Cleveland State

Cleveland State coach Gary Waters figured his team was headed for overtime. Cedric Jackson thought otherwise. The senior guard took an inbounds pass from J'Nathan Bullock with 2.2 seconds left, turned and swished a two-handed, 60-foot shot at the buzzer to give the Vikings a shocking, 72-69 victory over No. 11 Syracuse last night in the Carrier Dome. "I looked up to see if there was a chance but knew there wasn't enough time," Jackson said. "It was a prayer. It's not an everyday shot.

Cedric Jackson scored 19 points and Cleveland State upset No. 16 Butler, 57-54, last night, winning the Horizon League championship in Indianapolis and gaining its first NCAA Tournament berth since 1986. Six of Cleveland State's first seven field goals in the second half were three-pointers, helping the Vikings (25-10) erase an eight-point lead by the Bulldogs (26-5). Shelvin Mack led Butler with 18 points. In other tournaments: Sun Belt: At Hot Springs, Ark., A.J. Slaughter scored 18 points, and Western Kentucky (24-8)

From Villanova to UNLV to . . . Cleveland State? Rollie Massimino, who has been out of coaching since he left UNLV in 1994, is negotiating with Cleveland State and can have the head coaching job there if he wants it. The school expects to make an announcement on its coaching decision next week, an administrator said yesterday. "There is still some negotiating going on," said Cleveland State assistant athletic director Rick Love. "Some terms being talked about. I don't think there's anything that's insurmountable.

Cleveland State coach Kevin Mackey sounded like he was ready to paint the town green and white yesterday after his team eliminated St. Joseph's from the NCAA tournament with a 75-69 second-round victory. Mackey would not have had to look far to find a helper. Freshman guard Ken "Mouse" McFadden worked as a house painter in Cleveland last year while he studied for his Graduate Equivalency Degree. McFadden, who never played organized ball at Seward Park High in lower Manhattan, painted St. Joseph's (26-6)

The next hurdle for St. Joseph's will not be Indiana, as expected, but Americana. "Our off-Broadway guys came here today and beat the prime-time guys," exulted Kevin Mackey, the brazen coach of a Cleveland State club that finally did what Marist, Akron and Mississippi Valley State could not - chase down a favorite in the NCAA tournament and finish him off. CSU outshot, outrebounded and, shockingly, outworked Bobby Knight's Hoosiers in...

They blocked off Euclid Avenue in Cleveland on Friday night so 7,000 Cleveland State basketball supporters could revel in their team's first-round upset over Indiana in the NCAA tournament's East Region. It was the first time this year that anything concerning the run-and-fun Vikings had been forced to move slowly. Who are these guys, anyway? St. Joseph's (26-5) will find out today (Channel 10, 2:30 p.m.) in its second-round matchup at the Carrier Dome, after a contest between Syracuse (26-6)

The two Cinderella teams among the final 16 in the NCAA tournament exchanged their glass slippers for brass knuckles. Then they turned last night's East Regional semifinal from a fairy tale into a war movie. Given that, it may be of some comfort to the Defense Department that Navy squeezed past Cleveland State, 71-70, at sold-out Brendan Byrne Arena to advance to tomorrow's East Regional championship game against Duke. Johnny Dawkins would hear nothing about upsets in last night's other semifinal as the brilliant guard scored 25 points and hauled down 10 rebounds to lead top-ranked Duke to a 74-67 win over 12th-seeded DePaul.

Something caught on fire here last March, and for once it wasn't the river. The occasion is remembered simply as "the Indiana game. " It was the moment that Cleveland State's AA fuel dragster of a basketball team left skid marks on the Hoosiers, 83-79, in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Syracuse, N.Y. The game was carried on national television. Suddenly, from this obscure concrete campus on the tattered edge of downtown, a flame of recognition burned around the country.

MARCH TO MADNESS As the countdown to Selection Sunday continues, the Daily News previews each conference tournament on the day it starts to help you get a jump on finding those sleepers for your bracket. We expect a cut if you win your office pool. Horizon League Regular-season champ: Valparaiso won its first Horizon championship since joining the league in 2007-08 . . . Second-leading scorer Kevin Van Wijk attended Katholieke Scholengemeenschap Hoofddorp in the Netherlands.

AROUND THE CITY NEARLY PERFECT The games began at 11 a.m. and ended at 11:20 p.m. The blowouts came early in the day. The scores kept getting closer, but, until the final moments at the Wells Fargo Center, it really looked like a 6-0 Saturday. Here are the results from first game to last. NEVER A CONTEST The NCAA Tournament Committee had to be impressed by Drexel Saturday morning on ESPNU. The Dragons went to Cleveland State, led 19-3 after 8 minutes, led by 29 in the second half and cruised home, 69-49, in what was one of the day's best Bracket Buster showings.

CLEVELAND - Drexel made a loud case for a possible at-large NCAA tournament bid on Saturday, blowing out an unfamiliar foe on the road and further adding clout to the quality of its league. The Dragons (23-5), who extended their win streak to 15 by thumping Cleveland State, 69-49, in a nonconference ESPN Bracketbuster game, have dominated play in the Colonial Athletic Association over the last two months and are in first place with a 12-2 CAA mark. Despite having sent VCU (last year)

AROUND THE CITY: PLAYING LIGHTS OUT Temple was tied with Xavier, 5-5, at the Liacouras Center. Seven minutes later, it was 21-5 and over. Want to understand what Temple hoops is about these days? Replay those 7 minutes a few times. The game can't be played much better. Temple won, 85-72. Once the first-half blitz subsided with Temple leading, 47-27, Xavier (16-9, 7-4 Atlantic 10) actually played pretty well. But the point had been made by the Owls (19-5, 8-2). Temple has now won eight straight.

The top 25 teams in the USA Today-ESPN men's college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Sunday, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote, and previous ranking: Rec   Pts   Pr 1. Kentucky (31) 23-1   775   1    2. Syracuse 23-1   740   2    3. Ohio State 20-3   715   3    4. Missouri 21-2   673   4    5. N. Carolina 20-3   639   6    6. Baylor 21-2   635   6    7. Florida 19-4   536   11    7. Murray State 23-0   536   9    9. Duke 19-4   525   5    10. Kansas 18-5   480   8    11. Georgetown 18-4   454   14    12. Michigan St. 18-5   444   10    13. St. Mary's 22-2   382   16    14. SanDiego St. 20-3   332   17    15. Creighton 21-3   316   12    16. UNLV 21-4   302   13    17. Florida State 16-6   247   24    18. Mississippi St 18-5   241   19    19. Marquette 19-5   239   15    20. Virginia 18-4   192   18    21. Harvard 20-2   153   23    22. Wisconsin 18-6   133   20    23. Indiana 18-6   93   20    23....