The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 13, 2000 - 3B
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8 Drake
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5 Oklahoma
12 BYU
4 Purdue
13 Dartmouth
EAST
6 Xavier Rdaomg4Va.
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11 SF Austin
3 Louisiana St.
14 Liberty - -
10 W Kentucky
2 Duke
15 Campbell -------
1 Louisiana Tech
16 Acorn St.--
8 Kansas-
S Vanderbilt --
4 Old Dominion
13 Wisc. GB
5 N.C. State
12 SM U
6 Illinois Meowasr
11 Utah -5-2s
3 lowa St.
14 St. Francis
7 Auburn
10 SW mO St.
2 Penn St.
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NATIONAL
CHAMPION
1 Tennessee
16 Furman
S Arizona
9 Kent
5 Boston College
12 Nebraska
4 Virginia
13 Pepperdine
r t S 6 Tulane
$9-3 Texas Tech
14 Tenn. Tech
7 George Wash.
2 Notre Dame
15 San Diego
1 Georgia
16 Montana
B Michigan
9 Stanford
5 North Carolina
12 Maine
4 Santa Barbara
13 Rice
WtST 6 Oregon
M4:11 UAB -
3 Mississippi St.
14 St. Peter's
7 Texas
10 St. Joseph's
2 Rutgers
15 Noly Cross
T.J.
BERKA
Teeing Off
A
Tar Heels should not
be dancin' at NCAAs
..
FINAL
FOUR
m. .Ape?
eMississippi State loses
out on hosting NCAA
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A
scheduling conflict will prevent No.
12 Mississippi State from reaping
the benefits of its surprising run to
the Southeastern Conference tourna-
ment title game.
The university has withdrawn its
application to stage the first and sec-
ond rounds of the NCAA tournament
because of a lack of available hotel
rooms in the Starkville area the days
the games are scheduled to take
place.
Mississippi State is the site of the
Southern Regional Orientation
Workshop from March 17-19, with
about 1,000 people from more than
50 southern colleges planning to
attend.
"It's disappointing to the universi-
ty, the administration and the com-
munity," Lady Bulldogs coach
Sharon Fanning saidgThursday.
"Sometimes life just throws you a
curve."
Jimmy Abraham, the school's
ldirector of enrollment services, said
the workshop has been scheduled for
about a year.
Fanning said the administration
suggested moving the games to
Tupelo or Jackson, but the NCAA
requires the site and hotel accommo-
dations be within 30 miles of cam-
pus.
The NCAA requires 150 rooms be
available for the tournament organiz-
ers, teams and media.
M ississippi State (23-7) won three
games last week in the SEC tourna-
ment. including victories over
nationally ranked Auburn and
Georgia, before falling to Tennessee
in the final.
s
LOUISIANA TECH 97, W. KENTuCKY 94
Tamicha Jackson hit a 3-pointer
with 1.2 seconds remaining as No. 3
Louisiana Tech held off Western
Kentucky 97-94 to win the Sun Belt
Conference tournament Saturday
night.
Betty Lennox, the tournament
MVP, scored 25 points and Jackson
21 for the Lady Techsters (28-2),
who earned an automatic bid to the
NCAA tournament with their 18th
straight victory.
Louisiana Tech led by as many as
many as 22 early in the second half.
The Lady Toppers trailed 77-74,
but a 15-4 run got them to 81-79
with 6:14 remaining.
IOWA STATE 75, TEXAS 65
Desiree Francis scored 19 points
to lead No. 10 Iowa State to its first
Big 12 tournament championship
with a 75-65 victory over Texas on
Saturday night.
Angie Welle added 17 points and
10 rebounds and Megan Taylor had
16 points for the top-seeded
Cyclones (25-5), who finished sec-
ond last year.
The sixth-seeded Longhorns (21-
12) couldn't shake early shooting
woes that saw them hit just 26 per-
cent of their first-half shots and trail
31-21 at the break.
Tracy Cook added 10 points for
Texas, the first No. 6 seed to reach
the finals in the tournament's four-
year history.
When you ask people what
their favorite time of the
year is, you will get a vari-
ety of answers. Some people enjoy
Thanksgiving and eating bushels of
food. Other people enjoy opening
presents on Christmas or, for the
ladies, getting roses on Valentine's
Day.
These holidays are good and all,
but they don't hold a candle to my
favorite time of the year - March
Madness.
The month of March is a special
month because of the NCAA basket-
ball tournament. For the
last three weeks of the
month - and the additional The
week that makes up
Cham~pionship Week - myN
mind thinks about nothing
but college basketball. Carol
But as with everything ply SN
else in life, there is some- Set
thing awry in the NCAA
Tournament this year.
