March 12, 1999
By STEPHEN HAWKINS
AP Sports Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The past three years, Utah’s last game has been aloss toKentucky in the NCAA tournament.
It could happen again.
The two teams that played for the 1998 national title are in the NCAAMidwest Regional at New Orleans and only two wins away from a rematch.
“Unless you know the next two teams are going to forfeit, that isalmost amoot point,” Utah coach Rick Majerus said Thursday. “We expect all of theproblems in the world with Arkansas State. It’s hypothetical … my attentionis not beyond tomorrow’s game.”
While there is the potential for another Utah-Kentucky postseasonmatchup inthe round of 16, first is the possible matchup between the two winningestteamsof the 1990s – Kentucky and Kansas.
“It looks to be a strong region with a lot of big-name teams,” Kentuckycoach Tubby Smith said.
But before any of those are possibilities, Kansas, defending nationalchampion Kentucky and Utah have to get through their first-round games. Allarefavored.
Second-seeded Utah (27-4), which has won 22 straight games while becomingthe first Big West Conference team to sweep through the regular season andleague tournament undefeated, plays the opener Friday against Arkansas State(18-11).
In the other first-round games at the Superdome, Kansas (22-9) playsEvansville (23-9); Kentucky (25-8) meets New Mexico State (17-11) andWashington (17-11) faces Miami, Ohio (22-7).
Arkansas State, the Sun Belt Conference tournament champion, enters itsfirst NCAA tournament seemingly recovered for a rash of injuries to its postplayers. The Indians have won seven of their last eight games.
With four 6-foot-7 or taller players fighting injuries, the Indians wereforced, during one stretch, to use several lineups with 6-4 players andshorter.
“We’re more focused now, we got Eric (Beatty, a 6-8 senior) back and thatgets our team chemistry back,” guard Antonio Harvey said. “The key isrebounding. If we rebound well, we can beat anybody.”
Beatty missed about four weeks after breaking a bone in his foot inJanuary,but had 19 rebounds in three SBC tournament games last weekend.
Even after winning the Big 12 tournament title for the third straightyear,Kansas has its lowest NCAA seed since 1988.
The No. 6 seed for Kansas was the highest among the five Big 12 teamsto getinto the NCAA tournament, and also is the same seeding the Jayhawks had whenthey won the 1988 national championship.
Coach Roy Williams has said the Jayhawks got the seeding theydeserved. Butthe only real letdown for Kansas were a pair of two-game losing streaks in aseven-game span.
Kansas, the winningest team of the decade, has won 285 games in the1990s.That’s six more than Kentucky.
Evansville became an at-large team after losing the Missouri ValleyConference championship game to Creighton, which beat Louisville 62-58 in afirst-round game Thursday.
MVC player of the year Marcus Wilson, only the second Evansvilleplayer toscore more than 2,000 career points, is one of only two seniors for the PurpleAces.
Third-seeded Kentucky, which has played in the past three NCAA titlegames(winning in 1996), is in its record 40th NCAA tournament and appears set onmaking another march through March.
Kentucky lost four straight road games to finish with its most regularseason losses since 1990. But the Wildcats won the Southeastern Conferencetournament with double-digit victories over three NCAA teams – Mississippi,Arkansas and Auburn, the South’s No. 1 seed.
“We made a goal to be 9-0 in the postseason; we’re 3-0 right now,”Wildcats senior Scott Padgett said.
New Mexico State is back in the NCAA tournament under Lou Henson, who inFebruary became the sixth active coach with 700 career victories.
While 423 of Henson’s victories came in 21 years at Illinois, he has theAggies back in the NCAA tournament only two years after returning to his almamater and 25 years after their last tournament together.
Henson is in his 19th NCAA (seventh at New Mexico State), but none of hisplayers has ever played in the postseason.
Washington went to the NCAA round of 16 last year before losing 75-74 toConnecticut. The Huskies are led by 7-foot center Todd MacCullough, whoaveraged 19 points per game while leading the Pac-10 in rebounding (12 ppg)andfield goal percentage (.662).
“We have to stick together, play hard as a unit and neutralize him bycommittee,” said Wally Szczerbiak, a second-team All-American who leads Miamiwith 23.6 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.
