Final Cut / Invitations Go Out to 65 Teams Headed for a 64-Game, 21-Day Frenzy

Dan Gadzuric was so excited he began thinking in Dutch. Billy Knight let out the breath he had been holding for what seemed like hours.

It’s hard to say how Matt Barnes, Jason Kapono and Rico Hines felt because they bolted shortly after the NCAA tournament pairings were announced.

“Some of the guys are still salty and chapped,” Coach Steve Lavin said. “They know they need to show fire and competitive spirit to accomplish something now.”

UCLA (19-11), seeded No. 8 in the West Regional, will play No. 9 Mississippi (20-10) in Pittsburgh on Friday. The winner will face No. 1 Cincinnati, assuming the Bearcats defeat No. 16 Boston University in the first round.

Mississippi is pleased the game is not in Sacramento, the closest venue to Los Angeles.

Curiously, so are the suddenly curmudgeonly Bruins.

“We don’t need distractions,” Gadzuric said. “It never matters where we are shipped off to. Once we land, we’re just trying to find the floor.

“They accepted us in the tournament and that’s a great opportunity right there. Everybody has a fresh start.

“We have that chance and so do the other 46 teams.”

Reminded that there are actually 64 other teams in the tournament, the native of the Netherlands said he transposed the numbers because in Dutch they are expressed beginning with the lowest digit.

By any count, leaving the state sounds great to the Bruins, who don’t mind escaping the avalanche of criticism caused by their recent poor play.

“We can be less concerned about getting tickets for friends and entertaining people, and more concerned about preparing to play good basketball,” Lavin said.

“In my six years, we’ve always played outside our geographical region.”

And have usually done well. UCLA is 9-5 in the tournament under Lavin, advancing to the Sweet 16 four times and the round of eight once, absolving regular-season transgressions along the way.

This time, the hole dug by eight consecutive weeks of going 1-1 and a first-round exit in the Pacific 10 Conference tournament is so deep that the Bruins were sweating out the selection telecast.

“They announced the West Region last and we kept seeing the names and we weren’t named,” Knight said. “It’s good to be picked. It gave us a whole new lift on our season. We could easily be out of the tournament.”

Despite its lowest seeding since 1993, UCLA didn’t get a bad draw. Mississippi finished sixth in the Southeastern Conference, lost six of its last 10 and fell in the first round of the conference tournament.

“We’re not playing them in their backyard,” Rebel Coach Rod Barnes said. “I’m glad we aren’t playing them in Sacramento. Pittsburgh is as neutral as you can possibly get.”

Mississippi plays well at home, going 13-1 in Oxford, Miss., including an 8-0 SEC mark. But the Rebels were 1-7 in SEC road games.

Barnes has done well in his four years at the helm. The Rebels made the NCAA tournament in his first two seasons, missed out after going 19-14 in 2000, then made a run to the Sweet 16 last season with three freshmen playing prominent roles, losing to Arizona.

Those freshmen--Justin Reed, David Sanders and Aaron Harper--have developed into steady sophomores and are complemented by Jason Harrison, a playmaking 5-foot-5 senior point guard, and junior forward Derrick Allen.

The Rebels are strong on defense, holding opponents to 63.8 points a game, and are the best three-point shooting team in the SEC.

But they lack a true center. Gadzuric might be unstoppable against 6-8 forwards Reed and Allen.

The 6-11 senior has played well of late, averaging 14.0 points and 9.3 rebounds in Pac-10 games while shooting 58.2%.

“Dan’s the X-factor,” Bruin assistant Jim Saia said. “If he plays well, like he did in last year’s tournament, we can go a long way.”

Gadzuric had 14 points and 13 rebounds in the first-round victory against Hofstra and 16 points and 14 rebounds in the second-round victory over Utah State.

“We can beat any team in America as we proved [by beating No. 1 Kansas],” Gadzuric said. “We have to show we are a good team. We can’t turn the ball over and we have to convert our free throws.

“We got an opponent who I hear has had a season a lot like ours. We need to play smart and real hard.”

Mississippi began the season 11-2, but padded its record with victories over Morris Brown, Louisiana Monroe, Tennessee Martin, Arkansas Pine Bluff and David Lipscomb.

The Rebels split with Alabama, which UCLA defeated. The only other common opponent is South Carolina, which UCLA beat at the Maui Invitational, 89-77. Mississippi split against the Gamecocks, winning at Oxford and losing, 69-67, Thursday in the first round of the SEC tournament.

“We’ve got one last opportunity to start over and make something positive out of this season,” Knight said. “That’s the way we’ll go about it, fighting hard because it’s our last chance.”