Software Predicts Ucla Will Bring Home Hardware

You know all about a team looking good on paper. UCLA looks like the NCAA tournament winner on computer disk as well.

After updating the player statistics of the 16 remaining teams, the makers of the computer game “Road to the Final Four” played out the tournament 20 times.

UCLA, the top seed in the West, won the championship game eight times in 16 appearances. North Carolina and Memphis each won the title four times, while Kansas and (eliminated) Maryland won twice.

“If you play 20 times, the accuracy is usually between 65 percent to 90 percent,” said Chris Weaver, owner of the Maryland-based company that developed the game. “Picking a winner this way is better than guessing, because a computer is more objective than a human.”

Of course, there’s no way for a computer or human to predict the timeout that Syracuse guard Lawrence Moten called Sunday when his team didn’t have any left. And the computer had no way of knowing that UCLA guard Tyus Edney would be allowed by Missouri to weave his way upcourt and bank in the winning basket at the buzzer.

“The computer picked Missouri to win. Who could have foreseen that ending?” Weaver said.

Bethesda Softworks used the input of some current and former NCAA coaches as well as some former players in developing the format for the Road to the Final Four. It is designed for friendly competition between two players, but Weaver said some people regard the game as a gambling aid.

“Let’s put it this way: We’ve gotten calls from people we suspect were in close contact with bookmakers,” Weaver said.

Family reunion

For the NCAA East Regional in East Rutherford, N.J., Tulsa coach Tubby Smith is hosting a family reunion. A big family reunion.

Smith has 16 brothers and sisters. Including their children and his mother, Parthenia, Smith expects to have more than 40 family members on hand when Tulsa plays Massachusetts tonight.

“I need more tickets,” he said at Thursday’s press conference. “Do you have any extra tickets? I need your press credential.”

Can’t argue with that

Wake Forest is seeded No. 1 in the East. The school’s 15-member debating team also is ranked No. 1 going into its national tournament later this month. The team has consistently been in the top five, but this is its first No. 1 ranking.

On the court, talk centered on the health of senior guard Randolph Childress, who followed his 107-point show in the ACC tournament with 36 points in two games in Baltimore last week, despite being bothered by the flu.

Childress pronounced himself ready to go, although Demon Deacons coach Dave Odom said earlier this week Childress mistook a rash on his body as an outbreak of the chickenpox. Odom said the rash turned out to be a byproduct of the virus Childress has been carrying for the past two weeks.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him (Childress) afraid,” Odom said. “There was a look in his eyes that said ‘I’ve played my last college game.’ I saw him petrified.”