There's more movement on the Maryland coaching staff, as wide receivers coach Kasey Dunn has resigned, according to a team spokesman. From the sounds of things, Dunn had an offer elsewhere in the business that was too good to pass up, although it has yet to be finalized.

Dunn was on board for all of about five weeks after replacing the fired Bryan Bossard. He and offensive coordinator James Franklin had ties from their days at Washington State, and Dunn had been on the market after the Baylor staff he was on last season was cut loose.

(Bossard, by the way, resurfaced last month on Dave Wannstedt's staff at Pittsburgh).

So the Terps are again on the lookout for a wideouts coach (a spot Franklin held in his first stint with the team).

--- Patrick Stevens

As if it hasn't been said enough: Wow, the country is not good.

Or maybe it is --- for those piling up losses and still praying for their postseason prayers to be answered. Kentucky, Villanova, Saint Joseph's and Maryland all lost yesterday, the latter two after blowing double-digit leads in the second half.

Teams that could have helped their at-large profiles on Saturday and instead trudged away from the wreckage of a loss included Kent State, West Virginia, Florida (at home to Mississippi State), Wake Forest, Ohio State, Southern Illinois (at home against Illinois State) and Syracuse.

(To give some credit, Arkansas, Mississippi, Massachusetts and UAB all won. Bully for them.)

Still, that's a lot of teams losing. If the NCAA tournament was a game of poker, there'd be someone sitting at the table feeling pretty good about having a pair of twos. And that's not good in the slightest.

Not surprisingly, filling out a top 25 ballot was more difficult this week. Coming up with the next 20 teams was even more draining. Thank goodness this exercise will be done only two more times this season.

1. North Carolina (27-2)
2. Tennessee (26-3)
3. Memphis (28-1)
4. UCLA (26-3)
5. Kansas (26-3)
6. Texas (24-5)
7. Duke (25-3)
8. Stanford (24-4)
9. Xavier (25-4)
10. Wisconsin (24-4)
11. Georgetown (24-4)
12. Louisville (24-6)
13. Purdue (23-6)
14. Connecticut (23-6)
15. Butler (27-3)
16. Vanderbilt (24-5)
17. Michigan State (23-6)
18. Indiana (24-5)
19. Notre Dame (22-6)
20. Gonzaga (23-6)
21. Marquette (21-7)
22. South Alabama (25-5)
23. Mississippi State (20-8)
24. Washington State (22-7)
25. Drake (25-4)

26. Davidson (23-6)
27. Clemson (21-7)
28. St. Mary's (24-5)
29. Miami (20-8)
30. Pittsburgh (20-8)
31. Massachusetts (19-9)
32. Southern California (18-10)
33. Brigham Young (23-6)
34. Kansas State (18-10)
35. Baylor (20-8)
36. Virginia Commonwealth (23-6)
37. Texas A&M (21-8)
38. Oklahoma (19-10)
39. Kent State (23-6)
40. Illinois State (22-8)

41. UNLV (22-6)
42. Arkansas (19-9)
43. West Virginia (20-9)
44. Arizona (17-12)
45. Western Kentucky (22-6)

--- Patrick Stevens

Maybe the best way to avoid a knee-jerk reaction to anything - good or bad - is to be prepared for a lot of scenarios to play out.

That isn't always easy, but if every outcome is placed on a continuum of 1 to 100, it's usually possible to prepare for most of the stuff in the middle. But the possibilities on the fringe - say, the extreme bad (1-10) and extreme good (91-100) - aren't worth obsessing over. The anxiety is hardly worth it for such a rare event.

Well, for Maryland, that rare event happened last night. You don't have a plan on how to cope with giving up a 20-point lead in the final 11 minutes in a game against a borderline top-25 team. You just don't.

As they said on Monty Python, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition."

Objectively, the at-large field is still so weak that Maryland can plausibly overcome its 73-70 loss to Clemson (capped by an 18-2 meltdown in the final five minutes) and still reach the tournament.

But this isn't a standard fare loss to Duke or a road bludgeoning at Miami or even a surrendered lead to Virginia Tech. This was far worse, a sure victory and a cushion for the tournament snatched away in just a few minutes. This will linger, and won't soon be forgotten.

There is a tendency on the part of sportswriters to overanalyze the psychological implications of a given event. Most are mundane or common enough for players and coaches to have something in their mental store of experiences to be able to cope with what is thrown at them.

This one, not so much.

