incredible job to win the ACC regular season
"It has been a unique year in the league. That's just not going to happen very often."
Mike Krzyzewski
Duke men's basketball coach
but they had to extend so much energy that we were worn out. And we weren't that good. We were a good team, but not an outstanding team. I feel much better with this team."
The Tar Heels have lost a little momentum, losing at home to North Carolina State and then to Duke in the last week.
"Anytime you lose it shakes the confidence a little bit," Guthridge said. "We'll have to find out the results."
The league's balance was demonstrated Sunday when Wake Forest's victory over North Carolina State gave the Demon Deacons a fourthplace finish. A loss would have dropped them to eighth.
"I'm not sure we feel like a fourth seed, but here we are." Odom said. "I hope we play like a fourth seed and show what we're capable of doing."
Wake Forest is one of four teams in the middle of the standings that finished with a losing record in the league, has 12 losses overall and is hoping for an NCAA at large bid.
"I've told our team in my opinion we're not in," Odom said. "Every possession is important."
The same can be said for almost everyone but Duke and North Carolina.
Rutgers upsets Mountaineers in opening round of tourney
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Eric Clark had 19 points and nine rebounds to lead Rutgers to a 72-65 upset yesterday of No. 23 West Virginia in the opening round of the Big East tournament.
The 12th-seeded Scarlet Knights (13-14) will meet 13th-seeded Georgetown, which beat Miami 62-56, in today's quarterfinals. Rutgers never had won a Big East tournament game, losing its opener in its first two seasons in the league.
The loss could be damaging to the NCAA tournament hopes of the fifth-seeded Mountaineers (22-8), who have lost three straight and five of the last eight games.
Rutgers won with defense, holding West Virginia to one field goal during a nine-minute stretch of the second half and to five field goals during the last five minutes, two of which were three-pointers in the final 30 seconds.
16. The Scarlet Knights lost three of four games to close the regular season.
Geoff Billet added 17 points and seven assists for the Scarlet Knights, while Earl Johnson had
Greg Jones led West Virginia with 18 points on 6-of-18 shooting, while Brent Solheim had 13 points. The Mountaineas finished 24-of-66 from the field (36.4 percent), including 6-of-18 from three-point range.
Rutgers led 34-27 at halftime, but West Virginia opened the second half with a 10-3 run to tie the game at 37-37 with 16:40 to play. The Mountaineers were ahead 48-42 with 11:11 left when Rutgers went on a 12-2 run, taking the lead for good during the spurt.
Jones' three-point shot with 5:22 left brought West Virginia within 57-55. The closest West Virginia would get the rest of the way was 69 with 2:40 left as the Scarlet Knights went 7-of-12 from the foul line.
The win was Rutgers' third of the season against a ranked team — it also beat Temple and Syracuse — the first time that has happened in the school's history.
Rutgers 72, No. 23 West Virginia 65
RUTGERS (13-14)
Greer 2-1-4-5, Hodgson 2-8-4-5-9,
Clark 6-11 7-14 14, Johnson 6-9 0-0 16,
Billet 3-10 8-8 17, Tens 2-3 0-3 4,
Sanders 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 22-49 20-34
72.
Owens 4-10-0 4, B Solheim 5-9-3 4-13,
Lewin 2-4-4 8, Bledger 1-7-0 2, West
4-9-1 11, Gore 2-6-1 3, Jones 6-1-8
3-4-1 8, Beynon 0-0-0 0, Kearse 0-1-0
0, Scott 0-2-0 0, Totals 24-66 11-20
65.
WEST VIRGINIA (22-8)
Halftime —Rutgers 34, West Virginia 21, Three point goals —Rutgers 8-22 (Johnson 4-5, Biller 3-7, Hodgson 1-6, Greer 0-4), West Virginia 6-18 (West 3-7, Jones 3-9, Owens 0-1, Pledger 0-1). Fouled out—Soleheim, Lewin. Rebounds —Rutgers 35 (Clark 9), West Virginia 48 (Soleheim 9). Assists —Rutgers 18 (Billet 7), West Virginia 15 (West 5). Total fouls —Rutgers 17, West Virginia 24. Attendance —18,844.
Oklahoma State's Sutton named Big 12 coach of year
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Eddie Sutton ought to know a thing or two about conference coach-of-the-year awards.
In 27 years, he had won six in three different leagues. Now, in the 28th year of a much-honored career, the Oklahoma State coach has won seven awards in four leagues.
A panel of 24 media representatives, noting his 21-5 record with a team most expected to finish no higher than seventh, made him an easy winner today of The Associated Press Big 12 coach of the year award.
"The problem with these things is the assistant coaches and the players don't get the recognition they deserve," Sutton said, who was previously chosen top coach with Arkansas in the Southwest Conference, Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference and Oklahoma State in the Big Eight.
The former Oklahoma State player under the legendary Henry Iba drew 20 votes, while three went to Kansas' Roy Williams and one to Kelvin Sampson of Oklahoma.
Even Sutton, the only man to take four different teams to the NCAA tournament, admits that his 1997-98 Cowboys have had a Cinderella year.
