March 18, 1999
ST. LOUIS (AP) – The Midwest Regional was supposed to feature arematch oflast year’s NCAA championship game, before Miami of Ohio crashed the party.
The No. 10 seed that spoiled a Kentucky-Utah repeat Friday night isabout atwo-hour drive from Lexington, Ky., and light years away in terms ofreputation. Coach Charlie Coles did a lot of chuckling when asked whether anyof his players had also been recruited by the No. 3 seed and defendingnationalchampion.
Coles, whose school is in Oxford, Ohio, said somebody has made a bigmistakeif he and Kentucky coach Tubby Smith ever end up in the same place checkingoutprospects.
“No, huh-uh, no, huh-uh,” Coles said. “We never really cross paths. If Isee Tubby out recruiting someone, then I’m in the wrong gym. Nothing againstour players, but that’s just the way it is.”
That even goes for tournament darling and likely NBA lottery pick WallySzczerbiak, who has totaled 67 points in Miami’s first two NCAA victories.Szczerbiak is averaging 24.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists.
“I wasn’t recruited by Kentucky at all,” Szczerbiak said.
Miami (24-7) has tied a school record for victories and is in theround of16 for the first time since 1978. No one outside of Oxford, Ohio can name anyof the other four starters.
Everybody knows about Kentucky (27-8), which is the defending nationalchampion and has been in the title game the last three years. The Wildcatshavebeen to 41 NCAA tournaments, more than any other team, and this is their fifthstraight appearance in the round of 16.
Kentucky also has won 17 in a row against Miami, with the last loss in1927.
“The fact we’ve been here and been so successful gives us confidence,”said forward Scott Padgett, who made the winning basket in Kentucky’s 92-88overtime victory over Kansas last Sunday. “At this time of the year we knowwhat it takes to win games.
“Especially the seniors and upperclassmen, we try to pass down what we’velearned.”
Miami’s approach is that’s just history. The Mid-American Conferencechampions feel they belong after climbing on Szczerbiak’s back for afirst-round victory over No. 7 seed Washington – he scored 43 of the 59 points- and then beating No. 2 seed Utah despite only 24 from Szczerbiak.
“People think Miami has gotten to the sweet 16, they’ll be OK, they won’tbe sad, they’ll be satisfied,” Coles said. “I guarantee you if we don’t win,there won’t be a dry eye in the place.”
Szczerbiak certainly isn’t in awe of Kentucky.
“No one believed we could get this far but ourselves,” Szczerbiak said.”The aura Kentucky has, it’s really no different from the aura Utah had.”
Kentucky’s major strength is a bottomless bench. Four players average indouble figures, led by Padgett’s 12.5-point average, and Smith routinelysubstitutes for the entire starting five after the first four or five minutes.
The freshness factor has helped the Wildcats hold opponents to 37.9percentshooting, the best at the school since 1962.
Szczerbiak averages about three minutes of bench time per game and DamonFrierson, the team’s other double-figure scorer at 13.1 points, averages 2 1/2minutes of rest. Szczerbiak isn’t worried and in fact believes Kentucky’sdepthcan be a negative.
“It’s not like this is going to be our first 40-minute game,” Szczerbiaksaid. “We’ve been doing this just about every time. We know it’s going to betough, but with their platooning system, sometimes you can get out of theflow.”
By R.B. FALLSTROM
AP Sports Writer
