Members of Western Kentuckys mens basketball team celebrate after learing their seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. Photo by Joe Imel

It was one of those good news/bad news situations for Western Kentucky on Sunday when the NCAA Tournament pairings were announced. The good news was that the Hilltoppers were kept close to home playing in St. Louis TWA Dome for the first round of the tourney. The bad news for the second straight year is the seed WKU received. Just about everyone associated with the program expected a No. 6 or No. 7 seed, so there was more than a little surprise in the Sloan Convention Center when the team and about 1,100 fans found out Western was a No. 9 seed in the Midwest Region. The Toppers will face No. 8 seed Stanford on Thursday at 9:30 p.m.I expected to be at around seven after adding up all the numbers that the NCAA has said are important, WKU coach Dennis Felton said. Weve had a tremendously successful season, and now were just hoping to extend that season. The main number the selection committee uses is Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). Western enters the tournament with the 28th ranked RPI in the country. Stanford, on the other hand, is only 38th. The Hilltoppers also have a sterling 28-3 record compared to Stanfords 19-9 mark. The biggest difference between the schools is strength of schedule. Where Stanfords schedule is ranked 53rd overall, thanks in large part to playing in the PAC-10, Westerns schedule was 168th. I guess we know now what we need to do in the future, WKU Athletics Director Wood Selig said. In order to increase our strength of schedule, we need to better our nonconference schedule and still continue to win games. About the only people not disappointed by the low seed were the players themselves. Were looking forward to this challenge. Weve been anxious about this moment for so long that were just ready to play anybody, Hilltoppers team captain Derek Robinson said. Senior Tremain Rowles added: I didnt come in here expecting to get a five or a six or a seven. You cant come in here with high expectations because you see every year some people get disappointed. Just look at Gonzaga getting a six seed. Im just excited about being able to get out there and play some more games. Gonzaga was ranked sixth in the country in both the Associated Press and coaches polls, but received only a No. 6 seed in the West. Despite an RPI of 21, the Zags strength of schedule was ranked 136. Stanford is led by Casey Jacobson, a 6-foot-6 swingman who averages 18.1 points and 4.0 rebounds per game. The Cardinal also boast a 7-0 center in junior Curtis Borchardt to battle Chris Marcus. They are extremely well-coached and extremely well-established, Felton said. Theyve become a fixture in the late rounds of the NCAA Tournament in recent years. Selig said he thought the Toppers would have an advantage over Stanford because the game will be played so close to Bowling Green. One thing we have going for us is that for Stanford, its a long trip and were basically here in our own back yard, Selig said. Were going to be able to take a bunch of people because they have over 40,000 seats and theyre not even close to being sold out. Basically, anybody that wants to go to this game will be able to go to this game. Thatll be a real advantage for us. Rowles agreed. Missouris not too far for our fans to travel at all, so I expect it to be just like a home game, he said. If Western wins Thursday, it most likely will face off with top-seeded Kansas on Saturday. Thats an extremely exciting opportunity if we can find a way to get to the second round, Felton said. They are a team that stands for excellence at the highest level in NCAA basketball. Ironically, in 1995 the last time Western won an NCAA Tournament game it faced No. 1 Kansas in the second round. The result was a 75-70 loss. In the extremely unlikely event of a first-round upset, Western could face 16-seeded Holy Cross in the second round. The Crusaders are coached by former Hilltopper coach Ralph Willard, who coached at WKU from 1990-1994.