LITTLE ROCK — The NCAA Tournament will look monumentally different this year.
Connecticut, North Carolina, UCLA, Arizona and Indiana didn’t make it into the field of 65 announced Sunday, the first time since 1966 five of the biggest names in college basketball missed the tournament in the same season.
That’s three of the four schools with the most championships, out. The second longest string of tournament appearances, done.
The blue bloods of basketball are feeling blue and filling out the bracket is going to seem strange, like visiting Mount Rushmore and realizing Abraham Lincoln is missing.
So many big names, so many big disappointments.
North Carolina was the defending national champion and figured to get back to the tournament even after losing Tyler Hansbrough and nearly everyone else. Instead, the Tar Heels floundered through one of their worst seasons in years, finishing 16-16 and needing a big run in the ACC Tournament that never happened.
A program with five national titles and 27 consecutive NCAA appearances is headed for the NIT.
“I think it is so frustrating because we showed flashes what we can be and the team we can be, it seems like we’ll play that way for a while, then we’ll just stop,” North Carolina guard Larry Drew II said.
Connecticut was a No. 1 seed and reached the Final Four a year ago. Without intimidating Hasheem Thabeet, the Huskies backtracked, finishing 12th in the Big East during the regular season, suffering another one-game exit from the conference tournament for the fifth consecutive year and settled for the NIT.
Arizona had the nation’s longest active streak of reaching the NCAA Tournament at 25, within sight of North Carolina’s record run. After salvaging tournament bids the past two years, the Wildcats didn’t stand much of a chance at getting No. 26, finishing 16-15 after losing to UCLA in the Pacific-10 Tournament.
The Bruins are the king of title-holders with 11 and they went to three consecutive Final Four appearances under Coach Ben Howland. Their run came to an end with the worst season (14-18) since 2003-2004 and a loss to eventual champion Washington in the Pac-10 Tournament semifinals.
NCAA Selection Committee chairman Dan Guerrero, UCLA’s athletic director, didn’t even have to recuse himself from voting for the Bruins; they weren’t getting in anyway.
“To have a losing record is very, very disappointing with the success we’ve enjoyed the previous five seasons,” Howland said.
When this year’s Final Four was awarded to Indianapolis in 2003, there was hope the basketball-crazy state’s most recognizable school would make a magical run to a title. Indiana had once gone to 18 consecutive NCAA Tournaments, so why not dream?
It wasn’t even close.
Still mopping up from the Kelvin Sampson mess, Indiana won just 10 games. An improvement from a year ago, but nowhere near NCAA Tournament-ready.
“Missing the tournament hurts,” said Jeremiah Rivers, who played on Georgetown’s 2007 Final Four team before transferring to Indiana.
At least Florida sneaked in. Had the 21-12 Gators not made it, that would have been three of the past four champions - accounting for five titles - left out.
This year’s Big Dance won’t be nearly as popular.
Not with all those monuments missing.
Sports, Pages 16 on 03/15/2010