Purdy: Less glamour, but chances for nail-biters in San Jose

Hey, we never expected to see the Final Four here. But this? San Jose has the Moderately Interesting Eight.

Those are the breaks, though, when a city agrees to host the first- and second-round games in the NCAA Tournament. Just like the teams themselves, cities are at the mercy of the draw.

San Jose drew non-glamour. The highest-ranked team here will be New Mexico. The Lobos are No. 8 in both of the major polls and are a No. 3 seed.

Love you, Lobos. But the last time you made the Final Four was "... um, never.

In fact, the most recent Final Four program among the eight teams here is Marquette, from 2003. That team had Dwyane Wade. This Marquette team does not.

Yes, you could say we were cheated. Six of the seven other first-round sites will see either a No. 1 seed or a No. 2 seed, which are the real national championship threats. The only other first-round city this week without a No. 1 or No. 2 team is Spokane, the West's other site.

But that's no coincidence. The NCAA basketball committee is required to keep the top two seeds in each regional as close to home as possible. But this season, there were no such animals in the West. Cal is the highest seed from the Pac-10 at No. 8 and because the No. 8 seeds must potentially meet a No. 1 seed in the second round, that means the Bears are being sent to Jacksonville, Fla. Likewise, the West Coast Conference's top team, Gonzaga, also is a No. 8 seed and will be in Buffalo, N.Y.

And as for us? Welcome, Murray State Racers!

There is one upside to all this. Because we have more lower-seeded teams at HP Pavilion, and they are playing against each other, the matchups should be more competitive across the board. And there will be more of them, with four games Thursday instead of two. If you're a hoops junkie, the first tipoff is at 11:30 a.m. and the last points should be scored around 9 p.m. unless there's overtime.

Let's also review some of the other potential superlatives we may enjoy:

Best chance for an upset here: Every year, a No. 12 team seems to stun a No. 5 seed. Here, that would theoretically mean that Texas-El Paso could surprise Butler. But my pick would be Washington upending Marquette. The Huskies had a very nice run through the Pac-10 tournament and are peaking at the right time. Of the eight teams here, Washington is also the closest to San Jose (albeit a 14-hour drive away), which could mean a large fan contingent.

Best tournament bargain: As usual, the pretournament practice sessions are free and open to the public. Free parking at the arena, too. The practices begin at noon Wednesday and will continue through 7 p.m. Schedules will be announced later. In terms of game tickets, a few thousand remain. But except for each school's allotment, the tickets will be sold only in all-session packages until Wednesday morning, when tickets for each separate doubleheader will become available.

Best potential Final Four team: None of the teams here is going to win the national championship. But if Butler makes it through this weekend, it would have a decent shot at beating a soft No. 1 seed, Syracuse, next weekend in Salt Lake City. And that would put the Bulldogs in the Elite Eight, where you never know what might happen.

Best nickname: Hard to go wrong with the Commodores of Vanderbilt and the team's naval-hatted mascot, "Mr. C." He is named after Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who founded the university in 1873.

Happiest booster group: That would be the downtown hospitality community. This is the NCAA Tournament's fourth visit to HP Pavilion. But the previous three events were all West Regionals, with only four teams in the field. Hosting the first round means that eight teams and their fans will be here to fill up many more hotel rooms and restaurant tables.

Best name: Murray State (an Ohio Valley Conference school in Kentucky) has a guard with the artistic handle of Picasso Simmons. He seldom scores in the paint, though. Simmons has only played eight minutes this season.

Best player: It's a tossup between Gordon Hayward of Butler and Darington Hobson of New Mexico. Hayward is a 6-foot-9 athlete who can play four positions and frequently brings the ball up court for the Bulldogs. Hobson is a 6-7 left-handed guard who leads the Lobos in scoring and rebounding.

Most rowdy fans: I'm guessing it will be the New Mexico group that annually makes "The Pit" on the school's campus one of the toughest home courts in college hoops. Not sure how many Lobomaniacs will make the 1,044-mile trip from Albuquerque to San Jose, but it might be more than you think. New Mexico hadn't reached the NCAA Tournament since 2005.

Best free-throw shooter: Steve Alford, the New Mexico coach. Who can forget Alford's perfect form as a player for Indiana's national championship team of 1987? His career free-throw percentage of .898 is still in the NCAA's top five which makes it all the more stunning that the Lobos' team free-throw percentage is just .677.

Best hotel assignment: The NCAA Tournament manual usually stipulates that the higher seeds stay at the better hotels. For what it's worth, New Mexico will be at the Convention Center Marriott, and Butler will be at the Fairmont. Four of the other teams will also be staying downtown, with two (Vanderbilt and Montana) at the airport Doubletree.

Best cinematic matchup: Butler vs. UTEP in Thursday's second game. Butler plays its home games at Hinkle Fieldhouse, which was used for the climactic state championship game scenes in the film "Hoosiers." In 1966, UTEP was known as Texas Western when the Miners became the first team with an all-black starting lineup to win the NCAA title, the story of which spawned the 2006 movie "Glory Road."

If a movie is ever made about any team here this weekend, it would be a shock. But you never know. That's the charm of the NCAA Tournament. Games that are supposed to be blowouts become buzzer-beating epics that are remembered forever. Picasso, be ready. Your picture could still hang in a gallery some day.

Contact Mark Purdy at mpurdy@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5092.