Mike Deane has done it, so he knows it can be done, and he quite possibly has the team most capable of doing it.
Every team that begins play today in the Conference USA tournament must win four games in four days to complete its journey to the championship. This is one of those reckless feats Deane would prefer not to attempt a second time.
Today's games
C-USA Tournament
At Shoemaker Center
TV: Fox Sports Ohio
Marquette vs. DePaul, 1 p.m.
Southern Miss. vs. Houston, 3:30 p.m.
South Florida vs. Louisville, 7 p.m.
Saint Louis vs. Tulane, 9:30 p.m.
Tickets: Available at UC ticket office or call 556-CATS.
Bracket
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''I think it's ridiculous that you ask a team to play four games in 60 hours,'' Deane said, ''but I don't have another solution. If it wasn't a revenue-making situation, we wouldn't be playing. I'd be surprised if any team could go through and win this from that position.''
Of course, Deane said all the same things a year ago, before Marquette did precisely that and earned its status as defending champion. The Golden Eagles (17-9) will play DePaul (7-22) in the opener of the C-USA tournament at 1 p.m. at the Shoemaker Center.
Marquette is one of five teams that enters the tournament needing to win or make a spectacular showing to have a chance at an NCAA Tournament bid, which could make this a more intriguing event than was suggested by the occasionally lackluster regular season the league endured. Only the top-seeded Cincinnati Bearcats, who open Thursday in the quarterfinals, are ranked in the Top 25.
But along with Marquette, Memphis (16-10), UAB (19-10) and Southern Mississippi (20-9) have records that could catch the NCAA selection committee's attention with the right victories here and teams capable of winning the automatic bid that goes to the tournament champion. South Florida (17-12) can't make it without the automatic bid, but their defensive ability makes it unwise to dismiss the Bulls.
''For a league that's supposed to be down,'' said USF coach Seth Greenberg, ''we have a lot of teams with 17-22 wins.''
UNC Charlotte (17-9) and Saint Louis (20-9) have every reason to believe they've earned their spots in the NCAAs, but they could eliminate any anxiety and make a serious statement about their programs' progress with a championship.
''The best thing for us is to go up and win the tournament,'' said UNCC coach Melvin Watkins, ''and then there's no question we're in.''
So many of the conference tournaments in which the Bearcats have competed had a sort of empty inevitability about them. In the Great Midwest and the first season of Conference USA, UC was most often the biggest and - or best team, and few in the field had the talent or motivation to knock them off.
In the past six years, only last season did UC play in a tournament with an automatic NCAA bid at stake. And the Bearcats learned what sort of basketball can be played by a team driving desperately toward that goal. They had beaten Marquette twice by a combined 27 points, but were buried by the Golden Eagles' 13 three-pointers in the C-USA semifinals.
Deane said the difference in being able to win was having future NBA player Chris Crawford at small forward and enough seniors to make smart decisions. ''We were the only team physical enough to contend with Cincinnati,'' Deane said. ''And we fortunately caught them in the semifinals and shot the ball extremely well. This tournament is kind of a crapshoot, but I always think the advantage is to the most physical team.''
In pursuit of the automatic bid, Memphis and UAB have the advantage of needing only three victories to claim the title because they earned first-round byes
Memphis has a tight rotation with only six or seven players making major contributions. That could make it difficult for the Tigers to last 120 minutes. But their only capable big man, center Jermaine Ousley, has felt less back pain in recent weeks and averaged 11.5 points and 6.8 rebounds in the past four games.
''We know we need to get to the championship game,'' said Memphis coach Tic Price. ''We need wins. If we put together a string of wins, that will get their attention. We're trying to win our way in.''
UAB is one of the league's deepest teams, with 10 players averaging 10 or more minutes, and their defense has held opponents to .394 shooting. To win, they need at least one player to provide a more consistent source of offense. No UAB player averages more than 13 points.
Southern Miss and Marquette would have to go 4-for-4, as would Saint Louis, despite posting the third-best conference record. The winners and runners-up in both the American and National Divisions were awarded first-round byes; SLU finished third in the American.
''We're not upset,'' said coach Charlie Spoonhour. ''We play four days . . . you're supposed to go to work every day.''
When Marquette won the C-USA tournament last season by winning four games, it became the first to do that in more than a decade. There were few leagues large enough to force teams to play that much before the recent round of expansion. It may become more common now that 10 leagues have grown to include at least a dozen teams.
''We practice every day,'' Greenberg said. ''I've got to believe our practices are tougher than our games. I don't know what the big deal is about playing four in a row.''
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