The only collapses in recent memory in the neighborhood of last night's were the twin losses to Duke in 2001. Maryland was zombie-like in the two-plus weeks after the Gone in 54 Seconds game before reversing course and reaching the Final Four. Once there, the Terps lost a 22-point lead to the Blue Devils and were sent home to dwell on an unfulfilled season; they proceeded to win the national title the next season.

No one's thinking that big right now.

Coach Gary Williams quickly admitted he and everyone else would discover what his team was made of when it visits Virginia on Sunday. Thirty games into a 31-game season, and no one really knows the answer to that question.

It's befuddling. It's frustrating. And above all, it's not a situation you can entirely prepare for if you're the Terps.

Then again, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

--- Patrick Stevens

Moving ahead:

Johns Hopkins scored eight goals to start its meeting with Princeton at M&T Bank Stadium. That's hard to do to a Bill Tierney-coached team. The Blue Jays' midfield is as good as advertised, and a defense featuring Matt Drenan, Matt Bocklet and Michael Evans is superb. It's already safe to say the game of the year is April 5 when the Hop visits Duke.

One of the teams poking into the rankings this week was Army, which handled Air Force to move to 2-1. The Patriot League could be wide open this year; Navy is replacing some key parts, Bucknell is solid and Colgate has struggled early. That could be an opening for the Black Knights, who put a scare into Syracuse at the Dome two weeks ago.

It's tough to ask much more from the ACC, which is 11-0 against nonconference opponents entering Maryland's game with Providence today. Both Virginia (vs. Syracuse) and North Carolina (at home against Cornell) picked up significant victories this weekend. It's not a stretch to think four of the nation's top five teams are in the ACC. The league tournament in Charlottesville in late April is looking better by the day.

Looking to regroup:

Massachusetts absorbed a stinging 7-4 loss to Yale on Sunday and plummeted out of the rankings as a result. The Minutemen have a chance to make some noise in the ECAC, especially without an obvious No. 2 team behind Georgetown. But they'll need to sort out their offense, and quick.

Everybody in the Ivy League has a loss, including Cornell. The Big Red nearly lost their opener to Navy and then were handled easily enough in Chapel Hill. They lost a lot from last year's final four team, but have still struggled a bit more than anticipated. This week's visit from Army should be an upstate New York treat.

The America East had a great 2007, putting Albany and UMBC into the quarterfinals and raising expectations for the future. Yet the league's six teams are a combined 1-11 early on, with UMBC getting into the win column on Saturday against Denver. The record could get worse in the middle of this week; UMBC visits Hopkins, while Vermont (at Siena) and Hartford (vs. Holy Cross) play tossup games tomorrow.

And here's one ballot in this week's Inside Lacrosse poll:

1. Johns Hopkins (2-0)
2. Duke (3-0)
3. Virginia (4-0)
4. North Carolina (3-0)
5. Maryland (2-1)
6. Notre Dame (3-0)
7. Cornell (1-1)
8. Syracuse (1-1)
9. Georgetown (1-1)
10. Princeton (1-1)
11. Navy (3-1)
12. Delaware (4-0)
13. Loyola (2-1)
14. Towson (1-1)
15. Albany (0-2)
16. Drexel (3-1)
17. Army (2-1)
18. Bucknell (2-1)
19. Hofstra (1-1)
20. Fairfield (2-0)

--- Patrick Stevens

In most years, an 18-12 team with only one victory over a team in the top 50 of the RPI would be on the outside looking in.

This year, that team would probably be in the NCAA tournament if it started today.

That team, of course, is Maryland, and the Terps actually aren't the last team into this field. If there was ever a year to tempt fate as a middle-of-the-road college basketball team, this is it. Maryland fans howling about their postseason plans possibly being messed up should remember they would have resorted to duck-and-cover a long time ago in most years.

There will be two things no one should tolerate hearing on Selection Sunday. One, arguments for tournament expansion. A 72-team field (or bigger) would be like adding a round of the NIT to the NCAA tournament, at least this year. Two, gripes from anyone who was left out. It's almost unfathomable that anyone could feel legitimately slighted this season.

(Please note: No teams have been bolded during the construction of this bracket).

EAST REGION

Raleigh, N.C.

(1) ACC/North Carolina vs. (16) SWAC/Alabama State-SOUTHLAND/Lamar
(8) West Virginia vs. (9) Texas A&M

Denver

(4) Michigan State vs. (13) SOUTHERN/Davidson
(5) Vanderbilt vs. (12) Arizona State

Birmingham, Ala.

(3) BIG EAST/Georgetown vs. (14) OVC/Austin Peay
(6) WCC/Gonzaga vs. (11) Florida

Anaheim, Calif.

