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 Thursday, February 24
It would be wise to keep an eye
on John Chaney and the Owls

 
By Joe Lunardi
Special to ESPN.com

 It happens every year, doesn't it? Temple shakes off whatever early-season ills it may have had and surges toward the NCAA Tournament.

Projecting the NIT
An early look at a possible field for the National Invitation Tournament (as of Feb. 21):
Akron Arizona State
Ball State BYU
California Colorado
Creighton Fresno State
Long Beach St. Marquette
Marshall Michigan
Mississippi New Mexico
N.Mexico State N.C. State
Penn State Princeton
Richmond Rutgers
Saint Louis USC
Southern Illinois South Florida
St. Bonaventure UAB
UCLA UNLV
Villanova Wake Forest
Wisconsin Xavier

Sometimes the Temple surge is merely to make the NCAA field. Other years the Owls are playing for an Atlantic 10 championship. This time, Temple is using the backstretch to live up to the most lofty preseason expectations in school history.

John Chaney's February (and March, for that matter) record is truly staggering. Of course, many of those victories over the years have come against softer A-10 competition. This month, however, featured one of the most impressive late-season weeks any program could have.

In a span of eight days, the Owls knocked off RPI No. 8 (Maryland), RPI No. 32 (Dayton) and consensus No. 1 Cincinnati. It took a fluke for St. Bonaventure to defeat Temple in mid-January; otherwise, Temple wouldn't have a single Y2K glitch.

So, don't ask how the Owls jump all the way to a No. 2 seed this week (we just explained it). And here is how the rest of the NCAA Tournament field would look if Selection Sunday were Monday, Feb. 21:

West Region
March 16, 2000/Tucson, Ariz.
(1) Stanford vs. (16) MID-CONTINENT/Southern Utah
(8) North Carolina vs. (9) SMU
(5) St. John's vs. (12) Southern Mississippi
(4) Indiana vs. (13) AMERICA EAST/Hofstra

March 16, 2000/Salt Lake City, Utah
(3) Texas vs. (14) SOUTHERN/Charleston
(6) Purdue vs. (11) Gonzaga
(7) Connecticut vs. (10) DePaul
(2) Tennessee vs. (15) BIG SKY/Eastern Washington

Midwest Region
March 16, 2000/Cleveland
(1) Cincinnati vs. (16) SWAC/Alcorn State
(8) Missouri vs. (9) Kent
(5) Maryland vs. (12) Southwest Missouri State
(4) Auburn vs. (13) MCC/Butler

March 16, 2000/Minneapolis
(3) Oklahoma State vs. (14) CAA/James Madison
(6) Vanderbilt vs. (11) BIG WEST/Utah State
(7) Seton Hall vs. (10) WCC/Pepperdine
(2) Michigan State vs. (15) SLC/Sam Houston State

East Region
March 17, 2000/Winston-Salem, N.C.
(1) Duke vs. (16) MEAC/Bethune Cookman
(8) Oregon vs. (9) Notre Dame
(5) LSU vs. (12) MAAC/Siena
(4) Tulsa vs. (13) IVY/Pennsylvania

March 17, 2000/Buffalo, N.Y.
(3) Florida vs. (14) NEC/Central Connecticut State
(6) Kansas vs. (11) Tulane
(7) Illinois vs. (10) Miami
(2) Temple vs. (15) PATRIOT/Navy

South Region
March 17, 2000/Birmingham, Ala.
(1) Arizona vs. (16) TAAC/Troy State
(8) Louisville vs. (9) Dayton
(5) Iowa State vs. (12) Bowling Green
(4) Kentucky vs. (13) SUN BELT/Louisiana-Lafayette

March 17, 2000/Nashville, Tenn.
(3) Syracuse vs. (14) OVC/Murray State
(6) Oklahoma vs. (11) Virginia
(7) Utah vs. (10) Indiana State
(2) Ohio State vs. (15) BIG SOUTH/Winthrop

Blue Ribbon bits

  • Teams preceded by their conference name in ALL CAPS are the current league (or RPI) leaders. Teams from multiple-bid conferences, or who would earn an at-large bid regardless of their league position, are listed without such a prefix.

