Sports: NCAA Tournament roundup

NCAA Tournament roundup

By TIMES WIRES

AKRON, OHIO -- There aren't too many better sources of information than Akron assistant coach Pat Knight when it comes to Thursday's first-round matchup between Kent State and Indiana.

Knight is the son of former Hoosiers coach Bob Knight, who was fired by the university in the fall. Pat Knight played for his father at Indiana and was an assistant there the past two seasons.

He knows the Hoosier players (he recruited some of them), and he knows their style of play. By virtue of his role with the Zips, he also knows quite a bit about the Mid-American Conference rival Golden Flashes.

But don't expect him to call his old friends at Indiana with information. He makes no bones about his feelings toward the coaching staff at his alma mater.

"They don't speak to me and I don't speak to them, and I helped some of them get their jobs," Knight said Monday. "They stabbed my father and me in the back."

Though he'd like to see the Hoosier players he worked with do well, Knight will be pulling for Kent State this week. With good reason: He thinks the Flashes have a legitimate shot at knocking off his old team.

"Big Ten teams don't like playing MAC schools," Knight said. "The MAC is underrated and Kent is underrated, and in some ways playing in the MAC is tougher than playing in the Big Ten because you know you're going to get tough games everywhere you go.

"In the Big Ten, there are teams that you know you're going to beat anywhere. Plus, kids playing in the MAC usually were overlooked by Big Ten schools so they have chips on their shoulders."

SEEDING IRKS HOYAS: Georgetown is returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1997, and for the first time since coach John Thompson resigned in 1999, but only as a No. 10 seed. The Hoyas were among the last at-large teams chosen, despite Top 25 rankings most of the season.

"Seventy voters from the Associated Press had us in the Top 20 most of the season," coach Craig Esherick said. "And today we are ranked No. 20 in the coaches' poll. To drop almost to No. 40 doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I thought we were going to be judged on how we played during the course of the season. I certainly was surprised when we got a 10."

Georgetown's drop was part of the selection committee's drive to punish teams that play weaker non-conference schedules. The Hoyas' big-name opponents this season (Houston, Louisville and UNLV) no longer are among the top teams in the country.

TICKETS SCARCE: By the end of the month, most of the 46,000 Final Four seats in the Metrodome will be long gone, sold to the powerful and connected. "It's the hottest ticket for any sporting event in America with the possible exception of the Masters," said Bill Lester, executive director of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission.

DUKE TEAM TO BEAT: The Blue Devils, ranked No. 1 in the final AP poll, were listed as 5-2 favorites to win the national championship by the Stardust Race & Sports Book in Las Vegas.