USF NAILS DOWN FIRST ROUND BYE WITH LMU WIN
USF WINS LEADS WCC IN 3 PT. PERCENTAGE, 2 ND IN FG%
TUCKER (1,749 PTS) ONLY TRAILS DAILEY AND CARTWRIGHT

Sat., Mar. 1 *at Pepperdine Malibu, CA 7:00 PM
Sat., Mar. 8 WCC Tourn. Second Round San Diego, CA 6 or 8 PM

San Francisco, CA- The USF Dons (13-13, 8-5 WCC) look to continue their strong finish when they close out the regular season at Pepperdine Saturday (7 PM, KYCY 1550 AM). The victor tonight will be the WCC's third seed and play the winner of Friday's six vs. eight seed first round game next Saturday at 6:00 p.m., the loser will play the second game of that doubleheader vs. the 5 vs. 8 winner. With no reseeding this year and with a win, the three seed would play San Diego in the semifinals (Sun at 6:30) , while the four seed would play Gonzaga on ESPN at 9:00 p.m. A win tonight would give USF its first season sweep of both L.A. schools since 1997.

ABOUT LAST NIGHT: Before the season, everyone thought this would be Darrell Tucker's team. Since returning from his thumb injry, it has been, but never more than last night! Tucker scored a game-high 29 points, including two consecutive three-point plays in the final two minutes to pace USF to a 75-69 win over LMU last night in Westchester.

Tucker scored on a layup and was fouled with less than two minutes left and USF nursing a one-point lead. After LMU hit a three-point shot, Tucker did it again with :42 left to put USF safely ahead to stay. He was 11-21 from the floor, pulled eight rebounds and added 4 assists.

WCC HAS HIGHEST RPI EVER: The West Coast Conference is currently ranked #10 in the College Basketball News RPI rating. It is the conference's highest ever ranking. We finished 15 in last year's NCAA RPI. Here are current the top 15. 1 Southeastern (12), 2 Big 12 (12), 3 Atlantic Coast(9), 4 Big Ten (11), 5 Big East (14), 6 Mountain West(8), 7 Pacific 10 (10), 8 ConferenceUSA(14), 9 Atlantic 10 (12), 10 West Coast (8), 11 Western Athl.(10), 12 Missouri Val.(10), 13 Mid-American (13), 14 Horizon (9), 15 Sun Belt (11)

SEEDING SCENARIO: USF will be seeded third with a win, fourth with a loss.. That would leave the Dons in a two-way tie for third at 8-6. In that scenario, Pepperdine would win a tiebreaker over USF because of their win over San Diego. 2002-03 USF Dons (13-13, 8-5 WCC)

DID YOU KNOW???? That the WCC tournament will be in the Bay Area in 2003-04 and 2004-05? That there is a new format this season that protects the top seeds, with number one and number two not scheduled to play until the semifinals?

DONS HOST 2006 WEST REGIONAL USF was named to host the 2006 West Regionals at the Oakland Coliseum (March 23-25 th ). It will be the first time for USF to host the event, although they have hosted many games at the Coliseum previously.