1999 Ad

Sporting News, The, Jan 18, 1999 by Mike DeCourcy

Halfway into a season of surprises, sensations and shortcomings, there is one trend: The good teams are very good and the rest very average. Finding enough to fill your NCAA Tournament bracket won't be easy. Here's a hint: Look to the mid-majors.

We know what you are thinking.

You are thinking 64 teams are too many. You are wondering where the NCAA Tournament selection committee is going to find 64 qualified teams to fill its bracket without being forced to invite Maine Central Institute and Oak Hill Academy.

You are wondering what it is that teams like Temple, Kansas State, Washington, UAB, Colorado State and Wake Forest can accomplish between now and March 7 that will keep everyone from gasping when their names appear on the bracket.

There is a severe shortage of major-conference teams that concluded the preconference portions of their schedules the sort of credentials that could combine with a fair-to-middlin' league performance to make them automatically NCAA-bound.

So many schools are already deep in "bad losses" and relatively unburdened by "quality wins."

The answer is simple.

It is the mid-majors' turn.

There still is plenty of room for Duke, Cincinnati, Connecticut and Stanford and all those who would seriously challenge them in their respective leagues. But it doesn't seem right to stuff the field with high-major teams simply because they have the money and power to command an abundance of home games.

There are at least nine mid-major programs--Toledo, College of Charleston, Miami (Ohio), Southwest Missouri State, Ohio, Gonzaga, Princeton, Old Dominion, Creighton--that ended December with credentials equal to or better than those of the mid-pack teams from the nine major leagues. Three or four more--Murray State, Valparaiso, Northern Arizona, Pepperdine--could argue they belong.

They deserve to go through conference play with the same comfort level as their big brothers--knowing if they win a healthy number of games, they need not claim an automatic bid to find a place in the field. But they're not counting on it.

"After last year," Gonzaga coach Dan Monson says, "we've got to win that league tournament."

Gonzaga was 23-9 in 1997-98 when selections were made and 65th in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) standings, but it lost in the West Coast Conference Tournament after winning the regular-season title. The Bulldogs played in the NIT.

This time, they put themselves on the road to Kansas, Memphis, Purdue and TCU. Gonzaga beat Memphis, played KU and Purdue tough before losing by double-digits and lost to TCU by three. Gonzaga swept Washington and Washington State on a neutral floor. Monson believes where games are played needs to be given greater consideration.

Except to play in the Maui Invitational, Clemson did not leave South Carolina in November and December. New Mexico played one road game in its first 12. UAB played eight of its first 10 at home.

"If a high-major school would have gone through our schedule, I'd be very surprised if there were 25 or 30 teams that could have survived that schedule any better," Monson said. "A lot of high-major teams, for lack of a better term, are buying their way into the tournament."

Three leagues under the sea

These major conferences will have trouble serving up qualified teams for NCAA Tournament bids:

Conference USA. Although C-USA finished December ranked sixth on the RPI computer, the list of quality wins achieved by teams other than Cincinnati couldn't fill the next Rainbow Classic field. The Bearcats should be ready for everyone's best shots as UAB, South Florida and UNC Charlotte work to improve their resumes.

Atlantic 10. The league gets an automatic bid for its champion. But who else? Only Xavier and George Washington finished nonleague play more than a game over .500. To get in from the A-10, a team had better dominate the league.

WAC. Although TCU has been fine and Fresno is surging and there are plenty of teams with pretty records, the WAC had an RPI ranking of 11 because of the number of pushovers its teams played. The WAC may present the most daunting problem for the selection committee.

TOP 10

The following are the most noteworthy events of the first half:

1. Melvin Levett's home run. The Cincinnati Bearcats won the season's most thrilling game with a "home run" play reminiscent of Christian Laettner's basket in the 1992 regional finals--except Duke was the victim this time. Forward Ryan Fletcher threw a baseball pass to center Kenyon Martin at the opposite foul line, and Martin immediately redirected the ball to Levett for a game-winning dunk.

2. Payback. After losing to Cincinnati, Duke took out its frustration on everyone that followed, including Michigan State, Kentucky and Maryland. The Devils won their next eight games by an average of 20.8 points and convinced most everyone but the Bearcats that result was a fluke.

3. Faces in the crowd. The NBA lockout brought many of those inactive players who filed for early draft entry--North Carolina's Antawn Jamison and St. Louis' Larry Hughes among them--into the audience for college games. It also gave NBA coaches and scouts greater impetus to get out and watch the colleges because they had nothing else to do.