Today’s Games

AT WASHINGTON

Maryland vs. Wisconsin: The top-seeded Terrapins are playing in the friendly confines of the MCI Center, an arena where they’ve played at least two games each of the past five seasons. They seemed to recover nicely from their Atlantic Coast Conference tournament loss to North Carolina State. Siena--a rare team to qualify for the NCAA tournament with a losing record--provided little resistance in the first round. Wisconsin might not be such an easy matter, but the Badgers probably don’t have the firepower on offense to stay in the game with Maryland. Terrapin guard Juan Dixon--recently named ACC player of the year, upsetting Duke’s Jason Williams--is on the verge of breaking the school’s career scoring record, still held by the late Len Bias. Wisconsin Coach Bo Ryan won his first NCAA Division I tournament game Friday in his first attempt. As a Division III coach at Wisconsin Platteville, he won four national titles. Wisconsin isn’t quite as offensively challenged as the Badger team that scored only 41 points in a Final Four semifinal loss two years ago. Guard Kirk Penney, a New Zealander who played in the Sydney Olympics and played a smaller role on the Badgers’ 2000 Final Four team, has been Wisconsin’s top scoring threat.

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Connecticut vs. North Carolina State: Connecticut had to sweat a little to hold off 15th-seeded Hampton, a team that left Coach Jim Calhoun impressed. (The Huskies scored the final seven points to make the 11-point victory look easier than it was.) Caron Butler is Connecticut’s leading scorer, but freshman center Emeka Okafor is a force as a rebounder and shot blocker. N.C. State had to sweat a lot against Michigan State, coming back from 12 points behind at halftime to stop the Spartans short of the Final Four for the first time in four years. Anthony Grundy is N.C. State’s star, but with Grundy in foul trouble Friday, freshmen Ilian Evtimov and Julius Hodge carried the load. The season marks a resurgence for the program in a season that probably would have been Coach Herb Sendek’s last if N.C. State hadn’t rallied the way it did. An upset of Maryland in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinals was an extra measure of success, but the NCAA victory meant more. “Last year this time, if someone had told me we would be here celebrating an NCAA win over a program like Michigan State, I wouldn’t have thought it was possible,” Grundy said.

Robyn Norwood

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AT CHICAGO

Southern Illinois vs. Georgia: Southern Illinois enters the game as the so-called “mid-major,” but the Salukis played like one of the big boys in their near-flawless first-round victory over Texas Tech. Southern Illinois Coach Bruce Weber trumped all of Bob Knight’s chess moves with suffocating defense and intensity. Weber gets another chance to beat another national championship coach when he matches wits with Georgia’s Jim Harrick. The Bulldogs had to rally from a first-half deficit late Friday night to beat Murray State. Georgia had too many great players to go out in the first round and got a career-high 31-point performance from Jarvis Hayes. The key for the Bulldogs, though, is the play of sophomore point guard Rashad Wright, who had 16 points and 10 assists against Murray State.

Chris Dufresne