THE MADNESS BEGINS.

Byline: From Register-Guard and news service reports

Stanford wanted more than just being the top seed in an NCAA regional, so the Cardinal were disappointed Sunday to learn two other teams - Kentucky and Duke - are considered better No. 1 seeds by the NCAA selection committee.

That might be even worse news for Arizona and Washington, the other Pac-10 teams in the NCAA men's tournament. The Wildcats would play Duke and the Huskies would meet Kentucky in the second round, provided the Pac-10 teams win opening games of the tournament.

`All we're concerned about is who we are playing in the first round,' Arizona coach Lute Olson said of a Thursday matchup with Seton Hall of the Big East. `When you look around, I don't think there is going to be anyone who is going to have an easy second game.'

Surely not the Wildcats, who presumably would be playing Duke - if the Blue Devils beat Alabama State - in Raleigh, N.C., in that second-round contest. Raleigh is the home of North Carolina State, a fierce rival of Duke.

`I would think there would be Duke fans there, but there are strong feelings about basketball in the state of North Carolina one way or the other,' Olson said. `If we get by the first round, that would be interesting.'

Washington will need to beat Alabama-Birmingham to earn a shot against Kentucky, accorded the honor of being the top-ranked team in the entire bracket, according to the selection committee. In their first game, the Wildcats will play either Lehigh or Florida A&M, the teams paired in the play-in game on Tuesday.

Kentucky is expected to have a strong following of fans for the game in Columbus, Ohio, only a three-hour drive from the Kentucky campus.

``We could beat just about anybody if we're playing the basketball that we can - everyone plays as a unit. Like when we beat Stanford the other night, if we play like that there's not many teams in the nation that can play with us,'' Huskies forward Mike Jensen said.

The Huskies surprised No. 1 Stanford by winning 75-62 earlier this month, but the Cardinal turned it around and beat Washington 77-66 on Saturday.

``Our guys are going to be so ready to play. It's a great opportunity for us,'' guard Nate Robinson added.

The Huskies were seeded eighth in the region, one seed higher than was accorded to Arizona, a team the Huskies defeated three times this season. That meant no complaints from the Wildcats about being lower seeded than Washington.

`Based on head-to-head competition and based on the last 10 to 15 games, they deserved a higher seed,' Olson said.

Stanford felt it should have been the No. 1 seed in the tournament instead of having two teams considered superior by the selection committee.

``Duke, seemingly no matter what happens to them, will be the nation's No. 1 team,'' said Josh Childress, the Cardinal's leading scorer. ``They have five losses. I wouldn't say it's unfair, because we're a No. 1 seed, but you look at it and say, `Why?' ''

The Cardinal, making a 10th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, still don't have it that bad. They open against 16th-seeded Texas-San Antonio (19-13) on Thursday in Seattle.

``We've got faxes, we've got Internet stuff, we've got rumors and we've got tape,'' Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said when asked what he knew about the Roadrunners, in the tournament for the first time in five years and winless in their two previous appearances.

Montgomery is happy his team won't have to travel far - Seattle is less than a two-hour flight - and if the Cardinal get through the first two rounds they'll be headed for Phoenix.

If Stanford survives its first two games - it would face Alabama or Southern Illinois in the second round - the bracket becomes decidedly more difficult, with second-seeded Connecticut, the Big East champion, and one of the past two NCAA champions - Syracuse or Maryland - also looming in Phoenix.

While Childress was disappointed the Cardinal weren't the overall No. 1 seed, point guard Chris Hernandez looked at the situation differently.

``The first initial response is that they're disrespecting us,'' Hernandez said, referring to the selection committee. ``But until we prove we can win in the tournament, maybe they're right. There's no use blaming anybody.''

Also playing in Seattle, but in a different region, is Gonzaga, the No. 2 seed in the St. Louis regional. The Bulldogs play Valparaiso in their first game on Thursday.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few said he was satisfied with the seed, which is the Spokane school's highest placement ever in its sixth trip to the NCAA event.

``I'm happy that people viewed us the way we viewed ourselves,'' he said. ``Seattle is a second home to us.''

Blake Stepp, a senior guard from Eugene, said: ``It feels good to see your name early'' with the high seed. ``Last year we had to wait around and we were not sure we were going to get in.''

The state of Washington had three teams get in, with Big Sky champion Eastern Washington joining the Huskies and Bulldogs. It's the first time that three Washington state teams have been chosen for the tournament, and the first time in the tournament for Eastern Washington, which is seeded 15th in the East Rutherford region and plays Oklahoma State in Kansas City on Friday.

``We have four seniors who have been champing at the bit for this opportunity,' Eagles coach Ray Giacoletti said. `They're going to drop the gloves and fight somebody.'

Utah State was ready to do just that after being the most notable team left out of the NCAA field.

The Aggies went 25-3 overall and 17-1 in the Big West Conference but lost to Cal State-Northridge, a sub-.500 team, in the semifinals of the league tournament. They were 44th in the RPI and had the 122nd-best nonconference strength of schedule.

The last teams to make the field were BYU and Texas-El Paso. The Miners were the lowest-seeded at-large team, at 13 in the Phoenix region, while BYU was a No. 12.

The two biggest controversies in the announcement of the bracket Sunday probably had to do with the new naming of the regions, and the question of whether Saint Joseph's should have remained a No. 1 seed.

The NCAA decided to name each regional after the host city: East this year is East Rutherford, West is Phoenix, Midwest is St. Louis and South is Atlanta.

Beyond that, there was CBS analyst Billy Packer criticizing the choice of Saint Joseph's for a top seed, which led to a heated response from Hawks coach Phil Martelli.

``He called us out on national TV. That committee goes into a room and studies it and he's smarter than the committee?'' Martelli said of Packer, terming him a `jackass. ... Enough with him.''

Bob Bowlsby, chair of the NCAA selection committee, said Oklahoma State lost a possible top spot to the Hawks because the bracket was pretty much set by the time the Cowboys beat Texas in the Big 12 championship game.

THE LUCKY FOUR

The final four teams selected to the NCAA field:

Richmond: The Spiders finished tied for third in their division of the Atlantic 10, but a 20-10 record, a 46 ranking in the RPI and a No. 6 nonconference strength of schedule were enough.

Air Force: The Falcons won the Mountain West regular-season title by two games and had a 3-1 record against Utah and BYU. That was enough to overcome an RPI of 70, a 236 strength of schedule and a 317 (out of 326) nonconference strength of schedule.

BYU: The Cougars, who had two wins over non-Division I teams, had a very impressive 31 RPI ranking.

Texas-El Paso: The Miners were a mild surprise after losing to Nevada in the Western Athletic Conference title game. They had two non-Division I wins and their strength of schedule was ranked 107th.

- The Associated Press