MIDWEST REGIONAL

1. MINNESOTA (27-3)

* First-round opponent: Southwest Texas State.

* Season in brief: The Gophers got the message after being snubbed last year with a 19-13 record. Minnesota upgraded the schedule, beat Clemson, Rhode Island and West Virginia and proved it could win on the road early in the season, defeating Indiana in Bloomington on Jan. 8. Success coincided with a steady rise up the polls, with the Gophers actually outranking their hockey team.

* Player to watch: Bobby Jackson. The senior guard has a great first step and also makes outside shots.

* Tidbit: Coach Clem Haskins ended a nine-year NBA career with the Washington Bullets in 1976.

* NCAA bio: Fifth appearance for Gophers under Haskins, including Sweet 16 finish in 1990. Must fight Big Ten’s lagging reputation in recent years, but proved they were real when they swept Purdue and Iowa on the road in mid February.

2. UCLA (21-7)

* First-round opponent: Charleston Southern.

* Season in brief: It looked like a crash and burn in November, when Jim Harrick was fired and replaced by his former coffee fetcher, 32-year-old Steve Lavin. After a season-opening defeat by Tulsa and ugly efforts against Kansas and Stanford, UCLA improved steadily, Lavin was rewarded with a four-year contract and the Bruins won their third consecutive Pac-10 title.

* Player to watch: Charles O’Bannon. It took a while, but the senior forward finally started playing with the fire of older brother Ed, catching the eyes of NBA scouts as he single-handedly led UCLA to victories in Arizona.

* Tidbit: As a guard for Chapman College in 1987, Lavin won the team’s leadership award.

* NCAA bio: Eleven national titles, but shocked by Princeton in last year’s opening round. Cameron Dollar, the unsung point guard of UCLA’s national title game win over Arkansas in 1995, has to be the calming influence if UCLA is to get deep into the tournament.

3. CINCINNATI (25-7)

* First-round opponent: Butler.

* Season in brief: Bob Huggins handed out more suspensions than a high school principal as he tried to tame this talented but wayward bunch. The Bearcats talked tough, but did not beat a ranked opponent other than Tulane. Huggins suspended five players for at least one game, and sent others in and out of his doghouse. Even star junior Danny Fortson did not escape the wrath, sitting out a blowout win over DePaul while he pondered what might be the best day to announce he will make himself available for the NBA draft.

* Player to watch: Darnell Burton. The 6-2 senior guard must have has three-point shot going to complement Fortson inside.

* Tidbit: The Bearcats have a 31-14 record in the NCAA tournament, including consecutive titles in 1961 and ’62.

* NCAA bio: Lost to Mississippi State in last year’s Southeast Regional final. Suspension of point guard Charles Williams before the conference tournament underscores that all is not well with this team. Point guard has been the weakness all season and the reason it will be tough for Cincinnati to get past the Sweet 16.

4. CLEMSON (21-9)

* First-round opponent: Miami of Ohio

* Season in brief: Opened season with a victory over Kentucky, the defending national champion, and won 16 of first 17 games before losing an ACC game to Wake Forest. Tigers’ only non-conference loss came against Minnesota. Clemson reached No. 2 in the Associated Press poll on Jan. 20.

* Player to watch: Terrell McIntyre. The sophomore point guard was one of the most underrated playes in the ACC. Says Coach Rick Barnes: “No question, the key to our basketball team.”

* Tidbit: In 1987, Barnes was assistant coach at Ohio State under current Maryland Coach Gary Williams.

* NCAA bio: Clemson made the 1996 tournament after going 7-9 in the conference, then was bounced in the first round by Georgia. The Tigers have Sweet 16 talent.

5. TULSA (23-9)

* First-round opponent: Boston University.

* Season in brief: Wrecked Steve Lavin’s debut with a victory over UCLA, played well against Duke in a five-point loss and defeated Temple. It was that kind of play that had Tulsa Coach Steve Robinson’s name being mentioned in job openings at Memphis and LSU.

* Player to watch: Shea Seals. The senior guard played like a pro against the NBA dream teamers last summer, scoring 20 points.

* Tidbit: Tulsa won six Missouri Valley Conference regular-season titles and four tournament championships before joining the Western Athletic Conference this season.

* NCAA bio: Lost to Louisville in overtime in last year’s first round. Made Sweet 16 in ’94 and ’95 under Coach Tubby Smith, now at Georgia. Tulsa is usually a factor come tournament time.

