Friday's Leaders

You can pretty much always count on Bob to be upset about something.

And the way things have been going lately for Indiana coach Bob Knight, it is only fitting that the Indiana Hoosiers were the biggest first-round victim Friday in a tournament that has become defined by an overall lack of upsets.

Sure, Oregon and Louisville, a pair of seventh-seeds, were bounced by 10th seeds Seton Hall and Gonzaga. But Knight's sixth-seeded Hoosiers became the tourney goats when Pepperdine sent them packing with their fourth first-round loss since 1995.

In all, only three higher-seeded teams fell in the first round, fewest since the tourney expanded to 64 teams in 1985 and the least since only two upsets came to pass in the 40-team 1980 field. There were only 16 first-round games back then -- half as many games as these days.

Since the NCAA began seeding teams in 1979, there has been an average of seven upsets in the first round, peaking with 13 last season.

There was still plenty to see in Friday's last batch of opening-round games. There was Seton Hall's Shaheen Holloway and Florida's Mike Miller running around, dropping in last-second shots in overtime, DePaul and Kansas slugging it out, and the officials bailing Tennessee out of a jam.

It might have been the "least upsetting" first round since the tourney expanded. But that doesn't mean it was boring.

Rich get richer

With one full round in the books, it's is pretty simple. The 2000 NCAA Tournament is all about the favorites winning ... which means it's all about the big boys from the big conferences.

But in the second round, there's nobody else left to play, so they'll start knocking one another off.

Here's the 26-4 start for the Big Six:

• Big East: Now 5-0 with Miami's pasting of Arkansas, and Seton Hall's thriller.
• ACC: Carolina's win over Missouri makes it 3-0
• SEC: Arkansas falls and Florida survives for 5-1.
• Big Ten: Indiana's loss to Pepperdine broke the perfecto, 5-1.
• Big 12: Missouri went down and Kansas held on to make it a 5-1 start.
• Pac-10: Oregon was seconds away from perfection. Instead, it's 3-1.

Those magic moments

Mr. Holloway ... Tyus Edney on line one: In the first half of Seton Hall's win over Oregon, senior point guard Shaheen Holloway was relegated to the bench after spraining his right wrist. It was that same right hand that flipped the high-arching lay-in -- length-of-the-court dash in the final seconds -- to join UCLA's Tyus Edney and BYU's Danny Ainge as players who have ended NCAA Tournament games in such fashion. The shot went down with just 1.9 seconds left and provided the first tournament win for Seton Hall since 1993.

Mike the Magician: Florida coach Billy Donovan had said before the tournament that he was tired of hearing about how Butler was going to bounce the Gators in the first round. Mike Miller proved the pundits wrong ... though just barely. After Andrew Graves gave Butler a lead with a 3-pointer in overtime, Kenyan Weaks cut the advantage to a point with a lay-in. The Gators immediately fouled Butler's Lavall Jordan, who missed both free throws, and Florida was off to the races. Miller then slashed into the lane and dropped in the winner, setting off a wild celebration and allowing the Gators to move into the second round.

Stars of the Day

• Shaheen Holloway, Seton Hall: Scored 27 points in the Pirates' win over Oregon and provided the day's first dramatic moment with his coast-to-coast game-winning lay-up.
• Brendan Haywood, North Carolina: It won't be enough to make Tar Heel fans forget about last year's one-rebound outing in a first-round loss to Weber State, but the 7-footer accounted for 28 points and 15 boards in a win over Missouri.
• Mike Miller, Florida: Struggled through a 6-for-17 shooting night, but finished with 16 points and hit the sensational game-winning shot at the buzzer to help the Gators avert the upset to Butler.
• Mark Madsen, Stanford: The senior power forward played just 23 minutes in a rout of South Carolina State, but put up 14 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
• Desmond Mason, Oklahoma State: Scored 30 points on 11 of 17 shooting in the Pokes' victory over Hofstra.

And the Waves came crashing down...

With Wave after Wave coming at him all night long, Indiana's A.J. Guyton had perhaps the most miserable outing of his fine college career. The senior shooting guard scored just three points -- all at the free-throw line -- and took just two shots all night in the Hoosiers' upset loss to Pepperdine.

Wounded dog

The defending national champion got past Utah State, but Connecticut certainly didn't come through unscathed, as point guard Khalid El-Amin had to leave the game with 3:57 to play because of an ankle injury. He returned, but was only able to make a brief run before leaving again -- this time for good.

Before he went out, El-Amin was key in shutting down the Aggies' offense, wearing down point guard Bernard Rock, who finished with two points, three assists and five turnovers. El-Amin will not practice Saturday, but said he will play Sunday.

Getting the calls

You have to wonder about a call that even long-time voice of reason Dick Enberg roasts on the air. Such was the case when Louisiana-Lafayette's run at Tennessee turned into just another upset that wasn't.

After leading most of the game, the 13th-seeded Ragin' Cajuns fell back of the No. 4 Volunteers by four points with just under a minute to play. After a Brett Smith 11-footer cut the Vols' advantage to a bucket, it appeared as if the 6-9 junior center cleanly picked the pocket of Tennessee's Tony Harris -- and would have given the Cajuns the ball with the chance to tie or take the lead with 15 seconds to play.

Then came the call.

"Often times you see phantom calls that you have to be right on top of to see," Louisiana-Lafayette coach Jessie Evans said. "I guess that's how it was today."

Harris missed the free throw, but on the rebound, Ron Slay ended up on the floor and Smith was tagged with an intentional foul that awarded the Vols two free throws, possession and, for all intents and purposes, the game.

"I was partly fouled and the other part was me working on my Oscar performance," Slay said of drawing the flagrant foul.

Stat of the day

Few players can go scoreless and impact a game the way Temple point guard Pepe Sanchez did in the Owls' 73-46 victory over Lafayette. His line for the day: zero points, five rebounds, three steals and a season-high 15 assists.

The Speedy Dutchman

Here's one for the little guys, courtesy of Hofstra's 5-11 point guard Craig "Speedy" Claxton. The senior scored 20 points and also had seven assists and four rebounds in Hofstra's 86-66 loss to Oklahoma State. Most of his numbers were compiled after he returned from suffering a dislocated finger.

Mid-Major funk

A year ago, the second round was dotted with six teams from those fun mid-major conferences.

This season, only two will move on and both -- Gonzaga and Pepperdine -- are from the West Coast Conference. That's the fewest since 1992, and half as many as normally reach the second round.

Yup ... it's been the bid dog's draw. Here's the list of the 17 one-and-done victims:

• Midwestern Collegiate (Butler)
• Ivy (Penn)
• America East (Hofstra)
• Appalachian State (Southern)
• Patriot (Lafayette)
• Big West (Utah State)
• Sun Belt (Louisiana-Lafayette)
• Colonial Athletic Association (UNC-Wilmington)
• Big Sky (Northern Arizona)
• Northeast (Central Connecticut State)
• Mid-Continent (Valparaiso)
• Trans-American (Samford)
• Mid-American (Ball State)
• Metro-Atlantic (Iona)
• Southland (Lamar)
• Mid-Eastern Athletic (South Carolina State)
• Southwest Athletic (Jackson State)