Section B
The University Daily Kansan
We're in,but...
Northwestern State beat Winthrop 71-67 last night to get into the NCAA tournament. They will face No.1 seed Illinois on Thursday.
Sports
Inside: The Kansas baseball team pounded Illinois-Chicago 24-2 yesterday.
SEE PAGE 3B
Inside: The men's college basketball All-America teams were announced.
SEE PAGE 2B
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2001 For comments, contact Shawn Hutchinson or Shawn Linenberger at 864-4858 or sports@kansan.com
Sports Columnist
Brian Hanni
sports@kansan.com
Big Dance offers chance at fortune
I've already combed my couch cushions, and I'm all tapped out on the plasma I can give for one month. It's time to turn to new money making ventures. Luckily, I have one final hope.
CNNSI.com has a special contest for the NCAA Tournament. If you correctly pick every game of the entire tournament you take home $10 million. Now that's a nice chunk of change.
Picking 63 games correctly can't be that hard can it? Well, actually the Monmouth Hawks have a better chance of sweeping Duke in a seven-game series than most do at picking a perfect bracket. But it's worth a shot.
For those of you filling out brackets, I'm going to try to help you by breaking down all the tough calls in the first round.
A No.1 seed has never lost to a No.16 seed and that won't change this year. Even though it happens at least once almost every year, I don't see any No.2 or No.3 seeds going down in the first round, either.
My bracket also has all the No. 4 seeds winning in the round of 64, but the rest of the first-round games require some serious attention.
After consulting a crystal ball, here's how some of the most interesting first-round games should go down:
The 6-11 game in the East is especially tough because Southern Cal has some studs. Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton has never lost a first round NCAA Tourney game though, so the Cowboys will win here.
The final game in the East has seventh-seeded Iowa battling No. 10 seed Creighton. A lot of people are hopping on the BlueJays' bandwagon, but I'm going to let my pick fly with Steve Alford and the Hawkees.
In the West I like Brigham Young to upset fifth-seeded Cincinnati in round one. In the 8-9 game, Georgia Tech takes on St. Joseph's. Did you know even though every No. 8 seed won last year in round one, the No. 9 seed has been the safer pick during the course of the last 15 years? I'll go with the odds and take No. 9-seeded St. Joe.
Wisconsin vs. Georgia State is another toughy in the 6-11 game. I flipped a Ritz Bitz on this one and it landed cheese-side up, so I'll take Wisconsin.
In the South, Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian will chew his way through six or seven hand towels while his 9. seed Bulldogs take on No. 8-seed Cal. It won't be enough though as the Golden Bears will advance to take on Michigan State.
Sixth-seeded Texas will knock the Temple Owls off their perch in the 6-11 game. And even though Penn State-Providence looks to be a seven-ten split, I'll take the 10th-seed Friars to beat the Nittany Lions.
The final region is the Midwest. No. 5 Syracuse vs. No. 12 Hawaii is an intriguing game, because the winner will likely play Kansas.
Syracuse is the higher seed and its tournament hopes hang on its one-eyed wonder, Preston Shumpert. The junior guard is nursing an injured eye, but his vision is clearing up and Syracuse should advance.
Hanni is a Topeka junior in broadcast journalism.
The Midwest's 6-11 game features two Catholic schools, Notre Dame and Xavier. The Irish have a huge advantage in junior forward Troy Murphy and should get by Xavier.
Finally, Wake Forest hooks up with Butler in the last of the 7 vs. 10 games. You can chalk it up to either a hunch or my childhood fascination with Mr. Belvedere, but I'm going to say, "The Butter did it" on this game: The Bulldogs will beat the Demon Deacons.
So there you have it. Those are my picks of the tricky games in the first round. You can take 'em or leave 'em, but if you win the $10 million, I at least want some help with my gas bill.
Tournament time
Ten hours to Dayton
Fans Travis Dowdy, Worland, Wyo., senior, and Mark Powell, Fayetteville, N.C., senior, salute the Jayhawks during a home game against Texas A&M. Some die-hard fans will make the trip to Dayton, Ohio, to watch the Jayhawks play in the NCAA tournament. Photo by Selena Jabaro/KANSAN
Jayhawk basketball fans ready to hit the road
By Chris Wristen
KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
"Dayton or Bust" wasn't quite the battle cry Kansas fans had in mind when they eyeballed the NCAA Tournament seeding projections last week, but many Kansas faithful are making do and hitting the road.
