NCAA tourney to open despite conflict

One of the most significant events on the American sporting landscape is scheduled to get underway Thursday despite the conflict that is likely to be raging on the other side of the globe.

At 12:20 p.m. Thursday, Marquette and Holy Cross will tip off in Indianapolis' RCA Dome to start the opening round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

The action will conclude on the evening of April 7, when the national champion will be determined under the roof of the Louisiana Superdome.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the men and women in uniform involved in the Iraqi conflict and elsewhere," NCAA President Myles Brand said in announcing the tournament would proceed as scheduled. "At the same time, we share the President's resolve to maintain normalcy under Liberty Shield."

No. 1 seeds Arizona and Oklahoma will be part of Thursday's action, which will include 16 games in Oklahoma City, Spokane and Salt Lake City in addition to Indianapolis. The first round concludes Friday with contests in Boston, Tampa, Birmingham and Nashville.

Arizona, which spent most of the regular season ranked No. 1 in the country, will meet Vermont in Salt Lake City. Arizona is the top seed in the West region for the fifth time.

The Wildcats had a 10-game winning streak snapped in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 Conference tournament with a 96-89 overtime loss to UCLA. Arizona Coach Lute Olson made it clear he did not take that tournament seriously and his players lack of motivation showed.

Oklahoma, No. 1 in the East Region, will be playing only a few miles from its own campus when it takes on South Carolina State.

The Sooners (24-6) have four starters back from last year's squad that reached the Final Four before a loss to Indiana. Hollis Price, the Big 12 Player of the Year, leads the way with his 19.5 scoring average.

Price scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half on Sunday as Oklahoma survived a dismal stretch to claim its third straight Big 12 championship with a 49-47 victory over Missouri. The Sooners did not have a bucket over the final 15 minutes and nearly blew a 22-point lead before holding on.

Arizona and Oklahoma will be trying to maintain the NCAA tradition of perfection for No. 1 seeds. No team seeded at the top of its region has ever lost to a 16th-seeded club.

Although neither the Arizona-Vermont nor the Oklahoma-South Carolina State game is expected to be competitive, there are plenty that should be on the tournament's opening day.

Weber State, seeded 12th in the Midwest Region, is expected to give fifth-seeded Wisconsin problems in Spokane. Wisconsin lost in the opening round of the Big Ten Conference tourney after winning the league's regular-season title.

The California-North Carolina matchup in Oklahoma City, a pairing of teams seeded eighth and ninth in the East Region, also should be entertaining.

And there will be extra interest generated in Spokane when Connecticut meets Brigham Young. If Brigham Young upsets the Huskies, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee could face the unprecedented need to move teams in the bracket during the midst of the tournament.

The committee made the almost unthinkable mistake of creating the possibility that Brigham Young would be scheduled to play on a Sunday, something that is against school policy. That would come about if Brigham Young wins its first three games.

If the Cougars win their first two contests, they would be moved from the South Region to the Midwest Region for the regional semifinals and trade places with either Wisconsin, Weber State, Dayton or Tulsa -- depending on which of those teams survives their portion of the bracket.