ATLANTA, March 22 -- To hear John Calipari talk, it would appear he thinks his poor little basketball team should be thankful just to have a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament. Never mind that his Massachusetts Minutemen are the top-ranked college team in the nation and sport a 34-1 record. Calipari wants his listeners to think the Minutemen will be definate underdogs Saturday when they take on sixth-ranked Georgetown in the East Regional finals. 'People are still not picking us to win Saturday,' Calipari said after Massachusetts jumped into a 13-0 lead enroute to knocking off Arkansas, 79-63, in Thursday's East Regional semifinals. 'We know what we're up against.' But Calipari relented a little by noting that Georgetown, 29-7 after beating Texas Tech Thursday night, will be, 'playing a pretty good basketball team, too.' 'Georgetown has an unbelievable team,' said Calipari. 'They play like a typical Georgetown team. Allen Iverson (Georgetown's All-America guard who scored 32 points against Texas Tech) is fabulous. John Thompson has done a tremendous job with Iverson. He's really letting him display the talent he has.' Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson said Massachusetts vs. Georgetown, 'should be a pretty good matchup.' 'Massachsetts has (6-foot-11 junior) Marcus Camby, who is the best (college) center in the country,' Richardson said. 'Also, Massachusetts has more experience at guard (starting two juniors while Georgetown starts sophomore Iverson and freshman Victor Page). 'Both teams play good defense. Both teams have strengths and weaknesses. UMass must take care of the ball.
If they do, they have the edge. It will definitely be a great ball game, but I can't predict the outcome.' Saturday's East Regional final appears to be a natural. Massachusetts, the top seed, lost to Oklahoma State in last year's East Regional final and is seeking its first appearance in the Final Four. Second-seeded Georgetown, which lost in the regional final in both 1987 and 1988 is trying to return to the Final Four for the first time since 1985. Thompson seems bemused by Calipari's public approach to Saturday's contest. 'There's no doubt about it, there's a lot of pressure,' he said. 'But this is what we work for all year. When things go good, you can't be afraid to have fun.' 'This team has to stay focused and look at the bigger picture,' Page said. 'We're looking to get to the Meadowlands (site of next week's Final Four).' Massachusetts had a much easier time of it Thursday night than did Georgetown. The Minutemen, despite not starting Camby for showing up late to a pre-game practice, jumped to a 13-0 lead, led 40-24 at halftime and was ahead by 28 seven minutes into the second half. 'This is the last go around for the seniors and we want to go out with a bang,' said Massachusetts senior forward Dana Dingle. 'We're going to do all we can to get a national championship. I still think we don't get the respect we deserve even though we played a tough non- conference schedule. But, we are so close to the finals now that we feel the school will have to get credit for its talent really soon.' Georgetown trailed by 10 points with less than three minutes to play in the first half and still by six with 14:37 left in the game. But Iverson led a 17-0 run that built an 11-point lead with less than 10 minutes to go and the Hoyas never trailed again. 'Coach told us to play defense and get on their shooters and we would pull away from them,' Page said. 'We really weren't nervous because we've been in that kind of dogfight before.'