The No. 12 Jayhawks (24-6, 12-4 Big 12 Conference) squandered an opportunity to play at Kemper Arena in front of local fans when they lost to Oklahoma on Saturday in the Big 12 tournament, and Kansas coach Roy Williams said he was sorry the fans would have to trek so far to watch the team play in Dayton, Ohio.
"It would've been great for our fans if we would've played in Kansas City because they wouldn't have had to drive as far," Williams said. "Someone said that Dayton is 643 miles away from here."
Despite the distance, all 350 tickets in the Kansas allotment are sold. Some Jayhawk fans plan to hit the road tomorrow or early Friday morning to make the roughly 10-hour drive to Dayton Arena for Kansas' game against Cal State Northridge (22-9). Leawood junior David
Martin is one of those students.
He said he and five of his friends would leave Lawrence at 2 a.m. Friday and make it to Dayton in plenty of time for the 6:40 p.m. game.
"We knew we were going since we lost to Duke last year," Martin said.
"I'm really looking forward to schmoozing with people from other schools and seeing some upsets with teams that are not ours. I just want to feel like I helped the team win."
Freshman forward Bryant Nash will miss the remainder of the season after spraining his medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee during Monday's practice. Williams announced the results of Nash's MRI yesterday. Nash's absence was just the latest blow to an already injury-depleted team.
Martin is no exception. Pat O'Bryan, Overland Park junior, had so much fun at the previous two NCAA Tournaments he's making his third trip to the Big Dance.
"Dayton was our fourth pick," O'Bryan said. "We didn't want to go east or west because the games were on Thursday. We just wanted Friday games." Kansas basketball note.
ROAD TO DAYTON
Miles: 640
Miles: 640.
Trip: 103 km.
Time on the road: 10 hours.
Three sessions available: two on Friday; one on Sunday.
Gas: roughly $72 round trip
Tickets: $50 per session
Pre-game fun: The Kansas Alumni Association will sponsor the pre-game rally at the Holiday Inn in Dayton, Ohio. The rally and team send-off will be at 5:30 p.m. EST.
Tip-off: 7:40 p.m. EST, 6:40 p.m. CST
Because senior guard Luke Axtell's season ended prematurely because of an injured back, Kansas has just seven healthy scholarship players available.
BRACKET BREAKDOWN
Edited by Megan Phelps
able. They're either dangerous or dead in Davton.
SOUTH
Final Four candidates: Illinois, Arizona,
Kansas.
Cinderella potential iowa's sensational run through the Big 10 tourney could carry the Hawkeyes as far as the Sweet 16.
Bracket summary: in the toughest
- Overrated: Kentucky. No team with nine losses deserves a no. 2 seed. Sorry.
- Upset potential: Oklahoma State.
- Inspired Cowboys will give a struggling
make for one hecky game
make for one heckuva game.
Sleeper: Indiana and Arkansas are both on a roll and the Hogs are always a tournament-ready team.
■ Final Four candidates: Stanford, Maryland, Iowa State.
Edited by Sydney Wallace
PREDICTIONS
Shawn Hutchinson,
sports editor:
MIDWEST: Arizona SOUTH: Virginia
EAST: Kentucky WEST: Stanford
Shawn Linenberger,
associate sports editor:
MIDWEST: Kansas SOUTH: N. Carolina
EAST: Duke WEST: Iowa St.
Chris Wristen,
men's basketball reporter:
MIDWEST: Arizona SOUTH: Michigan St.
EAST: Duke WEST: Maryland
Zac Hunter.
Lac Hunter
big 12 men's basketball reporter:
MIDWEST: Kansas SOUTH: Virginia
EAST: Boston College WEST: Maryland
Lori O'Toole,
editor-in-chief.
MIDWEST: Arizona SOUTH: N. Carolina
EAST: Duke WEST: Illinois
Haley Colbern,
Ottawa junior:
MIDWEST: Syracuse SOUTH: Gonzaga
EAST: Duke WEST: Stanford
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