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OSCAR L. COMBS
CATS' PAUSE EDITOR/PUBLISHER
Cincy's Not Home, But It's The Next Best Thing
Notre Dame may be in Chapel Hill, N.C.; Xavier may be in Lincoln, Neb.; North Carolina may be in Salt Lake City, Utah; Utah State may be in Lincoln. Neb., and Georgia Tech may be in Hartford, Conn., but the Kentucky Wildcats are in Cincinnati and Purdue is in South Bend.
Sure, the 'Cats won't be playing in their home state as the NCAA tournament gets underway this week, but you'd better believe they will enjoy the next best thing to a homecourt advantage.
Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum will become Rupp Arena-North, and you can count on that.
? For a complete look at the the bracket for the 1988 NCAA tournament, please turn to pages 14 and 15.
And just how were the Wildcats afforded such luck, especially in light of some doomsaycrs who predicted the NCAA would send Kentucky somewhere near
China after the Wildcat program was declared not gulity of allegations brought forth during a two-year probe a few weeks ago?
When you consider the NCAA's decision to ship so many other teams away from home, even the most ardent UK fan has to ponder the selection committee's decision.
Perhaps it was to reward Kentucky for its play down the stretch, winning its last seven games in a row, including four during the regular season and three in the Southeastern Conference tourney.
Perhaps it was to show the nation that the NCAA committee would make its own decision and not the media or other critics around the country.
The committee's decision probably can be attributed more to UK's win streak and sudden charge up the poll standings than any finger-pointing or "getting back" at anyone.
Most likely, several other schools would have been afforded the opportunity to stay near home had they performed well down the stretch and played a decent schedule.
A couple points:
Let's take North Carolina. The Tar Heels fell from grace near the end of the season and took a nosedive. The committee chairman even said the group decided early Sunday morning that the winner of the ACC Tournament title game would be allowed to stay home at Chapel Hill and the loser would go west. Duke downed Carolina and the Tar Heels hit the road.
Notre Dame sports a pretty decent record, but the wins came against a bunch of bunnies, save the early season victory over Louisville. In all fairness, there were some teams left on the sidelines which were more deserving than the Irish, so Digger Phelps cannot complain too much.
Utah State and Georgia Tech would have preferred to stay near home at Salt Lake City and Atlanta respectively, but neither deserve the reward, based on their
play late in the season.
Kentucky, however, wasn't the only team rewarded for outstanding play. Purdue and Gene Keady were finally given a little justice and allowed to stay in South Bend.
Purdue, if you recall, is the team which has been shafted more than any other school in the country over the past few years. Not this time. The Boilermakers have earned their No. 2 national ranking and there would have been a public outcry if the committee had sent Purdue anywhere but South Bend.
In fact, Purdue has a better shot at making the trip to the Final Four than any other team in America. Part of that, I believe, is because Keady's team is the best team in the country right now. But there is yet another factorthe Midwest field.
The NCAA not only put Purdue in the Midwest, but the remainder of the Midwest field is extremely weak compared to the other regionals. Only Pittsburgh, seeded No. 2 in the Midwest, stands in Purdue's path to the Final Four.
In the Southeast where Kentucky is the No. 2 seed behind Oklahoma, there figure to be some outstanding matchups along the way to the Final Four.
Kentucky should handle Southern at 9:37 p.m. Friday and then meet the winner of the Maryland-UCSB (Santa Barbara) on Sunday afternoon.
The four other teams at the Cincinnati sub-regional are Villanova taking on Arkansas and Illinois meeting Texas-San Antonio. So if Kentucky survives its first two games, the 'Cats are most likely to meet either Villanova or Illinois. The most interesting matchup, though, could be Eddie Sutton facing his old Arkansas team, which has three seniors recruited by Sutton before he left Razorback Country for Lexington three years ago. But that would only happen in Birmingham.
Should the Wildcats make it to the finals of the Southeast Regional, there are all kinds of neat possibilities. How about Kentucky running and gunning with Oklahoma, or the 'Cats meeting Sonny Smith and his Auburn Tigers? There could be a rematch with Jeff Mullins and UNCC (remember the controversial ending of the UKIT championship?).
But the real one would be Kentucky and Louisville hooking up for a spot in the Final Four. Louisville opens against Oregon State at Atlanta and then would meet the winner of the BYU-UNCC game. The Cards, on a roll after winning the Metro Conference tournament in Memphis, look to be a good choice to meet Oklahoma in a semifinal match at Birmingham next week.
And to the West Regional. This is the one with a lot of darkhorses. Arizona is the early favorite, but don't overlook the likes of UTEP, UNLV, Michigan, Wyoming and North Carolina. Florida, if Norm Sloan can treat a few egos, could make some waves, and Iowa will not be a pushover.
