MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / March 17, 1999

The two biggest questions to come out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament was whether anybody can stay within 40 points of Duke and if there would be enough silver slippers to go around for all the Cinderellas.

Duke, the almost consensus pick to win the championship this season, has cruised through its first two games, handing both Florida A & M and Tulsa 41-point defeats. The Blue Devils’ opponent in the round of 16 is one ofthe tournament’s biggest surprises, Southwest Missouri State.

Then again, perhaps the Bears’ victories over Wiscon-sin and Tennessee should not be all that surprising. The Bears’ win over the Badgers wastheir first in the tournament since 1987, the same year a senior named Steve Alford was helping lead Indiana to the national championship.

Twelve years later, Alford is the coach of one of the best defensive teams around, one that has held Wisconsin and Tennessee to 83 combined points.

Southwest Missouri State is just one of a host of Cinderellas looking for a coach ride to the ball this season. Three 10th-seeded teams, Miami (Ohio),Purdue and Gonzaga have knocked off second seeds.

Miami upset Utah, last year’s runners-up, in the second round Sunday while Gonzaga was knocking Stanford, another Final Four team from a year ago, out of the tournament Saturday. Oklahoma, seeded 13th in the MidwestRegional, has dispatched fourth-seeded Arizona and fifth-seeded North Carolina-Charlotte.

Purdue was making Duke’s job in the East Regional easier by upending No.

2-seed Miami (Fla.) in the second round. With the Hurricanes’ demise andSouthwest Missouri State’s upset of fourth-seeded Tennessee, sixth- seeded Temple’s surprise of No. 3 Cincinnati means the Owls are the nexthighest seeded team after the Blue Devils.

Heading into the Sweet 16, all four top-seeded teams – Duke, Connecticut, Michigan State and Auburn – remain alive. Maryland is the only second seedleft while Kentucky and St. John’s are the remaining third seeds. Kentucky rallied to defeat Kansas in overtime Sunday in what has been probably the best game of the tournament and one of the best games in years. But a better game might be on tap in the Final Four when Duke andKentucky could renew their heated rivalry of the early 1990s.

The day before the madness of the NCAA Tourna-ment started, one of the River Parishes very own, Reserve Christian, was making a name for itself in the Top 28 Tournament. The Eagles quickly made themselves known inthe semifinals, jumping out to a 7-0 lead against top-ranked Gibsland- Coleman.

Then the Bulldogs’ Bernard King showed that he was as good as advertised, taking over on both ends of the court to lead his team to a 84-55 victory.

King would keep it up in the finals a-gainst Epps, leading the Bulldogs to their first state championship since 1984.

But the Eagles have nothing to hang their heads about. They capped ahistorical season in their first season in the Louisiana High School Athletic Association, one that saw them win a district championship and become the first River Parishes school to reach the Top 28 in 13 years, with a performance that would make any Southwest Miss-ouri State or Miami (Ohio) proud to be called Cinderellas with them.

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