Ncaa Basketball Tournament

It could happen. It will happen. It just hasn't happened. Since the NCAA men's tournament field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985 and teams in each of the four regions were seeded 1-16, no top-seeded team has lost its first-round game. West Regional No. 1 UCLA (31-3) opens tournament play Thursday night against No. 16 Mississippi Valley State (17-15) and it's quite probable that Bruins Coach Ben Howland has mentioned some of these games: In 1989, No. 1 Oklahoma 72, No.

No. 6 Marquette (24-9) vs. No. 11 Kentucky (18-12), 11:30 a.m. -- Kentucky isn't used to being an NCAA tournament underdog, and has the nation's longest streak of first-round victories, 16. These teams are the most common of NCAA opponents, having met a record nine times. The last was in 2003, when a triple-double by Dwyane Wade led Marquette past the top-seeded Wildcats and into the Final Four. Kentucky is paced by senior Joe Crawford, who is averaging 25 points in the last three games and 17.

Stanford vs. Cornell, how the alumni match up: First glance: Stanford is tough to beat with 18 Nobel Laureates and four Pulitzer Prize winners.

OMAHA -- It's a matchup straight out of Aesop's Fables, only this time the tortoise is favored over the hare. Cal State Fullerton, the up-tempo team that relies on quick guards, will meet plodding Wisconsin, with its giant-like men in the middle, in the opening round of the NCAA Midwest regional today at the Qwest Center. No.

Times staff writer Sam Farmer will be writing about the people he meets and things he sees this week at the NCAA regional in Anaheim. On Wednesday, he found a few stray 'Cats: At times this season, Kentucky basketball fans felt like the sky was falling. And sometimes, they were right.

Let us all give a big Southern California welcome to Mississippi Valley State. Where is it? "Hmmm," James Keefe said. "In Mississippi Valley?" Kevin Love said. Name one of its players. "Jerry Rice," Darren Collison said. "Yeah, Jerry Rice," Lorenzo Mata-Real said. No, name one of its current basketball players. "Let me think," Josh Shipp said. "Hmmm," Keefe said. How many points did it score this season against Washington State? "We know that," Collison said. "Twenty-six, right?" Love said.

Kevin Love wowed the 200 or so fans that came to the Honda Center on Wednesday by scoring a basket with a two-handed chest pass from the opposite end of the court. Love then did a four-corner bow, the consummate showman appreciating his fans. He is also a freshman, unburdened by UCLA's NCAA journeys of the last two years when the Bruins advanced through the tournament into the Final Four but didn't return home with a 12th national championship banner. The Bruins (31-3), seeded No.

OMAHA -- O.J. Mayo sat at a dais deep inside the cavernous Qwest Center on Wednesday afternoon and addressed an array of topics at the behest of the 50 or so reporters gathered before him. There was the USC freshman's longtime relationship with Kansas State forward Bill Walker, the challenge of facing Wildcats phenom Michael Beasley, and Mayo's affinity for playing for Coach Tim Floyd.

The Drake basketball team from Des Moines, Iowa, which for decades has been alternately an also-ran and an embarrassment in the Missouri Valley Conference, has finally risen from the ashes. The long-suffering Bulldogs have finished last in the conference 11 times since 1971, the last time they played in the NCAA tournament -- until now.

Opening the NCAA tournament by playing Mississippi Valley State was exactly what UCLA needed Thursday. The top-seeded Bruins, nursing assorted aches and pains after playing three games in three days last week to win the Pacific 10 tournament, broke a sweat without breaking stride against the undersized and overmatched Delta Devils.