Seeding Leaves Unhappy Bruins Planted in Indiana

Shipped out and ticked off, the defending national champion UCLA Bruins had their own NCAA tournament announcement Sunday afternoon:

What gives?

UCLA was placed in the Southeast Regional as the fourth-seeded team and given a potentially tricky first-round match in Indianapolis’ RCA Dome on Thursday against No. 13 Princeton, whose longtime coach, Pete Carril, has announced his retirement at the end of the Tigers’ season.

The Bruins, who openly assumed there was no way they’d be leaving the West, are the first outright Pacific 10 champion to be sent out of that regional of the tournament.

More galling to UCLA, rival Arizona, which finished three games behind the Bruins in Pac-10 play and lost Thursday to Stanford but had a strong nonconference resume, was given the spot UCLA wanted and expected: the No. 3 seeding in the Tempe, Ariz., sub-region of the West, where the Wildcats start Friday against Valparaiso.

“It upset a lot of people in here,” said junior forward Charles O’Bannon, who watched the pairings announcement on a large-screen monitor with the rest of the team. “It’s somewhat of a slap in our face.

“We lost three starters, but we still won the Pac-10 title by three games, and still get no respect. We’ll just have to earn respect in a 64-team tournament.”

A day earlier, after the Bruins completed the regular season with a 22-7 record (16-2 in conference play), UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said he would be “very, very disappointed” if the Bruins didn’t get the third spot in the West.

Sunday afternoon, Harrick was answering questions about the RCA Dome and Princeton Coach Pete Carril’s ball-possession style, and was careful not to sound too upset. But Harrick let bits and pieces of his frustration show through.

“I know every time I’ve questioned the committee, the committee’s said you play your way into it and you play your way out of it,” Harrick said. “If winning your league by three games isn’t playing your way into it, I don’t know what is.”

Questioned on national television about favoring Arizona over UCLA, Bob Frederick, chairman of the selection committee, pointed to 11th-ranked Arizona’s out-of-conference defeats of Michigan, Cincinnati, Georgetown and Arkansas (and an overall 11-1 nonconference record against the nation’s fourth-toughest nonconference schedule) vs. UCLA’s 7-5 nonconference ledger (1-4 against tournament teams in the nation’s 65th toughest nonconference schedule).

UCLA and Arizona split their two conference games, including a bizarre, controversial Bruin victory at Pauley Pavilion by one point.

“I’m sure the determining factor was the big loss [Feb. 25] by UCLA at Duke,” said Wildcat Coach Lute Olson, who added that he thought Arizona was mistreated by being shipped to the Midwest last year, where the Wildcats were upset by Miami of Ohio in Dayton.

“Also, another factor was head to head, where we beat them by nine here. Then, on national television at their place, everyone saw that the official blew the call. Who knows what happens if we went into overtime there?”

The theme for UCLA, currently ranked 17th in the polls and, at No. 20, nine slots behind Arizona (24-6 and 13-5) in the publicly released computer ratings, was to use this perceived slight as a motivational tool.

“The fact that we got shipped away and we still feel like we don’t get the respect we deserve, that’s just going to make us play harder,” UCLA guard Toby Bailey said.

And against Princeton, which played its way into the tournament by defeating Pennsylvania on Saturday in a rare Ivy League one-game playoff to finish the regular season, 21-6, any mental mishaps could prove deadly for UCLA.

“We can’t harp on, ‘Oh, we’re not in the West,’ and sulk about that,” swingman Kris Johnson said. “We’ve just got to start thinking about Princeton and worry about where we’re at in the Southeast.”

Many of the Bruins said they remembered Princeton’s methodical, 50-49 near-upset of No. 1-seeded, Alonzo Mourning-led Georgetown in the first round of the 1989 tournament. This season’s Tiger team lost twice in the regular season to Penn, but won at Fresno State in December and lost to Iowa State by only three.

“Anything can happen in the tournament,” said Johnson, who said the back injury that sidelined him Saturday shouldn’t be a problem this week. “I just want to make sure we’re not going to be a first-round casualty.

