Going to St. Petersburg: Its RPI is better than Auburn's. It played a tougher schedule. It couldn't stack up to top-ranked Duke, but who can? This is the year for Maryland to end decades of postseason frustration.

Team on the rise: Creighton was 15-8 three weeks ago and given little chance of making the field. It won its last six games, the final three to win the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. That league landed three bids, as many as the Atlantic Coast Conference, and the Blue Jays could give the Terps trouble in the second round.

Team on the decline: Has there ever been a more specious No. 1 seed than Auburn? The Tigers began the season with 17 straight wins, but they've lost two of their last four. They fell at Arkansas on Feb. 24, and didn't give Kentucky much of a game in the Southeastern Conference semifinals Saturday.

Cinderella story: What is it? Is Samford the Princeton or the Stanford of the South? A year after going 14-13, the Birmingham, Ala., school won its first bid out of the Trans-America Athletic Conference.

Prime-time player: UCLA has Baron Davis, a sophomore point guard who has made a solid recovery from a severe knee injury. Scoonie Penn followed Jim O'Brien from Boston College to Ohio State, and made the Buckeyes a contender. No one is capable of taking over a game, however, like Maryland's own Steve Francis.

Most underrated player: Point guard Julius "Doc" Robinson is a huge reason Auburn is in the tournament for the first time since 1988.

Coaching edge: Eddie Sutton used smoke, mirrors and an overweight center named Bryant Reeves to get Oklahoma State to the Final Four in 1995. This is his 20th NCAA tournament, and he could make Auburn and Cliff Ellis squirm in a second-round matchup.

Pub Date: 3/08/99