Saint Louis

A year ago, it was as if Saint Louis arrived in the NCAA tournament in Cinderella's pumpkin. The Billikens were one of the season's most provocative rags-to-riches stories.This year, though, the element of surprise was absent when Saint Louis was seeded ninth in the East.This is a team that has won 45 of 58 games over the past two seasons, that almost toppled Cincinnati in the Great Midwest tournament last week, that has had three lineup changes in coach Charlie Spoonhour's three seasons.

In a season of diminishing returns, Voshon Lenard has come to symbolize Minnesota's reeling Golden Gophers.He and the Gophers limp into the Baltimore Arena this afternoon to play in the opening round of the NCAA East Regional.It is no coincidence that since the flashy senior guard took a nasty header off the elevated court at Williams Arena in Minneapolis a week ago, Minnesota's season has taken a distinct downward turn.The Gophers lost the last two games with Lenard gimpy. Worse yet, they lost four of their last six games and five of eight.

No. 8 Minnesota (19-11)Head coach: Clem Haskins.Career record: 252-196 in 15 seasons.Record at school: 151-123 in nine seasons.Conference: Big Ten.Conference tournament: No tournament.Best win: 66-57 over Michigan State on Feb. 18.Worst loss: 71-50 to Texas Southern on Dec. 21.NCAA tournament record: r 8-5.Last NCAA appearance: 1994, beat Southern Illinois, 74-60; lost to Louisville, 60-55.Probable starters: G Voshon Lenard, Sr., 6-4; G Townsend Orr, Sr., 6-1; C John Thomas, So., 6-9; F Chad Kolander, Sr., 6-9, or Sam Jacobson, Fr., 6-5; F Jayson Walton, Sr., 6-6.Scouting report: The Gophers are a perimeter-oriented team with two guards, Lenard and Orr, leading the scoring.

COLLEGE PARK -- The University of Maryland has begun to interview candidates for the vacant athletic director's job.Loyola College athletic director Joe Boylan confirmed that he was interviewed yesterday, but declined to comment on what took place.At Loyola, Boylan presided over a program that in the past academic year qualified teams for the NCAA tournaments in men's soccer, men's and women's lacrosse and men's and women's basketball.Others who are expected to be interviewed for the Maryland job include Tulane athletic director Kevin White and Maryland associate athletic director Sue Tyler.

WICHITA, Kan. -- They were going to get blinded by the bright lights of playing in their first NCAA tournament. They were going to get buried under an avalanche of three-point shots by Saint Louis. They were going to fly home quickly and quietly to College Park, satisfied with the experience and looking ahead to next season.But the Maryland Terrapins would have none of that yesterday at the Kansas Coliseum. Playing its best game in a month, and one of its best of the season, 10th-seeded Maryland rode yet another sensational performance by freshman Joe Smith to a 74-66 victory over the 24th-ranked, seventh-seeded Billikens in the opening round of the NCAA Midwest Regional.

WICHITA, Kan. -- He had taken only one shot in 14 first-half minutes, had not scored a point or grabbed a rebound. His contribution to Maryland's five-point lead was some solid defense on Saint Louis forward Scott Highmark, but he was otherwise invisible.For a player whose sophomore season has been marked by a number of disappearing acts, Exree Hipp even outdid himself in the first half of yesterday's NCAA tournament Midwest Regional first-round game. Hipp had turned into Houdini."I was trying to get the other guys involved, and to play good defense," Hipp said.

WICHITA, Kan. -- It will be a surprise if Maryland doesn't win today's NCAA matinee first-rounder out here in the prairie lands of Oz, even though Saint Louis has a better record, older players and a higher seed.It will be a surprise because, even though the teams handicap pretty evenly, the Billikens lack even a semblance of an antidote for Sensational Freshman Joe Smith.The Terps' 18-year-old franchise will be not only the best player ,, on the floor, but also the tallest player on the floor, and by a couple of inches, not just a noogie.

WICHITA, Kan. -- A year ago, the Maryland basketball team was well into its spring break, trying to forget a 13-16 season. At the same time, Saint Louis was healing similar wounds, though a 12-17 record was seen as marked improvement from a five-win season the year before.Today, those memories will seem distant when the Terrapins (16-11) and the 24th-ranked Billikens (23-5) meet in the opening game of the NCAA Midwest Regional's first round at the Kansas Coliseum. It marks Maryland's first trip to the NCAA tournament in six years; Saint Louis hasn't been to the tournament since 1957.

COLLEGE PARK -- There were games earlier this season when Exree Hipp dominated, when his above-the-rim athleticism was a little too much for the competition, when Maryland's sophomore forward could do whatever he wanted. Dunks. Three-pointers. Everything.concentrate on just playing," Hipp said. "When a team comes out playing me differently than they did before, it throws me off and sometimes it takes to the end of the game before I get back on track."In Hipp's defense, he's often had to play against opponents who outweigh him, sometimes by 20 or 30 pounds.

Charlie Spoonhour's friends didn't tell him he was crazy when he left a secure little coaching job at Southwest Missouri State two years ago for a more recognizable, but certainly more stressful, position at Saint Louis University."