Columnist Ron Kantowski: Go West, young man …. to Pittsburgh

Tuesday, March 12, 2002 | 10:21 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

When Horace Greeley advised that young man to "Go West," I don't think he had Pittsburgh in mind.

Or for that matter, when you lookaway to Dixie, it's not very often the smokestacks of the Iron City appear in your line of vision.

Yet, my NCAA bracket tells me that Pittsburgh is in the West and the South, at least for the first and second rounds of the Big Dance.

Who drew up this bracket? Mister Magoo? It certainly wasn't Rand or McNally.

In an effort to keep its 64 teams closer to home (and thus fill the empty seats that were prevalent during the early rounds of last year's tourney), the NCAA Tournament Committee decided to ... heck, I'm not sure what it decided to do, except befuddle me more than a Dennis Miller monologue.

According to the bracket hanging on my refrigerator, Sacramento is in the South and the Midwest -- but not the West. Similarly, both Chicago and St. Louis will host games in the Midwest and East.

They complain about all those sociology majors at Duke, but Coach K should be glad that none of his players is learning geography from the tournament committee.

Of course, there is a simple solution to the problem that doesn't require rocket science or even a road atlas. Instead of naming the regions by geography, simply label them generically, such as 1,2,3 and 4 or A,B,C and D. Or perhaps you could pay tribute to some of the greats of the game by naming the regions after them.

Hence, Utah could be facing Indiana in a Wooden Region first-round game, or Duke might square off against Winthrop in a Rupp Region lid-lifter.

It's either that, or invest in a new compass.

Tailoring his game plan to his personnel, Spoonhour and the Rebels were fun to watch this year and more often than not, the Rebels played like UNLV of yesteryear, rather than Princeton of today.

In fact, heading into tonight's NIT first-rounder against Arizona State at the Thomas & Mack Center, the Rebels and their opponents have surpassed the "over" total in over-under wagering in 14 straight outings.