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NCAA mens' roundup

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 27, 2001

TV ratings up for region finals

The NCAA men's region finals on CBS drew much higher preliminary national ratings than 2000, while overall tournament ratings remained below last season.

The two games Sunday earned a combined 7.1 rating with a 15 share, up 20 percent from last season's 5.9/14.

Each rating point represents about 1 million TV homes. A share is the percentage of homes with TVs in use.

The tourney as a whole is averaging 5.8/13, down 2 percent from last year's 5.9/13, when the event finished with its lowest overall rating.

Meanwhile, NBC's rain-marred coverage of the Players Championship, with Tiger Woods atop the leaderboard, posted its best Sunday overnight rating since 1991. The tournament drew a 5.7 rating with a 13 share.

In head-to-head competition with the NCAA Tournament from 4:45-6:45 p.m., golf outdrew basketball 7.4/15 to 6.9/14.

DOUBLE PLAY: It's going to be a frozen final four in East Lansing, Mich. Victories by Michigan State's men's hockey and basketball teams on Sunday put the Spartans in the NCAA semifinals of two sports.

Just after the basketball team secured a spot in the Final Four with a victory over Temple in the South Region final, the hockey team beat Wisconsin 5-1 in the West Region championship to send it to the Frozen Four. It's the second time in three years that Michigan State has made it to both semifinals in the same season. Intrastate rival Michigan accomplished the feat in 1993.

In 1999, both Spartans teams lost in the semifinals -- the hockey team to New Hampshire and the basketball team to Duke.

Michigan State hockey coach Ron Mason used the twin title drives by him and basketball coach Tom Izzo for motivation.

"If Tom can do it, Ron can do it," Mason told fans before the game.

KNOW YOUR ROLE: In the sport's hierarchy, seniors are supposed to be the leading men. Duke has one of the nation's top seniors: forward Shane Battier. But the Blue Devils also have another All-American, sophomore point guard Jason Williams.

"There used to be more of a pecking order in college basketball, where the younger players deferred to the older players," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "There could have been amazing problems because of both Shane and Jason being mentioned for player of the year awards, things like that.

"I give a lot of the credit to Shane. He's created a good situation for Jason. I don't think Jason has ever felt that Shane was jealous."

COMING BACK: Big Ten Player of the Year Frank Williams says he will return to Illinois for his junior season rather than jumping to the NBA. The Illini lost in the Midwest Region final to Arizona 87-81.

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