(2) Stanford vs. (15) BIG SKY/Portland State
(7) MOUNTAIN WEST/Brigham Young vs. (10) Oklahoma

SOUTH REGION

Birmingham, Ala.

(1) SEC/Tennessee vs. (16) MEAC/Morgan State
(8) Southern California vs. (9) Baylor

Tampa, Fla.

(4) Notre Dame vs. (13) SUMMIT/Oral Roberts
(5) Indiana vs. (12) Maryland

Washington, D.C.

(3) ATLANTIC 10/Xavier vs. (14) ATLANTIC SUN/Belmont
(6) Washington State vs. (11) Villanova

Raleigh, N.C.

(2) Duke vs. (15) AMERICA EAST/UMBC
(7) MVC/Drake vs. (10) Kansas State

MIDWEST REGION

Little Rock, Ark.

(1) CONFERENCE USA/Memphis vs. (16) BIG SOUTH/UNC Asheville
(8) St. Mary's vs. (9) Massachusetts

Denver

(4) Purdue vs. (13) Kentucky
(5) Marquette vs. (12) Virginia Tech

Washington, D.C.

(3) Louisville vs. (14) MAAC/Siena
(6) Mississippi State vs. (11) Arizona

Omaha, Neb.

(2) Kansas vs. (15) PATRIOT/American
(7) Miami vs. (10) MAC/Kent State

WEST REGION

Anaheim, Calif.

(1) PAC-10/UCLA vs. (16) NEC/Robert Morris
(8) SUN BELT/South Alabama vs. (9) Arkansas

Tampa, Fla.

(4) Connecticut vs. (13) IVY/Cornell
(5) HORIZON/Butler vs. (12) CAA/Virginia Commonwealth

Omaha, Neb.

(3) BIG TEN/Wisconsin vs. (14) WAC/Boise State
(6) Clemson vs. (11) Illinois State

Little Rock, Ark.

(2) BIG 12/Texas vs. (15) BIG WEST/Cal State Northridge
(7) Pittsburgh vs. (10) UNLV

Last four in: Villanova, Virginia Tech, Kentucky, Maryland

Last four out: Saint Joseph's, Syracuse, Rhode Island, Mississippi

Next four out: UAB, New Mexico, Western Kentucky, Temple

Moving in: Arizona State, UNC Asheville, Virginia Tech

Moving out: Saint Joseph's, Syracuse, Winthrop

Multi-bid leagues: Big East (8), Big 12 (6), SEC (6), ACC (6), Pac-10 (6), Big Ten (4), Atlantic 10 (2), Missouri Valley (2), Mountain West (2), West Coast (2)

--- Patrick Stevens

While trolling the message boards this morning, I came across this link from the Harrisonburg Daily News Record.

Apparently, Maryland assistant Chuck Driesell is one of about 764 candidates "on the radar" for the James Madison job, which opened two weeks ago when Dean Keener announced he would resign at the end of the season.

Much of the story is about the interest of erstwhile George Washington and St. John's coach Mike Jarvis. The 62-year-old --- who bears an uncanny resemblance to Uncle Phil from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air --- wants to get back into the game after his shenanigans helped land St. John's on probation it has yet to fully recover from.

I floated the idea of Uncle Phil taking up residence in Harrisonburg to a JMU alum I know, and he was adamant in his reply.

"No no no no noooooo," he said. "Do not want."

Well, that's one vote anyway. But that could be an interesting gig. (Other names on the list: American's Jeff Jones and Vermont's Mike Lonergan). The success of George Mason and VCU (and, a few years back, UNC Wilmington) has allowed all the boats in that league to rise a little bit. It's an off year in 2007-08, but the CAA has a bit more juice now than it once did.

--- Patrick Stevens

There's obviously plenty of nuggets and angles left over from Maryland's loss on Sunday, and maybe the most salient thing to look at the use of reserves Adrian Bowie and Jerome Burney that night (and in the case of Burney, other nights as well).

It comes as little surprise Bowie would have his best outing in more than enough against Clemson. His slashing style is perfectly suited to facing a team willing to extend its defense in the full court at the cost of giving up opportunities at the other end. The freshman didn't miss any of his six shots from the floor and tied a career-high with 12 points.

So why was he on the bench at the end, beyond simply parroting a line about being loyal to veterans like Eric Hayes? Maryland wasn't going to try to get into an up-tempo game in the closing minutes, and Bowie isn't exactly a great halfcourt option at this point. Even with Hayes struggling, it was smarter to have his perimeter (and free throw) shooting on the floor as an option.

