But no, the Patriots are sticking with the Cinderella description of their sprint to the NCAA tournament's Final Four until high-top Nike glass slippers slide onto their feet or shatter into pieces.

"We've kind of used it to our advantage," Patriots guard Tony Skinn said. "We know we can play with anybody."

With that, the 6-foot-1-inch junior summarized the tournament and college basketball today. Everybody can play with everybody. Parity is in full bloom. If the Colonial Athletic Association's George Mason (27-7) can march through Michigan State, North Carolina, Wichita State and Connecticut in March, what stops all 65 tournament teams from legitimately dreaming?

Once upon a time, NCAA basketball was the personal playground of UCLA under coach John Wooden. The Bruins won 10 titles in 12 years ending in 1975. UCLA was the King Kong of bullies. But college and amateur basketball evolved.

ESPN and other networks spread the gospel. AAU teams began traveling nationally. More universities, sniffing the rewards of six-figure paydays by advancing in the tournament, realized emphasizing five-man basketball instead of 22-man football was a bargain. More teams gravitated to Division I, with 334 statistically recognized schools this season.

It became nearly impossible to repeat as champion and upsets by mislabeled midmajor schools became commonplace.

Even though No. 1 seeds are 88-0 versus No. 16s since the NCAA began its present seeding system, there was a palpable difference this year. It used to be that the sacrifice selections were just happy to be there, quaking in their sneakers. These days, schools like George Mason, Wisconsin-Milwaukee from the Horizon League, Bradley from the Missouri Valley and Montana from the Big Sky shrugged at their matchups and won. Players from the power conferences like the Big East, Big Ten and ACC deny it, but they do underestimate unheralded schools.

"Other teams are falling asleep," Skinn said.

Snooze in one-shot, loser-go-home games and you cry. Adjustments occur the next season, not the next day.

"Anything can happen on any given night," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "With the parity in college basketball, I don't think seeding means a whole lot anymore."

Fans adopt underdogs and cheer for them at neutral first/second round and regional sites. The noise level for the Albany Great Danes at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia was one-sided and deafening. DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright, who has coached at North Carolina-Wilmington and Richmond, recalled one year his No. 13-seeded Wilmington team met No. 4 Southern California in Sacramento and won.

"It was a home game for us because those Northern Californians hated them," Wainwright said.

With all of the hype and attention, with every friend and relative filling out a bracket, Wainwright thinks high seeds face extraordinary stress that can boost a loose, confident underdog.

"In a 40-minute game, where the pressure is solely on the higher seed," he said, "unless they get out (front) early, the pressure builds and builds and builds."

And they become ripe to tumble.

This year players on No. 16-seeded teams clearly realized the other guys put on their baggy shorts the same way they do. Albany led the Washington regional's top seed, Connecticut of the Big East, by 12 points in the second half.

"Why not us? That was our motto," Albany coach Will Brown said after his team lost to the Huskies but showed no fear. "A 16 is going to beat a one."

Albany gained so much favorable publicity playing tough against a team stocked with future professionals that Brown earned a new five-year contract for losing well.

No. 16 Monmouth harried the Minneapolis regional's No. 1 seed, Villanova of the Big East, all game.

"The margin is closing a little bit," Monmouth coach Dave Calloway said. "It was a moral win for us."

In reality, there are almost no moral victories left for underpublicized schools. Bucknell toppled Kansas in the first round last year. This year the Bison returned five starters, went 27-5, won at Syracuse early and upended Arkansas in the first round. Moreover, because the Patriot League allows only seven scholarships, the Bison accomplished all that without a level playing field. In 1992, the NCAA reduced the Division I scholarship maximum from 15 to 13. That began the spread of talent.

"The kids know they can go anywhere and be big," Bucknell coach Pat Flannery said. "You have such exposure, they can be on TV and on the Web. They don't want to go somewhere and sit on the bench."

There are several reasons the NCAA basketball gap has shrunk. Small-school players keep developing for four years, while big schools lose some players to the NBA after a year or two. More young players travel with AAU teams and gain early maturity, so they are not intimidated if they encounter an old foe in a big-name school uniform. The major conferences' home-biased non-conference scheduling remains snobby, but it has improved some.

Magnanimous big schools sometimes deign to offer 2-for-1 deals. Come to their place twice and they will play in your gym once. Maybe.

"That's a good discussion if you can get that," Loyola coach Jim Whitesell said.

Whitesell, whose Horizon League team jumped from 13 victories to 19 this season, plays in the Gentile Center where a banner hangs touting the then-independent Ramblers' 1963 NCAA title. Could the miracle repeat for Loyola in the present college basketball environment?

"I think it's possible," Whitesell said. "I still think it's a long shot. But (George Mason) has opened up people's eyes. Certainly it's not as (far-fetched) as it was 10 or 15 years ago. A group of five seniors that has been through trials and tribulations certainly can compete with incredibly talented young guys. The Sweet 16, you might see that more and more. The whole tournament is more and more of a crapshoot. That's why everyone loves it."

Perhaps not everyone. For the first time since 1980 none of the four regional top seeds_UConn, Villanova, Memphis and Duke - reached the Final Four, unraveled by their own mistakes or undone by someone else's poise. George Mason is joined by Florida and Louisiana State of the Southeastern Conference and, somewhat ironically, storied UCLA. Not that anyone believes this first Final Four for UCLA since its 11th title in 1995 indicates the Bruins will kindle another dynasty.

"Oh, no, no, no," Wainwright said. "Forget it."

UCLA coach Ben Howland threw a preseason barbecue with the current team meeting Wooden and nearly 80 former players from Bill Walton to Lucius Allen. The Bruins are keenly aware of school tradition.

"It's not a burden at all," guard Arron Afflalo said. "We're just trying to add our little piece of history."

And George Mason, the school named for an American patriot who wrote history when his Virginia Bill of Rights became the framework for the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights, is seeking to add to a tradition begun, oh, about a month ago. Before the Patriots' first NCAA game against Michigan State, coach Jim Larranaga huddled with his players for a talk.

"I'm going to have more fun than any other coach in the NCAA tournament," he said. "And I want you guys to have more fun than any other team."

They got the message.

"It sure has been true," Larranaga said. "It has been an absolutely fantastic, magical carpet ride."

In a very short time, George Mason has become the poster child for NCAA parity. If the Patriots were to culminate their stunning run in the RCA Dome with a title it would be considered one of the greatest we-belong sports upsets of all time. Yet George Mason merely would be writing a midmajors bill of rights.