Quick hits on the East.

Byline: Staff

E-mail to Drew when done....

EAST

It was 1992 when top seed Duke and second seed Kentucky met in the East Regional final in Philadelphia, where they merely played the greatest game in college basketball history. The Blue Devils were defending national champs. The Wildcats were being rebuilt by Rick Pitino. Their meeting wouldn't be settled until Duke's Christian Laettner took a three-quarter-length-of-the-court pass from Grant Hill in the waning seconds of overtime and buried a jumper that sent his team to the Final Four in Minneapolis.

Now, in 2001, the national title will again be settled in Minneapolis and_if form holds_top seed Duke, led by Shane Battier, will meet second-seeded Kentucky in the East Regional final in Philadelphia.

"I know you're not going to believe this, but we don't sit around and deliberate on pairings," insisted selection committee chairman Mike Tranghese when asked if his group intentionally set up this enticing possibility. "Kentucky just happened to be there with Duke."

MEET ME IN ...

... Not St. Looie, but Greensboro, where old acquaintances will gather. Missouri coach Quin Snyder played for and was an assistant at Duke, whom the Tigers will meet in the second round if they get by Georgia. The Bulldogs, in turn, are coached by Jim Harrick, who was fired from his job at UCLA and succeeded by Steve Lavin. The Bruins and Lavin are also in this regional.

DANGER AHEAD

Back in 1996, UCLA was a fourth seed coming off a national title and matched against Princeton in an opening-round game. The Tigers were a senior-laden team from the East that played patterned ball, and they shocked UCLA by two. This March the Bruins are once again a fourth seed matched against Hofstra, which just happens to be a senior-laden team from the East that plays patterned ball.

MONEY TALKS

Holy Cross was both the regular-season and tourney titles of the Patriot League, which began in 1990-91 as a conference that did not award athletic scholarships. But three years ago it gave its schools the option of doing just that in men's and women's basketball, and the Crusaders were one of two that decided their players should get paid to play. Lehigh was the other.

FAMILIARITY

Iowa coach Steve Alford will be bumping up against an old foe when his Hawkeyes meet Creighton in the opening round. He played the Bluejays and their coach, Dana Altman, twice a year when he coached at Missouri Valley Conference rival Southwest Missouri State.

AN OMEN?

Folks in Boston rarely have anything good to say about New York, home of the dreaded Yankees. But Boston College just won the Big East tourney in Madison Square Garden, and now is set to open tourney play just up the road in Long Island. Troy Bell, co-Big East player of the year, leads BC.

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(c) 2001, Chicago Tribune.

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