What does Travis Ford think?

Eastern Kentucky University Colonels to take on Kentucky Wildcats:

"I had a funny feeling as the brackets were announced that we might be playing Kentucky," said Ford, who will have his Colonels pitted against Kentucky, his alma mater, where he played for the final three years of his collegiate career.

"I have the utmost respect and admiration for Tubby (coach Tubby Smith) and what he has done at UK. We knew we were going to have to play somebody good and UK is a great, great team.

"I'm sure they'll be highly motivated after today (Kentucky lost 70-53 to Florida in the SEC Tournament championship game Sunday). Kentucky has a lot of weapons and this will be an incredible challenge.

"We're excited to be a part of the tournament. I told our players there is nothing like playing in the NCAA tourney. It will be very emotional for me since I will be playing my alma mater. I have a lot of friends that root for both teams.

"But we're going to be prepared and we're going to play hard. Our guys have worked hard all season and this will be a fun game. I guarantee you there will be lot of maroon in the stands Thursday night."

Ford has led his Colonels against Kentucky twice in his five years at the helm of EKU. The two teams met in his first season as Eastern's head coach in 2000-01 and Kentucky won, 94-79.

Eastern, champions of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, also met Kentucky in 2003-04 and the Wildcats won that contest, 101-72. Kentucky leads the overall series, 8-0.

The Pat Forde Minutes-Selection Sunday Edition:

7) Kentucky's Quest -- For the past three seasons, nobody has been better from Midnight Madness to Selection Sunday. The Wildcats have won 79 games in that time, best in America, but they've been upset each of the last two NCAA Tournaments as No. 1 seeds. Can a team that seems to resemble the past two -- not as impressive as its record indicates -- get Tubby Smith to his first Final Four since he won it all in 1998?[...]

MARCH MISFITS
Coaches who tend to do more explaining than celebrating this time of year:

Rick Stansbury (36), Mississippi State -- His Bulldogs have been eliminated by lower seeds three years running. (For the record, to No. 7 seed Xavier last year, No. 12 Butler in 2003 and to No. 6 Texas in '02.)

Bob Huggins (37), Cincinnati -- Despite being seeded first, second (twice), third (twice), fourth, fifth and eighth in the last eight tourneys, Mr. Two-And-Out has made just one Sweet Sixteen in that time. And the one Final Four he made (1992) came by way of a broken bracket (beat teams seeded 13th, fifth, ninth and sixth).

Skip Prosser (38), Wake Forest -- Got to his first Sweet Sixteen in eight NCAA appearances last year. This time around, Wake's seeding calls for much more.

Billy Donovan (39), Florida -- Since going to the national title game in 2000, the Gators have lost to lower-seeded teams four straight years.

John Brady (40), LSU -- Double-digit losses to lower-seeded teams in his only two appearances.[...]

MIDS THAT COULD PULL AN UPSET -- OR TWO
Old Dominion (41) -- Monarchs are 28-5, have adequate size, good offensive balance, sound defense and star power in big man Alex Loughton. And coach Blaine Taylor has taken two other teams to the Dance, so he knows what he's getting into.

Wisconsin-Milwaukee (42) -- Has won 17 of its last 18 games and plays a problematic, pressing style. UW-M came within a missed layup of upsetting Notre Dame two years ago as a No. 12 seed, and have several players who experienced that near miss.

St. Mary's (43) -- Outscored opposition by 252 points from 3-point range this year. Solid rebounding team that plays consistent defense, too.

Penn (44) -- Quakers have won 16 of their last 17 after toughening themselves early against Big Five competition and others. The good news: coach Fran Dunphy has taken seven other Penn teams to the Dance. The bad news: he's 1-7 once he gets there.

Creighton (45) -- Dana Altman took the Bluejays to five straight tourneys from 1999-03. This year's team comes in smokin' hot, having won eight straight in the tougher-than-you-think Missouri Valley Conference.[...]

COACHES POSITIONING THEMSELVES FOR AN UPGRADE
Travis Ford (61), Eastern Kentucky -- Sharp-shooting point guard from Kentucky's 1993 Final Four team has steadily rebuilt a disaster-area program. If he can do it at EKU, he can do it a lot of places. (I think he will take over for Tubby Smith)