There are few teams blessed with size enough to look Nevada-Las Vegas straight in the eyes. Arizona, with three inside towers, is one of them, it is seeded just behind the Rebs in the West Region.
There are fewer teams blessed with the mettle to withstand the withering pressure Nevada-Las Vegas applies to any opponent. Seton Hall, fresh off a Big East tourney title, is one of them, and it is seeded just behind the Rebs and the Wildcats in the West Region.
They are even fewer teams that have written a success story as grand as that produced by Nevada Las-Vegas over the last two years. Utah, Rick Majerus` miracle machine, is one of them, and it is seeded just behind the Rebs, `Cats and Pirates in the West Region.
The West Region, then, is a minefield, a minefield that also includes Michigan State and promises to make the Rebs very much earn their way to a second straight national title. That was the gift tossed their way Sunday by the Division I Men`s Basketball Committee, a group of nine that chose to load up the West as it did no other region.
The East is the least, followed up the ladder by the Midwest and the Southeast. But none holds the promise for histrionics as does that bracket that will be played out in Tucson, Salt Lake City and Seattle. There, over the next two weeks, Vegas will find varied challengers to its aura of invincibility, and along the way get the chance to prove itself one of history`s great college teams.
Its opener Friday against Montana surely won`t provide one of those chances, but then comes either Georgetown or Vanderbilt. The smart-yet-slow Commodores would prove no match, yet Hoya anchors Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo would certainly provide the Rebs some interesting moments.
Youthful guards would here ultimately prove to be a fatal flaw for Georgetown, and so it is on to Seattle for a regional semifinal. There Vegas could find the Spartans, whom it defeated in December, or the Utes, whose storybook season would here end, or maybe even the surprising and methodical Phoenix of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
The Rebs would surely handle any of them (or an all-star team from the three, for that matter), but now looms the tourney`s most interesting afternoon before it converges on Indianapolis for the Final Four. For there, in the West Region final, Vegas could well find itself matched against Arizona or Seton Hall in a game that would be mottled with the stuff of tradition.
The Hall, in case you forgot, routed Vegas in this very regional final back in 1989, and this year`s Pirates now strongly resemble their
predecessors. They are rugged, they defend tenaciously, they have experienced guards.
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If Arizona is the Rebs` final regional opponent, it would be a meeting also spiced with personal enmity. For not only do Jerry Tarkanian and Lute Olson not like each other, the last meeting between their teams (in the 1989-90 regular season) ended with all kinds of accusations and finger-pointing.
No other region offers up a prospect as delicious as a meeting between the Rebs and the `Cats, but there is plenty buried in the backets to whet the appetite. On Friday, in Syracuse, Princeton faces Villanova in a matchup of styles straight out of the `50s. That same day in Dayton, Northern Illinois and St. John`s go at each other with similarly methodical styles, and De Paul takes on TV star Kenny Anderson and inconsistent Georgia Tech.
Iowa, the surprise of the Big 10, meets dangerous East Tennessee State on Thursday, a day that also delivers a matchup of former Notre Dame assistants. That will happen when Pete Gillen and Xavier go against Danny Nee and Nebraska. Since a No. 3 seed has lost its opening game the last five years, it is also important to note that is where the Cornhuskers are seeded along with Kansas (which faces New Orleans), Oklahoma State (which faces New Mexico) and The Hall (which faces Pepperdine).
A No. 1 or No. 2 seed has never lost its tourney opener, and that is not likely to change here. But Ohio State, the top seed in the Midwest, is clearly struggling as it awaits Towson State on Friday, and No. 2 Midwest seed Duke, which faces 25-7 Northeast Louisiana on Friday, looked plain bad while getting routed Sunday by North Carolina.
No. 4 Southeast seed Alabama plays good defense, has proficient guards and is experienced underneath, and-along with Seton Hall-is a team to watch. But turn West to watch the most. For this year the West is the best as the finest three weeks sports has to offer is finally upon us.