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Dancin' with the Devils

Can anyone stop Duke from racing through the NCAAs?

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Posted: Monday March 08, 1999 01:22 AM

Marching on: Duke celebrates after beating North Carolina in the finals of the ACC Tournament. AP

By John Donovan, CNN/SI

ATLANTA -- There was relief, there was puzzlement, there was resignation and joy and a good bit of anger.

And there was Duke. Always Duke.

So it went on another Selection Sunday, when the NCAA Tournament's field of 64 was announced to a chorus of cheers, cries and outright head-scratching.

"We were in. I felt that in my heart. I felt that as factual," said a somewhat incredulous Rick Stansbury, the coach of 20-10 Mississippi State, left stranded by the selection committee and now headed to the National Invitation Tournament instead. "It's not going to eat at me. We got knocked down, we didn't get knocked out."

Maybe no one in college basketball was more beside himself Sunday night than Stansbury, whose team made a stunning run through the Southeastern Conference Tournament only to be shut out of the NCAAs. The Bulldogs had wins over Vanderbilt and SEC East champ Tennessee and then took Arkansas to overtime before losing in the SEC semifinals.

It wasn't good enough.

On the other end of the spectrum was Bob Bender, the coach of 18-11 Washington, whose win over Washington State on Saturday probably pushed the Huskies into the NCAA's field of 64 despite the fact they lost four of their last six games.

"I have a lot of confidence in the respect that the Pac-10 has gained," said Bender. "We always should have four teams in. Still, it's a selection. It's not like we had the automatic bid. So it's not out of the realm that we wouldn't have made it."

The top four seeds in the tournament, which begins Thursday, went as expected. Duke, Michigan State, Connecticut and upstart Auburn head the four brackets.

Duke, clearly, is the team to beat in this tournament, and everyone knows it.

The Blue Devils (32-1) have mowed over their opponents this season, going unbeaten in the Atlantic Coast Conference and winning by an average of 25.5 points a game, best in the nation. They'll be gunning for their first national championship game since 1994 (when they lost to Arkansas) and their third national title of the decade (1991 and '92 were the others).

Duke was rewarded with an easy bracket and a fairly clear shot at the Final Four, to be held in St. Petersburg, Fla., March 27 and 29.

What really surprised on Selection Sunday was not Duke or the other No. 1 seeds. What was amazing was that the traditionally powerful ACC landed only three teams in the tournament, the fewest in 19 years.

What surprised many was that the Big Ten tied the tournament record with seven teams in.

And what really raised hackles was that teams like Alabama-Birmingham (20-11) and Purdue (19-12) made it, while Xavier (21-10), Fresno State (21-11), Cal (17-11 with wins over Arizona and UCLA) and Toledo (19-8) did not.

"I thought we would go. I told the kids that. I guess I misled them," said Skip Prosser, Xavier's coach. "You win 21 games, and 13 in the league, that's supposed to get you to the show. I'm baffled a bit."

Purdue coach Gene Keady, too, was wondering what happened.

"This is about as happy as we've ever been for qualifying for the NCAA Tournament," said Keady, whose team has lost five of its last six games and was KO'd in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. "I know a lot of those committee members, and if we hadn't been chosen, I'd have really understood."

UAB eked in thanks to a win over DePaul in the Conference USA Tournament.

"We're all feeling good around Birmingham right now," UAB coach Murry Bartow said. "But I'm certainly relieved. There are a lot of good teams that didn't make it."

When it came down to the at-large selections, much of it was figured with the help of the Ratings Percentage Index, a complicated formula that calculates win-loss records, strength of schedule and opponents' strength of schedule.

It is something that still baffles even the most savvy of college basketball experts.

"It's one of the things [the committee considers], but what does it mean?" said Kentucky athletics director C.M. Newton, the chairman of the selection committee. "I don't know how you evaluate that. I don't know how that is arrived at, frankly."

Said Stansbury, whose team had an RPI of 102: "The one thing that everybody keeps talking about is the RPI. I don't understand the RPI. If someone would explain that to me, I would feel a lot better."

Here's a glance around the men's tournament bracket:

Best (prospective) second-round matchup

Second-seeded Kentucky, winner of the SEC, vs. sixth-seeded Kansas, winner of the Big 12. Defending champion Kentucky has more wins than anyone in college basketball. Kansas is No. 3 on the all-time win list.

Our dream regional final

Auburn vs. Maryland in the South, where we'll see who really is the nation's best junior college transfer, Maryland's Steve Francis or Auburn's Chris Porter.

Easiest bracket

Duke may coast to St. Petersburg with this draw. Miami and hard-to-figure Cincinnati are the best teams in the other half of that region, Tennessee the toughest one in Duke's half. Cincinnati is the only team to beat the Blue Devils this year. Wouldn't Duke love another crack at the Bearcats?

Toughest bracket

The Midwest has everyone beat, hands down. Not only is No. 2 Michigan State the top seed in that region, defending champion Kentucky, Kansas, No. 8 Utah and Arizona are all there.

"That's good," said Bender, whose Washington team is the No. 7 seed in the region. "It's easier for a coach to say how tough it is when everyone else is saying the same thing."

You can go home now

Besides all the 16 seeds -- a 16th seed still has never has beaten a No. 1 in the tournament -- don't expect miracles from Valparaiso this year, Purdue is awfully shaky and Miami (Ohio) goes into the tournament hobbled.

Us? You mean us?

Yes, you, Oklahoma and Southwest Missouri State. And UAB and Purdue. And Minnesota.

C'mon down.

But a special tournament welcome goes to Louisville, which fought the NCAA's probation and won and now finds itself as a No. 7 seed in the South region.

"Things don't always turn out like you think they should," said coach Denny Crum. "But we're pleased to be in."

Taking a flyer

Florida goes from Gainesville to Seattle and top-seeded Connecticut goes from Storrs to Denver. But the worst case of travel anxiety has to go to tiny Alcorn State, which has to leave its Mississippi home to travel to Seattle to be offered up as first-round fodder to Stanford.

Our house

Gonzaga stays in-state to play, though it's all the way across the state in Seattle. Michigan State is in Milwaukee. But no one gets to sleep in later than top-seeded and top-ranked Duke, which opens up in Charlotte, N.C., where the Blue Devils just captured the ACC Tournament title.

 

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