The strongest region has to be the East. First you have Temple. Then add in
Duke, Syracuse, Rhode Island, Indiana, Georgia Tech, Missouri and SMU. And no one is safe around the likes of Georgetown, LSU and Iowa State. Notre Dame looks good in name, but the Irish will head home about halftime of their opening game.
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Our Final Four picks? How about Purdue from the Midwest? There's no match for the Boilemakers, save one run from the Pitt Panthers.
Duke will survive in the East where the Blue Devils will defeat Temple in one of the tourney's finest games.
It'll be Michigan from the West. The Wolverines will take care of North Carolina in Seattle (if Wyoming doesn't pull off the upset earlier) and then Michigan will beat UTEP for the Final Four spot after UTEP upsets Arizona in the second round.
So you've been waiting for the Southeast, have you? This will be a dandy. Coach Eddie Sutton's 'Cats have been playing well lately and they should be primed by the time they get to Birmingham next week after solid, but closer-than-expected wins over Southern and UC-Santa Barbara this weekend.
Also emerging from the Cincinnati sub-regional with Kentucky will be Illinois which will defeat Villanova on Sunday after Villanova eliminates Arkansas on Friday.
Meeting with Kentucky and Illinois in Birmingham will be Oklahoma or Auburn (I'm not real sure about the Tigers holding off Bradley as this could be the finest of the first-round games in the country. They'll run and gun all night), and Louisville or BYU.
I like Oklahoma and Louisville. Auburn cannot keep pace with two run-and-gun clubs back-to-back, and there's no way BYU can stay on the same floor with Louisville.
That gives us Oklahoma versus Louisville in one game and Kentucky going against Illinois in the other. Prime-time, as Dick Vitale says.
It says here it'll be Oklahoma and Kentucky for the big ticket and Eddie Sutton will make his first trip to the Final Four since his old Arkansas team met Kentucky back in 1978.
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NCAA TOURNEY TIDBITS. . Kentucky had better make the most of this run at the NCAA title. First of all, the 'Cats will be without stars Ed Davender, Winston Bennett, Rob Lock and Cedric Jenkins next season and you just don't replace that kind of experience. Oh, I know LeRon Ellis andEric Manuel will be better, but just think about that early non-conference schedule next season which includes the likes of Louisville, Syracuse, The Hall of Fame Classic, The Great Alaska Shootout and the Big Four Classicall away from Lexington.
There will be some losses to say the least and when you have eight or nine losses over the season you won't get a very good seed in the tourney (ask North Carolina). Plus. Rupp Arena is hosting the NCAA Southeast Regional next March and you know that means Kentucky will be shipped half-way around the world . . . The Georgia Bulldogs had to be disappointed with being left out of the NCAA field after playing so well in the Southeastern Conference tourney. Had the Dogs held on against Kentucky, it would have been interesting to see if the NCAA would have taken six SEC teams, or said no to LSU . . . Five schools will be playing in the NCAA for the first time. They are Santa Barbara, Eastern Michigan, North Texas State, Seton Hall and Texas-San Antonio . . . Arizona enters the big event with most wins31. On the other end, LSU has most losses13. The Tigers are 16-13 while Arizona is 31-2.
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When Kentucky won the Southeastern Conference Tourney in Baton Rouge Sunday, it marked the third straight year a team won both the regular-season championship and the postseason tourney.
Kentucky turned the trick two years ago during Eddie Sutton's first campaign in Big Blue Country. Last season, Alabama won both titles and the Wildcats duplicated their feat of two years ago last week.
Kentucky's sudden dominance caused syndicated sports columnist Stan Torger-son to speculate that the SEC will return to the days of old when the Wildcats thoroughly dominated league play.
"It's going to be Kentucky and the nine dwarfs again," said the newspaper columnist. "Kentucky is on the verge of dominating just like it used to 30 years ago. Eddie Sutton is the best coach in the land, they have the greatest players in the country and Kentucky has the greatest facilities. They have it all." Hummmm!
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Kentucky's first-round game against Southern University will tip off at 9:37 p.m. Friday at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum.
The game is expected to be televised live in Kentucky, but the station list had not been announced by NCAA Productions by press time Monday.
ESPN is carrying several first-round games on Thursday and Friday, but will not carry any beyond the first round. All other games will be carried by CBS-TV on either a regional or national basis according to officials of the NCAA.
CBS-TV will carry live two first-round games, the first being on Thursday night at 11:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) from Salt Lake City and the second on Friday night at 11:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) from Los Angeles. Fans should check their local TV [Continued On Page 22]