Rematch Mix Contains New Ingredients

It’s Rematch-and-Revenge Week.

Duke and North Carolina continue their Highway 15-501 tug of war over No. 1.

Arizona can stay on track for the first perfect Pacific 10 Conference season by beating Stanford again after ending the Cardinal’s undefeated run last month.

Utah gets New Mexico at home after losing its unbeaten record at the Pit last month.

And St. John’s, resurgent behind senior Felipe Lopez, can be seeded No. 1 in the Big East tournament if it can reprise its upset of Connecticut.

The matchups are the same in Saturday’s games, but some factors have changed:

No. 1 Duke vs. No. 3 North Carolina--With freshman center Elton Brand back unexpectedly after his December foot injury and freshman Shane Battier more prepared to defend Antawn Jamison, don’t expect Jamison to score 35 points again.

“They are very tough with or without Elton Brand,” North Carolina Coach Bill Guthridge said. “It’s obviously a very good team, and he’s one of the very best players in the country and can only make them better.”

The Tar Heels probably won’t shoot 64% in Cameron Indoor Stadium as they did in the 97-73 victory at Chapel Hill--or hold Duke to 33%. But don’t expect Duke to win Round 2 just because you saw the UCLA score. (North Carolina did the same to the Bruins.) And don’t expect to see the game on television: ABC isn’t showing it on the West Coast.

No. 2 Arizona vs. No. 8 Stanford--It was easy to write this one off when Stanford followed its 93-75 loss to Arizona with losses to Arizona State and Connecticut, and the game is at McKale Center. But Arizona looked startlingly close to mortal in narrow victories over Arizona State and Oregon State.

And Stanford--which will try to avenge its loss to the Sun Devils first, on Thursday--has Mark Madsen back from injury since the first Arizona game, and center Tim Young ought be able to avoid serious foul trouble. The guess here is closer game, same result.

Arizona Coach Lute Olson simply doesn’t want his team to get too far ahead of itself, thinking about 18-0.

“We’d best not be looking ahead to Stanford, because Cal is capable of putting a hurt on you too,” he said. “I’m not concerned about running the table. I’m concerned about playing well and winning the league.”

No. 5 Utah vs. No. 16 New Mexico--The first difference is the site: New Mexico won the first meeting, 77-74, in the Pit, where the Lobos have won 41 consecutive games. The other factor is the Lobos’ loss of guard Royce Olney, out for the season after a knee injury in the loss to Texas Christian.

No. 6 Connecticut vs. St. John’s--Last time, Connecticut played most of the second half of a 64-62 loss without freshman point guard Khalid El-Amin, who had a minor leg injury, and forward Kevin Freeman missed most of the second half because of a wrist injury. Besides that, Connecticut’s scoring machine, Richard Hamilton, made only six of 17 shots.

WHO’S NO. 1?

Can it really be Duke when the Blue Devils lost to North Carolina by 24?

Or North Carolina, after a 15-11 N.C. State team thoroughly outplayed the Tar Heels on their home court?

How about Arizona, which lost to Duke by eight in December in a game that wasn’t that close, but hit its stride in January and hasn’t lost since Dec. 23?

The defending national champion got 19 first-place votes of 70 in the Associated Press poll this week, and two of 30 from the coaches.

Hey, Arizona would be USC Coach Henry Bibby’s pick, regardless of the state of his relationship with his son, Mike.

“I think it’s probably the best team to come out of the Pac-10 in 10 to 15 years,” Bibby said. “They are very, very good. To go on record right now, that’s the team to repeat.

“I don’t think anybody can beat them. I said the same thing last year playing Kansas and North Carolina. Those two teams couldn’t out-quick them. It’s the team I pick to win the Final Four.”

As for No. 1, the only poll positions that matter now are the four No. 1 positions in the NCAA tournament, though Duke and North Carolina are vying for No. 1 in the East Regional, with its potential home-court advantage in Greensboro, N.C.