“It’s all mental. We just have to be mentally ready, realize that March is our month to do what we’ve got to do.”

Looking at UCLA’s bracket in the Southeast, it was hard for the Bruin players to ignore the fact that they face potential second- and third-round games against fifth-seeded Mississippi State and No. 1 Connecticut, whom UCLA beat in the third and fourth rounds of last year’s tournament, respectively.

“That plays to our liking, because if we can get past Princeton, which is first and foremost in our mind, we’re playing a lot of teams that play our style of basketball and that we match up very well against,” Johnson said. “So when it comes down to that, tournament time, we’re going to be ready to play.”

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TEAM-BY-TEAM CAPSULES

College basketball writer Chris Dufresne covers from A to Z on teams 1 through 64 in the NCAA men’s tournament. C6-7

MEN’S BRACKET

A look at the road to the Final Four in East Rutherford, N.J., which begins Thursday with 16 first-round games. C8

BIG EIGHT TOURNAMENT

Picked to finish last, No. 23 Iowa State capped a remarkable regular season by defeating No. 5 Kansas, 56-55. C9

ACC TOURNAMENT

Tim Duncan had 27 points and 22 rebounds and Wake Forest defeated regular-season champion Georgia Tech, 75-74. C9

BIG WEST TOURNAMENT

San Jose State defeated Utah State in overtime and will take a 13-16 record into its first-round game against Kentucky. C11

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE MATCH-UP

UCLA Bruins vs. Princeton Tigers

Thursday, March 14

First round of Southeast Regional At Indianapolis

FRONTLINE

Not surprisingly, this is where UCLA has its biggest edge over the Tigers, who do not give significant minutes to anybody taller than 6 feet 7 and can’t hope to match the quickness, efficiency and strength of J.R. Henderson, Jelani McCoy, Charles O’Bannon and Kris Johnson. This is where UCLA has its biggest advantage over just about anybody in the 64-team field. But Tiger center Steve Goodrich outplayed Iowa State 6-11 center Kelvin Kato (outscoring him, 20-6) in Princeton’s near victory at Ames, Iowa.

PERIMETER

If Princeton is going to throw UCLA off-stride, and perhaps get the Bruins into another turnover-plagued performance, it’ll come from the ball-handling and defense of 6-3 junior guard Sydney Johnson, who clamped the Ivy League’s top scorers all year. Shooter Mitch Henderson, who made six three-point shots in Princeton’s December upset of Fresno State, recently was added to the starting lineup.

STYLES OF PLAY

The Tigers, as always under retiring Coach Pete Carril, run a patient, weave offense working through the center position designed to wear out a defense and shorten the game. On the defensive side, Princeton tries to keep opponents to only one shot by blocking everybody out. Which should give the hyperkinetic Bruins, who get many of their baskets off the offensive boards, something to chew on all game.

COACHING / INTANGIBLES

Bruin Coach Jim Harrick’s staff knows that Carril’s game plan is to goad opponents into making mistakes--and that UCLA hasn’t been exactly error-free this season. Carril, who coached Bill Bradley against John Wooden’s teams in 1969 and 1970 (both UCLA victories), is retiring after 29 years at Princeton. Does the emotional possibilities of Carril’s retirement worry Harrick? “I don’t think he’s playing,” Harrick said.

NCAA Qualifiers by Conference

The breakdown of NCAA qualifiers by conference, with the team records overall, in conference andagainst tournament teams. Teams are listed in order by overall victories. SIX TEAMS

