Seeding Leaves Unhappy Bruins Planted in Indiana

When the gong sounded Sunday and the 64-team NCAA tournament field was announced in Kansas City, Mo., it was difficult to distinguish reward from punishment.

For the honor of defending its Pacific 10 Conference championship, UCLA was unceremoniously shipped out of the West Regional to the Southeast, where the defending national champions will open against Princeton in Indianapolis.

Congratulations.

For the honor of defeating No. 1 Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference championship game on Sunday, Mississippi State improved from a No. 5 seed to . . . a No. 5 seed?

Purdue, which lost to Iowa on Saturday, was rewarded with the No. 1 seed in the West.

California lost its last two games and got in; Fresno State won 20 games and did not.

Santa Clara is in, but Providence is out?

Thirteen teams with 20-victory seasons did not make the field, but two teams with losing records--Central Florida and San Jose State--did.

No one ever said picking an NCAA field was fair. Or fun.

Last year, George Washington Coach Mike Jarvis sat slack-jawed as TV cameras captured his disappointment at not making the field.

Sunday, George Washington was penciled in and Jarvis was all smiles. His Colonials were the No. 11 seed in the West.

“You realize that for every Mike Jarvis there’s another team out there that’s disappointed,” Bob Frederick, chairman of the Division I men’s basketball committee, said. “We work very hard at this, there’s a lot of preparation to it.”

Frederick said operations were going smoothly with the nine-man selection committee until the weekend, when several teams pegged for top seeds suffered complicating losses.

Kansas’ loss to Iowa State in the Big Eight tournament final cost the Jayhawks the No. 1 seed in the West.

This was a sticky situation for Frederick, who happens to be Kansas’ athletic director. By rule, committee members have to leave the room when their teams are being discussed.

Frederick left for 45 minutes. When he returned, the Jayhawks remained in the West, but as a No. 2 seed.

Cincinnati (25-4), which won the inaugural Conference USA tournament, was also considered for the top spot in the West, but the seeding went to Purdue (25-5).

So, a day after they figured they blew any chance of a top seed with a loss to Iowa, the Boilermakers were back on top.

Strangely, and unfairly, Kentucky’s loss to Mississippi State on Sunday hurt the Bulldogs much more than it did the Wildcats.

Kentucky still ended up the No. 1 seed in the Midwest, as expected. The only difference is that it will play lowly No. 16 San Jose State instead of lowly No. 16 Central Florida in the first round.

What’s more, Kentucky (28-2) apparently welcomed the defeat.

“The loss will help us,” Coach Rick Pitino said. “It shows us we’re not invincible.”

As for Mississippi State, Frederick admitted the committee did not have time to consider the weight of the Bulldogs ending Kentucky’s 27-game winning streak.

In a bad bit of scheduling, the victory came hours before the committee had to finalize its brackets and make the announcement on CBS.

So Mississippi State (22-7) remained a No. 5 seed in the Southeast.

“Because of the complexities we had to consider, we couldn’t make the adjustment without almost totally unraveling our bracket,” Frederick said. “We tried to encourage people to play earlier. It would have helped in this case.”

A quick assessment:

WINNERS

Santa Clara--Who says lightning doesn’t strike twice? For the second year in a row, the Broncos made the tournament despite losing in the West Coast Conference tournament.

“Stunned again,” Coach Dick Davey said from his office Sunday. “Obviously, the committee is very courageous. They have their formula, and we fit the criteria.”

The committee was obviously impressed with Santa Clara’s snooty RPI rating (33) and early season victories over UCLA and Georgia Tech.

“It got us in the limelight,” Davey said of his team’s victory against UCLA in the Maui Classic. “At the same time, it was just one of the factors.”

The Broncos (19-8) weren’t thinking about limelight when they were defeated at home by Pepperdine in the first round of the WCC tournament.

“I wasn’t too optimistic,” Davey said of his team’s NCAA chances.

So, as the selectors would have it, Santa Clara wins a spot in the West, but UCLA becomes the first Pac-10 champion to be shipped out.

Kansas State--The Wildcats finished 17-11 and lost three times to Kansas, but Coach Tom Asbury’s team rode the back of the mighty Big Eight to qualify as a No. 10 seed in the East.

