Illinois Is Proving to Be Self-Starter

1. ILLINOIS (24-7)

* First-round opponent: Northwestern State-Winthrop winner.

* Season in brief: Bill Self left Tulsa to take over for Lon Kruger, who bolted for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. Self worked wonders with Kruger’s talented leftovers. Illini played tough defense and a tough schedule and showed heart in overcoming a 21-point deficit to beat Seton Hall and rallied from 17 down to beat Wisconsin.

* Player to watch: Frank Williams. The 6-3 sophomore guard was the named the Big Ten player of the year by the coaches and media, and can carry the team the way Michigan State’s Mateen Cleaves did last year.

* Tidbit: Junior guard Cory Bradford made at least one three-point basket in an NCAA-record 88 consecutive games until his streak ended Feb. 13 against Wisconsin.

* NCAA bio: 21st appearance. Illinois was seeded fourth in the East last season and lost to Florida in the second round. School made the Final Four in 1989 under coach Lou Henson, losing in the national semifinals to eventual champion Michigan.

2. ARIZONA (23-7)

* First-round opponent: Eastern Illinois.

* Season in brief: Tumultuous. High hopes and a preseason No. 1 ranking dashed by center Loren Woods’ six-game suspension to open the season and the death of Coach Lute Olson’s wife, Bobbi. Wildcats showed flashes of greatness with a 25-point home win over UCLA and a 44-point win over USC at the Sports Arena.

* Player to watch: Woods. The 7-foot-1 senior center has been a disappointment after a brilliant junior season, but his size and shot-blocking ability are keys to a deep tournament run. You can’t invent toughness, though.

* Tidbit: The 1997 national championship team is the only school to defeat three top-seeded schools in the same tournament. Arizona downed Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky en route to the title.

* NCAA bio: 20th appearance. Wildcats were No. 1 in the West Region last year but, playing without the injured Woods, suffered a second-round loss to Wisconsin.

3. MISSISSIPPI (25-7)

* First-round opponent: Iona.

* Season in brief: One of this season’s surprise teams. Scored quality wins against Oklahoma, USC, Kentucky, Arkansas (twice) and Tennessee. Led the Southeastern Conference in scoring defense through February. Coach Rod Barnes deserved national coach of the year considerations for the way he meshed young players with veterans and led Ole Miss to the SEC tournament title game.

* Player to watch: Rahim Lochart. The 6-5 senior forward led the team in scoring and rebounds and become only the seventh player in school history to have 1,000 points and 700 rebounds.

* Tidbit: When Barnes took over for Rob Evans three years ago, he had never been a head coach at any level.

* NCAA bio: School’s fifth appearance. Evans was the first coach to lead Mississippi to the NCAA tournament since 1981 when the Rebels were invited in 1997, but Barnes owns the school’s only NCAA tournament win, in the first round over Villanova in 1999.

4. KANSAS (24-6)

* First-round opponent: Cal State Northridge.

* Season in brief: Won more than 20 games a 12th season in a row, scored a big win early over UCLA in Coaches vs. Cancer, suffered an embarrassing 31-point loss at Wake Forest on Dec. 7, beat Ohio State on Dec. 23, got swept by Iowa State in Big 12 play, Kansas’ fifth loss in a row to the Cyclones.

* Player to watch: Kenny Gregory. The 6-5 senior forward has been the Jayhawks’ most consistent player, adding an outside shot to his slash-to-the-basket game.

* Tidbit: In leading Kansas to the 1952 national title, center Clyde Lovellete became the first player to lead the nation in scoring and win the NCAA title in the same season.

* NCAA bio: 30th appearance. Won titles in 1952 and 1988. A reserve guard on the 1952 squad saw limited action in the tournament. His name was Dean Smith. Present Coach Roy Williams finished second in 1991 and third in 1993.

5. SYRACUSE (24-8)

* First-round opponent: Hawaii.

* Season in brief: Not ranked in preseason Associated Press poll, but won the Great Alaska Shootout with victories over DePaul, Ohio State and Missouri. Started 9-0 before Dec. 22 loss to Tennessee, then reeled off six more wins before a Feb. 13 home loss to Miami.

* Player to watch: Preston Shumpert. The 6-6 junior forward scored a season-high 36 points against DePaul and had a 13-rebound game against Seton Hall.

* Tidbit: No school has won more NCAA tournament games, 39, without winning the championship.

* NCAA bio: 27th appearance. Advanced to the national title game twice under Coach Jim Boeheim. The 1987 squad lost to Indiana, 74-73, on Keith Smart’s game-winning shot, while the 1996 team lost to Kentucky, 76-67.

6. NOTRE DAME (19-9)

* First-round opponent: Xavier.

* Season in brief: Mike Brey moved over from Delaware to replace Matt Doherty, who left to coach North Carolina. Brey’s Irish climbed as high as No. 10 in both polls the week of Dec. 4. Defeated top-10 schools in consecutive games with victories over Syracuse and Georgetown.

* Player to watch: Troy Murphy. The 6-11 junior forward is one of the nation’s elite players. Will challenge Duke’s Shane Battier for national MVP honors.

