By Mel Greenberg
As the season went along, by mid-Decenber it had become apparent that there were seven teams in the national hunt, a few others that might be close, and then there's the rest of the country,
With one exception that form held Saturday in the New Orleans and Spookane Regionals.
Out West, Maryland certainly looked like the Terrapins NCAA title bunch of two years ago with an 80-66 viictory over Vanderbilt, while Stanford ended Pittsburgh's Cinderella run with a 72-53 win.
That set the stage for Monday night's regional showdown between the Maryland, the top seed, and Stanford, the No. 2 seed.
Down in Bayou Country, LSU handled Oklahoma State, 67-52, but North Carolina had to rally from an 18-point deficit to beat Louisville, 78-74.
The fact that North Carolina, after its second-half collapse at Connecticut at mid-season, held on for a girtty regular season win over Maryland in overtime and rallied Saturday, might mean that the days of ugly Tar Heel el foldo performances might be a thing of the past.
Louisville, off its upset of Rutgers and showing against UConn in the Big East tournament, along with its NCAA charge to Saturday's contest showed itself as a team that moved closer toward the elite crowd in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, if form holds, the Sunday afternoon bill in Greensboro, N.C., appears to be heading for more of the same where Rutgers is a strong favorite to beat George Washington in a rematch from earlier in the season, while Connecticut is expected to do likewise against Old Dominion, a team the Huskies beat several years ago in a regional final in Milwaukee.
Those outcomes would set up the "delayed" orginally projected Big East title tilt Tuesday night in the rubber match between No. 1 UConn and No. 2 Rutgers.
In the Midwest, No. 1 Tennessee will be a strong favorite in Oklahoma City over Cinderella-Notre Dame, while the No. 2 Texas A&M and No. 3 Duke contest could be competitive in that the duo probably were the real 8-9 teams on the "S" curve.
And that's it for now until Sunday's games are over.
-- Mel
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