“I felt like we were in, to be honest,” Asbury said. “But I’ve been in that situation before.”

Asbury, the former Pepperdine coach, turned Kansas State into a winner in his second season. The Wildcats, who play New Mexico in the first round, were 12-15 last year, and 3-11 in the Big Eight.

“Probably the prognosticators wouldn’t have ever thought we’d have been at this point this quickly,” Asbury said.

But the coach isn’t conceding anything.

“My first thought when we got the pairings was, ‘Well, let’s beat them and let’s figure out who we’re going to go play next.’ You don’t say ‘Well, geez, it’s sure nice to be here.’ ”

Arkansas--Call this an achievement award for having been in the last two NCAA title games. In truth, the Razorbacks (18-12) were reeling down the stretch after two of their players were ruled ineligible.

California--The Bears (17-10) made it despite losing their final two Pac-10 games to Arizona and Arizona State. Not exactly what you would call building momentum.

LOSERS

Fresno State--The Bulldogs won 20 games and beat Utah twice in Coach Jerry Tarkanian’s comeback season, but that wasn’t good enough for the committee.

“Fresno State was a really difficult one for us,” Frederick said.

What kept the Bulldogs out? Frederick noted that they were 4-8 on the road, and 5-6 against teams ranked in the top 100.

Tark had another take on the situation.

“I think we should have gotten in,” he said. “But I’m not going to have sour grapes. Any time the committee has to pick in a situation like that, it is going to be very, very close. I’m disappointed the Pac-10 got four teams in and the WAC only got two teams in, because I think our league basically is comparable to the Pac-10.”

Tarkanian, who has had his troubles with the NCAA, said he did not think the committee was out to get him.

“No,” he said. “That’s a totally different committee.”

Providence--The Friars finished 17-11 in the Big East, considered by most the best conference in the nation this season, but were only 5-10 against top-100 teams, Frederick noted.

Providence Coach Pete Gillen was prepared for the disappointment even before his team was left out.

“Life isn’t fair,” Gillen said at the Big East tournament. “People are born blind and crippled. Little kids die in plane crashes. I think we deserve to get in, but you don’t always get what you deserve.”

Minnesota--The Gophers finished 10-8 in the Big Ten, which usually means an NCAA bid.

“Minnesota was in a group of teams we considered right until the end,” Frederick said. “They were 18-12, had a 5-7 road record and were 8-12 versus the top 100.”

Arkansas Little Rock--Wimp Sanderson’s team won 25 games, but found out the cost of losing to New Orleans in the Sun Belt Conference tournament title game.

By conference, the Atlantic Coast, which received only four bids last year, rebounded with six this year. The Big East and Big Ten had five teams selected while the Atlantic 10, Big Eight, Conference USA, Pac-10 and Southeastern conferences each had four teams selected.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Let the Madness Begin

Southeast Regional

1. Connecticut

2. Cincinnati

3. Georgia Tech

4. UCLA

5. Mississippi St.

6. Indiana

7. Temple

8. Duke

9. Eastern Mich.

10. Oklahoma

11. Boston College

12. Virginia Comm.

13 Princeton

14. Austin Peay

15. UNC Greensboro

16. Colgate

West Regional

1. Purdue

2. Kansas

3. Arizona

4. Syracuse

5. Memphis

6. Iowa

7. Maryland

8. Georgia

9. Clemson

10. Santa Clara

11. G. Washington

12. Drexel

13. Montana St.

14. Valparaiso

15. South Carolina St.

16. Western Carolina

East Regional

1. Massachusetts

2. Georgetown

3. Texas Tech

4. Marquette

5. Penn State

6. North Carolina

7. New Mexico

8. Bradley

9. Stanford

10. Kansas State

11. New Orleans

12. Arkansas

13. Monmouth

14. Northern Illinois

15. Miss. Valley St.

16. Central Florida

Midwest Regional

1. Kentucky

2. Wake Forest

3. Villanova

4. Utah

5. Iowa State

6. Louisville

7. Michigan

8. Wisc. Green Bay

9. Virginia Tech

10. Texas

11. Tulsa

12. California

13. Canisius

14. Portland

15. NE Louisiana

16. San Jose State