By Paul Kennedy, Managing Editor
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Saint Louis was the only Conference USA team to receive a bid to the 2002 NCAA Tournament, marking the first time since its inaugural season of play in 1996 that the C-USA didn't receive two or more bids.
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The Big West won't get an automatic bid until 2003, but that didn't prevent two conference teams from reaching the NCAA Tournament. Champion UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge are making their NCAA debuts.
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The Patriot League was the big surprise, garnering three places in the NCAA Tournament. That equals the numbers of bids its received in the previous six years. Besides champion Holy Cross, two teams earned berths based on their results in non-conference games: American (wins over two NCAA Tournament seeds, Boston College and VCU, and two other conference champions, Penn State and Loyola, Md.) and Lehigh (wins over two NCAA Tournament teams, Duke and Penn).
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The ACC led all conferences with a record six teams in the 48-team field: Wake Forest, Maryland, Virginia, Clemson, North Carolina and Duke. The only team that didn't make the tournament is N.C. State. The Big East had five teams, and the Pac-10 had four.
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Indiana is shooting for its sixth straight appearance in the final four. Saint Louis holds the record, having advanced to the semifinals in the first seven NCAA Tournaments (1959-65).
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Eight teams will be making their first appearance in the tournament. Besides Cal State Northridge and UC Santa Barbara, Central Florida, Holy Cross, Northeastern, Oakland, Oregon State and Winthrop are making their debuts.
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Virginia is making its 22nd straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament to close in on Saint Louis' record of 23 straight bids (1959-81).
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Penn returns to the NCAA Tournament after a 25-year absence. The longest gap between tournament appearances is the 32 years between Michigan State's appearances in the 1969 and 2001 tournaments.
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This is Holy Cross' first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in the 37-year history of the Crusaders' program.