ATLANTIC COAST

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Team Overall Conf NCAA y-Wake Forest 23-5 12-4 10-4 x-Georgia Tech 22-11 13-3 12-10 North Carolina 20-10 10-6 8-8 Clemson 18-10 7-9 5-7 Duke 18-12 8-8 9-10 Maryland 17-12 8-8 5-11 FIVE TEAMS BIG EAST Team Overall Conf NCAA xy-Connecticut 30-2 17-1 7-2 x-Georgetown 26-7 13-5 10-4 Villanova 25-6 14-4 9-5 Syracuse 23-8 12-6 5-5 Boston College 18-10 10-8 1-8 BIG TEN Team Overall Conf NCAA x-Purdue 26-5 15-3 8-4 Iowa 22-8 11-7 7-4 Penn State 21-6 12-6 6-3 Michigan 20-11 10-8 3-8 Indiana 19-11 12-6 3-9 FOUR TEAMS ATLANTIC 10 Team Overall Conf NCAA xy-Massachusetts 31-1 15-1 13-1 x-Virginia Tech 22-5 13-3 2-4 George Washington 21-7 13-3 3-3 Temple 19-12 12-4 4-8 BIG EIGHT Team Overall Conf NCAA x-Kansas 26-4 12-2 9-2 y-Iowa State 23-8 9-5 4-7 Kansas State 17-11 7-7 5-4 Oklahoma 17-12 8-6 2-7 CONFERENCE USA Team Overall Conf NCAA xy-Cincinnati 25-4 11-3 7-3 Marquette 22-7 10-4 7-2 x-Memphis 22-7 11-3 5-6 Louisville 20-11 10-4 5-7 PACIFIC 10 Team Overall Conf NCAA Arizona 24-6 13-5 6-5 x-UCLA 23-7 16-2 5-6 Stanford 19-8 11-7 4-3 California 17-10 11-7 2-6 SOUTHEASTERN Team Overall Conf NCAA x-Kentucky 28-2 16-0 9-2 xy-Mississippi State 22-7 10-6 6-2 Georgia 19-9 9-7 4-5 Arkansas 18-12 9-7 1-7 TWO TEAMS MIDWESTERN COLLEGIATE Team Overall Conf NCAA x-Wisconsin Green Bay 25-3 16-0 3-2 y-Northern Illinois 20-9 10-6 0-3 MISSOURI VALLEY Team Overall Conf NCAA x-Bradley 22-7 15-3 4-4 y-Tulsa 22-7 12-6 2-2 SOUTHWEST Team Overall Conf NCAA xy-Texas Tech 28-1 14-0 4-0 Texas 20-9 10-4 2-6 WEST COAST Team Overall Conf NCAA x-Santa Clara 19-8 10-4 3-4 y-Portland 19-10 7-7 1-1 WESTERN ATHLETIC Team Overall Conf NCAA y-New Mexico 27-4 14-4 1-2 x-Utah 25-6 15-3 2-3 ONE TEAM BIG SKY Team Overall Conf NCAA x-Montana State 21-8 11-3 0-1 BIG SOUTH xy-N. Carolina Greensboro 20-9 11-3 0-2 BIG WEST y-San Jose State 13-16 9-9 1-1 COLONIAL ATHLETIC ASSN xy-Virginia Commonwealth 24-8 14-2 0-1 IVY LEAGUE Princeton 21-6 13-2 0-1 METRO ATLANTIC ATHLETIC y-Canisius 19-10 7-7 2-0 MID-AMERICAN xy-Eastern Michigan 24-5 14-4 1-0 MID-CONTINENT xy-Valparaiso 20-10 13-5 0-1 MID-EASTERN ATHLETIC xy-South Carolina State 22-7 14-2 0-1 NORTH ATLANTIC xy-Drexel 26-3 17-1 0-1 NORTHEAST y-Monmouth 20-9 14-4 1-1 OHIO VALLEY y-Austin Peay 19-10 10-6 0-0 PATRIOT LEAGUE xy-Colgate 15-14 9-3 0-5 SOUTHERN xy-Western Carolina 17-12 10-4 0-2 SOUTHLAND xy-Northeast Louisiana 16-13 13-5 0-2 SOUTHWESTERN ATHLETIC y-Mississippi Valley State 22-6 11-3 0-0 SUN BELT y-New Orleans 21-8 14-4 1-2 TRANS AMERICA ATHLETIC y-Central Florida 11-18 6-10 0-1

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x--won regular-season conference or division championship.

y--won conference tournament championship.