The case of Burney is more befuddling. The genial redshirt freshman had six points, four blocks, three rebounds and two assists in 16 minutes, the third straight game Burney has provided a positive boost as the top frontcourt backup. But even as Bambale Osby suffered through another quiet night (just three points and a rebound in the second half), Burney was not deployed in the end game.

His activity over three games --- and willingness to aggressively do anything, even if it leads to a foul --- makes it even more confusing why he didn't see the floor for seven weeks. There's no practice observations to work with, but Burney was impressive in an early victory over Illinois and come up with some crazy blocks and dunks over the last three games.

Some numbers to consider: Burney has six blocks in ACC games this season, while WND (Shane Walker-Dave Neal-Braxton Dupree) have three.

Burney has 12 points in 44 minutes. WND have 34 points in 225 minutes.

Burney has 10 rebounds in 44 minutes. WND have 35 rebounds in 225 minutes.

You don't have to be good at math to realize Burney has provided a more efficient option. And yet he toiled at the end of the bench for almost two months for a team desperate for a backup forward who could both rebound effectively at one end and catch a pass and then go up for a layup/dunk at the other.

It's a real puzzler, and one of those things fans probably were out in front of the media on. From talking to Burney a few times during his PT drought, he never gave an indication there was anything in particular causing his situation and insisted he just had to be ready whenever he was called upon.

So he was. But it's still a mystery why he wasn't deployed sooner by Williams, who provided some replies in bland coachspeak whenever the topic of Burney came up in January and much of February.

Gary's taken some heat this season for various things. In some of those situations, his hands were tied (Really, who else on that roster is going to create a lot of scoring opportunities at point guard besides Greivis Vasquez? Really, what else was there to do other than handle some growing pains early on with Landon Milbourne at the three?)

But given the evidence both early in the season and of late, it's hard to make sense of where Burney was all season when the Terps could have used someone to capably spell James Gist and Osby.

--- Patrick Stevens

Since terminally bubble-bound Maryland insists on making this a typically tense early March (and since I'd like a decent Maryland-related item despite having no midweek game to work with), here's a look at who helped and hurt the Terrapins' postseason chances.

(The caveat here is no one helps or hurts those chances more than Maryland will in its regular season finale at Virginia and then in the ACC tournament).

Helping:

Mississippi dismissing Arkansas probably does a little more good than bad. Both are hopelessly bad road teams and reside in a division rife with mediocrity. That's five losses in seven games for the Razorbacks, who are among the many teams incapable of nailing down postseason berths in a weak year.

Hurting:

Virginia Tech wiped out Wake Forest in its home finale last night, and the Hokies can no longer be ignored as a plausible NCAA tournament team. The Demon Deacons, meanwhile, are pretty much toast unless they win the ACC tournament.

A team that got itself back in the discussion is Ohio State (aka the Maryland of the Big Ten). The Buckeyes snapped a four-game losing streak by beating Purdue in overtime and collecting their first victory over a current top-50 team.

--- Patrick Stevens

It's the time to really think about who the national player of the year is this season. And really, there seem to be two obvious possibilities: Kansas State's Michael Beasley and North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough.

(OK, maybe three. The only other player that really can claim a place in this discussion is Notre Dame's Luke Harangody.)

A voter in the AP poll is required to submit a player of the year, coach of the year and three teams of All-Americans at the end of the regular season. Which, as it turns out is less than two weeks away.

So who is the top player in the country? Please note, that question isn't "Who is the best pro prospect in the country?" (which is quite possibly Beasley) or "Who is the best player on a top-10 team?" (that's Hansbrough) or "Who is the best junior or senior?" (again, Hansbrough).

Those are all silly criteria for choosing the nation's best player. Voters who invoke that sort of rationale have to make you wonder whether they would give a nod to a pop-up book if they were presiding over the Pulitzers.

The question comes down to who is the best player, with factors such as level of competition, consistency and level of dominance all taken into account.

The thinking here is that it's Beasley, who might be even better than Kevin Durant was last year for Texas. Hansbrough carried North Carolina through the month of February when Ty Lawson was injured, and there's zero question he's vastly better this year than he was last season. Harangody got the better of Beasley in their head-to-head matchup at the Jimmy V Classic back in December.

Of course, that decision is not finalized on this end. Anyone have any arguments, for or against those three guys (and maybe someone who was omitted from the discussion)?

--- Patrick Stevens

This post could have had a different title. Really could have. Thought about using "What We Learned." But two things prevented that.

One, there's no way the initials "WWL" will make it into this space without some reference to the Official Dot Com Diva. And there's no way she will ever approve of anything connecting her with lacrosse. I probably already owe her a Yeungling just for making that slight an allusion.

