Minneapolis is hosting the big dance this year, the Final Four at the Metrodome in two weeks.
About 1 1/2 hours away, Rochester is throwing a little party of its own. And with a fortunate bounce of the basketball, the Cal Poly Pomona women's team got an invitation.
Thanks to their dramatic 63-62 victory over Seattle Pacific in the West Regional final, the Broncos are back on the national scene. They play Pace University of Pleasantville, N.Y., tonight in the NCAA Division II quarterfinals.
It is Pomona's first appearance in the national quarterfinals since 1993, when the Broncos still were directed by their Hall of Fame coach, the late Darlene May.
Said Paul Thomas, the Broncos' coach and a former May assistant, "It's a honor, just because of where our program is and the hard work we've put into it. It's the big prize and after you put in six months of hard work, it's a great reward."
Pomona's program is steeped in tradition. Under May, the Broncos won three national titles in the mid-1980s and reached the championship game six times. At one point, Pomona had won 13 consecutive California Collegiate Athletic Assn. titles.
"Everybody is very aware of the tradition here at Cal Poly," senior point guard LaTasha Burnett said.
Against stiff competition from a surprising first-year Cal State Bakersfield team and several other improving squads, Pomona won 20 of 22 CCAA games and their 17th league title by three games.
In the playoffs, they avenged a 15-point defeat at Western Washington with a 91-85 victory. Then, on March 10, Burgundie Porter made a running layup that bounced off the rim and dropped through the net with one second left for the victory over Seattle Pacific, which helped Pomona avoid another off-season of what-if questions.
"Maybe over time we would have felt differently," Thomas said. "But our team would have felt [the season] was a failure. I'm not afraid to say that.
"Thank God, Burgundie ran that play exactly they way we do it in practice."
Burnett, a 26-year-old who seven years ago won a state junior college title at Harbor and was recruited by USC, said their tough journey could help them tonight against Pace, and maybe beyond.
"If teams in our conference were rollovers, we wouldn't have done as well as we have," she said. "It's a lot tougher getting up to play against teams that aren't real good. With the level of competition we faced this year, I think it helped us get ready for being here."
