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NCAA Tournament projected field

By BRIAN LANDMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 4, 2001

Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament is March 11. With seven days to go and conference tournaments under way, Times college basketball writer Brian Landman offers his best guesses for the 31 automatic berths and the 34 at-large selections. Yes, that's right. The field is 65 teams strong this year and not 64. Unlike last year, the Mountain West Conference and the Western Athletic Conference will receive automatic bids and those additions, coupled with the NCAA men's basketball selection committee's desire to maintain 34 at-large teams, means the NCAA Tournament will begin March 13 at the University of Dayton Arena with an "opening-round" game between the two lowest-seeded teams.

Automatic berths (31)

Hofstra America East

St. Joseph's Atlantic 10

North Carolina ACC

Boston College Big East

Cal-Northridge Big Sky

Winthrop Big South

Michigan State Big Ten

Iowa State Big 12

UC Irvine Big West

George Mason Colonial

Cincinnati C-USA

Princeton Ivy

Iona Metro Atlantic

Central Michigan Mid-American

Valparaiso Mid-Continent

Hampton MEAC

Butler M'western Collegiate

Creighton Missouri Valley

Utah Mountain West

St. Francis, NYNortheast

E. Illinois Ohio Valley

Stanford Pac-10

Holy Cross Patriot

Florida SEC

UNC-Greensboro Southern

McNeese St. Southland

Alabama St. S'western Ath.

Western Kentucky Sun Belt

Ga. State TAAC

Gonzaga West Coast

Fresno St. WAC

* already clinched berth

At-large berths (34)

Xavier Atlantic 10

Temple Atlantic 10

Duke ACC

Maryland ACC

Virginia ACC

Wake Forest ACC

Georgia Tech ACC

Syracuse Big East

Notre Dame Big East

Georgetown Big East

Providence Big East

Connecticut Big East

Illinois Big Ten

Wisconsin Big Ten

IndianaBig Ten

Ohio State Big Ten

Penn State Big Ten

Iowa Big Ten

Kansas Big 12

Texas Big 12

Oklahoma Big 12

Missouri Big 12

Oklahoma State Big 12

BYU Mtn. West

Arizona Pac-10

UCLA Pac-10

USC Pac-10

Cal Pac-10

Kentucky SEC

Tennessee SEC

Mississippi SEC

Alabama SEC

Georgia SEC

Arkansas SEC

Who's hot

Florida. Despite all the injuries, the Gators have won six straight and 10 of their past 11 to move to No. 6 in the AP Top 25. The loss? At Kentucky 71-70. Well, the Gators host No. 15 Kentucky today in a game that could give them a share of the SEC title and, perhaps, put them in position for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Who's not

Missouri. The Tigers have lost two of their past three, but let's be fair. One was by a basket to No. 17 Oklahoma and the other was No. 24 Texas. And both were without leading scorer Kareem Rush, who is due back for today's game at No. 10 Kansas. The NCAA selection committee will be watching to see how Rush plays.

On the bubble

Villanova. The Wildcats (17-11, 8-8) enter the Big East tournament having won five of their past eight. They have quality wins against Temple, at St. Joseph's, St. John's and UConn (twice). They still may need to win a game this week.

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