With the regular season in the homestretch, conference tournaments looming and Selection Sunday just over the next hill, the battle for those four very important No. 1 seeds is down to five teams - Duke, Connecticut, Texas, Memphis and Villanova.
As very high seeds, Villanova and UConn will get site preference in the first and second rounds. Thus, you can expect both of them at the Wachovia Center on St. Patrick's weekend. They likely won't be in the same regional bracket unless the selection committee determines they are the fourth and fifth best teams in the field. Whatever region they are in, they can play at the same site on that first weekend.
The bigger question is: What happens the next weekend. The regional sites are Washington, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Oakland. Duke is probably ticketed for Atlanta. UConn and Villanova are probably battling for Washington. The team that doesn't go to D.C. will be in the mix for Minneapolis and Oakland with Texas and Memphis.
If the selections were now, Villanova, after its win over UConn, goes to D.C. But the Wildcats still have to go to Storrs. And there is the Big East Tournament. Lots still can happen.
THE `NOVA NUMBERS
There have been comparisons made between this `Nova team and those of Illinois (2004-05) and Saint Joseph's (2003-04). Stylewise, the comparisons are reasonable, but there are subtle differences.
Villanova, for instance, is outscoring its opponents from the foul line by much larger margins than Illinois and St. Joe's. The `Cats are plus-111 points from the foul line. Illinois was plus-63 points while St. Joe's was plus-22 points.
Villanova is very much like a football team that gets its leads by passing and holds the lead by running. The `Cats' threes are the basketball equivalent of the bomb. That gets them the lead. They hold the lead with terrific foul shooting.
All three teams lived at the arc. `Nova is outscoring teams by 231 points from the arc. Illinois beat teams by 333 points from three. And the launching Hawks outscored teams by an incredible 504 points from the arc.
QUIN GONE
After hapless Baylor crushed his team last week, Missouri coach Quin Snyder knew exactly what was coming next.
"With a game like today, you feel that life has just ended," Snyder said. "But there's more games left to play. I've got to figure out how to make my kids get better."
A few days later, Snyder was out. In his seven seasons, the onetime Duke golden boy was 126-91. His team did make the 2002 regional final, but that was really an aberration. Mizzou was never really a factor in the Big 12. In their last 84 games, Snyder's teams were 42-42. And there were those NCAA issues that resulted in a three-year probation.
There is one immutable rule in big-time college athletics: If you are going to get your school on probation, you better win big. Snyder did the former, but not the latter. Gone.
How long will it be before Snyder's really good friend Billy King hires him to help solve the mess that is the Sixers? At least, the Sixers aren't going on probation.
DAVIS GOING
You know how fans do this whiteout thing to support their teams? Well, some Indiana "fans" wore black shirts to protest coach Mike Davis at Saturday's home game against Iowa.
If sophomore forward D.J. White were not hurt, IU would have been the best team in the Big Ten. Even with that injury, the Hoosiers (13-8, 5-5 Big Ten) are not bad. They are slumping, but still have a decent NCAA resume.
Davis stayed home from Saturday's loss with a very bad case of the flu. Surprised he does not have a broken heart. Back in the day, Southern Indiana was a Ku Klux Klan hotbed, and racism seems to be compounding fans' unhappiness with Davis. Apparently, some of the local citizenry still are living that past.
"Indiana needs to have one of their own," a defeated Davis said during the weekly Big Ten conference call on Monday. "They need to have somebody that's played here so they can embrace him. They need that."
Actually, what they need is a good man like Mike Davis. They just don't know it.
The yahoos loved the bully that was Bob Knight. They will almost certainly get somebody new for next season. They will have to go a long way to get somebody with the class and dignity of Mike Davis. And they probably won't care.
THE SENIORS
With a few games to play, the four Philly senior scoring machines - Villanova's Allan Ray (1,830 points), La Salle's Steven Smith (1,789 points), Temple's Mardy Collins (1,778 points) and Villanova's Randy Foye (1,728 points) - have combined for 7,125 points.
What they have done sort of puts what La Salle's Lionel Simmons did in some perspective. Combine any two of them and they are just a bit better than the L-Train's 3,217 points. With each passing season, what Simmons did becomes that much more legendary.
PHILLY GUYS AT UVA
Sean Singletary (Penn Charter) is having a first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference season for Virginia. The sophomore point guard averages 18.4 points and is fourth in conference scoring. He is in the top 10 in several other statistical categories (assists, steals, minutes played, free-throw percentage).
Jason Cain (John Bartram) also starts for the Cavaliers. He is fifth in the league in rebounding (8.2 per game) and second in offensive rebounds (3.48 per game).
GREAT COACHING JOB
Anybody who watched him here at Drexel can't be terribly surprised at what Bill Herrion is doing in his first season at New Hampshire. It would be fair to say Herrion is not blessed with great talent at UNH.
In the previous five seasons, UNH won 42 games. This season UNH is 9-15, 6-7 in the America East.
Herrion was let go by East Carolina athletic director Terry Holland after last season. Apparently, Herrion was not the problem at ECU. Playing in a watered-down Conference USA, ECU, with first-year coach Ricky Stokes, is 7-15, 1-8 C-USA.
THIS AND THAT
_Kansas has won eight straight and 15 of 17. The Jayhawks (18-6) have won those eight by an average of nearly 20 points. Five of their six losses have been by seven points or less. Freshmen and sophomores are doing all their scoring.
_The RPI top 25 has 13 teams from the Big Ten (five), Big East (four) and Missouri Valley (four).
_Temple had won 48 straight when outshooting its opponents until it outshot Charlotte last week and lost.
_Xavier's Brian Thornton will really be missed. His career is over after he fractured his right ankle early in last Saturday's loss to La Salle. The four-time A-10 player of the week this season was averaging 15.3 points, getting 6.8 rebounds and shooting 64 percent from the field.
_Ohio State leads the Big Ten in eight statistical categories. No other team leads in more than four.
_Gary Neal scored 1,041 points in two seasons at La Salle. In his first season at Towson, Neal already has scored 434 points. Which brings up this question posed by a reader. Has any player ever scored 1,000 points at two schools? Gary Johnson, the NCAA's director of statistics, could find only one - Kenny Battle. He scored 1,072 points for Northern Illinois from 1984-86 and 1,112 points for Illinois from 1987-89.