Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 12, 1991 TAG: 9103120040
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL BRILL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Does that mean this will be the most form-following basketball tournament ever? CBS certainly hopes not. In its first season with the entire show, the last thing the network needs is no major upsets.
But I don't think there will be many shockers.
Sure, some of the lower seeds will win early. Always have, always will.
What sets 1991 apart, at least on paper, is not just that defending champion Nevada-Las Vegas is an overwhelming favorite of the Wooden-UCLA ilk. What is even more unusual is the top eight teams clearly appear to be way ahead of everybody else, with the possible exception of Big East champion Seton Hall.
The Big Eight captured the other three No. 3 slots, and I know of hardly anybody who expects Kansas, Oklahoma State or Nebraska to make it to the Final Four.
Usually, there's one distinct longshot among the finishing quartet. I don't think it will happen this time.
There were fewer complaints about schools being left out than ever, mostly because there weren't 34 deserving at-large entries. Houston can't cry. It lost in the opening round of its tournament. Fordham couldn't beat St. Francis, Pa. And Providence didn't deserve to go because the Big East, relatively down this year, certainly didn't merit seven teams.
Only two of the mid-majors got a second team. New Orleans made it out of the American South, as did Northern Illinois from the Mid-Continent. They were done no favors, being seeded 14th and 13th, respectively. New Mexico made it as the third team out of the Western Athletic.
They were the last three teams picked, and, for at-large schools, were seeded very low, indicating a lack of quality depth.
To give you some idea, slumping Georgia Tech finished at 16-12 and Georgetown wound up 14-12 against Division I teams. There apparently were some people who thought they wouldn't make it. Yet, 12 at-large teams were placed beneath those No. 8 seeds.
The big surprise to me was that Indiana, co-champ of the Big Ten, didn't get the fourth No. 1 seed, which went to ACC tournament winner North Carolina.
I presume the problem was that the top-rated ACC deserved a team in the East, its natural region, and Syracuse was a No. 2 out of the Big East. Somebody had to be seeded second in the Midwest, and that turned out to be Duke.
The people in Charlotte have every reason to be concerned. With early-round play in Atlanta feeding into the North Carolina city for the Southeast Regional, they assumed they would get either UNC or Duke. Instead, Wake Forest is the lone ACC team in that region, and it will be hard for the Deacons to make it to the round of 16. Check ticket sales next week.
Although tournament committee chairman Jim Delany claims the West wasn't stacked - "Any region with UNLV would be loaded," he said - a survey of the bracket doesn't bear that out.
Arizona and Utah figured to remain in the West as the second and fourth seeds, and they did. But Seton Hall finished stronger than any of the other No. 3 seeds, and of the No. 5 teams, the most dangerous is Michigan State. In the West.
It figured that the committee wouldn't pass up a chance to have Georgetown play UNLV. The Hoyas need only to beat Vanderbilt to do just that. John Thompson has never lost a game to his good buddy, the Shark. CBS has to love that potential Sunday matchup.
While no deserving teams were left out, there were some peculiar seeds. Princeton is dangerous at No. 8 in the East, highest seed ever for an Ivy League team. But what did East Tennessee State do to be dropped to a No. 10 after beating Memphis State, James Madison and Brigham Young on the road and N.C. State at home? Perhaps Calvin Talford's injury was a factor.
You also have to feel for Richmond. The Spiders continue to draw heavyweights as champions of the Colonial. Last year, it was Duke. This time, as a No. 15, Dick Tarrant's team must face Syracuse.
Duke will play in nothing but domes as long as it survives. The Humphrey Dome in Minneapolis feeds into the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., and the Final Four is in the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis.
The last time North Carolina was in the East, the Tar Heels were the top seed and were beaten by Syracuse at the Meadowlands. UNC is No. 1 again, Syracuse is No. 2, and the regional again is at the Meadowlands.
The Southeast Regional is loaded with Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas and Alabama as the top seeds. That's second only to the West pairing of UNLV, Arizona, Seton Hall and Utah.
Nobody did Virginia any favors. Of all the higher-seeded teams, UVa is at the greatest disadvantage in location by having to play BYU in Salt Lake City.
For the record, I didn't do as well in picking the field in November as I did last year. In 1990, I got 48 of the 64 teams correct. This time, I have only 41. I had a lot more problem with the smaller leagues that get just their tournament champ in the field.
My worst picks were Notre Dame, Tennessee and Minnesota, all of which finished with losing records.
by CNB