  • The Mountain West and WAC are without automatic bids this season. Thus, there are only 29 conferences (instead of the maximum 30) which will place an automatic qualifier into the NCAA field this year.

  • Please note that Syracuse (East) and Texas (South) cannot be placed in their respective regions, as each host a regional final this year.

  • Who's really hot? The following projected tourney teams are 10-0 in their last 10 games: Butler, Navy, Pennsylvania, Stanford, Temple, Utah State.

  • Looking for impressive wins? The most notable records vs. RPI Top 25 competition include: Michigan State (5-4), Kentucky (5-6), Purdue (4-1), Arizona (4-2), LSU (4-3), Tennessee (4-4), Vanderbilt (4-4), Notre Dame (4-5), Connecticut (3-3), Florida (3-3), Maryland (3-3), Ohio State (3-3), Texas (3-4), Wisconsin (3-6).

  • The only teams remaining perfect in road games (neutral sites excluded) are Duke (9-0) and Stanford (7-0). And thanks to all who pointed out an error in last week's column: Cincinnati is 9-1 in true road games this season (not 10-0 as originally reported). The Bearcats lost at Xavier on Dec. 18.

  • The following poor road records are worth noting, as this category has been emphasized by the NCAA Selection Committee in recent years: North Carolina State (1-7), Wisconsin (2-9), Colorado (2-8), Marquette (2-7), Saint Louis (2-7), Auburn (2-4), Xavier (3-7), Louisville (3-6), Notre Dame (3-6), Villanova (3-6), Arizona State (3-5), Maryland (3-5), Ball State (4-6), Southwest Missouri State (4-6).

  • Among the so-called "mid-major" conferences, the following teams are projected to earn at-large bids regardless of their conference tournament outcome: Indiana State (MVC), Pepperdine (WCC), Utah State (Big West).

  • Purdue is listed one slot lower than its true seed this week in order to comply with all bracketing criteria (the Selection Committee allows teams to be moved in such instances no more than one line from their true seed). The beneficiary -- one team moved up a seed line -- is St. John's.

  • Moving up (alphabetical order): Alcorn State, Arizona State, Bethune Cookman, Bowling Green, Butler, Charleston, Colorado, James Madison, Kansas, Louisville, Navy, New Mexico, Notre Dame, Pennsylvania, Southern Mississippi, Siena, SMU, Southern Illinois, South Florida, Southwest Missouri State, Temple, Tulane, Villanova, Winthrop.

  • Going down (alphabetical order): Appalachian State, Connecticut, Gonzaga, Indiana, Marquette, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pepperdine, Saint Louis, UNC Charlotte, West Virginia, Xavier.

  • Multiple-conference breakdown: Big 12 (6), Big East (6), SEC (6), Big Ten (5), Conference USA (5), ACC (4), Pac-10 (3), Atlantic 10 (2), Mid-American (2), MVC (2), WAC (2), West Coast (2).

  • Last four in: Gonzaga, Southwest Missouri State, Southern Mississippi, Bowling Green.

  • Last four out: Arizona State, BYU, Villanova, Colorado.

    Joe Lunardi can be contacted at "jlunardi@sju.edu". He will also appear Monday nights (10:20 p.m. ET) and Saturday afternoons (2:20 p.m. ET) on ESPN Radio and chat every Friday at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN.com.

    To order the adidas Blue Ribbon Tournament Preview, call 1-800-828-HOOP (4667). This 80-page volume is prepared on Selection Sunday and rushed to you in time for first-round games. BLUE RIBBON postseason reports -- including new online editions -- are also available at www.collegebaskets.com.

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