Two, there's that pesky use of "we" to describe the work of a single person. If there's something that's downright ridiculous in sportswriting, it is the bizarre overuse of the word "we." When a writer opines "We think Georgetown will make the Final Four," it is always reasonable to ask (a) Do you have multiple personalities, (b) Do you have a mouse in your pocket and (c) In which sport?

Twain said it best with this pithy comment: "Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial 'we.'"

I promise I don't have tapeworms.

But I did watch two weekday lacrosse games (Maryland-Providence and Johns Hopkins-UMBC) and kept a close eye on a third (Virginia-VMI) via CSTV.com's Game Tracker. And there were some observations to be had.

* Johns Hopkins won't just breeze through the season. The Blue Jays looked absurdly good in the first half against Princeton on Saturday, then struggled to a lackluster 10-8 victory over UMBC last night at Homewood Field. The Hop is still the Hop --- they'll win close games, and lots of them. The Jays are 30-6 under Dave Pietramala in one-goal games, a total that speaks to excellent coaching and a proclivity to play tight contests year after year. This year won't be any different.

* Virginia just scored another goal.

* Much was made of Maryland losing starting defensemen Ray Megill and Steve Whittenberg, but Joe Cinosky has been as good as anyone I've seen early this season. The senior quietly plied his trade the last few seasons, but he will be as important as anyone for the Terrapins (3-1) this spring.

* Another defensive standout from the last two days was UMBC's Matt Kresse, who helped keep Hopkins' Kevin Huntley without a point last night. Kresse had some help --- a teammate usually joined him in swarming Huntley as soon as Huntley got possession --- but the defensive performance was encouraging for a Retrievers team that gave up 28 goals in two opening losses.

* Virginia just scored again.

* Maryland's freshmen on attack might not be ready to handle a defense like Duke's. But they're plenty capable of dealing with most teams. Grant Catalino (who is built much, much different than Joe Walters, the last No. 1 to start on attack for the Terps), Travis Reed and Ryan Young will give a lot of teams fits for a long time.

* The new faceoff rules are clearly helping teams that are willing to use an all-around player rather than a FOGO. When UMBC had a procedure violation late in the first half, Hopkins' Stephen Peyser simply stormed downfield on the restart and tied it at 5. The Retrievers never had a chance to get a replacement on the field to help protect their one-goal lead. That won't be the last time Hop takes advantage of that rule.

* I'm pretty sure Virginia just added another goal.

* Maryland's goalie situation bears monitoring. Brian Phipps and Jason Carter are splitting time, and coach Dave Cottle has given no indication that will change anytime soon. A case can be made that playing goalie games last year (with Phipps and senior Harry Alford, who returned from injury in the middle of the season) didn't do much good in the long run. It's far, far too early to tell in this case.

* A player who caught my eye last night was UMBC midfielder Maxx Davis, who scored two goals. I wondered where the heck he had come from; as it turns out, the sophomore barely played last year. Oh, and his cousin is former Hopkins star Kyle Harrison. With Davis and Terry Kimener, the Retrievers will have at the least a very dangerous first midfield line.

* CSTV has a minor problem with its Game Tracker. The gizmo can't show too many numbers larger than 19 on the scoreboard. So when Virginia scored its 20th goal, the scoreboard read VMI 4-2.

* That made it hard to keep up with Virginia scoring 24 goals, its most since a 24-3 thumping of Stony Brook in 1999. (The 24-5 margin was not as bad as last year's 20-0 blanking). In a completely unrelated note, the Cavaliers' football team failed to score 24 points on seven occasions last season. Lord Groh never seems to have such problems with a malfunctioning Game Tracker.

But chances are, he's probably used the editorial "we." Here's betting no one ever had him checked for tapeworms.

- Patrick Stevens

It was tough enough making the right calls in the 1965-74 era. This is easily the most loaded stretch in league history, enough that it was worth rolling out three teams instead of two.

I painted myself into a corner by insisting on three guards on my first team. Then again, who wants to argue very much with Phil Ford, Johnny Dawkins, Michael Jordan, Len Bias and Ralph Sampson. (I suppose Sam Perkins and Walter Davis could).

There's probably a few forwards that could make a case for at least third-team selection, Albert King and Buck Williams at the top of that list. It's just as amazing that Rod Griffin --- truly one of the forgotten greats, so much so that the ACC omitted him from its 50th anniversary team a few years ago --- was only a third-team pick.

Imagine a 12-season stretch in a league where it could be argued King and Williams weren't among the 15 best players. Skip Brown (Wake Forest), Hawkeye Whitney (N.C. State) and Tree Rollins (Clemson) join them on the fourth team. Forwards who still couldn't make that list include Mitch Kupchak, and he was only the league's player of the year in 1976.

