Top dogs
Duke, UConn, Michigan St., Auburn get No. 1 seeds
Posted: Sunday March 07, 1999 06:42 PM
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Duke's undefeated conference run has earned the Blue Devils one of the coveted No. 1 seed spots. AP |
ATLANTA (CNN/SI) -- Less than four hours after capturing its first ACC Tournament since 1992, No. 1 Duke was rewarded with the top seed in the NCAA Tournament region that it wanted to play in -- the East.
The other three top seeds in the NCAA tourney are Connecticut in the West, Michigan State in the Midwest and Auburn in the South.
The Blue Devils (32-1) demolished rival North Carolina 96-73 earlier on Sunday to garner the ACC tourney title. With the victory they ran their winning streak to 27 straight games.
The last time the Blue Devils swept North Carolina in three games and won the ACC Tournament was 1992 -- the same year they last won a national title. That season Duke was ranked No. 1 entering the NCAAs.
Getting the top seed in the East was important to Duke because its top shooter, Trajan Langdon, has missed the last two games nursing a strained left foot. He will now get an extra day of rest before the Blue Devils take to the court on Friday.
Connecticut took the No. 1 spot in the West. The Huskies (28-2) won their second straight Big East title on Saturday night with a 82-63 blowout of St. John's.
UConn was last a No. 1 seed three years ago, in the region then known as the Southeast. That year the Huskies fell in the Sweet 16 to Mississippi State.
The Huskies were ranked No. 1 in the country for a span of 10 weeks earlier this season before losing twice in February. The losses cost them the No. 1 ranking and likely forced them out of the East Region.
Michigan State will be the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region. The Spartans (29-4) have won 18 straight games and set a school record for wins in a season on Sunday when they knocked out Illinois 67-50 to win the Big Ten title.
The record they broke was set by the 1989-90 Michigan State team, which was the last Spartan squad to garner a No. 1 seed. That team lost in the Sweet 16 to Georgia Tech.
The Spartans have not been to the Final Four since they won the NCAA title in 1979 behind the sparkling play of Magic Johnson.
The No. 1 seed in the South went to Auburn, which nearly played its way out of a top seed with its 69-57 loss to Kentucky on Saturday in the Southeastern Conference semifinals. But the Tigers' main competitors for the seed -- Maryland and Stanford -- also lost on Saturday.
This is the first No. 1 seed ever for Auburn, which has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 1988 and has only been in the tourney five times.
But this season has witnessed a powerful uprising for the Tigers, led by junior college transfer Chris Porter. They have lost to just two teams this season -- Kentucky twice and Arkansas once.
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