Every year on Selection Sunday, there
are certain teams that get in when
they shouldn't, and there are others
that get screwed.
Usually, that fact doesn't bother me
that much. It's one of those things
that is bound to happen when trying
to pick the top 64 teams in the nation.
Even when Michigan was snubbed in
1997, I wasn't too angry about it.
But this year the selection commit-
tee dropped the ball. They had a
chance to make a statement about how
performance over the course of a sea-
son is the most important factor in
tournament selection, but they blew it.
You may think I'm talking about
Cincinnati, who was ranked in the top
three the whole season but was
dropped to a No. 2 seed once Kenyon
Martin got injured. But you'd be
wrong.
The travesty I'm talking about is
North Carolina being in this year's
NCAA Tournament.
There's no question that North
Carolina is one of the premier pro-
grams in college basketball. Before
this season, the Tar Heels had won 20
or more games in a season 25 years
in a row, a very impressive feat.
The Tar Heels also went to the
Final Four five times in the '90s, and
won a national championship during
that time.
That's all well and good. But the
'90s are over and North Carolina sim-
ply sucks this season.
The Tar Heels went 18-13 this year,
finishing fourth in the ACC, their
worst finish since 1962.
The Tar Heels, with a chance to
establish themselves as a contender,
dropped their first-round ACC tour-
nament game to Wake Forest on
Friday.
on Feb. 20.
Virginia also won three of their last
six games, including a regular-season
ending win against Maryland, a No. 3
seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Meanwhile, the Tar Heels lost four of
their last six games, with their only
wins against Georgia Tech and
Florida State, who both finished well
below .500.
The only thing North Carolina has
going for it is a higher RPI. I agree;
North Carolina had a tougher schedule.
But North Carolina lost their tough
games. Anyone can lose to Michigan
State, Indiana and Duke, while barely
beating Purdue.
In fact, the Michigan basketball
team did that exact thing. But does
that mean that the Wolverines are a
Tournament team?
Of course not.
But somehow North Carolina is.
And there's only one reason why.
They are North Carolina.
I realize that North Carolina has
won the national championship
before. Being a Michigan fan, I can't
forget about how they beat the
Wolverines. But does past success
make it OK for a less-than-qualified
team to go to the Tournament?
No.
Using that logic, why not put
Georgetown in the tournament
because they were good in the '$0s?
Michigan did well with the Fab Five
in the early '90s, so they should be in
the tournament, right?
Wrong. That's terrible logic. And
it's too bad that Virginia had to suffer
because of it.
- You think T.J Berka has a vendetta
against North Carolina? You bet your
ass he does. He can be reached via
email at berkat@umich.edu.
191
ff 1
'Cr
North Carolina's streak of 20-victo-
ry seasons will end this year, unless
they make it to the Sweet 16. This Tar
Heel team, who hasn't beaten a
ranked team since the Maui Classic in
November, has no shot at that.
But North Carolina made it into the
tournament easily as a No. 8 seed.
And almost every analyst on ESPN,
CBS and FOX Sports was all about it.
Meanwhile, fans of Virginia get
screwed. The Cavaliers, who finished
19-11 on the season, swept North
Carolina during the regular season
and had a higher seed than North
Carolina in the ACC
tournament.
Os are But somehow, North
and Carolina got in and
Virginia is sitting at
home. How that is a logi-
ta sim- cal occurrence is beyond
ks this me. They not only beat
On. North Carolina twice,
but killed the Tar Heels
90-76 in North Carolina
JOANNA PAINE/Daily
Michigan coach Sue Guevara is shocked her team did not receive a higher seed.
SNUB
Continued from Page lB
Wolverines' sub-regional.
The No. 4 Bulldogs face 16-seeded
Montana, the Big Sky Tournament
champion, in the first round. Georgia
shared the SEC regular season title
before being upset by Mississippi State
in the conference tournament semi-
finals.
"Georgia has proved that they're bet-
ter this year than what people set out for
them," Thorius said. "But we know that
we have the capability to play with any-
one."
The Wolverines are returning to the
tournament for the second time in three
years, and just the third time in school
history. In 1998, Michigan lost its first
round game to UCLA, and in 1990, the
Wolverines lost in the second round to
Oklahoma State.
"We've been there once before, and
we played a lot of tough teams on the
road this year," Thorius said. "So we
know what kind of environment we're
going into, and we know what to expect
... This is a better feeling going into it."
After a two-week layoff following
their semi-final loss to Purdue, the
Wolverines are looking forward to com-
peting again.
"It's been a long week walking
around wondering where we'll go,"
Thorius said. "Now we finally know
and can start concentrating on the small
things."
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