The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 13, 2000 - 3B MCAW~fv RAsrau aarniAr I connecticut - :- 'I% - 16 Hampton} 8 Drake s Clemson ~ 5 Oklahoma 12 BYU 4 Purdue 13 Dartmouth EAST 6 Xavier Rdaomg4Va. M1 r.2527 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. 1s Yrgstcwn~nSL--- - aw qmmFmmwgwjlrljw&dw AWAVAIMMIM w %VVA 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 The university has withdrawn its application to stage the first and sec- ond rounds of the NCAA tournament because of a lack of available hotel rooms in the Starkville area the days the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." A U T-SHIRT PRINTING LOWEST PRICES! HIGHEST QUALITY! K FASTEST SERVICE! 1002 PONTIAC TR. I * 994-1367 NO..... 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