NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : SOUTHEAST REGIONAL AT BIRMINGHAM, ALA. : State of Kentucky Has Two Chances to Reach the Final

The Southeast Regional of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball tournament could be likened to a play because the roles are so defined.

Tonight’s matchups: Villanova (23-12) vs. Kentucky (27-5), and Oklahoma (32-3) vs. Louisville (24-10).

Villanova’s team is typecast again, as it was in 1985 when it surprisingly won the NCAA championship by beating favored Georgetown. It’s a team of overachievers, supportive of Coach Rollie Massimino, in a so-called family atmosphere.

Illinois had more athletic ability than Villanova, but Massimino’s team was smarter and more poised in the final seconds of their second-round game Sunday at Cincinnati, winning, 66-63.

Kentucky is even more talented than Illinois, with one of the best backcourt combinations in the country in Rex Chapman and Ed Davender.

Eddie Sutton is a respected coach who is trying to win a championship that has eluded the school since 1978. There is some pressure on Sutton to restore Kentucky to the degree of prominence it had in the 1940s and ‘50s under the late Adolph Rupp.

Oklahoma Coach Billy Tubbs sometimes suffers unfairly from what Guy Lewis had to deal with at Houston--the average-coach-with-good-talent appraisal.

Tubbs, though, has a commendable 14-year coaching record of 303 wins against 141 losses. His Sooners are averaging 104.6 points a game and are top-seeded in the regional.

Denny Crum has Louisville winning regularly at the most significant juncture of the season, just as he has in the past.

Louisville has won 12 of its last 14 games, and Crum, the college coach of the ‘80s, is striving to reach the Final Four for the fifth time in this decade. His Cardinals won the championship in 1980 and ’86.

Crum says that fans tonight at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center will be treated to an up-tempo game, with the Sooners and Cardinals pressing the length of the court.

“We’ve faced a lot of presses, but I don’t think we’ve played against one as good as theirs,” Crum said. “It’s the best I’ve seen.”

Oklahoma has forced opponents into an average of 24.3 turnovers a game. Louisville is averaging 17.2 turnovers and causing 17.1.

The game may turn on how Louisville’s young guards, sophomore Keith Williams and freshman LaBradford Smith, handle the pressure produced by Oklahoma guards Mookie Blaylock and Ricky Grace.

Inside, however, Louisville may pose a problem to Oklahoma, which was outrebounded in its first two tournament games, but still won handily.

Pervis Ellison, a 6-foot 9-inch center who led Louisville to the NCAA championship in 1986 as a freshman, will be opposed by 6-10 Stacey King.

“Stacey is going to have his hands full with Ellison,” Tubbs said. “We all are.”

In Louisville’s recent surge, it has outscored and outrebounded its opponents by an average margin of 8.9 points and 6.2 rebounds.

Kentucky, like Oklahoma and Louisville, is an up-tempo team, but Villanova likes to slow the pace, keeping a game in the 60-point neighborhood.

“We might not have the talent Kentucky has, but we might have the edge in morale and momentum,” said Mark Plansky, Villanova’s 6-7 forward.

It was Plansky, who faked Illinois guard Kendall Gill into fouling him with 4 seconds left in their game, even though Plansky was in a corner, 20 feet away from the basket. Plansky then made two free throws for the winning margin.

Villanova survived that game with Plansky’s late three-point shooting and with quick fouls that sent a poor shooting Illinois team to the line.

That strategy could be self-defeating for Villanova tonight. Kentucky is shooting 76% from the free-throw line. Davender made six straight free throws in the final 37 seconds to preserve Kentucky’s 90-81 second-round win over Maryland.

Southeast Regional Notes

Villanova will play Kentucky at 5:07 PST tonight with Louisville meeting Oklahoma about 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. . . . Saturday’s regional final game will start at 1:03 p.m. PST. . . . LeRon Ellis, Kentucky’s 6-11 freshman center from Santa Ana Mater Dei High School, said he wasn’t pressured to enroll at USC, even though his father, Leroy, is an assistant coach with the Trojans. “My dad would never do that,” Ellis said. “I wasn’t really looking to play for a West Coast team.” He said that the schools he seriously considered were Kentucky, North Carolina, Syracuse, Georgetown and St. John’s, where his father played. . . . . . . Louisville is making its 10th tournament appearance in the last 12 years.