SOUTHEAST REGIONAL

* The Boston College-Georgia Tech matchup requires some forward thinking--that is, how much impact will the Eagles’ Danya Abrams and Yellow Jackets’ Matt Harpring make for their teams? The 6-foot-7, 265-pound Abrams likes to mix it up inside and did this quite effectively in the mortal combat of the Big East. Harpring, 6-7 and weighing about 50 pounds less than Abrams, is like that bunny in the battery commercials--tirelessly working for the open shot or a back-door route to the basket. How long he keeps going should determine if Georgia Tech can keep it going in NCAA play.

* Ultimate fighting will be preempted today by the Cincinnati-Temple game. Temple became leatherneck-tough with its boot-camp nonconference schedule of Duke, Kansas, Memphis, Tulsa, Villanova and, yes, Cincinnati. The Bearcats won by 21 points in December. These teams came marching into the NCAA madness to a different beat. Cincinnati was taken into overtime twice in its Conference USA tournament championship run and let North Carolina Greensboro hang around entirely too long in its NCAA opener. Temple won seven of eight before the tournament and dismantled Oklahoma in the first round.