So, you've got the pedigree. Now, can you win?
1. Memphis — Memphis has won an incredible 22 games in a row, but only one of those wins, a 78-77 squeaker against Gonzaga, came against a tourney team. Sophomore Chris Douglas-Roberts and the Tigers
Creighton could spell doom.
2. Pittsburgh — The Panthers are a one-man show, and their star, also known as Aaron Gray, has been known to disappear when the pressure is turned up. Pitt looked great early on with a 10-0
Sometimes, big names are first out. These teams are ripe for an early exit
Wood, and with Duke likely in the second round, it's never easy going up against a Mike Krzyzewski-coached team in March.
shouldn't have too much trouble with North Texas, but a second round match-up with either big man Nick Fazekas and Nevada or silky shooter Nate Funk and
record, but stumbled late, and will enter the tournament with losses in four of their last eight games. The Panthers' guards have to get better defensively to stop Wright State guard DeShaun
3. Virginia — The Cavaliers were a surprise this year, finishing the regular season in a
tie for first with North Carolina in the ACC. Virginia's luster wore off at the end of the season, with bad losses to Miami Fla., Wake Forest and North Carolina State. Junior point guard Sean Singletary will have to be on top of his game to get past talented guards in Albany's Jamar Wilson, and possibly Tennessee's Chris Lofton.
— Few expected the Cougars to be in the tournament back in November, but junior guards Derrick Low and Kyle
4. Washington State
Weaver spearheaded Washington State to its best season in over a decade. That means that they are very inexperienced and will have
to deal with three time Mid-Continent Conference Player of the Year Caleb Green and Oral Roberts, who took down Kansas in Lawrence earlier this season.
Tucker is a great player, but the Badgers had few tests outside of a weak Big 10 conference season, and lost two of their three games against Ohio State. Tucker alone is good enough to get Wisconsin to the second round, but once there they will have to deal with either a streaking UNLV team or Javaris Crittenton, a 6-foot-5 freshman guard for Georgia Tech.
5. Wisconsin — Big 10 Player of the Year Alando
— Taylor Bern
NCAA BIDS
Coaches consider increasing number of teams in tournament
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Syracuse coach Jim Boehme has plenty of support from Big 12 coaches for expanding the NCAA tournament.
the gap between selection Sunday and the start of the NCAA tournament Thursday. It's the rallying cry of every coach whose job security is measured by postseason appearances.
Boeheim, a longtime proponent of including more teams in the field, was flabbergasted Sunday when the Orange were snubbed by the selection committee. That brought another round of calls from coaches on Monday to expand the tournament
"If the field is designed to get the best 64 teams in — if that was the design — then from that standpoint you think it needs to be modified," said Kansas coach Bill Self, figuring a handful of automatic bids go each year to teams that otherwise would not make the cut.
"I don't know the perfect number, but I definitely think we should expand," said Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie, whose team sat on the bubble and sweated out an at-large bid last season.
to at least 68 teams, if not more.
Texas coach Rick Barnes believes that concept is worth revisiting.
The last major tournament expansion came in 1985, which increased the field from 53 to 64 teams. The NCAA added a play-in game in 2001, when the number of automatic bids increased from 30 to 31.
Expanding the tournament has become a hot-button conversation piece that regularly bridges
"From the time we started that play in game, I never quite understood why we wouldn't have four of them, one for each site," he said.
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