By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — Perusing the Big East Conference site, it is difficult to ignore the particular keyboard symbol used to identify the top four seeds in the conference tournament.
Those are dollar signs hard by Syracuse, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Villanova. Success in the NCAA Tournament is measured in dollars — rebates of sorts to the conferences — and Syracuse is going to be a No. 1 seed. The Big East is so well regarded that none of the other three will be worse than a No. 4.
Distribution from the NCAA’s basketball fund is based on conference performances during a six-year rolling period. One unit is awarded to each institution participating in each game, except the championship game. In 2007-08, each unit was worth approximately $191,000. Last year, each unit was about $206,000.
Those top four seeds and, to a lesser extent the next four seeds identified with up arrows, are protected in the conference tournament. Each of the top four seeds gets a two-day bye to the quarterfinals; Nos. 5 through No. 8 — Marquette, Louisville, Notre Dame and Georgetown — earn a first-round bye.
For NCAA bubble teams such as South Florida and Seton Hall, construction of the bracket makes it particularly difficult to record a much-needed victory over a conference opponent with a better record.
Stan Heath, who has been at USF since he was fired at Arkansas, says his team needs to win at least two games to secure the Bulls’ first NCAA bid since they were in the Sun Belt Conference 18 years ago. USF took the first step on Tuesday, beating DePaul 58-49. Twenty-four hours later, the Bulls face Georgetown. If they get by the Hoyas, well-rested Syracuse is next.
Written off after losing four of five, USF reached 9-9 in the Big East by closing the regular season with three straight victories.
Around the country, there are a dozen or so teams who are in and out of the NCAA Tournament depending on what they did that particular week.
Ole Miss is one of those. The wise guys stuck a fork in the Rebels after a three-week slide that began when they lost to Arkansas in Oxford. When it was over, Ole Miss had dropped five of six.
But, the Rebels stuck to their knitting and won four in a row, including the 68-66 decision in Fayetteville on Saturday. Even when Ole Miss trailed by 11 with less than six minutes to play, coach Andy Kennedy told his team to hang in.
“With that shot clock, you can’t keep it between the tackles and run that clock out,” he said. In that quote, he correctly identified why no lead is safe and why so many college games are decided in the final minute or so.
In the loss to Arkansas, the Rebels scored two points in the final 3:56.
The at-large opportunities for Ole Miss, USF and others shrunk by one Monday night when St. Mary’s made 10-of-21 3s and beat nationally ranked Gonzaga by 19 to earn the automatic bid from the West Coast Conference. The Zags will get one of the at-large bids.
To have any chance, Ole Miss must beat Tennessee, assuming the Vols can handle LSU on Thursday night. LSU has won only two SEC games and it’s ironic that those victims — Arkansas and Georgia — meet in the final game on Thursday night.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
