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Monday, March 14, 1994
NCAA men's basketball championship
Roy Gallop / Knight-Hider Tribute - Dave Campbell / KANSAN
Source: Knight-Ridder Tribune
INVITATIONS TO THE DANCE
NCAA women's basketball championship
The Associated Press
Officials scramble, finalize NCAA seeds
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The NCAA tournament field was jumbled but not jarred after a wild weekend of upsets, confirming what seemed obvious: There are more than four teams in college basketball that deserve a top seed.
Defending champion North Carolina, Purdue, Arkansas and Missouri received the top seeds in the men's Division I tournament yesterday after a week when 18 of the Top 25 teams lost at least once.
Six of the top eight teams in The Associated Press poll lost over the weekend, causing the NCAA selection committee to do some last-minute shifting that created no shocks but likely did flip some No. 1 and No. 2 seeds.
As an indication of the depth of the 64-team field, the No.2 seeds — Connecticut, Duke, Arizona and Massachusetts — all had shots at being No.1 seeds entering the weekend.
"I've never seen a day quite like yesterday," said Tom Butters, chair of the NCAA selection committee and athletic director at Duke. "It was one of the most interesting days I've experienced, where so many great teams fell.
Dave Campbell / KANSAN - Roy Gallip / Knight-Ridder Tribune
"Obviously, we had done a lot of work up to that time. We had to go back tohe drawingtable last night and take a look to see what change was necessary."
North Carolina, which defeated Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament final yesterday, was the No.1 seed in the East Regional. Purdue, the Big Ten champion, got the top seed in the Southeast Regional.
Arkansas, which was ranked No.1 in the AP poll going into the weekend, lost to Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference semifinals but still managed to get the top seed in the Midwest.
Missouri, defeated by Nebraska in the Big Eight tournament, was placed No. 1 in the West.
Butters said that the number of upsets caused some scrambling that had the committee working until 11 p.m. Saturday.
"Because so many fell, we didn't a lot of changes," Butters said. "Tournaments have a way in many respects of helping teams more than they hurt teams. You can only lose one game, you have the opportunity to win three."
"I won't say it it didn't cause any changes, but it did not cause a great
The final AP poll will be released today. Going into the weekend, Missouri was No.3, North Carolina No.4 and Purdue No.6.
deal."
Source: Knight-Ridder Tribune
Duke also missed out on any chance at a No. 1 when it was upset by Virginia on Saturday in the ACC tournament. The Blue Devils are the No.2 seed in the Southeast.
Connecticut, the regular-season Big East champion and No. 2 in the AP poll, lost a chance at a top seed when it was defeated Saturday by Providence in the conference tournament semifinal. Connecticut ended as the No. 2 seed in the East.
Arizona is the second seed in the West, and Massachusetts got the No.2 seed in the Midwest.
The Big Ten placed seven teams in the field, tying the record for most by a conference. Purdue was joined by Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Minnesota.
The Big East was a surprise by getting six teams into the tournament, with Connecticut, Syracuse, Seton Hall, Providence, Georgetown and Boston College getting bids.
On the other hand, the ACC surprisingly landed only five teams, with Georgia Tech shut out. Tech finished, 16-12 but defeated North Carolina twice. Also missing out were Brigham Young, 21-9, and Xavier, 20-7.
"We're very disappointed that we didn't get in," said Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins. "I really thought we had enough quality wins to get in there."
The best record among the teams that did not make the field belonged to Murray State, which was 23-5 including losses to tournament teams Arkansas and Saint Louis.
Play begins Thursday and Friday at eight regional sites and concludes with the championship game on April 4 in Charlotte, N.C.
The biggest shocker in the field was the College of Charleston, a member of the Trans-America conference which finished 24-3. This is only its third season of Division I basketball.
North Carolina plays its first game against Liberty College, the champion of the Big South conference. Purdue takes on the Trans-America champion Central Florida.
Missouri will play Navy, the Patriot League champion. And Arkansas will take on North Carolina A&T, which beat South Carolina State 87-70 yesterday, winning the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship.
There's Glenn Robinson, the Purdue star who is the country's top scorer and arguably its best player. And there's tons of Final Four tradition with Duke, Kentucky and Kansas.
Southeast regional has basketball elite
The Boilermakers started the year with a school record 14 straight victories. Their losses to Wisconsin, Penn State, Indiana and Michigan were by a total of 12 points. They closed the regular season with five straight victories.
The Boilermakers are the No. 1 seed after capturing the Big Ten with an 87-77 victory against Illinois yesterday. Purdue, 26-4, opens Thursday against Central Florida in Lexington, Ky.
By Harry King The Associated Press
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Talk about the elite of college basketball, the Southeast regional has it all.
Robinson, a 6-foot-8 junior, scored a career-high 49 yesterday.
Purdue, which does not have any senior starters, is in the NCAA for the 10th time since 1983. The Boilermakers were third in 1980 and second in 1969. They were the No.1 seed in the Midwest in 1988 but lost to Kansas State in the third round.
"It's good to go into the NCAA tourney on a win and playing well because we're going to need it," he said.
Now, about that tradition.
The No. 2 seed is Duke, which won the championship in 1991 and 1992. The year before, the Blue Devils lost to UNLV in the championship game. In 1989, they reached the Final Four and lost to Seton Hall. In 1988, it was the same against Kansas. Last year, the Blue Devils were knocked out in the second round.
Also in the bottom half of the bracket is Kentucky, which beat top-ranked Arkansas on Saturday and defeated Florida yesterday in the finals of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Kentucky reached the national semifinals last year and lost to Michigan 81-78 in overtime. The year before, with a trip to the Final Four on the line, the Wildcats lost to Duke 104-
103 in overtime.
Travis Ford, MVP in the SEC tournament, Gimel Martinez, Jeff Brassow and Andre Riddick have been around for three years or more.
Under Rick Pitino, the Wildcats fired from 3-point range. They set an SEC tournament record with 16 3-pointers against Arkansas.
"The good news is we're in the Southeast region, the bad news is we're in a region with a lot of tough basketball teams," Kentucky coach Rick Pitino said. "It's a very tough region, but we're going to St. Petersburg, and it could be worse."
He said he thought that the Wildcats would be a No. 2 seed after beating Arkansas and Florida.
"I think they probably made up their mind before the final game was played because Florida had a three seed," he said.
The Gators are in the East.
Kansas was in the Final Four last year and in 1991. The Jayhawks beat Big Eight rival Oklahoma for the national championship in 1988 and lost to Duke in the semifinals two years earlier.
Whatever happens in the Southeast, Robinson figures to be a big factor.
"I've never seen anything like the performance of Glenn Robinson," Illinois coach Lou Henson said. "It's not just the points; it's the way he does it.
"He'll shoot over the top, he'll go inside, he'll shoot 8s, he'll shoot free throws. I've never seen a player make such an impact on the Big Ten. We did as good a job as we could switching off, but when he catches the ball, he's going to beat you."
Purdue is no lock to reach the regional in Knoxville, Tenn. The Bollermakers would meet the Providence-Alabama winner in the second round. And both finished strong.
Providence won the Big East tournament, and Alabama won 15 of its last 18 regular-season games after a 3-5 start. The Crimson Tide opened the SEC tournament with a victory against Auburn but shot 35 percent in a loss to Florida.