It’s Time to Begin the March to Madness

It’s shaping up as a terrific field, with a possible title-game matchup between UCLA and North Carolina.

But enough about the National Invitation Tournament.

The NCAA playoffs are also fast approaching.

A week from Friday, 10 men and women from the NCAA men’s basketball selection committee, chaired by Mountain West Conference Commissioner Craig Thompson, will sequester together in an Indianapolis hotel suite and begin the long, arduous process of figuring out another way to keep Jerry Tarkanian’s team out of the loop.

Actually, the committee takes its work very seriously.

Selection weekend, capped by the March 12 pairings announcement, is the basketball equivalent of a papal election--we won’t know the winners and losers until the smoke clears.

So, with seconds ticking down to Saturday’s awarding of the first automatic NCAA bid--to the Trans America Athletic Conference champion--a refresher course on the vernacular.

* Bubble team: A school fighting to make the field of 64. Picture a bubble, with the schools inside and outside of it separated only by transparent, soapy film.

Well, something like that.

* Cinderella: Yes, it’s the most hackneyed cliche in sports, but original journalism takes a holiday in March when TV men, reporters and headline writers seek exotic ways to work the words “glass slipper,” “big dance” and “clock strikes midnight” into their copy.

* Seed: Some major metropolitan newspapers don’t allow their reporters to use the word as a noun--Stanford is the No. 1 seed--demanding the adjective form--Stanford is the top-seeded team.

* Ratings Percentage Index: The RPI has nothing to do with your stock portfolio; it’s a statistical formula, more secret than the Colonel’s secret recipe, used by the NCAA committee to help select at-large teams and seed them--what, we can’t use “seed” as a verb either?

* Extra benefits: This popular NCAA rules violation can throw a serious monkey wrench into a team’s NCAA chances. This season alone, three teams with Final Four aspirations--UCLA, St. John’s and Auburn--have been decked by the notorious NCAA provision that says an athlete cannot receive benefits not available to the general student body.

The NCAA all but wiped out JaRon Rush’s season, although UCLA will get the forward back this weekend for its last-ditch tournament pitch.

St. John’s guard Erick Barkley sat out two games as the NCAA investigated his swapping cars with a friend and, Tuesday night, Barkley was pulled from the starting lineup only minutes before tipoff against Seton Hall after the NCAA telephoned regarding another possible violation.

And, in the most crushing blow, Auburn All-America Chris Porter is out indefinitely after admitting this week he took $2,500 from an agent to keep his mother from getting evicted.

There is sure to be much more talking-head pontificating during the tournament about the NCAA’s often crapshoot adjudication of justice, but just once, we’d like to hear someone hold the players accountable.

If a rule is a rule, no matter how arcane, why are star players jeopardizing their eligibility and the dreams of rule-abiding teammates?

If Porter’s family was in dire financial need, no one would have blamed him for declaring himself eligible for the NBA draft last year and becoming an instant millionaire.

But how does a guy take $2,500 from a stranger and think it’s OK?

Sorting through other tournament tidbits:

Myth or fact: CBS honchos will make sure traditional powers UCLA and North Carolina make the field, even if other teams are more deserving.

Myth (we hope). Forget that CBS has paid $6 billion for the rights to NCAA basketball, and probably would recoup more of that money by selling advertising for games featuring North Carolina and UCLA. We’ve been assured the powerhouse network has no influence over the selection process.

“I’ve never seen CBS in a room yet,” says Thompson, this year’s selection committee chairman.

UCLA and North Carolina have combined for 14 national titles and 68 NCAA tournament appearances. North Carolina hasn’t missed an NCAA tournament since 1974; UCLA hasn’t missed one since 1988.

“We do disregard history,” Thompson says. “Quite frankly, it’s based on this season.”

Quite frankly, it appears UCLA (15-11) and North Carolina (17-11) will sneak in on merit, barring further calamities.

