NCAA TOURNAMENT / FIRST ROUND : Bottom Four Face Long Odds

The difference between No. 1 and No. 16 in the NCAA tournament is practically zero--as in there’s practically zero chance of an upset.

Colgate, Mount St. Mary’s, North Carolina A&T; and Florida International are the teams that face the 0-40 mark 16th-seeded teams have in the tournament since it expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Kansas, Wake Forest, Kentucky and UCLA are the teams that will probably send the bottom four back to their campuses.

“We’re college basketball players, they’re college basketball players and they do the same things we do,” North Carolina A&T;’s Phillip Allen said of Wake Forest. “There are no super-heroes out there. You just go out and play with confidence and history will take care of itself.”

Three of the 1-16 games will be played today: Wake Forest vs. North Carolina A&T; in the East; Kansas vs. Colgate in the Midwest; and Kentucky vs. Mount St. Mary’s in the Southeast. UCLA plays Florida International on Friday.

The 15th-seeded teams can be only slightly more optimistic. Richmond’s victory over No. 2 Syracuse in 1991, and Santa Clara over Arizona in 1993 give hope to Murray State, St. Peter’s, Tennessee Chattanooga and Texas Southern.

“No No. 16 has ever won, but I’ve never been in a 1-16 game,” first-year North Carolina A&T; Coach Roy Thomas said. “We’re not here on a vacation. I brought two suits just like Coach Odom did. We’re not here to shake hands, say hello and get back on a plane. There are 240 schools who would like to have my problems right now.”

Colgate, with highly regarded freshman center Adonal Foyle, struggled early against teams outside the Patriot League before the Red Raiders (17-12) won the conference title. Kansas (23-5) rarely faltered in moving to the No. 1 ranking during the season and winning the Big Eight regular-season title.

“We played a tough nonconference schedule,” said Colgate guard Tucker Neale, the nation’s 18th-leading scorer. “We’ve seen the best teams in the country, we know how they play.”

Last year, the four No. 16 teams lost by an average of 22 points in the opening round and only four double-figure seeds won games: No. 10 George Washington over Alabama Birmingham, No. 11 Penn over Nebraska, No. 12 Tulsa over UCLA and No. 12 Wisconsin Green Bay over California.

In other games today in the East at Baltimore, it’s Minnesota vs. St. Louis, Alabama vs. Penn and Oklahoma State against Drexel.

The Southeast at Memphis, Tenn., has Brigham Young vs. Tulane, Arizona State vs. Ball State and Oklahoma against Manhattan, the surprise of the 35 at-large entries.

In the Midwest at Dayton, Ohio, it’s Western Kentucky against Michigan, Arizona against Miami of Ohio and Virginia faces Nicholls State.

The four West matchups in Salt Lake City have Oregon against Texas, Maryland against Gonzaga, Cincinnati against Temple and Connecticut against Tennessee Chattanooga.