College Basketball : The Big Chill at Chapel Hill: Tournament Tickets Drop Some in Value

The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament selection committee spoiled the hopes of a number of teams when it announced its tournament pairings, and it spoiled the best-laid plans of plenty of fans in the process.

Tickets have been on sale since December for first- and second-round games in South Bend, Ind., and Chapel Hill, N.C., sites where it was considered very likely that home teams--Notre Dame and North Carolina--would be playing on their own courts.

But when the pairings were announced Sunday, Notre Dame was sent to Chapel Hill for the first round, and the Tar Heels, because of a loss to Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament final, were sent to Salt Lake City.

Anybody want some tickets, cheap?

The games in South Bend were already sold out before the announcement, but Mike Bobinsky, ticket manager, anticipates a lot of behind-the-scenes trading.

“I honestly don’t anticipate many no-shows,” Bobinsky said. “Indiana is just a basketball-crazy state. The people who are just die-hard Notre Dame can always find a Purdue fan to sell to.”

Purdue, of course, is located in West Lafayette, Ind., and will play Fairleigh Dickinson at South Bend in the first round today.

In Chapel Hill, though, it is a different matter.

About 18,000 of the more than 21,444 seats available in Smith Center had been sold before Sunday. But since the pairings were announced, “not many” have been sold, said Charles Lockee, assistant ticket manager.

Instead of North Carolina playing at home, rival Duke, the ACC tournament champion, will travel the 12 miles from Durham, N.C., to play in Chapel Hill.

The word is that some spiteful North Carolina fans, who saw their team lose to Duke three times this season, are considering holding onto their tickets even though they won’t attend the games, just to keep Duke fans out of Smith Center.

Watch for no-show figures from Chapel Hill to discover whether spite or common sense wins out.

A few of college basketball’s tradition-rich conferences once again dominated the at-large selections to the NCAA tournament, this time taking 20 of the 34 bids not tied to conference titles.

Six teams from the Big East made the field, as did five each from the Big Ten, the Big Eight and the Atlantic Coast Conference, and four from the Southeastern Conference. One team from each of those conferences, of course, earned the conference’s automatic bid.

The lesson may not be so much in the weight that tradition and reputation carry, but in the value of schedule strength--and nothing so much determines schedule strength as conference play, simply because it accounts for most of the games.

Among the borderline teams that made the tournament, schedule strength loomed as the key.

And--little surprise--they were teams from those same few conferences.

Louisiana State, with a 16-13 record, the worst in the field, is a member of the SEC. Maryland (17-12) plays in the ACC, and St. John’s (17-11) is in the Big East.

Stanford (20-11) an NCAA hopeful that didn’t make the field although it was one of only two teams that upset Arizona, was probably hurt not only by the perceived weakness of the Pacific 10, but also because the Cardinal played two games this season against Division II opponents--one against Chaminade in a tournament in Hawaii, and one against Seattle Pacific.

However, there are no Division II opponents on Stanford’s schedule for next season.

Troy Lewis, a guard for Purdue, the top-seeded team in the Midwest Regional, goes into the NCAA tournament with a streak of 46 games with at least one three-point basket.

When the Utah State team returned to Logan, Utah, Saturday night after winning its first Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. tournament championship, the Aggies got a welcome far beyond anyone’s expectations.

Assembled in the Spectrum, the Aggies’ arena, was a crowd of about 10,000 that included the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Marie Osmond.

The crowd hadn’t come to meet the basketball team, but it was a coincidence that worked out well.

The crowd had gathered for a program honoring the university’s 100th anniversary. But after the program was over, University President Stanford Cazier told the audience not to go away.

Out came the basketball team, which had earned an NCAA berth with the tournament title. The team was greeted with a standing ovation.

Although there are lots of Mormons in the student body at Utah State, the Aggies do not have a policy against playing or practicing on Sunday, as Brigham Young does.

Utah State Coach Rod Tueller had said his team would prefer not to play on Sunday, but that they would do so if placed at one of the sites with second-round games on Sunday--provided of course, that the Aggies advance to the second round.

The Aggies will play Vanderbilt Friday at Lincoln, Neb., and will play a second-round game Sunday, should they win.

Brigham Young, however, plays North Carolina Charlotte today at Atlanta, and will play a second-round game Saturday, should it win.

After North Carolina State had lost to Duke by two points Saturday in the semifinals of the ACC tournament, N.C. State Coach Jim Valvano faced the press to discuss the game.

Will fatigue be a factor in the championship game between Duke and North Carolina, someone asked?

“Not for us,” Valvano said.

Then and now: Net receipts for the NCAA tournament in 1970--$1,065,892. Estimated net receipts for the NCAA tournament in 1988--$54,427,100.