CCNY over Arizona State
CCNY, the most prominent New York school involved in the point-shaving scandals of the 1950s, didn't field a team because it dropped basketball after the scandals. So Arizona State's point-shavers of the 1990s had to be creative; they spent the game only shooting into the CCNY net.

Michigan over Columbia
Michigan only made it into the Gambling region because the late booster Ed Martin got his money to pay off players by running a numbers ring, so they actually played to win. It was still difficult — Columbia's main man, Jack Molinas, the central figure of college basketball's 1961 point-shaving scandal, couldn't play because he was shot dead a couple years back.

Tulane over Northwestern
Tulane's point-shavers of the 1980s beat Northwestern's point-shavers of the 1990s because Northwestern stinks. It's amazing anyone could tell they were ever shaving points.

ACADEMIC FRAUD

UNLV over Creighton
Though situated in academic fraud, UNLV has had an all-around game of scandal; Creighton barely snuck in because they had a player, Kevin Ross, who claimed he spent four years at the school and left still not knowing how to read.

New Mexico over Arkansas
Arkansas held strong with its zero-percent graduation rate for African-American players and probation under former coach Nolan Richardson, but the fact New Mexico didn't give up on academic fraud after being responsible for one of the worst scandals of the 1970s pushed it ahead.

Gardner-Webb over St. Bonaventure
Gardner-Webb, a tiny Baptist school that has tried to cheat its way to competitive success in Division I, only edges out St. Bonaventure when its players quit with two minutes left to go.

Fresno State over Georgia
Both are in the midst of scandal right this minute, but Fresno State pulls it out because the coach responsible for its scandal, Jerry Tarkanian, has another team in this regional (UNLV), while Georgia's Jim Harrick spreads his lack of responsibilities over three teams in three regionals.

PAYOFFS

Kentucky over Rhode Island
Rhode Island's scandals under Harrick's time still aren't clear, so the Rams were put in this regional, just in case. Kentucky wins out for discovering how overstuffing an Emery Freight box with cash might cause it to pop open inadvertently before delivery.

Memphis over LSU
LSU once accomplished what was thought to be impossible: It out-scandaled Tarkanian (the school had to forfeit a game to Fresno State because of the presence of a player who had received an illegal payoff). But Memphis had a coach, Dana Kirk, so corrupt he served time in the federal pen. Even worse, he's now a sports-radio talk-show host.

Clemson over Louisville
Louisville came on strong in the 1990s, but Clemson's scandals defined the 1970s, thanks to the confessional book later penned by Tates Locke, the coach responsible for them.

North Carolina State over Long Beach State
With two teams in the Academic Fraud Regional, Tarkanian couldn't make tipoff to account for his sins at Long Beach State, where he started his career. Plus, whether or not you think Peter Golenbock's "Personal Fouls," an infamous look at skullduggery in the NC State program, is factual, this was a school that allowed people like Chris Washburn on its campus.

GENERAL MAYHEM

UCLA over Missouri
Is it the pressure to live up to the legacy of John Wooden's unbested string of championships that got two coaches, including Harrick, to get the school on probation or otherwise sully its name? Missouri's several spates of questionable activity just don't measure up to such a tradition.

Tennessee State over San Francisco
USF would seem to have the edge for dropping its basketball program after a sexual assault case against its players opened up a Pandora's Box full of scandal. But USF can't top Tennessee State's having coach Nolan Richardson III bring a gun to practice after an assistant hit him with a gym bag containing a chain.

Maryland over Cleveland State
Maryland had a player die of a cocaine overdose. Cleveland State had a coach found in a crack house. Advantage Maryland.

Minnesota over Cincinnati
The Bob Huggins era has been marked by low graduation rates, general thuggery and early NCAA exits, but Minnesota's academic fraud scandal of the 1990s won a reporter a Pulitzer. Plus, it's one of the few schools to have a coach (Bill Musselman in 1972) be accused of ordering their players to beat up an opponent.

SECOND ROUND

GAMBLING

Boston College over Tulane
BC's point-shaving was arranged by none other than Henry Hill — you know, Ray Liotta in GoodFellas. Does he amuse you?

Michigan over CCNY
Chris Webber often told the story about how much it hurt when he saw his jersey for sale in the campus bookstore, and he couldn't afford to buy it. What he meant to say was, booster Ed Martin was sending him so much money, he bought the bookstore.

ACADEMIC FRAUD

UNLV over Fresno State
It was the matchup everyone wanted for the Final Four — Tarkanian vs. Tarkanian. He tried at Fresno State, but his players never reached the level of being photograhed in a hot tub with a guy named "The Fixer."

Gardner-Webb over New Mexico
OK, New Mexico did some pretty rotten things, but it's not like the school president himself fixed grades.

PAYOFFS

Kentucky over North Carolina State
In the early 1950s gambling scandals, Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp claimed gamblers couldn't touch his players "with a 10-foot pole." When two players were indicted, it proved that gamblers carried 11-foot poles.

Memphis over Clemson
A coach in the federal pen, I tell you! And a sports radio talker, too!

GENERAL MAYHEM

UCLA over Minnesota
Minnesota had a Final Four appearance in 1997 wiped out because of scandal. But UCLA had a Final Two appearance in 1980 deleted.

Maryland over Tennessee State
Hey, at least Tennessee State let a woman coach the guys after firing Richardson. When Lefty Dreisell was let go after Len Bias' cocaine death, they not only brought in a guy, but another guy who led the team into scandal.

REGIONAL FINAL

GAMBLING

Michigan over Boston College
As in the stock market, by the time investigators finish with Michigan, the 1990s will cease to exist in the record book. The school already has pulled down the banners accrued by the once-famous, now infamous Fab Five.

ACADEMIC FRAUD

UNLV over Gardner-Webb
Until Gardner-Webb fights the NCAA in court for 20 years, like Tark did at UNLV, it will only be a minor-leaguer among this crowd.

PAYOFFS

Kentucky over Memphis
Kentucky picks up the dubious win for its arena named after the racist Adolph Rupp, who didn't have a black player on his team until the 41st year of his 41-year career.

GENERAL MAYHEM

UCLA over Maryland
So how much was booster Sam Gilbert responsible for the success of UCLA basketball under John Wooden? Discuss.

FINAL FOUR

UCLA over Michigan
Jim Harrick perpetrated two frauds in a period that included leading UCLA to a championship. First was his expense account, which got him fired. Second was making the New Jersey Nets believe Ed O'Bannon was a lottery pick, also a fireable offense.

Kentucky over UNLV
A close one, but while UNLV has had blips of scandal outside of the Tarkanian years, Kentucky has been morally repugnant under many different coaches, whether Adolph Rupp's racism, Joe B. Hall's summer jobs and alleged ticket scalping, Eddie Sutton's assistants' inability to find a reliable freight company or Rick Pitino's inspirational canard "Success is a Choice."

FINAL

Kentucky over UCLA
This from the hometown paper, the Lexington Herald-Leader, written in December 2002: "If you were to sum up Kentucky basketball history in three words, these would suffice:

Winning and sinning.

En route to becoming the winningest college basketball program of all time, UK also has accumulated one of the longest rap sheets in NCAA history.

There has been point-shaving. Many episodes of payments to players from over-zealous boosters. Alleged academic fraud involving a prized recruit.

Yet while the Kentucky basketball program always has risen again after each embarrassment, some of the players caught up in Kentucky’s scandals have seen their lives devastated."

Advantage Kentucky.

E-mail Bob Cook at bobc@flakmag.com.

— graphic by Derek Evernden (derek@ocellus.net)