88 - The Michigan Daify - SPORTSMonday -March 9, 1998
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The Contest
During the doldrums of an other-
wise boring March, The Michigan
Daily and Pizza House offer you a
wee bit of excitement.
What You Win
The most accurate prognosticator
will receive 10 FREE pizzas, topped
with anything you like, courtesy of
Pizza House. All other contest
entrants will receive nothing.
What It Costs
Very little. In fact, nothing. It's free.
How To Play
Here's where it gets a little tricki-
er. Fill out the bracket as you
would for any other pool. Be sure
to write in a pick for every game,
even if you're not sure of the cor-
rect answer - there is no penalty
for guessing. Also, please pick the
total number of points for the two
teams in the championship game,
just in case we have to break any
ties. Be sure to write your name
and telephone number, somewhat
legibly, in the top right corner of
the bracket (failure to comply with
this stipulation will disqualify you
from the contest and will definitely Who Can Play finalist, eight for each regional
make the sports editors very You need not be a finalist, 16 for each finalist and 32
angry). Anybody. for the national champion for a
University student, faculty or staff total of 192 points. In the event of
More Rules member. Employees of Thettal o nts.antsesteto
Michigan Daily and Pizza House a tie, the contestant closest to
When you've finished filling out and their immediate family, howev- the total number of points scored
the bracket, cut it out and drop it er, are not eligible to win. The in the national championship game
off at The Michigan Daily's Sports Michigan Daily reserves the right will be crowned the winner.
desk on the second floor of the to disqualify a contestant in the As
Student Publications Building at event of an illegal entry. Weysueon se
420 Maynard St. (just north of We sure hope not, 'cause we think
the Student Activities Building). How to Score we explained it pretty well. But, in
All entries must be received by You receive one point for each for case you do, call the Daily Sports
11 a.m. on Thursday, March 12. each correctly picked first-round department at 647-3336 any day
Only one entry per person, winner two for each second-round after 4 p.m. Thanks for playing.
please. winner, four for each regional semi-
Florida State, Western Michigan among surprise teams
.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -
While there was little doubt about the
No. I seeds for the NCAA tournament
- North Carolina, Duke, Kansas and
Arizona - the field of 64 still offered
some surprises.
The top seeds were considered the
four best teams in the country for most
of the season, but a few of the 34 at-
large teams didn't know their fate until
yesterday.
Among the surprise picks were
Florida State, which lost seven of its
last 10 games, including the play-in
game of the Atlantic Coast Conference
tournament; Western Michigan, which
had an RPI ranking of 59; and Miami,
which split its last 10 games and had
an RPI ranking of 48.
"You have beauty marks and warts
on all of those teams," Selection
Committee chairman C.M. Newton
said of the schools that were consid-
ered for the final at-large berths.
He cited the strength of schedule and
quality wits for Florida State and
Miami. Florida State beat Arizona and
Connecticut, while Miami also beat
Connecticut.
The teams that certainly merited
some attention from the nine-member
selection committee but were not
picked included Arizona State, Wake
Forest, Hawaii and Vanderbilt.
Five conferences are sending five
teams each to the tournament -
Atlantic Coast Conference, Atlantic
10, Big East, Big Ten and Southeastern
Conference - while three are sending
four each: Big 12, Pac-10 and Western
Athletic Conference. The Midwestern
Collegiate Conference and Conference
USA each had three.
Four schools - Illinois-Chicago,
Prairie View, Northern Arizona and seeded UNLV, which won the Western
Radford - are making their first tour- Athletic Conference tournament; and
nament appearances. Prairie View, fourth-seeded Michigan State, the reg-
which is 263rd of 306 Division I ular-season co-champions of the Big
schools according to the RPI ratings, Ten, will face 13th-seeded Eastern
has the lowest ranking of any team ever Michigan.
to make the NCAA tournament. In the other East opening rounds, to
Miami hasn't been to the NCAAs be played in Washington, D.C., second-
since 1960, but the 38-year absence seeded Connecticut, the Big East regu-
includes 15 years - 1971-85 - when lar-season and tournament champions,
the school didn't have a team, plays 15th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson.
North Carolina extended its own The other games at the MCI Center fea-
record with its 24th con- ture third-seeded South
secutive appearance, T road to the Carolina against No. 14
while Arizona tied Richmond; No. 6 Xavier
Georgetown for the sec- - _ against No. II
ond-longest streak with Washington; and No. 7
its 14th consecutive Indiana, looking to break
selection. Georgetown's a three-year first-round
run was from 1979-92. losing streak, against No.
