DATE: Tuesday, March 11, 1997               TAG: 9703110484

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO

                                            LENGTH:   66 lines

NCAA 101 WILL THE LAST TANGO IN INDY BE THE CHARLESTON?

Not the Big Dance again. Please, no.

Give me the basketball tournament round the clock. Bring on March Madness. Send up the balloons and toss the confetti. I'll even risk Dick Vitale without the protection of my mute button.

But spare me that insipid name, the Big Dance.

If the NCAA intended for its tournament to be called the Dance, it would have arranged for valet parking.

Isn't there something we could do about this? Since the Final Four will be played in Indianapolis this year, could we call the tournament something else for a change? The Big Car Rally, perhaps. The Big Barn Raising.

No? Well, if it's got to be the Big Dance once again, exactly what kind of dance is it?

The Macarena? That was last year, wasn't it?

This year, the Big Dance might be . . . should be . . . the Charleston.

Who decided that sleepy, beautiful, palm-tree-lined Charleston, S.C., would become a college basketball mecca? (When I visited Charleston, the only baskets I saw were of the straw variety, woven by locals on the street.)

Competing in the tournament are Charleston Southern and College of Charleston. This gives the seaport town as many entries as the entire Commonwealth of Virginia.

With Clemson and South Carolina also represented, the Palmetto State landed four teams in the field. Who's running college basketball this season, Pat Conroy?

The mavens give College of Charleston (28-2) a reasonable shot to upend Maryland in the first round. College basketball is so balanced (i.e. weak), anything's possible.

Well, almost anything.

As usual, some teams have no chance simply by virtue of their names.

For example: You can count out any team that represents a state that really isn't a state. Be seeing ya, Coppin State, Jackson State and Murray State.

Usually, a directional school has little chance of going far, unless its North Carolina. This does not bode well for Charleston Southern and South Alabama.

And a team with two directions in its name, like Southwest Texas State, is really up against it.

This tried-and-true theory of elimination is complicated by the presence of South Carolina, No. 2 in the East. The selection committee made it possible for Dean Smith to meet two of his proteges en route to the championship game: South Carolina's Eddie Fogler in the East Regional final, and Kansas' Roy Williams in the Final Four semis.

A good human-interest story line adds flavor to the tournament. Mostly, though, people crave upsets.

Scan the brackets for an upset special and Minnesota, No. 1 in the Midwest, leaps out at you.

In recent years, the Big Ten has come up very small in March. And in the second round, tough, tenacious Temple could be waiting to bury the Gophers.

Two weeks ago, it didn't seem out of the question that three ACC teams might reach the Final Four. But Duke will have to get past Kansas, and Wake Forest shares a bracket with Kentucky.

In any case, this is Kansas' tournament to win or lose.

Besides being experienced and talented, Kansas satisfies all the cliched criteria of a tournament favorite.

It's a team that has been there before. It has something to prove. It finished the regular season on a roll (kaiser, I believe).

Final Four: North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky and Temple.

And save the last dance for Roy Williams' Jayhawks.

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