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Kentucky in OSU's future?
Published: 3/3/2010 9:31 AM
Last Modified: 3/3/2010 9:31 AM

Now that Oklahoma State's basketball team has locked up an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament, the Cowboys need to play well enough the rest of the season to escape being saddled with a dreaded No. 8 or No. 9 seed.

The mock brackets of Joe Lunardi (ESPN) and Jerry Palm (collegerpi.com) have the Cowboys playing in an 8 vs. 9 first-round game. The winner of that game gets an unpleasant reward: A second-round game against a No. 1 seed.

Here's what I think will happen if OSU winds up as an 8 or 9 seed: The NCAA Tournament committee will flex its sense of humor and put the Cowboys in the same bracket as No. 1 seed Kentucky, which is Travis Ford's alma mater and Matt Pilgrim's former school. Nice little subplot, right?

Supposedly, the committee does not take these sort of things into account, but they happen too often to be coincidence. In fact, it has happened to Ford already. In 2005, Ford coached at Eastern Kentucky and led the school to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 26 years. In the first round, Eastern Kentucky was matched against -- you guessed it -- Kentucky.

Ford's squad gave Kentucky fits, but talent prevailed and the Wildcats advanced with a 72-64 decision.

If Ford faces Kentucky again this season, the committee should 'fess up about being ornery. Once is a coincidence. Twice is a trend.




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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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