Dean Smith had a pretty good dozen years, winning five ACC titles and the 1982 national title. Carolina finished first or second in the regular season every year except 1986.

Anyway, here's the only era meriting a 15-player rundown. And even that doesn't seem like it's enough.

1st team

G Phil Ford, North Carolina: 18.6 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 6.1 apg, 52.7 FG%, 80.8 FT%
G Johnny Dawkins, Duke: 19.2 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 4.2 apg, 2.6 tpg, 50.8 FG%, 79.0 FT%
G Michael Jordan, North Carolina: 17.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.8 apg, 2.0 tpg, 54.0 FG%, 74.8 FT%
F Len Bias, Maryland: 16.4 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 1.3 apg, 53.6 FG%, 79.5 FT%
C Ralph Sampson, Virginia: 16.9 ppg, 11.4 rpg, 3.5 bpg, 56.8 FG%, 65.7 FT%

2nd team

G John Lucas, Maryland: 18.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 4.7 apg, 52.5 FG%, 77.8 FT%
G Jeff Lamp, Virginia: 18.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 2.0 apg, 49.2 FG%, 84.9 FT%
F Walter Davis, North Carolina: 15.7 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 3.4 apg, 53.1 FG%, 77.3 FT%
F Sam Perkins, North Carolina: 15.9 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 1.8 bpg, 57.6 FG%, 79.6 FT%
C Mike Gminski, Duke: 19.0 ppg, 10.2 rpg, 53.1 FG%, 79.2 FT%

3rd team

G Mark Price, Georgia Tech: 17.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 4.0 apg, 48.7 FG%, 85.0 FT%
G Jim Spanarkel, Duke: 17.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 3.5 apg, 52.7 FG%, 80.6 FT%
F Rod Griffin, Wake Forest: 18.6 ppg, 8.9 rpg, 55.2 FG%, 73.5 FT%
F James Worthy, North Carolina: 14.5 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 2.5 apg, 1.4 spg, 1.1 bpg, 54.1 FG%, 65.2 FT%
C Brad Daugherty, North Carolina: 14.2 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 62.0 FG%, 72.0 FT%

Coach: Dean Smith

Here's Kevin Brewer's team:

First team

PG Phil Ford, North Carolina (18.6 points, 6.1 assists, 52.7 FG shooting)
SG Michael Jordan, North Carolina (17.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, 54.0 FG shooting)
F Len Bias, Maryland (16.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 53.6 FG shooting)
F/C Sam Perkins, North Carolina (15.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, 57.6 FG shooting)
C Ralph Sampson, Virginia (16.9 points, 11.4 rebounds, 56.8 FG shooting)

Second team

PG John Lucas, Maryland (18.3 points, 4.7 assists, 52.5 FG shooting)
SG Johnny Dawkins, Duke (19.0 points, 4.2 assists, 50.8 FG shooting)
F Walter Davis, North Carolina (15.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, 53.1 FG shooting)
F James Worthy, North Carolina (14.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, 54.1 FG shooting)
C Mike Gminski, Duke (19.0 points, 10.2 rebounds, 53.1 FG shooting)

Third team

PG Mark Price, Georgia Tech (17.4 points, 4.0 assists, 85 FT shooting)
SG Jeff Lamp, Virginia (18.8 points, 49.2 FG shooting, 84.9 FT shooting)
F Rod Griffin, Wake Forest (18.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 55.2 FG shooting)
F Buck Williams, Maryland (13.6 points, 10.9 rebounds 61.5 FG shooting)
C Brad Daugherty, North Carolina (14.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, 62.0 FG shooting)

Coach: Dean Smith, North Carolina (five ACC titles, three Final Fours, one national title)

And Kevin's thoughts on the selection of this era:

The first team is self-explanatory.

Ralph Sampson, Phil Ford and Michael Jordan would likely make the all-time first team. Sam Perkins was a two-time consensus All-American but the second-best player on his team behind Jordan. Len Bias could play, too.

An All-American in basketball and tennis, John Lucas leads the second team.

Johnny Dawkins was Mike Krzyzewski's first great player. He helped Coach K to his first Final Four, the beginning of Duke's reign as the best program of the last 20 years.

At the forward spots, it's James Worthy and Walter Davis of North Carolina.

Mike Gminski was a great player, now a pretty good color analyst.

The point guard on the third team is Mark Price, who made Georgia Tech basketball relevant.