* Tidbit: Everyone knows Notre Dame ended UCLA’s 88-game win streak with a 71-70 victory at South Bend, Ind., on Jan. 19, 1974. Remember who made the game-winning shot? Dwight Clay’s jumper with 29 seconds left was the difference.

* NCAA bio: 25th appearance, first since 1990. Notre Dame’s last tournament victory was a first-round win over Vanderbilt in 1989.

7. WAKE FOREST (19-10)

* First-round opponent: Butler.

* Season in brief: Made the field despite going 8-8 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Wiped out Kansas, 84-53, on Dec. 7 and climbed as high as No. 4 in the polls after a Dec. 21 victory at Temple. Started 12-0 before a mini-collapse, the Demon Deacons losing seven of their 10 games and teetering on the brink of NCAA extinction before recovering in the end.

* Player to watch: Robert O’Kelley. The 6-1 senior guard is a big-time scorer. His three-point shot tied the score in the closing seconds against Duke before Chris Duhon’s shot beat Wake Forest at the buzzer.

* Tidbit: Among those in Wake Forest’s Hall of Fame are golfer Arnold Palmer, football player Brian Piccolo, CBS analyst Billy Packer and football coach Peahead Walker.

* NCAA bio: Defending National Invitation Tournament champion is making its 16th NCAA appearance, first since 1997. Finished third in 1963 and five times advanced to the round of eight.

8. TENNESSEE (22-10)

* First-round opponent: Charlotte.

* Season in brief: Fourth consecutive 20-win season, but Coach Jerry Green spent the last few weeks worrying about job security. Here’s why: Last season, his team self-destructed in a second-round loss to North Carolina, Green describing the meltdown as “dementia of the game.” This season, Tennessee started 16-1 and rose to No. 4 in the polls in January before dropping like an Internet stock, needing late-season victories against Vanderbilt and South Carolina (overtime) to get off the NCAA bubble.

* Player to watch: Vincent Yarbrough. The 6-7 forward decided to forgo the NBA draft and return for his junior year. Good thing. He can score, rebound and defend.

* Tidbit: Tennessee became the “Volunteer State” during the War of 1812 when Gen. Andrew Jackson mustered 1,500 men to fight Indians and later the Battle of New Orleans. The men, though, never saw action in battle.

* NCAA bio: School’s 13th appearance, fourth in a row under Green. Volunteers still seeking their first Elite Eight appearance.

9. CHARLOTTE (21-10)

* First-round opponent: Tennessee.

* Season in brief: Defeated Cincinnati in the Conference USA title game to claim the league’s automatic bid. Would not have made the NCAA tournament otherwise. Scored a victory against South Carolina in nonconference play but lost to Arizona State.

* Player to watch: Rodney White. The 6-8 forward is the nation’s top freshman scorer. In three conference tournament games, he had 61 points and 26 rebounds.

* Tidbit: The 49ers have won 13 Conference USA tournament games, more than any other school. Coach Bob Lutz has a 9-1 record in conference tournament play and the 49ers reached the conference title game for the fourth time in five years.

* NCAA bio: Eighth appearance. Charlotte reached the NCAA second round in 1997, ’98 and ’99. School finished fourth in 1977, losing the consolation game to Nevada Las Vegas.

10. BUTLER (23-7)

* First-round opponent: Wake Forest.

* Season in brief: Defeated Detroit, 53-38, in the tournament final to win the Midwestern Collegiate Conference’s automatic bid. Held Detroit to 24% shooting. Butler has won eight consecutive games, tied the school record for single-season victories and probably would have made the tournament field as an at-large selection based on a strong power rating and an impressive nonconference victory at Wisconsin.

* Player to watch: LaVall Jordan. The 6-2 senior guard is the team’s top defender. In the conference title game, Jordan held Rashad Phillips, the two-time MCC player of the year, to four-of-15 shooting.

* Tidbit: No MCC team has made it past the second round of the NCAA tournament since Xavier, now in the Atlantic 10, reached the regional semifinals in 1990.

* NCAA bio: Fifth appearance. Suffered a crushing first-round blow last season, losing in overtime to Florida on Mike Miller’s buzzer beater.

11. XAVIER (21-7)

* First-round opponent: Notre Dame.

* Season in brief: Started 4-0 before a Dec. 2 loss at Wisconsin. Also lost at Princeton in nonconference play, but won the annual city championship against Cincinnati. Almost unbeatable at home, going 13-1 at the new Cintas Center and posting a five-year home record of 68-4.

* Player to watch: David West. The 6-8 sophomore forward ranked among the nation’s leaders in double-doubles. In one late-season victory against LaSalle, West had 22 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocked shots.

* Tidbit: Coach Skip Prosser’s full name is George Edward Prosser, but his nickname only ranks third in the A-10 conference coaches behind Speedy Morris (LaSalle) and Bruiser Flint (Massachusetts).

* NCAA bio: 13th appearance, first since 1998. Last tournament victory came against Vanderbilt in 1997.

