`PODS' DEBUTING AT BIG DANCE DUKE SEEDED FIRST FOR FIFTH YEAR IN A ROW.Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer Welcome to the brave new world Brave New World Aldous Huxley’s grim picture of the future, where scientific and social developments have turned life into a tragic travesty. [Br. Lit.: Magill I, 79] See : Dystopia Brave New World of the NCAA NCAA abbr. National Collegiate Athletic Association men's basketball tournament, in which playing sites don't necessarily indicate regional affiliation and some teams will play closer to home for the first and second rounds before returning to their assigned regionals. For the record, Duke was seeded No. 1 for the tournament for a record fifth consecutive year after grabbing the top spot in the South, joining Kansas (Midwest), Maryland (East) and Cincinnati (West) atop regional brackets. It gets confusing from that point on. For the first time, the NCAA selection committee allowed teams - grouped in four-team ``pods'' - to stay closer to home for the first two rounds. For instance, Maryland was seeded first in the East and will play in Washington, D.C., against the winner of Tuesday's play-in game between Alcorn State and Siena. The other matchup in the pod is eighth-seeded Wisconsin against ninth-seeded St. John's. The four other teams in that part of the East Regional bracket will play Thursday in St. Louis, with fourth-seeded Kentucky playing Valparaiso and fifth-seeded Marquette playing Tulsa. The lower part of the bracket features second-seeded Connecticut against Hampton in Washington, D.C., on Friday along with seventh-seeded North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. State against Michigan State. The Midwest bracket features top-seeded Kansas playing Holy Cross in St. Louis, but like the other regions, the Midwest is being played in four different sites - St. Louis, Chicago, Dallas and Sacramento. The Sacramento site will host Pepperdine against Wake Forest on Thursday and Oregon against Montana in Midwest matchups. Sacramento also will be home to South Region matchups - Indiana against Utah and USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. against UNC-Wilmington on Thursday. Ironically, Sacramento will not be involved in the West Region, which is spread out between Pittsburgh (No. 1 Cincinnati against No. 16 Boston University Boston University, at Boston, Mass.; coeducational; founded 1839, chartered 1869, first baccalaureate granted 1871. It is composed of 16 schools and colleges. ; No. 4 Ohio State against No. 13 Davidson), Albuquerque, N.M. (No. 6 Gonzaga against No. 11 Wyoming; No. 3 Arizona against No. 14 UC Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. ), and Dallas (No. 7 Xavier against No. 10 Hawaii; No. 2 Oklahoma against No. 15 Illinois-Chicago). Cincinnati (30-3) was the only top seed to win its regular-season conference title and conference tournament championship. ``These guys play so hard,'' said Bearcats A Bearcat is another name for a binturong, a sloth-like mammal from Southeast Asia. A Bearcat is also the mascot for Willamette University, Binghamton University, CUNY Baruch, Northwest Missouri State University, Southwest Baptist University, and the University of Cincinnati. coach Bob Huggins Bob Huggins (born September 21, 1953 in Morgantown, West Virginia[1]) is the head coach of the West Virginia University Mountaineers men's basketball team. Huggins previously held the head coaching positions at the University of Cincinnati (1989-2005) and Kansas State , who has led Cincinnati to seven consecutive 25-win seasons and Conference USA Conference USA, officially abbreviated C-USA, is a college athletic conference whose member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. titles. ``They practice so hard. They work so hard.'' Cincinnati will play the winner of the UCLA-Ole Miss winner. A sleeper in the West region is Gonzaga, which was hoping for a better seed after finishing the season as the sixth-ranked team in the country and winning the West Coast Conference tournament title. ``I'm shocked by that,'' said Pepperdine coach Paul Westphal Not to be confused with Paul Westhead. Paul Westphal (born November 30 1950 in Torrance, California) is a retired American basketball player and coach in the NBA. A native of California, Westphal has had a storied career in the NBA, both as a player and as a head coach. , whose Waves tied Gonzaga for the regular-season WCC WCC n abbr (= World Council of Churches) → COE m (Conseil œcuménique des Églises) WCC n abbr (= World Council of Churches) → Weltkirchenrat m title and lost to the Bulldogs in the tournament final. ``I thought for sure they were going to be a higher seed.'' Duke lost the regular-season ACC See adaptive cruise control. championship to Maryland but won the ACC tournament title by beating North Carolina State on Sunday. The Blue Devils (29-3) are joined in the South region by USC, Alabama and Pitt. Kansas lost in the Big 12 Conference tournament final to Oklahoma on Sunday but still did enough to earn the top seed in the Midwest region. This Jayhawks team is considered one of the best in modern school history, having won 16 consecutive games before losing to Oklahoma. Kansas, under 13-year head coach Roy Williams, has underachieved over the years in the NCAA Tournament, putting the heat on Williams to deliver this year. ``The nature of college basketball is that people remember how you finish,'' Williams said. ``I understand that. I do not necessarily think it is the best way, because we're talking about college athletics.'' Kansas could get strong competition in the Midwest from Stanford, Florida and Illinois. Maryland, which won the ACC regular-season title, was upset by North Carolina State in the ACC tournament semifinal. Nevertheless, the Terps (26-4), who reached the Final Four last year, earned their first No. 1 seed after getting the top spot in the East. CAPTION(S): box Box: 2002 NCAA men's basketball championship |
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