Vindication Is Here for Some Teams

They were buried beneath the weight of heavy expectations, piled high in drifts of snow.

March came, and green blades sprouted from the earth.

For UCLA, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?

All four were ranked in the top 10 before the season began: No. 3 Illinois, No. 4 Kentucky, No. 5 UCLA and No. 8 Missouri.

By the time the season ended, UCLA and Missouri were nowhere to be found, and Illinois and Kentucky were barely hanging on in the top 15.

Theirs are the tales of rejuvenation in the NCAA tournament, and they make up a quarter of the Sweet 16.

Scrutiny certainly goes with these programs.

But these are not stories of the unjustly maligned.

Illinois, Missouri and UCLA each lost a game by at least 20 points, and Kentucky’s record included a sweep by Georgia and a 13-point loss to Vanderbilt.

Missouri’s Travon Bryant, a McDonald’s All-American at Long Beach Jordan High now preparing to play the Bruins on Thursday in San Jose, knows the drill.

“I mean, year-in and year-out, you hear Steve Lavin’s going to be out of there,” he said.

And yet here he is. Those fans who so recently howled now raise their arms in triumph.

If the first weekend of the NCAA tournament taught us anything, it is that the gaps among the teams are no longer so wide.

Who finds it beyond imagining that Kent State and Southern Illinois made the Sweet 16?

They belong, as much as Gonzaga did the last three years.

And did you notice, despite seven first-round upsets and five in the second round, only Creighton’s double-overtime upset of Florida was the sort of buzzer-beater that meant Terrell Taylor’s shot would be replayed again and again?

What that says is it’s possible for a so-called mid-major to win without needing a prayer.

Kent State, after all, has defeated Indiana, Oklahoma State and Alabama in the last two tournaments under different coaches, though guard Trevor Huffman remains the constant.

The other lesson is that if you are from a major conference, you will get so many chances to rescue your season there is no excuse if you don’t.

Butler, rolling on in the National Invitation Tournament, got no such latitude.

Teams from the major conferences did. Missouri was one of the last at-large teams in and UCLA might have been sweating if not for victories over Kansas and Alabama.

Now the Bruins and Tigers are liberated from the grip of conference opponents who understand how to play them, and their strengths emerge again, honed by their brushes with failure.

UCLA’s Cedric Bozeman grew up before everyone’s eyes in the upset of top-seeded Cincinnati.

Missouri’s Kareem Rush became only one option in the Tigers’ tournament games, and not the entire focal point.

In the battle for conference supremacy, the Big 12 emerged in front after two rounds, with four teams in the Sweet 16: Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas.

But the Pacific 10 was only one behind, with Oregon, Arizona and UCLA. (The Pac-10 had four in 2001.)

It would be hard to claim the renewal of the Pac-10 tournament hurt the league, with the lone exception of USC’s first-round loss to North Carolina Wilmington--in its own time zone, no less.

The Trojans more likely fell victim to ego fatigue than tired legs.

Arizona did just fine after defeating USC in the title game, and it faced a potentially giant-slaying performance by UC Santa Barbara’s Mark Hull, who made eight of 11 threes and didn’t miss until the second half.

The Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten and Big East each put two teams in the Sweet 16.

The vaunted Southeastern Conference has the same number as the Mid-American and the Missouri Valley. Only one.

What lies ahead?

A rematch of the 1995 UCLA-Missouri game that Tyus Edney won with his dizzying fullcourt drive to keep the Bruins alive on the way to their 11th title.

There also will be a replay of last season’s Sweet 16 game between Kansas and Illinois--an 80-64 Illinois victory for which Kansas desperately wants revenge.

UCLA will be favored to reach the Elite Eight, where it could run into Arizona but more likely will face second-seeded Oklahoma

Even Duke, this season, is allowed to tread lightly.

There is no talk of the greatest team ever--the sort of business that surely has contributed to the Blue Devils’ stunned and frozen looks in the final moments of the 1999 championship loss to Connecticut.

Who among these 16 teams can’t win? Only Kent State, Southern Illinois and perhaps Texas seem to be true longshots.

Duke, Kansas and Maryland share the favorite’s role.

UCLA, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri?

They are still trying to force themselves into full bloom before their hour is past.