Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 6, 1992 TAG: 9203060163
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
However, by Saturday - the end of the regular season - the Metro could have a four-way tie for first place. Here's how:
If Tulane loses at Southern Mississippi, Louisville beats Virginia Tech and UNC Charlotte beats Virginia Commonwealth, the Green Wave, Cardinals, 49ers and South Florida all would be 7-5 in the league. Only Tulane, by beating Southern Miss on Saturday, and UNCC can win the title and gain a bye in the first round of the seven-team tournament. Tulane cannot win a tie-breaker.
The first tie-breaker compares head-to-head competition for each school against the other three top finishers. If the four teams finish 7-5 in the league, they all will have 3-3 records in head-to-head matchups.
The next tie-breaker compares each school's record against the next highest seed - in this case, fifth-place Southern Miss. UNCC swept Southern Miss while the other three schools split the season series, which would give UNCC the first-round bye. Tulane would be seeded No. 2 because it swept the next highest seed, Virginia Commonwealth, and South Florida and Louisville split with the Rams.
Because Louisville and South Florida would have swept Tech if each finishes 7-5, a coin flip will decide Nos. 3 and 4 seeds.
The Metro tournament champion does not receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament this year, so the top four teams all need strong showings in the playoffs to pad their win totals in hopes of an at-large bid. Because three of those schools have 19 victories and Louisville has 17, some coaches think the Metro can get four teams in the NCAA Tournament.
"If all four are playing in the second round, I think we've got a good shot," Tech coach Bill Foster said.
The league's balance, however, may not help.
"One thing we have to be concerned about getting four in is we've knocked each other off at an alarming rate," Virginia Commonwealth coach Sonny Smith said. "That's going to hurt some of us."
The Hokies' first-round opponent could be any one of four teams - Tulane, UNCC, South Florida or Louisville.
\ The Metro tournament, which suffered from poor ticket sales last year at the Roanoke Civic Center, is struggling this year in Louisville, too.
Cardinal athletic director Bill Olsen said 10,528 ticket books have been sold for the three-day event in 18,865-capacity Freedom Hall. Olsen said he would be happier with higher ticket sales but said he found a silver lining when comparing this year's ticket sales with 1987, the last time Louisville hosted the tournament.
"If you subtract what Memphis State had bought [at this time in '87], we're ahead of where we were in '87," Olsen said.
\ After scoring 12 points - including the go-ahead points in the last minute - getting nine rebounds and a key blocked shot in a win at Liberty, Tech forward Thomas Elliott played only eight minutes in the second half of a loss to UNCC and had five points and one rebound in 19 minutes in Tech's loss at East Carolina.
"You just have to keep encouraging," Tech coach Bill Foster said. "I don't need to be knocking them down. [The inconsistency] is hard to explain. It blows your mind because you can't count on anything from one game to the next."
\ At one point this season, Tulane was 19-2, ranked 14th in The Associated Press' Top 25 and Perry Clark was being mentioned as a national coach-of-the-year candidate. Now, the Green Wave is 19-7, ranked No. 21 and falling, and Clark may not even be the Metro Conference coach of the year.
The slide started when Tulane lost at Virginia Tech Feb. 15. Tulane didn't play again until Feb. 24, a home loss to South Florida.
"We went down double figures at home early, and we've never done that," Clark said. "I think [our players] had forgotten the Virginia Tech game.
"We've kind of hit that wall when you push the buttons you pushed in the past, but nothing happens. We need to go back and see what we need to push to get the reaction we want."
by CNB