If for no other reason, the teams that established themselves as standard bearers during the regular season could not sustain that level of play come tournament time.

For example, a team that dominated like Mississippi Valley State (22-7), who won the Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season race by a whopping five games, flamed out in the SWAC tournament quarterfinals.

Ditto for last year's final BCSP top team, Bowie State of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association who made a run to the Div. II national semifinals a year ago.

After winning the CIAA East Division race this season, the Bulldogs (23-7) battled injuries down the stretch that sent them home early (quarterfinals) from the CIAA Tournament and contributed to a loss in the South Atlantic Region semifinals.

Morehouse (24-7), the best team in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season, was knocked off by a sixth-seed, 19-9 Benedict in the SIAC tournament final.

And neither South Carolina State (18-11) nor Coppin State (18-14), who set the pace in the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference regular season, could handle fifth-seed Florida A&M (15-17) in their conference tournament.

Those developments left the proverbial door open for someone to step up and, as they say, 'make a play' for the BCSP's final top spot. And that's exactly what FAMU did.

Not only did Mike Gillespie's troops knock out the Nos. 4, 2 and 1 seeds to win the MEAC, but the Rattlers then defeated Lehigh before a national television audience in the NCAA Div. I Tournament play-in game.

But those were just the preliminaries. Causing NCAA St. Louis Region and tournament top seed Kentucky to reach deep last Thursday to pull out a 96-76 victory was the coup de grace. Attacking the Wildcats at every turn, FAMU rang up the most points Kentucky had given up in a half all season (52) and entered the last ten minutes of the game only trailing by ten (77-67).

Gillespie's team showed heart, spunk and a lot of nerve to win two games (MEAC tournament and NCAA play-in) on national TV and extend Kentucky, the top team in the field of 64, on an even brighter stage. That earns our nod as black college's best squad for the 2003-04 season.

A year after posting a 31-3 record that included a Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Tournament title and a spot on the road in the finals of the South Atlantic Regional, Curtis's troops were poised to take things to the next level.

Another CIAA Tournament title this year positioned Curtis and the Lady Bears to host this year's regional. Restocked with talented players, many of them refugees from the Div. I ranks, all the Bears had to do was step up and get it done.

They didn't. Instead, they were knocked off in the first round of the regional on their home floor. It was a disappointing end to what was a promising season.

Still, what the Lady Bears (28-3) accomplished in going back-to-back in the CIAA and earning that top region spot gives them a slight edge over Hampton, another back-to-back winner, as the top women's team in the final BCSP ranking.

The HU Lady Pirates (17-13) battled Delaware State for Mid Eastern Athletic Conference supremacy all season long. Pat Bibbs' troops got a convincing win over the Lady Hornets to end the regular season and a decisive win again over Del State in the MEAC tournament final for their second consecutive title. Hampton is second while the Lady Hornets (21-9) hold down the fourth spot.

Alabama State (19-9) and Jackson State (23-7) set the pace all season in the Southwestern Athletic Conference but were upstaged by third-seed Southern in the conference tournament. The Lady Jags (17-13) are third in our final ranking behind Shaw and Hampton. 'Bama State is fifth, one place ahead of JSU.

Virginia Union's Pantherettes beat everyone in the CIAA except Shaw on the way to a sparking 24-7 campaign. They then travelled to Shaw and stayed alive in the South Atlantic Regional longer than the Lady Bears did, eventually losing in the regional semis. The Pantherettes are seventh.

Benedict (16-14) pulled the biggest conference tournament upset getting by Tuskegee (20-10) to take the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title. The Lady Tigers are eighth. SIAC regular season title holder Fort Valley State (24-7) is ninth. Tuskegee and West Virginia State (22-9), who earned a regional berth out of the WVIAC, share the tenth and final spot.