6. IOWA STATE (20-8)

* First-round opponent: Illinois State.

* Season in brief: Lost a lot of power-rating respect with a nonconference schedule against the likes of Alcorn State, Tennessee Martin and Siena. Recovered from consecutive Big 12 losses to Kansas and Colorado to win five in a row before another loss to Kansas.

* Player to watch: Dedric Willoughby. The senior guard can knock down the three-pointer and is capable of shooting the Cyclones in or out of any NCAA game.

* Tidbit: Coach Tim Floyd has been mentioned as being the eventual successor to Phil Jackson with the Chicago Bulls.

* NCAA bio: Beat Cal in last year’s first-round before losing to Utah. Iowa State has decent point guard in Jacy Holloway, a great shooter in Willoughby and a fly-swatter in the middle in Kelvin Cato. Floyd uses a variety of defenses to keep teams off balance. There’s enough here to get beyond the first round.

7. XAVIER (22-5)

* First-round: Vanderbilt.

* Season in brief: The Musketeers announced their intentions with a then-stunning two-point victory at Cincinnati on Nov. 26 and a 10-0 start that resulted in a No. 14 Associated Press ranking in January. Suffered bad conference losses to Dayton and Duquesne, but remained one of top scoring teams in country.

* Player to watch: James Posey, a sophomore forward, can score inside or out. He was an Ohio Division II player of year as a prep.

* Tidbit: The Musketeers went to eight NCAA tournaments in their nine seasons in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference before joining the Atlantic 10 last season.

* NCAA bio: This is Skip Prosser’s second NCAA trip with Xavier. Pete Gillen led the team to seven tournaments in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Xavier sputtered at times after a fast start--witness a 14-pounding at St. Joseph’s in February--but has the firepower to shock some of the big boys. Ask Cincinnati.

8. MISSISSIPPI (20-8)

* First-round opponent: Temple.

* Season in brief: Rob Evans’ team stunned Kentucky and swept Arkansas in what has turned out to be one of the greatest seasons in beleagured Ole Miss history. The job Evans has done has made him a prime candidate for Dale Brown’s job at LSU.

* Player to watch: Ansu Sesay. The 6-9 junior forward is explosive and athletic and plays the kind of defense that helped the program turn the corner.

* Tidbit: Ole Miss won a regular-season conference title for the first time since beginning play in 1908.

* NCAA bio: Excuse Ole Miss if it doesn’t know how to act. This is only the Rebels’ second NCAA appearance ever--the other coming in 1981. The Rebels play great defense, but lack scoring punch.

9. TEMPLE (19-10)

* First-round opponent: Mississippi.

* Season in brief: A typically bizarre year for Coach John Chaney’s team, which managed to strangle top-20 teams such as Louisville and Cincinnati with its famed matchup zone, yet also lose to St. Bonaventure by 18. The Owls, as usual, played their best ball down the stretch and assumed their annual position as an NCAA tournament bubble team.

* Player to watch: Marc Jackson. The junior center is arguably the best player in the Atlantic 10, among the leaders in scoring, rebouding and shooting percentage, though he still doesn’t take enough shots.

* Tidbit: Chaney is 9-3 in NCAA tournament first-round games.

* NCAA bio: A second-round loser to Cincinnati last year, Temple is a team you don’t want to play in the first round. After playing against the Owls’ unorthodoxed style, you need a mechanic to fix your offense.

10. VANDERBILT (19-11)

* First-round opponent: Xavier.

* Season in brief: The Commodores shook off a 29-point loss to Duke in November and three consecutive SEC defeats in January to gain an NCAA at-large bid. Vanderbilt closed with gusto, winning seven of its last nine regular-season games. The losses were to Kentucky and South Carolina. Vanderbilt maintained a top 30 RPI ranking. Only unforgivable loss was at Evansville on Dec. 29.

* Player to watch: Drew Maddux, 6-4 junior guard, can shoot, dish and steal the ball.

* Tidbit: Maddux’s father (Ray) and grandfather (Ed) played for Vanderbilt.

* NCAA bio: Last appearance was under Eddie Fogler in 1993. Vanderbilt is the SEC team everyone forgets, but it played well down the stretch. Not in the same class of South Carolina and Kentucky, the Commodores have enough to pull off a first-round victory.

11. ILLINOIS STATE (24-5)

* First-round opponent: Iowa.

