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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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.