20 Years Pass and They’re at It Again

It has been 20 years since Marquette defeated North Carolina Charlotte in a matchup of two Cinderella teams that resulted in one of the NCAA Final Four’s most dramatic games.

The two schools figure to resurface in this year’s NCAA tournament after improbable runs in the Conference USA tournament brought them to today’s championship game in St. Louis.

Marquette defeated No. 10-ranked Cincinnati, 91-79, on Friday after having lost twice by a combined 27 points to the Bearcats during the regular season. North Carolina Charlotte slipped past Alabama Birmingham, 67-62, after beating a team--No. 20 Louisville--it had lost to twice in conference play.

Marquette defeated North Carolina Charlotte, 51-49, in 1977 when Jerome Whitehead picked up a loose ball and scored on a layup at the buzzer even with Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell getting a hand on the shot. Eventual champion Marquette, whose colorful Coach Al McGuire had announced in December he would retire after the season, had barely qualified for the tournament while North Carolina Charlotte was making its first NCAA appearance.

Marquette, 21-8 with a No. 67 Rating Percentage Index (RPI), used a different approach to solidify its NCAA bid on Friday, making a season-high 13 three-point baskets in 20 attempts, prompting Coach Bob Huggins of Cincinnati (25-7) to say, “I don’t know if we could do that in an empty gym.”

In the other semifinal, North Carolina Charlotte (21-7 and No. 36 RPI) used a gritty performance from guard Sean Colson to get past Alabama Birmingham (18-13). Colson, who dislocated his shoulder in the victory over Louisville, had a career-high 23 points, seven assists and five rebounds.

North Carolina Charlotte also managed to survive missing the front end of three one-and-one free throw situations in the final minute.

OTHER TOURNAMENTS

America East

Boston University 68, Drexel 61--Center Tunji Awojobi had 22 points and blocked eight shots in the championship game in Boston as the Terriers (25-4) qualified for NCAA tournament for the first time in seven years. Boston, the regular-season conference champion, won for the 20th time in 21 games, and had 15 consecutive home victories. Drexel (22-8) had won 19 of its previous 20 games.

Atlantic 10

No. 19 St. Joseph’s 78, George Washington 70--Reserve Terrell Myers scored 21 points--giving him 37 in two games--as the Hawks (23-6) increased their winning streak to seven in the semifinals at Philadelphia. Coach Mike Jarvis of Georgetown (15-13) got two technicals after protesting foul calls on consecutive plays, followed by another on Colonials’ bench, and St. Joseph’s made all six free throws to take an 18-point lead with eight minutes left.

Rhode Island (20-8 and No. 30 RPI) defeated Temple (19-10 and No. 39 RPI) for the third time this season, 69-66 in overtime in the other semifinal. Rhode Island, seeking its first NCAA tournament berth since 1993, averaged 83 points against Temple, which allows 60 a game. The Owls, who had lost in the Atlantic 10 final the last four years to Massachusetts, shot 36% and missed 17 of 19 three-point shots. Center Mark Jackson, Temple’s best free throw shooter at 78%, missed two with 2.4 seconds left in regulation.

Big East

No. 21 Villanova 73, Providence 63--Senior guard Alvin Williams had 22 points and made five of seven three-point shots as the Wildcats (23-8) reached the tournament final at Madison Square Garden for the fifth time in 17 Big East seasons. Villanova won the championship in 1995 to earn a No. 3-regional seeding and was defeated by No. 14-regional seeded Old Dominion in three overtimes in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Forward Austin Croshere, the eleventh all-time leading scorer for Providence (21-11 and No. 43 RPI), missed all eight of his shots and had 10 points. Providence Coach Pete Gillen blamed food poisoning for Croshere’s performance--his fourth game with 10 or less points in his last six. “Croshere shouldn’t have been playing. He had some bad salmon, probably from some Brooklyn river,” said Gillen, a native New Yorker. “I hope it wasn’t some Villanova chef who gave him the fish.”

Boston College (20-8 and No. 53 RPI) made the Big East final for the first time since 1983 with a 70-58 victory over Georgetown (20-9 and No. 64 RPI). The Eagles defeated Villanova, 84-66, at Chesnut Hill, Mass. on Jan. 25. Georgetown guard Victor Page, the tournament’s most valuable player as a freshman last year, missed 19 of 26 shots in getting 18 points--the first time in eight games he scored less than 20. The Hoyas shot 33%, their fifth-worst mark of the season.

Big 12

No. 1 Kansas 74, Oklahoma State 59--The Jayhawks (30-1) went on a game-ending 17-2 run after

the Cowboys’ leading scorer, forward Chianti Roberts, fouled out in the quarterfinals at Kansas City, Mo. The score was tied, 57-57, with 5:20 left when Roberts, who made nine of 11 shots and had a game-high 23 points, fouled out and Oklahoma State (16-14) had nobody who could pick up the scoring slack. Kansas forward Raef LaFrentz had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

No. 16 Iowa State 72, Texas Tech 70--Guard Cory Carr’s three-point shot rimmed out at the buzzer, allowing the Cyclones (20-7) to advance to the semifinals against Kansas. Guard Dedric Willoughby had 28 points and forward Kenny Pratt had 24 for Iowa State, which had a 10-point lead with three minutes left. Texas Tech (19-9 and No. 20 RPI) scored its last five baskets on three-point shots.