The anti-Hansbrough, Brad Daugherty was 16 years old when he started at center and 20 when he was the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft.

The last three spots were close ones. Jeff Lamp edged Jim Spanarkel, Rod Griffin edged Albert King and Buck Williams knocked out Mitch Kupchak.

Dean Smith of North Carolina was the easy pick as the era's most successful coach.

But his coaching acumen often received mixed reviews.

By 1982, Smith had advanced to seven Final Fours and finally won a national title. He was the best at producing fundamentally sound players and NBA players --- Ford, Jordan, Worthy, Davis, Daugherty, Kupchak, Kenny Smith, Mike O'Koren, Al Wood and Dudley Bradley just from the era at hand.

However, his in-game decisions raised questions.

Was he outcoached by Al McGuire of Marquette in the 1977 national title game?

Did he take great talent and produce just very good results?

Did he overcoach, taking great, athletic players and too often playing slow-down ball?

In the 1982 ACC final, he beat Virginia 47-45. That game, which featured Worthy, Jordan, Perkins and Sampson, was the No. 1 impetus in the NCAA adopting the shot clock.

Jim Valvano deserves honorable mention for 1983, when he introduced not the term but the idea of March Madness.

--- Patrick Stevens

Just a quick note on Maryland's ACC tournament outlook.

A Maryland victory over Virginia coupled with a Miami loss to Florida State will get the Terps a No. 5 seed in Charlotte and a friendly 2:30 p.m. tip-off on Thursday.

If either Miami wins or Maryland loses (or both), the Terps will be the No. 6 seed and get a not-so-friendly 9:30 p.m. tip time on Thursday. If you thought Greensboro Coliseum was sparse for Maryland-Boston College in a late-night quarterfinals two years ago, the possibility of those two schools in a 6-11 game in a deserted arena is enough to make you shudder.

On the bright side, at least an empty Bobcats Arena doesn't look like the Emerald City. On the ironic side, at least all those North Carolina fans eager to swoop in and buy the weekend tickets from a first-day loser would have to invest some late-night hours to get their ducats in such a scenario.

And on the amusing side, nothing makes it easier to hear Gary Williams' rants than an empty arena. The combustible coach's outbursts won't fall on deaf ears in such a scenario, that's for sure.

--- Patrick Stevens

A daily review of the teams scrambling for NCAA tournament berths. In general, it was not a good night for Maryland fans.

RISING

* Kentucky did exactly what it was supposed to, going to South Carolina and leaving with a victory. The Wildcats (17-11, 11-4 SEC) have almost beaten the No. 1 team in the country on its home floor and ground out a road victory in two games since losing Patrick Patterson. A victory over Florida on Sunday would burnish the message that Billy Gillispie's boys can win without their best player.

* Don't look now, but Temple might just make a play for an at-large bid. The Owls (17-12, 10-5 Atlantic 10) don't have a great profile, but an extended run in next week's conference tournament could put them into play. Temple knocked off Duquesne last night.

* Syracuse (18-12, 8-9 Big East) dusted off Seton Hall. The Orange's argument has been about the same for a month. Strong schedule (8th nationally), no cream-puff opponents (Rutgers is the only foe with an RPI worse than 200) and an OK record away from the Carrier Dome (5-7) all remain in place. The 'Cuse would still be wise to defeat Marquette this weekend.

* Massachusetts (20-9, 9-6 A-10) blitzed La Salle. It would probably take a big collapse to knock out the Minutemen, who have avoided the trap of every other team in their league not named Xavier and avoided a late slide. UMass visits George Washington on Saturday.

* The schedule in the final week favors Villanova (18-11, 8-9 Big East), which dispatched South Florida last night and gets reeling Providence this weekend. In such a bad year at the bottom of the at-large field, the Wildcats look better and better by the day thanks to victories over Connecticut, Pittsburgh and West Virginia.

* UAB got another 26 points from Robert Vaden to win its 14th in 17 tries. The Blazers (22-8, 12-3 Conference USA) have a wholly unremarkable resume --- five losses to 100+ teams with a neutral floor victory over Kentucky to their credit. That could change Saturday with a visit to Memphis.

FADING

* Florida (21-9, 8-7 SEC) squandered an 18-point lead at home and lost to Tennessee. The Gators have lost six of nine and have only three top-100 victories (Vanderbilt, Kentucky and vs. Temple in Miami). Their best true road victory is at No. 133 Alabama. The Gators really need to complete the sweep on Kentucky in Lexington this weekend. They have less of a case for inclusion than many teams (Maryland and Virginia Tech included).