12. HAWAII (17-13)

* First-round opponent: Syracuse.

* Season in brief: Aloha, Warriors. All Hawaii did to get its first NCAA bid since 1994 is defeat top-seeded Fresno State in the Western Athletic Conference tournament semifinals and then down Tulsa in overtime on Tulsa’s home court in the championship game. An NIT bid seemed far-fetched when the Warriors entered the WAC tournament, so you could say this bid came right out of the Pacific Blue.

* Player to watch: Predvas Savovic. The 6-6 junior guard from Yugoslovia averaged a team-leading 19 points a game and made the WAC’s all-conference team.

* Tidbit: You can’t accuse Coach Riley Wallace of not getting out to recruit. Hawaii’s roster features players hailing from Texas, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Newfoundland, Canada, Israel, New York, Utah, California and Washington.

* NCAA bio: Third appearance. Hawaii was a first-round loser to Syracuse in 1994.

13. CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE (22-9)

* First-round opponent: Kansas.

* Season in brief: Defeated Eastern Washington in the Big Sky Conference tournament title game to win its first NCAA bid. It has been quite a season for Bobby Braswell’s Matadors, who have posted nonconference victories against UCLA and Kent, the Mid-American Conference champions. Braswell has been rumored as a candidate for the vacant job at Nevada Las Vegas.

* Player to watch: Brian Heinle. The 6-9 senior forward was named the Big Sky player of the year and is Northridge’s all-time scoring leader.

* Tidbit: In a preseason survey, ESPN The Magazine named the Matadome as the Big Sky’s “Toughest Place to Play.” Hard to argue. Although the gym seats less than 2,000, Northridge has not lost a nonconference home game since a 56-54 defeat to St. Mary’s on Dec. 16, 1996.

* NCAA bio: First appearance.

14. IONA (22-10)

* First-round opponent: Mississippi.

* Season in brief: Earned the Metro Atlantic Conference bid by defeating Canisius in the tournament final. Gaels have five players from New York City on the roster and are coached by Jeff Ruland, the former Iona center and two-time NBA all-star with the Washington Bullets.

* Player to watch: Earl Johnson. The 6-foot senior guard is a transfer from Rutgers and a clutch shooter. Three times in his career he has made three-point shots at the buzzer to win a game or send it to overtime.

* Tidbit: Johnson is so unselfish, Ruland makes the player run extra wind sprints after practice if he does not take more than 10 shots in a game.

* NCAA bio: Seventh appearance. Lost in the first round last year to Maryland. Ruland is the fourth coach to lead an NCAA charge, along with Jim Valvano, Pat Kennedy and Tim Welsh.

15. EASTERN ILLINOIS (21-9)

* First-round opponent: Arizona.

* Season in brief: Won the Ohio Valley Conference’s automatic bid by rallying from a 21-point deficit to defeat Austin Peay, 84-83, on a last-second goaltending call. This is the Panthers’ first NCAA tournament bid in nine years and the first since joining the Ohio Valley.

* Player to watch: Kyle Hill. The 6-2 senior guard had 31 points and five assists in the bid-clinching win over Austin Peay.

* Tidbit: Rick Samuels has been the Eastern Illinois coach for 20 years. With Denny Crum now retired, only Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim, with 26 years, has coached at the same school longer than Samuels.

* NCAA bio: Second appearance. Lost to No. 2 Indiana, 94-55, in the opening round in 1992.

16. NORTHWESTERN STATE (18-12)

* First opponent: Winthrop.

* Season in brief: Earned its first NCAA bid with a win over top-seeded McNeese State in the Southland Conference tournament championship game. Coach Mike McConathy has led the Demons to the best two-season win total in 26 years. School was 17-13 last season, its first winning season since 1991-92.

* Player to watch: Michael Byars-Dawson. The 6-foot junior made the game-winning free throws against McNeese. Byars-Dawson is a former high school All America at Texas’ Dunbar High who transferred to Northwestern State after two years at Miami.

* Tidbit: Northwestern State nearly got its men’s and women’s teams into the tournament, but the Lady Demons lost their conference title game to Stephen F. Austin.

* NCAA bio: First appearance.

16. WINTHROP (18-12)

* First opponent: Northwestern State.

* Season in brief: Marcus Stewart’s driving layup with six seconds left in overtime gave Winthrop an overtime victory against Radford to win the Big South Conference tournament. “This was my Michael Jordan moment,” Stewart said. This is Winthrop’s third consecutive NCAA appearance under Coach Gregg Marshall.

* Player to watch: Tyrone Walker. The 6-6 forward was named the Big South rookie of the year and is coming off a 23-point, 10-rebound game against Radford.

* Tidbit: Winthrop, located in Rock Hill, S.C, about 20 miles south of Charlotte, was founded in 1886 as a teacher’s college and was an all women’s school until 1974. Actress Andie McDowell attended Winthrop, but did not graduate.

* NCAA bio: Third appearance. Lost to Auburn by 39 points two years ago as a No. 16. Last year, as a No. 14, lost to No. 3 Oklahoma by 24 in the opening round.