Two Sweet 16 Longshots Are Left in the Dark

For the longshots from Birmingham, Reno and Cincinnati, there were two ways to look at this second Friday of the NCAA tournament.

Was it just a happy coincidence that Alabama Birmingham, Nevada and Xavier all took their turns in the Sweet 16 spotlight on the same night, congregating for an inspiring celebration of bracket-buster basketball?

Or was this the last stand, the final bow, the riffraff’s being rounded up for a convenient clean sweep off the stage before the big Elite Eight weekend? Instant tourney natural selection -- just add water and Kansas, Georgia Tech and Texas?

They lined them up neatly, a little too neatly, like wanted pirates who had ransacked and pillaged long enough and now it was time to show them the plank.

Alabama Birmingham went first, receiving a harsh sentence for knocking top-seeded Kentucky out in the second round. The No. 8-seeded Blazers were thrown against Kansas, last year’s tournament runner-up, equipped with the big lungs and the quick legs that are required to keep pace with UAB’s so-advertised “Fastest 40 Minutes in Basketball.”

The Blazers suffered through their longest 40 minutes of the season. They shot 32% from the field, Kansas shot 54%. They shot 24% from three-point range, Kansas 40%. They surrendered 100 points for the second time in three tournament games, but unlike first-round opponent Washington, Kansas did not permit UAB to score 102.

This time, the Blazers lost by 26 points. Kansas 100, UAB 74.

Next up was Xavier, which had already spent too much of March spoiling Saint Joseph’s perfect season in the Atlantic 10 tournament, ruining Rick Pitino’s spring in the first round of the NCAA tournament and ending Mississippi State’s run about four rounds too early.

Last season, Xavier had David West, Associated Press 2002-03 college player of the year, and couldn’t get past the second round. In its entire history of playing collegiate basketball, Xavier had never gotten past the third round.

This season, without West, the Musketeers lost nine of their first 19 games. At that point, the first round looked beyond Xavier’s reach. And it would have remained there had the Musketeers not gone 4-0 -- one for all and all four won -- in the Atlantic 10 tournament.

Xavier’s comeuppance was a third-round pairing with 2003 tournament semifinalist Texas. The Longhorns were angling for a return, with the added incentive of playing this year’s Final Four in San Antonio.

Before Xavier, Texas was averaging 41 rebounds a game, outrebounding opponents by an average of seven.

Xavier, which often plays with three guards in its lineup, outrebounded Texas, 34-32, overall and 15-11 on the offensive boards.

Texas Coach Rick Barnes couldn’t believe his eyes, and couldn’t stick around to see the finish, getting ejected in the waning seconds of a 79-71 loss to the seventh-seeded Musketeers.

Finally, it was down to Nevada, seeded 10th in the St. Louis Regional yet still plugging after surprising Michigan State and Gonzaga and upsetting the coaches’ fraternity, turning Tom Izzo and Mark Few prematurely into tournament wallflowers.

Nevada drew third-seeded Georgia Tech, the best team left in the region after UAB and Nevada did their damage to Kentucky and Gonzaga. The Wolf Pack’s charmed existence in this tournament seemed certain to expire against the Yellow Jackets.

Right?

But then Georgia Tech’s top scorer, guard B.J. Elder, rolled an ankle in the first two minutes and could not return to the game.

And with 30 seconds left, Georgia Tech led by three points but Nevada’s best player, Kirk Snyder, had the ball and was driving with it to the hoop.

Could anybody stop Nevada?

Luke Schenscher, Georgia Tech’s 7-foot-1 junior center, just stood there, in front of the basket, and threw up his arms.

Snyder pulled up short of the road block and tossed up a shot, an air ball, which was next touched by the hands of a Georgia Tech player with 24.1 seconds left.

By that much, the Yellow Jackets held off the Wolf Pack, clinching a 72-67 triumph with two late free throws.

Longshots’ scorecard for the night: 1-2. Not bad, considering the historical odds Nevada was bucking. Since 1979, when the tournament was first seeded, 43 teams seeded 10th or higher had advanced to the round of 16 -- but only 10 had reached the final eight.

When Duke wrapped up the evening by defeating Illinois, 72-62, in Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 800th game at Duke -- 620 of them victories -- the regional finals were set.

At East Rutherford today, it will be No. 1 Saint Joseph’s against No. 2 Oklahoma State in the one region where form held precisely, much to Billy Packer’s chagrin.

At Phoenix today, No. 8 Alabama, already owning upsets over No. 1 Stanford and 2003 champion Syracuse, will try to add No. 2 Connecticut to its collection.

At St. Louis on Sunday, it will be No. 3 Georgia Tech against No. 4 Kansas as Roy Williams, somewhere, ruefully looks on.

And at Atlanta on Sunday, No. 7 Xavier will visit strange environs, also known as the Elite Eight, also known as home sweet home for No. 1 Duke.

Topic for weekend research: the Atlantic Coast Conference versus the Atlantic 10 Conference, reputation versus reality. The ACC gets the hype, but the Atlantic 10 has just as many teams -- two, Saint Joseph’s and Xavier -- in the final eight.

Alabama Birmingham and Nevada may be gone, but the Atlantic 10 contingent continues, sustaining the underdog spirit, at least for two more days.