Loyola Marymount has not stopped for tragedy.
Despite the shocking death of star forward Hank Gathers, who collapsed March 4 during the West Coast Conference Tournament, the team has rumbled to the NCAA Western Regional semifinals, knocking off New Mexico State 111-92 before demolishing Michigan 149-115 in the highest-scoring NCAA Tournament game in history.The key to Loyola Marymount's attack is Coach Paul Westhead's unorthodox strategy of using both the fastbreak and full-court press to wear opponents down.
"We pride ourselves on breaking a team at some point," Loyola's Tom Peabody said.
The next team the Lions are looking to break is Alabama in a West semifinal Friday night at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
Loyola, 25-5, is averaging 125.2 points a game, almost 13 points more than the NCAA record it set last year. The Lions have scored at least 100 points a record 27 times.
In the Southeast, second seed Syracuse looks to advance against sixth seed Minnesota Friday in New Orleans, but Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim is worried about the matchup of Willie Burton and Minnesota's big guards against 5-foot-11 freshman point guard Michael Edwards.
"He always has a problem on the defensive end," Boeheim said of Edwards. "He's a freshman, and that's his weakness."
In the other West Regional game, Ball State goes up against powerful UNLV, the top seed in the region and ranked No. 2 in the final regular season UPI ratings.
In the other Southeast contest, top seed Michigan State takes on fourth seed Georgia Tech.
In the East, Connecticut looks to keep its Cinderella season alive against Clemson Thursday, while UCLA hopes to continue its drive toward an 11th national title against defending champion Duke after a 71-70 victory over Kansas Sunday.
In the Midwest semifinal Thursday at Dallas, the Xavier Musketeers hope to upset Texas in front of its home-state fans the way they stunned Georgetown Sunday, while Arkansas takes on North Carolina in the other game.