* Season in brief: The Redbirds won the Missouri Valley regular season title and then defeated Southwest Missouri State in the Missouri Valley Conference title game to get the automatic berth. Illinois State had its third consecutive 20-plus-victory season under fourth-year Coach Kevin Stallings.

* Player to watch: Rico Hill, a 6-6 forward, scored 31 in the Missouri Valley title game and was only the third sophomore to lead school in scoring. One of the others was Detroit Pistons Coach Doug Collins.

* Tidbit: The Redbirds have had 25 winning seasons in 27 seasons since becoming Division I.

* NCAA bio: Return to tournament for first time since 1990. Last tournament win came against USC in 1985.

12. BOSTON UNIVERSITY (25-4)

* First-round opponent: Tulsa.

* Season in brief: The Terriers survived a conference name change--it used to be the North Atlantic Conference--to win the “first” America East Conference tournament by defeating Drexel, last year’s champion.

* Player to watch: Tunji Awojobi. Boston Coach Dennis Wolff says the 6-7 senior forward is the best athlete he has ever been around. Awojobi came to the U.S. from Nigeria with limited basketball experience, but has made stunning improvement in a short time.

* Tidbit: Kentucky’s Rick Pitino and Mike Jarvis of George Washington are former Boston U. coaches.

* NCAA bio: The Terriers bring a 2-4 record into their fifth tournament. Boston U. last appeared under Jarvis with a No. 16 seeding in 1990, losing to Connecticut. Jarvis was 0-2 in NCAA games; Pitino was 0-1.

13. MIAMI OF OHIO (21-8)

* First-round opponent: Clemson.

* Season in brief: The Redskins recovered from a midseason swoon in which they lost five of eight games to take the Mid-American tournament title with a 20-point win over Eastern Michigan. Charles Coles, a former Miami player, took over this year for Herb Sendek, who left for North Carolina State.

* Player to watch: Devin Davis. The 6-7 senior forward was the MAC tournament MVP and is best known for his distinctive dreadlocks.

* Tidbit: Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, Bo Schembechler and Walter Alston all coached at Miami of Ohio.

* NCAA bio: Arizona fans will never forget the Redskins, who shocked the Wildcats in the opening round of the 1995 tournament under Sendek. The Redskins followed by taking Virginia to overtime before losing.

14. BUTLER (23-9)

* First-round opponent: Cincinnati.

* Season in brief: The Bulldogs set a school record for victories and advanced to their first NCAA tournament in 35 years by beating Illinois Chicago for the Midwestern Collegiate Conference Tournament title.

* Player to watch: Jon Neuhouser, a 6-6 junior forward, was the conference’s player of the year and the team’s leading scorer and rebounder.

* Tidbit: Butler Coach Barry Collier recruited starting 7-2 center Rolf van Rijn of the Netherlands after getting a tip from Rik Smits’ father.

* NCAA bio: Skimpy. Butler opened the 1962 tournament with a win over Bowling Green, then lost to Kentucky.

15. CHARLESTON SO. (17-12)

* First-round opponent: UCLA.

* Season in brief: First-year Coach Tom Conrad led the Buccanners to their first NCAA berth by winning the Big South conference tournament. Charleston Southern was seeded fourth, but knocked off of No. 1 North Carolina Asheville and No. 2 Liberty to win the title.

* Player to watch: Rolando Hourruitiner. The 6-6 senior forward played for the Puerto Rico Olympic team in Atlanta and had 24 points and 12 rebounds in the title-clinching win against Liberty.

* Tidbit: Charleston Southern won the Big South title in 1995, but the conference did not have an automatic NCAA bid back then.

* NCAA bio: The Big South held its own in last year’s NCAAs, with UNC Greensboro giving No. 15-seeded Cincinnati an opening-round scare before losing, 66-61.

16. SW TEXAS STATE (16-12)

* First-round opponent: Minnesota.

* Season in brief: The Bobcats gotinto thetournament with a 74-64 victory over Northeast Louisiana in the Southland Conference tournament final.

* Player to watch: Dameon Sanson, a 6-foot senior guard, was the MVP of the conference tournament.

* Tidbit: The school’s women’s team also won its tournament title, the first time in conference history that a school has won both titles in the same year.

* NCAA bio: In their only other NCAA appearance, 1994, the Bobcats were blown out in the opening-round by Massachusetts.