North Carolina, which 10 Oklahoma.
won its rubber game Arizona (27-4), which
with top-ranked Duke in has the top eight players
yesterday's ACC cham- back from last year's
pionship, was given the ^ " d championship team, will
top seed in the East play 16th-seeded
region. The Tar Heels would play the Nicholls State on Thursday in
regional semifinals and finals in Sacramento, Calif. The other matchups
Greensboro, N.C., if they win their first are: No. 8 Tennessee against No. 9
two games. Illinois State; No. 5 Illinois, which tied
Duke was put at the top of the South Michigan State for the Big Ten regu-
region, while Kansas, the only one of lar-season title, against No. 12 South
the top four seeds not to be ranked No. Alabama; and No. 4 Maryland against
I at some point this season, was placed No. 13 Utah State.
in the Midwest and defending champi- In the West's other opening-round
on Arizona was placed No. I in the games, in Boise, Idaho, on Thursday,
West region. second-seeded Cincinnati faces No. 15
North Carolina (30-3) will open Northern Arizona. Sixth-seeded
against Patriot League champion Navy Arkansas will play No. I1 Nebraska,
on Thursday in Hartford, Conn. The No. 3 Utah faces No. 14 San Francisco,
other games at that site are: eighth- and seventh-seeded Temple plays No.
seeded North Carolina Charlotte 10 West Virginia.
against ninth-seeded Illinois-Chicago; Kansas (34-3) opens in Oklahoma
fifth-seeded Princeton will play 12th- City on Friday against 16th-seeded
Prairie View, the Southwestern Athletic
Conference champions and at 13-16 the
only sub-.500 in the tournament.
In the other games in Oklahoma City,
No. 8 Rhode Island plays No. 9 Murray
State; No. 5 Texas Christian faces No.
12 Florida State, the lowest seeded of
the 34 at-large teams; and No. 4
Mississippi plays No. 13 Valparaiso.
The Midwest's other first- and sec-
ond-round games will be Friday and
yesterday at Chicago's United Center.
Second-seeded Purdue faces No. 15
Delaware; No. 6 Clemson plays No. 11
Western Michigan; No. 3 Stanford
faces No. 14 College of Charleston;
and No. 7 St. John's goes up against
No. 10 Detroit.
Duke (29-3) heads the South region
and will open against No. 16 Radford
in Lexington, Ky., on Friday. The other
games at Rupp Arena feature No. 8
Oklahoma State against No. 9 George
Washington; No. 5 Syracuse against
No. 12 Iona in an all-New York state
matchup; and No. 4 New Mexico
against No. 13 Butler.
Games Friday at the Georgia Dome
in Atlanta feature No. 2 Kentucky
against No. 15 South Carolina State;
No. 6 UCLA against No. 1I Miami;
No. 3 Michigan, which won the inau-
gural Big Ten tournament on Sunday,
against No. 14 Davidson; and No. 7
Massachusetts against No. 10 Saint
Louis.
The East regional will be played in
Greensboro, the West in Anaheim,
Calif., the Midwest in St. Louis and the
South in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Final
Four is March 28 and 30 at San
Antonio with the semifinal matchups
East against West and Midwest against
South.
No. 2 North Carolina captures ACC
title, overturns No. 1 D 83-68
GREENSBORO, N.C.(AP)-The
Tar Heels (30-3) won their 15th
Atlantic Coast Conference tournament
yesterday by beating No. I Duke 83-
68, capping a three-day run in which
they defeated all three teams they-lost
to during the regular season.
Antawn Jamison, playing with a
painful groin injury, was the hero as
he has been all season for his team,
scoring 22 points and grabbing a sea-
son-high 18 rebounds.
Shammond Williams, who scored
25 points in North Carolina's semnifi-
nal overtime victory against
Maryland, added 19 points as the Tar
Heels defended their ACC title.
Roshown McLeod led Duke (29-3)
with 24 points and Chris Carrawell
had 18, but the Blue Devils had anoth-
er horrid shooting day - its third
straight in the ACC postseason. Duke
shot 33 percent and was only I I-of-32
on 3-pointers.
No. 7 KENTUCKY 86, No. 15
Sou M CAROLINA 56
No. 7 Kentucky won the
Southeastern Conference tournament
for-the sixth time in seven years yes-
terday, rolling to an 86-56 victory over
No. 15 South Carolina.
Tournament MVP Wayne Turner
scored 18 points and Allen Edwards,
who missed the semifinal while
attending his mother's funeral,
returned to add 15 as Kentucky (29-4)
added another SEC championship to
its already bountiful collection.
The Wildcats won their three tour-
nament games by an average of 22
points, the biggest blowout coming
against Eastern Division runner-up
South Carolina (23-7).
The Wildcats gave Tubby Smith a
title in his first season. It was
Kentucky's 21st tournament champi-
onship overall, 15 more than any other
school.
"Tubby! Tubby! Tubby!" the pro-
Kentucky crowd at the Georgia Dome
chanted as Smith accepted the cham-
pionship trophy.
No. 3 KANsAs 72, OKLAHomA 58
Paul Pierce, a likely hero, and
unlikely ones Ryan Robertson and T.J.
Pugh helped No. 3 Kansas finally
solve Oklahoma's collapsing zone
defense and beat the Sooners 72-58
Sunday in the Big 12 tournament
championship game.
With 3-point specialist Billy
Thomas sitting out for a third straight
game with a groin injury, the Sooners'
zone collapsed on All-American cen-
ter Raef LaFrentz, holding him to two
points in the first half.
But Pierce scored 26 points and
took charge in the second half to lead
a 23-6 run that gave Kansas (34-3) its
second straight Big 12 tournament title
and the league's automatic NCAA
tournament bid. The second-half
explosion kept the Sooners (22-10)
from avenging the 1988 NCAA title
game loss to Kansas on the same
Kemper Arena floor.