March 10, 2002

Bracket
NCAA Men's Post Bracket audio

By MICHAEL MAROT
AP Sports Writer

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The NCAA wanted to limit travel in this year's tournament. The selection committee succeeded, but only in part.

The committee tried to keep teams closer to home for the opening two rounds with a new system that showed it wasn't flawless.

"We can't avoid all travel because two-thirds of our teams are from east of the Mississippi," committee chairman Lee Fowler said Sunday. "What we're trying to do is develop a system where we can cut down on travel."

Fowler, also the athletic director at North Carolina State, said 39 teams stayed in their own time zones, compared with 22 last year, and another 15 were sent one time zone away. Only 11 teams, compared with 20 last year, were moved two or three time zones.

There were glitches.

While Pittsburgh, the third seed in the South, will stay at home, other teams in the South, such as Indiana and North Carolina-Wilmington, were given first-round games Thursday in Sacramento, Calif., and UCLA, the eighth seed in the West, meets Mississippi in Pittsburgh on Friday.

Fowler said last week the committee also would try to avoid giving lower-seeded teams what could amount to a homecourt advantage.

Yet Pennsylvania, the 11th seed in the South, faces sixth-seeded California in Pittsburgh. In the East Regional, 11th-seeded Southern Illinois plays No. 6 Texas Tech in Chicago, and in the Midwest, No. 10 Pepperdine faces No. 7 Wake Forest in Sacramento.

"We wanted to limit the travel as much as possible, but we knew that in the middle of the bracket, it would be difficult," Fowler said.

The top four seeds are Duke, Kansas, Maryland and Cincinnati. Duke, which plays in the South, was seeded No. 1 for a record fifth straight year.

Kansas took the top spot in the Midwest, its first No. 1 seed since 1998, and Maryland and Cincinnati earned their first top spots.

"I think it's great," coach Bob Huggins said of the Bearcats, who will be in the West Regional and open play Friday in Pittsburgh. "It's easier for people to get to the game."

Kansas held onto its top spot, despite losing to Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game Sunday, while Cincinnati beat out the Sooners for the final top seed. Oklahoma drew the second seed in the West.

"We had Cincinnati as a No. 1 seed before the game was played Sunday and I said 'OK, what if Oklahoma beats Kansas, would that change your mind?' " Fowler said. "We had about a 30-minute discussion and then decided that it shouldn't be based on that one game versus the total season."

There were questions about how the selection committee seeded teams, such as Gonzaga. The Bulldogs, No. 6 in last week's Associated Press poll, thought they should have been higher than a sixth seed in the West, where they will face Wyoming.

"If there's one program that knows you have to throw the seeds out starting tomorrow, it's us," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. "We'll prepare like we have the last three years."

Instead, Fowler said the committee looked at how Gonzaga fared against other top teams and determined that 12 of the Bulldogs wins came against teams with RPI ratings lower than 200.

As usual, some teams, such as Virginia and Butler, were left out. Virginia was ranked as high No. 4 this season but lost nine of its last 12 games. Butler had a 25-5 record but lost in the opening round of the Horizon League tournament.

Instead, the committee selected 33 teams from the "power" conferences. The Big East, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern each received six bids, while the Big Ten had five and the ACC four.

The lowest-seeded of the 34 at-large selections were Utah, Missouri and Tulsa, all No. 12s.

Maryland - like the other teams grouped in four-team "pods" - opens East Regional play Friday in Washington, D.C., against the winner of Tuesday's opening-round game between Alcorn State of the Southwestern Athletic Conference and Siena of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The other matchup is eighth-seeded Wisconsin against ninth-seeded St. John's.

The other four teams in the East play Thursday in St. Louis, Mo., with fourth-seeded Kentucky playing Valparaiso and fifth-seeded Marquette going against Tulsa.

The lower part of the bracket features second-seeded Connecticut against Hampton in Washington on Friday and seventh-seeded North Carolina State against Michigan State, which has been to the last three Final Fours.

In Chicago on Friday, third-seeded Georgia meets Murray State while Texas Tech and coach Bob Knight meet Southern Illinois.

In the Midwest Regional, Kansas (29-3), which had its 15-game winning streak snapped by Oklahoma in the tournament championship game, plays Holy Cross on Thursday in St. Louis. The other game pits eighth-seeded Stanford against Western Kentucky.

The other half of the upper bracket has fourth-seeded Illinois staying in Chicago against San Diego State on Friday, while fifth-seeded Florida faces Creighton.

Oregon, the Pac-10 regular-season champion, is seeded second and faces Montana in Sacramento on Thursday. Wake Forest and Pepperdine meet in the other game.

The lower part of the bracket is in Dallas on Friday, with third-seeded Mississippi State against McNeese State, and sixth-seeded Texas facing Boston College.

Duke (29-3) opens defense of its national championship in the South against Winthrop on Thursday in Greenville, S.C., while eighth-seeded Notre Dame plays Charlotte.

The other pod is in Sacramento on Thursday and has fourth-seeded Southern California against North Carolina-Wilmington and fifth-seeded Indiana facing Utah.

Alabama, seeded second in the South, also will play in Greenville, meeting Florida Atlantic, which is making its first tournament appearance. The other game features seventh-seeded Oklahoma State against Kent State.

Pittsburgh, which lost to Connecticut in the Big East championship game, meets Central Connecticut State, which has the nation's longest current winning streak, on Friday.

"We'll have the comforts of home, in a place we've played before," said Brandin Knight, co-player of the year in the Big East. "No long rides on a cramped plane. No bus rides."

The other game features Ivy League champion Pennsylvania, against California.

Cincinnati (30-3), the only team with 30 wins entering the tournament, opens against Boston University, with eighth-seeded UCLA facing Mississippi in the other game in the West.

The other part of the bracket will be in Albuquerque, N.M., on Thursday. Fourth-seeded Ohio State, the Big Ten tournament champion, plays Davidson and fifth-seeded Miami faces Missouri.

Oklahoma's first game after the upset of Kansas will be in Dallas on Friday against Illinois-Chicago, with seventh-seeded Xavier facing Hawaii in the other game.

The other pod in the lower half features third-seeded Arizona against Cal-Santa Barbara in Albuquerque, along with sixth-seeded Gonzaga facing Wyoming.

Florida Atlantic, the Atlantic Sun champions coached by former NBA player Sidney Green, is the only school making its first tournament appearance.

San Diego State, which won the Mountain West title, snapped the longest nonappearance string, making the field for the first time since 1985. The Aztecs are coached by Steve Fisher, whose last NCAA tournament appearance was in 1996 with Michigan. He led the Wolverines to the national championship as an interim coach in 1989 and then to the title game in 1992 and 1993.

Another coach returning to the tournament is Knight, who led Indiana to 24 appearances, winning it all in 1976, 1981 and 1987. He was fired by Indiana in 2000, and returned to coaching with Texas Tech this season, leading the Red Raiders back to the tournament for the first time since 1996.

North Carolina's first 20-loss season ever snapped the Tar Heels' record streak of 27 consecutive appearances. The longest streak now belongs to Arizona, which has been in every tournament since 1985.