SW Missouri State has history against it

He would sneak out onto the New Jersey Turnpike and put up detour signs. No. 1 Duke would get lost on the way to the Meadowlands, and Alford's Bears would have bamboozled another top-ranked opponent into defeat on a march toward an NCAA title.

"But then I found out they're 8-0 there,'' Alford said, chuckling. ''So they probably know how to get there."

They certainly know how to play there, in an arena that is home to this weekend's NCAA East regional.

But then Duke knows how to play anywhere. The Blue Devils won their first- and second-round games last week by 41 points apiece.

AP PHOTO Residents of Flint are joyfully cheering their favorite sons, who are helping Michigan State roll through the NCAA Tournament. The top-seeded Spartans face No. 13 seed Oklahoma tomorrow in the round of 16.

"They're very good once they get ahead,'' Alford said, noting how the Blue Devils often have jumped to quick leads and never relinquished them.

Then, after a long pause, he added: "They're very good once they get behind."

In fact, Alford said, tape on every Duke game he's reviewed looks just about the same: "The game starts 0-0 and 10 minutes in it's pretty lopsided."

So just how does he plan to have his Bears play Duke Friday night.

Alford wouldn't say. But he hinted strongly that it hinges on having fun.

Monday's practice, for example, the first the Bears held after upsetting Tennessee 81-51 in the second round, didn't involve basketball.

"We played Wiffle ball," Alford said. "That was our practice.

"Team Sweet beat Team 16, 12-8."

But can Team Southwest Missouri State, seeded 12th, beat Team Duke, seeded No. 1?

"A No. 12 seed has never won," Alford said.

But that's not to say that the coach, who played on a national championship team at Indiana in 1987, doesn't believe it can't be done this time.

And so do his players who, like him, say they'll play hard, have fun and hope that's enough. In the meantime, they don't appear particularly worried as they prepare for the biggest game of their careers.

"It's our biggest game just because it's our next game,'' guard William Fontleroy said. ''The next obstacle standing in front of us just happens to be Duke.''

Still, he grinned at the thought of playing in the Meadowlands, "in front of the New York media where we've got a chance to make a name for ourselves."

This is a team, he said, that went 20-10 during the regular season but could have been 24-6. It lost four conference games to its two toughest opponents, Creighton and Evansville, by margins of three points and two points, one in overtime.

But it's also a team that upset a strong Missouri team early in the season, then beat a St. Louis team that beat a Cincinnati team that handed Duke its only loss this season.

But until last week it was a team nobody outside the Ozarks paid much attention to.

"We even had one guy rooting for us against Tennessee," Fontleroy said, "who kept calling us SMU.

"I'm like, 'Give me a break,'" he added, laughing.

A break, indeed. Because SMU isn't in this tournament. But Southwest Missouri State is, and with some breaks Friday it believes it can stay.

03-18-99