Oklahoma 55, No. 18 Colorado 41--The Buffaloes (21-9 and No. 31 RPI) shot 25% in losing to the Sooners (19-9 and No. 44 RPI) for the second time this season. Guard Chauncey Billups opened the game with a three-point basket then missed 10 of his next 11 shots. Colorado still figures to make its first NCAA appearance in 28 years, while Oklahoma will try to keep its tournament bid alive when it plays Missouri (15-16), an 80-75 winner over Texas (16-11) in a game that the lead changed 18 teams. The Tigers, the 10th-seeded team, made six consecutive free throws in the final 1:14.

Mid-American

Eastern Michigan (22-9 and No. 84 RPI) had five players score in double figures in defeating regular-season champion Bowling Green (22-9 and No. 65 RPI), 73-64, in the semifinals at Toledo. Bowling Green has lost its last five Mid-American semifinal games and has not qualified for the NCAA tournament since 1968, when Bill Fitch was coach. In the other semifinal, Miami of Ohio (20-8 and No. 77 RPI) got 24 points and 15 rebounds from forward Devin Davis in an 84-67 victory over Western Michigan (14-14). The Mid-American champion has fared well in the first round of the NCAA tournament the last two years--Eastern Michigan defeated No. 8-regional seeded Duke last year and Miami stunned No. 5-regional seeded Arizona in 1995.

Southeastern

No. 4 South Carolina 72, Alabama 61--The Gamecocks (24-6) shot a season-high 60% while the Crimson Tide (17-14) made 33% of their shots in the quarterfinals at Memphis to win for the 19th time in 20 games. South Carolina guards Larry Davis, BJ McKie and Melvin Watson made 18 of 32 shots and combined for 52 points.

No. 6 Kentucky 92, Auburn 50--The Wildcats (28-4) had a 20-point lead after only six minutes of the quarterfinal game. Auburn (16-15) had 22 turnovers and shot 33%, missing 12 of its first 14 three-point attempts. In the semifinals, Kentucky will play Mississippi (20-7), which defeated Vanderbilt, 64-62, when guard Joezen Darby pulled up on a fast break and made a 16-foot jumper with 2.4 seconds left. Mississippi is virtually assured of its first NCAA tournament berth since 1981 with its first 20-victory season since 1938, when the opposition included some YMCA squads. Vanderbilt (19-11 and No. 29 RPI) could be the SEC’s fifth representative in the NCAA tournament.

No. 24 Georgia 65, Arkansas 63--Forward Larry Brown scored on a layup with one second left as the Bulldogs (23-7) advanced against South Carolina. Arkansas (15-12) had the ball and the lead with 14.9 seconds but forward Derric Dukes made a steal for Georgia. After a timeout, guard G.G. Smith--son of Georgia Coach Tubby Smith--dribbled for several seconds and drove the lane passing off to Brown for the Bulldogs’ second basket in the final 11 1/2 minutes.

Western Athletic

No. 3 Utah 72, No. 14 New Mexico 70--Forward Keith Van Horn made his second buzzer-beating, game-winning shot in as many nights to lift the Utes (25-3) past the Lobos (24-7) in the semifinal game at Las Vegas. Van Horn tipped a missed shot by Andre Miller to himself in the lane and made his game-winning shot from 10 feet--a few feet short from the same basket where he tipped in Miller’s lob pass at the buzzer Thursday night to beat Southern Methodist.

Billy Tubbs-coached Texas Christian (21-11 and No. 58 RPI) reached the championship game at Las Vegas with a 64-59 victory over Tulsa (23-9 and No. 19 RPI). ike Jones, coming off a tournament-record 44 points Thursday night against Fresno State, made two free throws with 1.4 seconds to secure the victory. Tulsa guard Shea Seals had previously missed a three-point shot that could have tied the game. Oklahoma made nine NCAA appearances in 11 years under the colorful Tubbs, the last in 1992.

College Basketball Notes

Tim Duncan of Wake Forest, Charles O’Bannon of UCLA and Keith Van Horn of Utah are among the 16 players on the ballot for the John R. Wooden Award. Others on the ballot: Raef LaFrentz and Jacque Vaughn of Kansas, Danny Fortson (Cincinnati), Ron Mercer (Kentucky), Brevin Knight (Stanford), Chauncey Billups (Colorado), Keith Booth (Maryland), Adonal Foyle (Colgate), Reggie Freeman (Texas), Ed Gray (California), Bobby Jackson (Minnesota) and Shea Seals (Tulsa). The winner will be announced April 4 at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.