Underdogs, powerhouses, courage, drama all offered in this year’s NCAAs
By Andrew Bagnato
KRT Campus

The first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament offered a little something for everyone.

Like underdogs? Kent State and Southern Illinois swept to the Sweet Sixteen. Wyoming, Creighton, North Carolina-Wilmington and Tulsa staged splashy upsets.

Like powerhouses? Five of the six winningest programs in NCAA tournament history-No. 1 Kentucky, No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 Duke, No. 5 Kansas and No. 6 Indiana-are still alive.
Like drama? A No. 1 seed, Cincinnati, went down, and two others, Kansas and Duke, had to sweat out victories over Holy Cross and Notre Dame, respectively.

KRT Campus Cincinnati’s head coach Bob Huggins talks to player Donald Little in the first half of their first round game against Boston University Friday at the NCAA Tournament in the Mellon Arena.

Like courage? Two days after severely spraining his left ankle, Kansas guard Kirk Hinrich played valiantly against Stanford.

There was a lot to like in the first two rounds. Now comes the good part: 12 games over four days to decide who goes to the Final Four and who disappears into the mists of bracket history. A few impressions during the calm between the first and second weekends of the NCAA tournament, otherwise known as spring break for the Bearcats:
Location is everything. The NCAA officially frowns on wagering. But here’s a safe bet: the NCAA will take a hard look at the decision to place teams as close to campus as possible in the early rounds.

It was supposed to make it easier for fans to follow their teams and help boost gate receipts. But it resulted in some unfair matchups. Third-seeded Mississippi State had to play No. 6 Texas in Dallas Sunday. The Longhorns did nothing during the season to merit such pampering. For that matter, neither did fourth-seeded Illinois, which enjoyed two virtual home games in Chicago.

Meanwhile, Big Ten tournament champ Ohio State, which swept two games with Illinois, was packed off to Albuquerque, where it lost in the second round.

“Let’s make sure everybody has the same level playing field to continue to play on,” Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury said. “And that absolutely hasn’t happened around the country.”

Teams playing in their home state or metropolitan area went 11-4 in the first two rounds.

Location could play a critical role again this week. Eighth-seeded UCLA, which spent last weekend in Pittsburgh, gets to play in San Jose, an hour’s flight from Westwood, while higher-seeded Oklahoma has to fly more than 1,500 miles to reach the same destination. And the Illini figure to have heavier crowd support than top-seeded Kansas when the schools meet Friday in Madison, Wis.

The selection committee is taking grief for putting undeserving teams close to home, but some of its seeding decisions have proved wise. Questions about Missouri’s qualifications to be in the field have been answered satisfactorily. Gonzaga howled about drawing a sixth seed, but then the Zags did zip in the tournament.

The regular season is meaningless.

Consider UCLA, Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky. That’s one quarter of the surviving field. Each team was in the AP preseason Top 10, and each tumbled out of it.

The Bruins finished sixth in the Pac-10, their worst ever, then bombed out of the Pac-10 tournament in the first round.

The Tigers lost to DePaul, for goodness’ sake, and had dropped 5-of-9 heading into the NCAAs.

The Illini stumbled in midseason, losing three Big Ten games in a row, including a 31-point embarrassment at Indiana on Jan. 26.

The Wildcats had a slew of suspensions and a fight between teammates on the team plane, to name just a few highlights.

“Sometimes adversity brings you together,” said Maryland coach Gary Williams, whose top-seeded Terrapins face fourth-seeded Kentucky in Syracuse on Friday. “I’ve seen it before where teams get tough. They get criticized, then all of a sudden, it’s time to play.”

UCLA’s revival will take Steve Lavin off the hot seat for at least another year. Lavin has led his team to the Sweet Sixteen for the fifth time in six seasons. Only one other coach in this tournament has done that. His name is Mike Krzyzewski.

Coaching experience can mean a lot. Or it can mean little.

During the regular season, former Indiana coach Bob Knight seemed to be working a miracle at Texas Tech. The Red Raiders came into the NCAAs with 23 victories, 14 more than a year ago. But they fizzled in the first round when Bruce Weber coached Knight off the United Center floor in Weber's first NCAA tournament game as a head coach.
Weber knew exactly how to prepare for Knight’s vaunted motion offense-and Weber knew it would be easier to defend.

Knight, who is 2-7 in the NCAAs since 1994, is free to go hunting. Maybe Cincinnati’s Bob Huggins can accompany him.

Between them, Knight and Huggins have 1,286 career victories.

By comparison, Weber and Kent State’s Stan Heath entered this season with a combined 51 Division I wins. You can find them breaking down opponents’ game tapes this week.

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