Posted by Ted Miller
PORTLAND, Ore. -- How did the Pac-10 regular-season champion and the SEC tournament champion get matched in an opening-round game? Just doesn't sound right, does it?
Further, a chief topic during Wednesday's press conferences was which team -- fourth-seeded Washington, which traveled 165 miles to Portland's Rose Garden, or No. 13 Mississippi State, which logged nearly 2,000 miles -- could count on the support of an Oregon crowd?
See, Oregon is Ducks and Beavers country; Huskies aren't exactly popular here.
"I expect to see the headline 'Bulldogs love Ducks!'" MSU coach Rick Stansbury said. "I understand Oregon folks don't like you Washington folks."
Beyond the cheers from the fans, this matchup of major conferences that had down seasons in 2008-09 has an obvious angle.
The Huskies want to run. The Bulldogs want to play defense.
Washington led the Pac-10 with 79.2 points per game. The Bulldogs held LSU and Tennessee to a combined 31 percent shooting in the SEC semifinals and finals.
The matchup inside between Washington's Jon Brockman -- Mr. Double-Double -- and MSU's Jarvis Varnado, one of the nation's premier shot blockers, also is intriguing.
In fact the Bulldogs, who are riding a six-game winning streak after losing five of six, rank second in the nation in blocked shots with more than seven a game. That might bother the freewheeling Huskies.
"I don't think you can change your approach," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. "You cannot be tentative. Not that he [Varnado] is a bully at all, but if you are tentative with a bully, he's going to bully you all night."
No. 4 Gonzaga (26-5) vs. No. 13 Akron (23-12)
Gonzaga has played in 11 consecutive NCAA tournaments. Akron went one-and-done in 1986.
Before or after that: Zip.
But the Zips made an impression on Gonzaga coach Mark Few.
"I don't think in 20 years of watching game tape have I seen a team that plays that hard," he said. "So I think that's going to be a real challenge for us, to match their intensity."
Since losing four of five in December, the Bulldogs have rolled up 18 wins in 19 games with the lone loss coming to Memphis, albeit by 18 points.
Still, if there is a question about this squad, it's about standing up to physical teams.
Akron is going to come after the Bulldogs and try to shake them with pressure and see if a few turnovers can make this one interesting.
"[Turnovers] are huge for us," guard Matt Bouldin said. "I think we just really need to slow down. You can't get in any rush."
The Zips' pressure won't be able to focus on just one guy, though. All five Gonzaga starters average between nine and 15 points.
No. 5 Purdue (25-9) vs. No. 12 Northern Iowa (23-10)
Purdue lost three of its final four regular-season games. It then won the Big Ten tournament.
With sophomore forward Robbie Hummel -- the tournament MVP -- finally healthy, perhaps the Boilermakers are the team many thought they were in the preseason, when they were tapped as the conference favorite.
"I think winning the Big Ten tournament was a great momentum-turner for us, because we were definitely struggling coming into that weekend," said Hummel, who had been plagued by a lower-back injury.
Northern Iowa, which won its final five games after losing four of five, led the Missouri Valley Conference in field goal percentage this year (45.5 percent), but the Panthers haven't played many defenses like Purdue's man-to-man.
The Boilermakers held opponents to just 59 points and 38.8 percent shooting this year.
Still, there's that ol' 5-vs.-12 phenomenon, with the 12 winning 31 of 96 since 1985.
Not that the Panthers are embracing the notion of being fitted for a glass slipper.
"You know, in terms of the Cinderella story, that isn't our card, if you will, that I play with our guys," UNI coach Ben Jacobson said. "Our guys know what they're about, and they know what they are made of. They don't need me to remind them what we're up against."
No. 5 Illinois (24-9) vs. No. 12 Western Kentucky
The president picked Illinois so Western Kentucky, one of last season's tournament Cinderellas, has to feel like a real underdog now.
No worries, said Hilltoppers guard A.J. Slaughter, who pointed out that Barack Obama is merely supporting his home state.
"I did see that," Slaughter said. "I can't blame him. That's just a fun little fact to throw out there."
On the other hand, lots of folks think Western Kentucky might be a good pick. For one, there's the tricky 5-12 matchup. Then there's the absence of Illinois floor leader Chester Frazier, who will be out at least this week with a hand injury.
Frazier is the Illini's best defender, and the Hilltoppers are a guard-oriented team that likes to run and gun.
"They have a lot of different scoring weapons," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "The one thing we lose -- Chester was, if not the best defender, one of the best defenders in the Big Ten. And, I think, in the country. So now you don't have him to lock down one of those guards."
Two of those guards are Slaughter and Orlando Mendez-Valdez, who average a combined 30 points per game.
It was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Hilltoppers, who lost the heroes of last year's unexpected run to the Sweet 16: Tyrone Brazelton and Courtney Lee.
But with a win over Louisville -- by 14 points, by the way -- and a run of 12 wins in 13 games to conclude the season on their résumé, the Hilltoppers look suspiciously like a favorite, at least in many brackets.
So maybe Illinois, in a bit of a switcheroo, will be motivated by a "no-respect" angle?
"We have to come out and not worry about what other people are saying," Illini forward Dominique Keller said. "They don't have confidence in us because they don't think we belong."
