Conferences

THE BEST OF THE REST
Excluding schools on NCAA probation, here are the other 25 teams that figure to emerge as conference champions. All but the Great Midwest, the Metro and the East Coast champs are guaranteed NCAA tournament bids.
1. Atlantic 10	Massachusetts
2. Big Sky	Idaho
3. Big South	Coastal Carolina
4. Big West	UC Santa Barbara
5. Colonial	Richmond
6. East Coast	Towson State
7. Great Midwest	DePaul
8. Ivy League	Princeton
9. Metro Atlantic Athletic	La Salle
10. Mid-American	Ohio
11. Mid-Continent	Wisconsin-Green Bay
12. Mid-Eastern Athletic	Florida A&M
13. Midwestern Collegiate	Xavier
14. Missouri Valley	Southern Illinois
15. North Atlantic	Delaware
16. Northeast	Monmouth
17. Ohio Valley	Eastern Kentucky
18. Patriot	Lehigh
19. Southern	East Tennessee State
20. Southland	Texas-San Antonio
21. Southwestern Athletic	Alabama State
22. Sun Belt	New Orleans
23. Trans America Athletic	Georgia State
24. West Coast	Pepperdine
25. Western Athletic	Utah

Several conferences have a new look after an off-season of mergers and acquisitions, defections and divisions. The Sun Belt lost five teams, then merged with the American South. The Metro lost four teams but added three from the old Sun, Belt. The Great Midwest sprang up, comprising defectors from the Metro, the Sun Belt and the Midwestern Collegiate conferences as well as independent DePaul . The Southeastern added two teams, Arkansas and South Carolina , then split into two divisions. In all, 39 schools have new league affiliations.

Atlantic Coast

Even the ACC , where tradition is king, isn't quite the same, and we're not just talking about the new uniforms that designer Alexander Julian is putting together for North Carolina . Florida State left the Metro to join the ACC , and the Seminoles ' timing could not have been better. Led by junior forward Douglas Edwards, Florida State appears capable of making a run at the title this season.

Still, the top of the conference standings should look familiar, with Duke , the defending national champion, and North Carolina again occupying the first two spots. Those schools might have gotten a stronger challenge from Wake Forest if sophomore shooting guard Randolph Childress hadn't torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a summer pickup game.

But Wake Forest , coming off its first winning season (19-11) in six years, should make a second straight trip to the NCAA tournament, thanks mainly to powerful 6'7" sophomore forward Rodney Rogers . "You ever try moving that guy out of the low post?" asks North Carolina Charlotte coach Jeff Mullins . "It's just about impossible."

Georgia Tech has four starters returning, but the Yellow Jackets ' success may hinge on how well freshman guard Travis Best can fill the void left by the one starter who didn't return, Kenny Anderson . Virginia had an excellent recruiting year and will need some of those freshmen, especially guard Cory Alexander and forward Thomas Burrough, to come through immediately; otherwise, senior forward Bryant Stith will be forced to carry the team by himself. North Carolina State goes from having the ACC 's best backcourt, with Rodney Monroe and Chris Corchiani, to having one of the most inexperienced. The question for the Wolfpack , says coach Les Robinson , is, "Can we get the ball past midcourt?"

Maryland , which is in its last year of NCAA probation, has one of the country's best guards in 6'8" senior Walt (the Wizard) Williams, and Clemson has high hopes for freshman center Sharone Wright. But neither team has much else to boast about. They'll settle in at the bottom of the conference.

Big East

The Terrapins and the Tigers won't be buried as deep in their conference cellar as Miami will be in its in the Hurricanes ' first season in the Big East . Miami 's top scorer and rebounder from last year's 9-19 team, center Joe Wylie, is gone, and what's left isn't likely to cause the rest of the conference to break out in a sweat.

"We are where we are," says Miami coach Leonard Hamilton . "We can't do anything about it yet. We're just in the beginning stages of building a program, and now we're in the top league in the country. All we can do is work hard to get through it." A winless conference season is quite possible for the Hurricanes .