ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- With eight of the 16 Southeast Regional NCAA basketball tournament hopefuls in town, there was quite a bit of excitement both on an off the court. Here are some of the weekend's highlights:
Fans in Full Force
The 26,102 basketball enthusiasts in the Thunder Dome for Sunday's third-session matchup between Duke and Michigan State set a new all-time attendance record for a single game or single session in the Southeast Region. Prior to this weekend, the record stood at 23,525 from a Kentucky-Illinois game in Lexington's Rupp Arena in 1984. It is also a new basketball attendance record for a game played in the state of Florida.
Tale of the two TSUs
In somewhat of an oddity, the St. Petersburg subregional featured two incredibly similar teams -- Texas Southern and Tennessee Sate. The schools share the same names (TSU) and they have identical mascots (the Tiger). They played back-to-back games in the Thunder Dome and shared the same fate. Tennessee State fell by 13 to Kentucky, and Texas Southern was booted from the tournament after a 12-point loss to Duke.
Maybe they were both jinxed by their bands, which played nearly identical fight songs while singing, "We're so glad... We go to TSU."
Capels go .500 in Round 1
Jeff Capel, the freshman Blue Devil guard, was not the only member of his family participating in the NCAA Tournament this year. Jeff Capel Sr., the head men's basketball coach at North Carolina A&T, guided his team to the No. 16 seed in the Midwest Regional. The Aggies hung tough with the top-seeded Arkansas Razorbacks well into the second half but lost 94-79.
"I thought [the Aggies] played well," Jeff Jr., said about his father's team.
"I think the team came out and they weren't scared of Arkansas, one of the things I thought that they may be. The players may be a little in awe of Arkansas, but they came out and took it right to them. It was real close for a while. They played a great game, and I was real proud of them."
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said his freshman guard learned a lesson from his father's team.
"Jeff came up and knocked on our door [after the N.C. A&T game] and said, `Coach, see how many times those A&T guards shot."'
Past is history for Marquette
Most fans remember Marquette for its glory days under the ever-so-colorful head coach Al McGuire. But current head coach Kevin O'Neill is doing everything in his power to recapture some of that success from nearly two decades ago. He is off to a fantastic start with a berth in the Sweet 16 in just his fifth year on the job, but it wasn't an easy path to success.
"When I first came to Marquette I was ready to throw up," O'Neill said. "I was ready to return to Arizona...
"It was a dump here. It was in bad shape. What we had to do was rebuild it from scratch both on and off the court. They weren't very patient at that time. We were booed off our own floor on a number of occasions, which isn't a real fun thing for a bunch of freshmen to have happen to them.
"Al helped us. Al said good things. Al's eating free sandwiches all the time in our office, making free long-distance telephone calls and all that."
But even McGuire's presence didn't do much to help O'Neill in his early recruiting efforts.
"The first time we started making recruiting phone calls, and this is no lie, if we could have recruited parents, it would have been great," O'Neill said. "They remembered Marquette. We would have done a hell of a job. I get the parent on the phone and he'd say Marquette, oh I remember their great teams...' I'd get the kid on and he'd sayWillard Scott said that's the coldest place in the country.' [Sophomore guard Roney] Eford didn't know it was in Milwaukee... Rob [Logterman] didn't know, and he lives in Jamesville."
Too hefty for basketball
Without the Cameron Crazies on hand in the Thunder Dome, the Duke Pep Band imitated the Durham fanatics. Reginald Whittaker, Texas Southern's 6-8, 285 lbs. center was the subject of the band's "Ultra-Slim Fast" chants. Whittaker, however, showed that a few extra pounds can't hurt as he pulled down seven rebounds and scored 17 points. The band later applauded the big man.
"I guess they were happy with the way I performed,'' Whittaker said. "I was happy too.''
Big flag, no band
Many of the Seton Hall basketball supporters failed to make the trip to St. Petersburg for the Pirates' first-round game against Michigan State. The pep band, mascot and some cheerleaders stayed behind to root for the women's team in its second-round NCAA Tournament game against Texas.
But the Pirates made up for the missing supporters by bringing a ridiculously large flag. Seton Hall was lucky its first-round game was played in the mammoth Thunder Dome because most of the other NCAA Tournament venues would have been too small to fit what appeared to be the world's largest college flag.
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