TONIGHT’S GAMES

* Mississippi State has the overall balance, Connecticut the speed--and Ray Allen, the 6-foot-5 swingman who could physically dominate the smallish Mississippi State guards. But the Bulldogs have shown impressive versatility, going from a warp-speed 84-73 defeat of Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference tournament final to their nice-and-slow 22-point thumping of Princeton in the second round of the tournament Saturday. Connecticut’s 7-foot, 235-pound center, Travis Knight, has the Huskies’ toughest matchup--6-11, 265-pound center Erick Dampier--but expect Connecticut to give Knight plenty of help, and try to run as much as possible. “Hopefully, the game will be fast-paced,” Knight said, “because we don’t want it to be a wrestling match in there.”

* Another matchup of speed vs. power. For Cincinnati, 260-pound forward Danny Fortson will have at least a 35-pound weight advantage over anybody on the Georgia Tech front line. “We’re going to stick with our game plan, which is physical dominance,” Fortson said. For Georgia Tech, Stephon Marbury, Drew Barry and Matt Harpring combine to average more than 50 points. They feed off Marbury and Barry’s ability to penetrate and set up three-point shots. Georgia Tech has been hurt at times by strong inside players--Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan scored 27 points and had 22 rebounds in the Demon Deacons’ ACC tournament final victory--but the Yellow Jackets held Boston College’s Danya Abrams to 16 points on five-of-13 shooting in their second-round matchup.