"It's been a fun year. Any time you surpass what everybody predicts your team will do, it's satisfying." Sutton said. "We're a young team, but they have made a lot of progress. I knew we were
than last." Like a master mechanic building a
race car out of spare parts, Sutton created a team that's ranked No. 25 and certain to be the 19th in his 28 years to reach the NCAA tournament. The Cowboys wound up 11-5 in the league, tied with Oklahoma for runner-up behind Kansas (15-1). They edged the Sooners for a No. 2 seed in the Big 12 tournament via a tie breaker.
The biggest improvement from last year came at point guard when Doug Gottlieb became eligible after sitting out a year. Gottlieb was voted the AP's Big 12 newcomer of the year after leading the conference with seven
In addition, senior Brett Robisch, a power forward who had averaged 9.8 points the year before, was moved to center and averaged about 16 points and nine rebounds.
assists per game.
Adrian Peterson, a 6-foot-4 junior, also thrived in the new lineup and averaged more than 17 points and was named, along with Robisch, to the AP's second team All-Big 12.
The Cowboys went undefeated in February for the first time since 1940. Their 11 conference victories are the school's most since the 1964-65 team went 12-2.
Along the way, Sutton became only the 20th Division I coach in NCAA history with 600 wins. Only six others reached 600 wins in 28 years. Sutton will take a career record of 608-239 into the Big 12 tournament tomorrow.
"I've been very blessed," he said. "I can look back at every one of those teams and think they were a very special group. Mr. iba told me a long time ago you can't coach character. If you've got good people, then even in defeat you can live with it, knowing they gave their all."
Iowa State must harness power of Tigers' large Hardge tonight
The Associated Press
If Hardge plays a considerable amount of minutes in tonight's first-round game at Kemper Arena, Iowa State will have a much tougher time. The Cyclones like to go inside, and Hardge takes up a considerable amount of space.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The key in Iowa State's Big 12 tournament game with Missouri is easy to find because at 6-feet-11 and 330 pounds, Missouri's Monte Hardge tends to stand out even in a crowd of basketball players.
But if he is watching from the bench, as he did when Iowa State beat Missouri in Ames, the Cyclones will have a much better chance.
"Hardge was a tremendous influence in our game in Ames," Iowa State coach Tim Floyd said. "When he fouled out, we were able to play better. Knowing we like to go inside with it, it certainly will be an important part of the game how we attack him."
Hardge: big man could stop Iowa State's inside game
Three weeks later in Columbia, Fizer made just three of 11 shots and scored nine points in a 63-56 loss. Hard ge played 22 minutes in that game and was much more effective.
Hardge fouled out in Ames after being charged with a personal foul and a technical foul with only 1:22 gone in the second half. Iowa State's Marcus Fizer, had a lot more room to maneuver inside after that. The Cyclones won 75-62.
Missouri coach Norm Stewart said he thought that the technical on Hardge in Ames was unfair. Two days after that game, Stewart later complained that officials were picking on his massive center.
"I don't think he got frustrated (in the Ames)," Stewart said. "I think the person who called the technical on him got frustrated.
"I've never seen him get out of control on the floor," he said. "If Monte Hardge got out of control, you might have to (call) security."
Iowa State (12-17), the 11th seed in the tournament, failed to win a road game in the league, the first time that has happened in Floyd's 15 years as a coach.
After winning back-to-back
games in mid-February, the Cyclones lost their last three, finishing the regular season with 70-62 loss to Nebraska at home.
"We just have to keep our heads up," Iowa State's Klay Edwards said. "You never know, we could make a run in the Big 12 tournament and finish out the year on a pretty good note."
Stewart said he thought his team did not get many calls against Iowa State, which is 2-0 under Floyd against Missouri (16-13) in conference tournament play.
"Iowa State always seems to shoot about five times as many free throws," Stewart said. "I don't think they can play that flawlessly on defense. There can't be that much difference."
Floyd always had relied on getting more free throws than the opponent as part of his formula for winning away from home. That has not happened this season. Nor have the Cyclones executed other parts of that formula.
"Typically on the road you have to defend, you have to rebound and at times, you have to be able to play with a patience level in order to take the crowd out of the game," Floyd said. "This team has not been able to do that effectively all season long."
realize your potential...
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Alpha Xi Delta
Are you seeking a progressive organization where you can make a difference and enhance your college experience?
Consider Greek Life at the University of Kansas!
Leadership...Scholarship...Friendship...
Discover what Greek Life can Offer You!
Theta Chi Fraternity & Alpha Xi Delta Sorority Interest Meetings:
- Thursday, March 5th 5:30p.m.—Centennial Rm.
- Friday, March 6th 3:30p.m.—Centennial Rm.
(The Centennial Room is located on the 6th floor of the Kansas Union)
Direct Questions to:
**Question 10.**
Brian or Chad, Theta Chi, 842-7030 x130, expansion@thetachi.org
Cassie, Alpha Xi Delta, 331-4494, cassie@alphaxidelta.org
7.
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