The ground state rotational bands of the N = Z nuclei Kr-72, Sr-76, and Zr-
80 have been extended into the angular momentum region where rotation align
ment of particles is normally expected. By measuring the moments of inertia
of these bands we have observed a consistent increase in the rotational fr
equency required to start pair breaking, when compared to neighboring nucle
i. Kr-72 shows the most marked effect. It has been widely suggested that th
ese "delayed alignments" arise from np-pairing correlations. However, align
ment frequencies are very sensitive to shape degrees of freedom and normal
pairing, so the new experimental observations are still open to interpretat
ion.