No. 1 itself means little: Only two teams ranked No. 1 in the final Associated Press poll have managed to win the NCAA tournament since the field was expanded to 64 in 1985--UCLA in 1995 and Duke in 1992.

IN MEMORIAM

No one could have asked Cincinnati’s Ruben Patterson to play a game the day he learned his mother, Charlene, had died of a heart attack at 38.

But Patterson chose to and responded with a career-high 32-point performance against Alabama Birmingham.

“My family thought I was coming home, but I wanted to stay here,” Patterson said. “We needed to win this game, and I wanted to play well for my mom. Every time I scored, everybody saw me point up.”

Cincinnati Coach Bob Huggins, who spent most of the day with Patterson before the game, said he went into it uncertain how the grieving player would be able to perform.

“I thought going in it would be the best thing for Ruben,” Huggins said. “It would kind of give him a diversion. I think basketball at times becomes a sanctuary for guys who play as much as he does.

The days ahead are going to be difficult. The service for Patterson’s mother was Tuesday in Cleveland, and he and his family buried her Wednesday morning. The Bearcats play North Carolina Charlotte tonight and Saint Louis on Saturday.

“This is not going to be an easy week for him either,” Huggins said.

IS THIS GOODBYE?

Senior nights have become a time for fans to wonder if other players are making uncelebrated final appearances.

It’s hard to believe North Carolina’s Jamison, a junior, hasn’t played his last game at the Smith Center, since he’s almost a lock for the Wooden Award and figures to be a top-five NBA draft pick if he makes himself available.

“When [seniors Makhtar Ndiaye and Shammond Williams] were announced, yeah, it kind of crossed my mind that it might be my last time too,” Jamison said after the game. “We’ll see how it goes. Nothing will be decided until after the season’s over, and hopefully, there’s a lot of season left.”

Teammate Vince Carter struck a different tone: “That’s nice to think about, but I do plan to be back,” he said.

At Kansas, fans shouted “One more year!” at Paul Pierce, a junior forward from Inglewood High who could have gone to the NBA after last season.

He has watched Jacque Vaughn and Raef LaFrentz return for their senior seasons only to miss chunks of time to injury and might have played his last game at Allen Fieldhouse.

“It’s hard to say,” Pierce said. “I play in front of some of the greatest fans in America. It’s hard to let go.”

It’s not just juniors, either. Arizona fans ought to get a good look at Bibby Saturday, just in case.

QUICK SHOTS

There are some changes in the NCAA tournament format leading to the Final Four in San Antonio on March 28 and 30. First- and second-round games will be played on the same days at both sites in each region instead of alternating days--meaning all four teams will have had the same preparation time when they meet the next week. For example, games at the West sub-regionals in Sacramento and Boise will be on Thursday and Saturday before the survivors advance to the West Regional at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim for Thursday and Saturday games. The East is on the same schedule, with the South and Midwest on the Friday-Sunday schedule. In another small change, the Southeast region has been renamed the South. . . . The NCAA selection committee is making it known there will be no conference quotas. “We’re interested strictly in what’s happened this year,” said Kentucky Athletic Director C.M. Newton, the committee chairman. “We won’t give any consideration or worry about how many teams are coming out of a conference. That won’t even be discussed.” That’s bad news for the Pacific 10, which might only get three teams in if Arizona State can’t finish decently with a schedule that wraps up with Stanford, Cal, and UCLA and USC. It’s also bad news for the Big 12, which has mighty little after Kansas and Oklahoma State. A beneficiary? The Atlantic 10, with six teams worthy of consideration.

Does UCLA really want to take on the apparent attitude of Kansas prep star JaRon Rush, who announced this week he plans to play for the Bruins? Rush was once headed to Kansas but reconsidered because “Roy substitutes too much.” Kansas Coach Roy Williams, who still calls Dean Smith “Coach Smith” in public, quickly announced Kansas no longer would be recruiting Rush. It’s Steve Lavin’s problem now.