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© St. Petersburg Times, published March 20, 2003
1994
WHAT: NCAA first- and second-round games of the Southeast Region.
WHEN: March 18 and 20, 1994,
WHERE: ThunderDome, St. Petersburg.
WHO: No. 2 seed Duke, No. 3 Kentucky, No. 6 Marquette, No. 7 Michigan State, No. 10 Seton Hall, No. 11 Southwest Louisiana, No. 14 Tennessee State, No. 15 Texas Southern.
WHAT HAPPENED FIRST ROUND: Duke beat Texas Southern 82-70, Michigan State beat Seton Hall 84-73, Kentucky beat Tennessee State 83-70, Marquette beat SW Louisiana 81-59.
WHAT HAPPENED SECOND ROUND: Marquette shocked Kentucky 75-63 and Duke beat Michigan State 85-74.
Marquette point guard Tony Miller, handling the Wildcats' vaunted press with no problem, handed out nine assists, many to forward Damon Key, who finished with 25 points. "If you look at Marquette and see I handle the ball 90 percent of the time and look at the minutes I play," Miller said, "you figure, 'If we press him the whole game, he's got to wear down sooner or later.' I'm not a big guy, but I feel I'm physically stronger than most people my size. I've got to play on heart."
Duke won behind 25 points from Grant Hill and 24 from Cherokee Parks. Hill and Antonio Parks clamped down on MSU's leading scorer, Shawn Respert, who didn't score in the first half. Respert finished with a team-high 22 points but most came late, when the Spartans were trying desperately to catch up. "We had two seniors we let down," Respert said of Kris Weshinskey and Anthony. "Give them credit; they came ready for war, but a lot of us really didn't come ready. And I'm probably the main person."
ATTENDANCE: 26,102 attended Sunday's games, a Southeast Regional record at the time.
WHAT: NCAA South Region.
WHEN: March 20 and 22, 1998.
WHERE: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg.
WHO: No. 1 seed Duke, No. 2 Kentucky, No. 5 Syracuse, No. 6 UCLA.
WHAT HAPPENED IN SEMIFINALS: Kentucky handed UCLA its second-worst loss in 106 NCAA Tournament games, 94-68, and Duke beat Syracuse 80-67.
Kentucky led 20-5 less than six minutes into the game. "They're one of the best teams in the country at going on spurts and crazy runs," UCLA senior Kris Johnson said. "They went on a crazy run to start the game and there was nothing we could do. That's Kentucky basketball." Scott Padgett scored 19 points and Nazr Mohammed and Jamaal Magliore had six blocks each for the 'Cats.
Duke freshmen Elton Brand, William Avery and Shane Battier combined for 45 points, 25 rebounds, six assists and six steals against the Orangemen. "We didn't play well for the first 20 or 25 minutes," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "We did well to tie it up (49-49), but you can't just play one good five-minute stretch of basketball and expect to beat Duke."
WHAT HAPPENED IN FINAL: Kentucky stunned Duke 86-84, rallying from a 71-54 deficit with 9:38 left. Guard Wayne Turner led the comeback. "I was being a little bit passive after the couple of buckets I made," Turner said. "I said, 'I've got to penetrate and create more opportunities and get the perimeter players some shots.' " In a six-minute stretch he hit a runner off the glass and an ensuing free throw, then three more acrobatic shots, his pull-up jumper in the paint trimming Duke's lead to 79-77 with 2:55 left. He missed his next shot but the rebound was tapped to Cameron Mills, whose three-pointer gave Kentucky its first lead at 80-79. And with 39.4 seconds remaining, Turner worked a pick-and-roll with Scott Padgett, who popped out behind Turner's penetration for a wide-open three that gave Kentucky the lead for good at 84-81.
ATTENDANCE: of 40,589, a regional record.
WHAT: NCAA Final Four.
WHEN: March 27 and 29.
WHERE: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg.
WHO: No. 1 East seed Duke, No. 1 Midwest seed Michigan State, No. 4 South seed Ohio State, No. 1 West seed Connecticut.
WHAT HAPPENED IN SEMIFINALS: Connecticut won 64-58 in a backcourt showdown and Duke overcame Elton Brand's foul problems to beat Michigan State 68-62.
UConn guards Richard Hamilton and Khalid El-Amin combined for 42 points, outplaying Michael Redd and Scoonie Penn, their Ohio State counterparts. Ricky Moore limited Penn, the Buckeyes' floor leader, to his tournament-worst 3-for-13 from the field and 11 points. Redd finished with 15. "He just didn't let me breathe the whole time," Penn said. ... "I was waiting for him to turn his head the wrong way. He never did."
With Brand, Duke's star center, benched with four fouls, sophomore William Avery and junior Chris Carrawell lifted the Blue Devils past slow-starting Michigan State. "The first half just killed us," MSU forward A.J. Granger said. "It finally caught up to us. We've gotten off to slow starts in a lot of games lately but managed to fight back. We just couldn't do it tonight. We couldn't get the big basket when we needed it."
WHAT HAPPENED IN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Led by a game-high 27 points from Hamilton, the Final Four Most Outstanding Player, and Moore's defense in the waning seconds, Connecticut stunned Duke 77-74 for its first NCAA title. Moore forced Trajan Langdon, who led Duke with a team-high 25 points, into a traveling violation with 5.4 seconds left. "I just wanted to make a move," Langdon said. "I've been in that situation a ton of times. I wasn't thinking about the clock. I made a move and I might have traveled, I might not have. That's the call. That's the way the game goes."
ATTENDANCE: The semifinals and championship game each were played in front of a sellout crowd of 41,340.
Tampa Bay is among seven sites seeking a 2008-10 Women's Final Four. Tampa Bay and San Jose have made presentations to the NCAA. The remaining candidates, which are to make presentations by June 28, are Denver, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Antonio and St. Louis. The 2008-10 sites will be announced shortly after June 28.