The madness commences

Southern Illinois University's first-round NCAA tournament game will fall in the shadow of two other contests on the card in Seattle today.

The Salukis, the No. 9 seeds and the regular-season champions of the Missouri Valley Conference, will be playing No. 8 Alabama in the first game of the day at Key Arena. The other three games feature at least one team from the West.

Southern Illinois (25-4) and Alabama (17-12) are in the Phoenix Regional. They are paired with No. 1 Stanford (29-1) and No. 16 Texas-San Antonio (19-13), which play in the second game of the day.

The other two games pit No.2 Gonzaga (27-2) against No. 15 Valparaiso (18-12) and No. 7 Michigan State (18-11) against Nevada (23-8). Those games will are in the St. Louis Regional.

Stanford is among three No. 1 seeds in action today. Duke will play Alabama State in the Atlanta Regional and St. Joseph's plays Liberty in the East Rutherford, N.J., Regional. Kentucky, the top seed in the St. Louis Regional, plays Friday against Florida A&M, which won the play-in game with Lehigh on Tuesday.

Since the tournament expanded to 16 seeds per region in 1985, a No. 16 team never has beaten a No. 1, though UTSA guard Kurt Attaway optimistically pointed out it's bound to happen one day.

His coach, knowing the task at hand in Stanford, took a harder stance.

"We're going to have to be a part of a miracle," UTSA coach Tim Carter said. "It's just that simple. They're bigger. They're stronger. They were once the No. 1 team in the nation. We're going to have to play a miracle ballgame."

Stanford coach Mike Montgomery made a point of saying any team that makes the NCAA field is capable of beating another.

"Tim may have said that, but he doesn't really believe it," Montgomery said. "He's coming in here thinking he can win."