The committee gives due diligence to nonconference schedule, and both schools have their papers in order. UCLA has a No. 4 schedule strength in this week’s RPI and a 3-2 record against DePaul, Gonzaga, Purdue, North Carolina and Syracuse. North Carolina has a No. 32 RPI ranking and six of its losses have come against Michigan State, Cincinnati, UCLA, Indiana, Louisville and Duke.

“I personally like to look at who you play outside your league, your controllable schedule,” Thompson says. “If you’re making an effort to play good teams, and you beat some of those teams, personally to me that means a lot.”

Myth or fact: The selection committee thinks RPI is really important.

Myth.

Or so Thompson claims.

“The RPI is the most overrated tool we used,” he says.

The RPI has become part of the vocabulary when discussing a team’s strength, yet it is a mistake to think a team with a top-64 RPI is a cinch to make the field because teams with much lower ratings receive automatic bids by virtue of winning their conference titles.

Also, while several on-line experts publish their RPI rankings, they are only duplications of the pinky-swear secret ratings the NCAA selection committee uses.

Myth or fact: Next year, there will be a “play-in” game to determine the 64th team in the field.

Afraid so. This year, because of their breakup, neither the Western Athletic or Mountain West conferences will receive automatic bids.

Next season, however, both leagues are expected to gain status, bringing the number of conferences with automatic berths to 31.

Because the NCAA wants to keep the number of at-large schools at 34, the two lowest-ranked schools among the conference champions will have to play on the Tuesday following Selection Sunday for the 64th spot.

The plan has been endorsed by the NCAA championship’s competition cabinet and probably will be ratified this summer by the management council.

What it means: Instead of fans of the best team from the worst conference chanting, “We want Duke!” after winning its automatic bid, it may be resigned to shouting, “Bring on Coppin State!”

Myth or fact: The NCAA selection committee is almost obligated to take at least four teams from the Pacific 10 because it is one of the strongest conferences in the country.

Myth, says Thompson: “We have no mandate that we have to select so many from a given league. We’re not required to select any beyond the automatic qualifier.”

That could be bad news for Pac-10 bubble team Arizona State.

Myth or fact: The status of a team’s personnel at the end of the season affects where it will be seeded.

Thompson says this is true, and that could be troubling news for Arizona.

While the Wildcats may be deserving of a top-seeded spot in the South region based on merit, the status of injured center Loren Woods’ back could affect the team’s placement in the field of 64.

“I think injuries play a significant factor,” Thompson says. “I remember a couple of years ago a team lost a key starter in the conference tournament, and there was much consternation by the committee as to whether he would play in the NCAA tournament or not.”

Auburn’s seeding may also be affected by the potential loss of Porter.

Myth or fact: The NCAA committee really has it in for Tarkanian because of his long-running battle with the NCAA.

Who knows? Tark’s Fresno State squad has won 20 games or more five seasons in a row, yet the Bulldogs have not qualified for the NCAA tournament.

In truth, the team’s RPI the last four seasons has been mediocre: 77, 69, 68 and 51.

This season, Fresno State, 20-9 after Wednesday night’s victory over San Jose State, sits squarely on the bubble. The Bulldogs have a solid No. 39 RPI and have swept No. 15 Tulsa, but you get the feeling Tark needs to get deep in the WAC tournament to get in the NCAA door.

Myth or fact: The NCAA selection committee is a cigar-smoking, old boys’ club.

Myth. Four of this year’s 10 members are first-time selectors, and two are women. Three are conference commissioners: Thompson (Mountain West), Doug Elgin (Missouri Valley), Mike Tranghese (Big East) and seven are athletic directors: Lee Fowler (Middle Tennessee State), Jack Kvancz (George Washington), Jim Livengood (Arizona), Les Robinson (North Carolina State), Judy Rose (North Carolina Charlotte), Gene Smith (Iowa State) and Carrol Williams (Santa Clara).

The first-timers are Livengood, Robinson, Rose and Smith.

Myth or fact: Rival basketball analysts Dick Vitale (ESPN) and Billy Packer (CBS) are squabbling again.

Fact.

Isn’t it great?