College basketball

Upsets hard to come by

Most of the higher seeds survive Day 1 of the NCAA Tournament.

Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 21, 2003

The tournament got off to an exciting start in Oklahoma City with California taking North Carolina State into overtime and beating the Wolfpack on Richard Midgley's 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left in the extra period.

But the only true upsets of the day came in the West Region. Central Michigan, the only school representing the MAC in this year's field of 65, added to the league's history of upsets Thursday night by beating Creighton 79-73 in the first round in Salt Lake City. In Oklahoma City, No. 10 Arizona State defeated No. 7 Memphis 84-71.

The tournament had as many close calls in the first few games as in all of last season's opening round. The first five games all were decided by five points or fewer, matching the number from last season's 32 first-round games, and the total later went to six. In 2001, there were 12 first-round games decided by five or fewer.

One of the close ones ended Southern Illinois' season. The Salukis fell 72-71 to Missouri after a questionable blocking foul with less than five seconds left.

Two of the games that weren't close featured top seeds: Arizona beat Vermont 80-51 in the West, and Oklahoma downed South Carolina State 71-54 in the East.

Meanwhile, Holy Cross added to its list of near-misses, falling 72-68 to third-seeded Marquette. The Crusaders put a scare into No. 2-seeded Kentucky two years ago and top-seeded Kansas last season.

Connecticut did the tournament selection committee a favor with a 58-53 win over BYU.

The NCAA mistakenly put the Cougars in the South, where the Mormon-owned school would have had to play the fourth round on a Sunday. Because BYU does not play on Sundays, the NCAA would have reshuffled the brackets if the Cougars won their first two games, sending them to the Midwest.

And in Salt Lake City, Cincinnati was bounced by Gonzaga with coach Bob Huggins, appropriately, watching the final 16 minutes from the locker room after an ejection for arguing a traveling call.

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