Ncaa Basketball Tournament

Arizona has been here before. Not precisely here in southern Idaho, perhaps, but in the general vicinity. And in a metaphorical sense, Arizona was in precisely the same spot last year, as the top-seeded team in the West Regional of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament, which begins today with 16 first-round games at four sites. For Robert Morris, the Wildcats' first-round opponent, it is a different story.

For stereotyped teams and coaches, you probably couldn't find a more contrasting matchup than Villanova and Oklahoma in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball tournament's Southeast Regional final today (Channel 2, 12:30 p.m., PST). Villanova, with a 24-12 record, is once again catching the fancy of the country, much as it did in 1985 when it went unheralded into the tournament and won the championship.

Don't bother the University of Arizona's basketball team with negative vibes. Negativity bounces off the happy Wildcats like bullets off Superman's chest. Arizona has been eliminated from the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament in the first round the last four tries? Including the last three seasons under Coach Lute Olson? So what? These Wildcats are seeded No.

The question that has been posed to Louisiana State Coach Dale Brown is whether his team has reached today's NCAA Midwest championship game by doing the Freak, or by doing a bump and grind that would be better suited for a wrestling ring than a basketball court.

Bill Frieder's career as Michigan's basketball coach ended a bit more abruptly than he had intended Wednesday. Frieder, after announcing his resignation to take over Arizona State's flagging program next season, was summarily told by Michigan Athletic Director Bo Schembechler not to bother coaching the Wolverines in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament. Michigan plays Xavier of Cincinnati in a first-round game Friday at Atlanta.

With all 256 pounds of the great J.R. Reid crashing down upon him, Arizona center Tom Tolbert flipped the ball back over his head toward the basket, hoping to get himself two free throws for his trouble. The ball glanced off the glass, hit the front of the rim and dropped through the hoop to tie the score. Arizona went ahead by one on Tolbert's free throw with more than 14 minutes left to play, and that was just about the last of North Carolina's hopes.

Michigan and Missouri have more in common these days than the design of their jerseys, which feature oversized block M's followed by the other seven letters in their names in smaller script. Both were guided through the opening weekend of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball tournament by assistant coaches. Missouri's Rich Daly, though, had at least several weeks to prepare for the tournament, taking over Feb.

Once again Friday, Pepperdine was ousted from the NCAA basketball tournament by an Atlantic Coast Conference team. But the Waves didn't leave quietly, giving Maryland all kinds of problems before the Terrapins earned a 69-64 win in a West Regional first-round game at the Long Beach Arena. Last year, Duke had a fairly easy time ousting Pepperdine in the first round, and, in 1983, North Carolina State took out the Waves in the opening round before going on to win the national title.

playing with four fouls late in a one-point game--when she brought the spectators at Lyon Center out of their seats and her teammates up another level. Montana guard Julie Epperly put up a jump shot near the left sideline, and Leslie blocked it--recovering the ball and passing to the fast-breaking Tammy Story, who made an easy layup. That gave the Trojans a three-point lead with 4:01 remaining, and No. 23-ranked USC went on to a 71-59 victory in a second-round West Regional game before 1,059.

NCAA tournament experiences three time zones away might be a thing of the past for schools such as UCLA and USC after the NCAA on Thursday changed its bracketing procedures for the men's basketball tournament. The changes are designed to give the top four seeded teams in each region--16 teams overall--a better chance to play closer to home during the first two rounds.