That would be the East Rutherford Region, where the top-seeded Saint Joseph's Hawks will have to defeat No. 4 Wake Forest Thursday and then either No. 2 Oklahoma State or No. 3 Pitt Saturday to advance to the Final Four in San Antonio. No other bracket is so top-heavy after the first two rounds of tournament play.

"For us, the usual is the unusual," said SJU head coach Phil Martelli in a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon. "For the seedings to hold and that to be unusual, we just deal with that as a matter of fact."

And so the Hawks have gone to work preparing for the Demon Deacons. The top item on their to-do list is shutting down Wake's enormously talented freshman guard, Chris Paul, whom Martelli jokingly called an imposter.

"That's not Chris Paul," he said. "I think that's [former Texas Longhorn and current Milwaukee Buck] T.J. Ford. They must fly him from Milwaukee. I cannot believe the speed with which this kid plays and how much he looks like T.J. Ford. It's quite an honor for a kid to be compared to a young Jameer Nelson. This kid can really kill us. We're going to have to do a tremendous job of building a wall to make sure he can't get in and to the basket and start distributing the ball to their shooters. He is a marvelous, marvelous player."

Martelli also had kind words for the Deacons' Jamaal Levy and Taron Downey, and said Saint Joseph's would need contributions beyond those of Nelson and his backcourt mate, Delonte West.

"For us, Pat Carroll has to be a factor, as he was against Texas Tech, and then we're going to need one of our other guys, Chet Stachitas or Tyrone Barley," he noted. "When we can go small, that's when we're most effective. When we can get a third and fourth scorer, that's when we've been having success."

Martelli made a point to call attention to the presence of Xavier, another Atlantic 10 team, in the Sweet 16.

"The Atlantic 10 has always been maligned," he said. "We've been in the shadow of the Big East for a long time. With two teams in the Sweet 16, the league can hold their head high and their chest out right now."

As for the inevitable Billy Packer questions -- the CBS analyst who harshly criticized the Hawks' selection as a top seed is a Wake Forest alumnus and will broadcast Thursday game -- Martelli downplayed any sense of personal factors at stake

"He's a professional; he has a job to do," Martelli said. "I'm a professional; I have a job to do. One of my jobs is to make sure he has a clear picture of my team and of this wonderful university I represent. As long as he doesn't reach over the endline and steal or deflect the ball, he has a job to do and I have a job to do, and nothing will interfere with those things from happening."

And don't look for Martelli to be channeling Packer's slights in an attempt to motivate his team.

"What Billy Packer said was probably in a lot of people's hearts and minds during the year because we play an unconventional style and in a league that's outside the limelight," he said. "As far us using it for the players, absolutely, positively not. I've never uttered those words to the players, that we should have an attitude. If you have to use that to motivate your team, then you don't have a self-motivated team, and you won't be successful. The reason to play is to win, and that's what's driven us all year long."

Tip is at approximately 9:57 p.m. Thursday. The game will air on CBS-TV and be broadcast on WPEN/950-AM and at http://www.sjuhawks.com.