--- Patrick Stevens

D.C. attorney Bill Hall is well-known as one of the key players in bringing baseball back to Washington. But he also happens to be a huge Bucknell basketball fan, often traveling to Lewisburg, Pa., for games and catching them whenever they play Patriot League games in the area.

I had met with Bill earlier this week to interview him about the Nationals stadium, and we chatted briefly about the Bison's chances against Navy. He was not terribly optimistic, but little did we know that Bucknell would prevail in triple-overtime on a 40-foot shot at the buzzer.

After listening to the game on the radio (it wasn't televised ... if anyone has video of the game, let us know) I immediately e-mailed a note of congratulations to Bill, as he is the only Bucknell fan I know.

"Truly amazing," he wrote back. "I unfortunately went to the Wizards game tonight with a client to watch a 30-point defeat. Should have gone to Annapolis."

Doh!

--- Tim Lemke

UPDATE (Friday)

A reader e-mailed me the link to a video of the last few seconds of the game. I believe the footage was shot by WBAL Channel 11 up in Baltimore. I'm told the game may also be available on CSTV's Patriot League All-Access.

Maryland has its new receivers coach less than a week after Kasey Dunn resigned to pursue an opportunity in the pros.

Lee Hull, who spent the last five years on Mike Riley's staff at Oregon State, will take over the wide receivers gig with Maryland.

He was the Beavers' receivers coach the last three years and their running backs coach in 2003 and 2004.

According to the Oregonian, Hull left Corvallis "solely for family reasons." He's originally from Millville, N.J., and both played and coached at Holy Cross.

Maryland's receivers job has gone through some flux since the end of the season. Bryan Bossard was fired the day after the Terps returned from their Emerald Bowl loss (to, of all teams, Oregon State). Dunn was hired in late January, then abruptly resigned last week.

--- Patrick Stevens

I think these are right. I think.

Someone out there will let me know if it's not. But for lack of someone else doing them, here's the ACC tournament tiebreakers heading into the final weekend of games. Those six contests include N.C. State-Wake; Carolina-Duke; Miami-Florida State; Georgia Tech-Boston College; Virginia Tech-Clemson; and Maryland-Virginia.

NORTH CAROLINA will be the No. 1 seed with a victory at Duke on Saturday. The Tar Heels will be the No. 2 seed with a loss.

DUKE will be the No. 1 seed with a victory over North Carolina on Saturday. The Blue Devils will be the No. 2 seed with a loss.

CLEMSON will be the No. 3 seed with a victory over Virginia Tech. The Tigers will be the No. 4 seed with a loss AND a Miami loss. Clemson will be the No. 5 seed with a loss AND a Miami win. (Maryland is irrelevant in a three-way tie with Clemson and Miami, since it went 0-2 against those teams). Miami and Clemson split the season series, and Miami would win the tiebreaker by virtue of its victory over Duke. Clemson would then earn the No. 5 seed.

VIRGINIA TECH will be the No. 3 seed with a victory at Clemson. The Hokies will be the No. 4 seed with a loss AND a Miami loss. Virginia Tech will earn the No. 5 seed with a loss AND a Miami victory.

MIAMI will be the No. 4 seed with a victory and a Virginia Tech loss; OR with a victory and a Clemson loss, pending the tiebreaker. (Maryland is irrelevant in a three-way tie with Clemson and Miami, since it went 0-2 against those teams). Miami and Clemson split the season series, and Miami would win the tiebreaker by virtue of its victory over Duke.

Miami will be the No. 5 seed with a loss AND a Maryland loss. The Hurricanes will be the No. 6 seed with a loss AND a Maryland victory.

MARYLAND will be the No. 5 seed with a victory over Virginia on Sunday AND a Miami loss to Florida State. Otherwise, the Terrapins will be the No. 6 seed.

GEORGIA TECH will be the No. 7 seed in the case of a three-way tie between the Yellow Jackets, Wake Forest and Florida State. Georgia Tech will be the No. 7 seed with a win AND a Florida State loss. Georgia Tech will be the No. 8 seed regardless of its outcome with a Florida State win AND a Wake Forest loss. The Yellow Jackets will be the No. 9 seed with a loss AND a Wake Forest win.

FLORIDA STATE will be the No. 7 seed with a win AND a Wake Forest loss. The Seminoles will be the No. 8 seed with a Wake Forest win AND a Georgia Tech loss. Florida State will be the No. 9 seed with a loss AND a Georgia Tech win; OR a three-way tie for seventh between Florida State, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest.

WAKE FOREST will be the No. 7 seed with a win AND a Georgia Tech loss. Wake Forest will be the No. 8 seed in the case of a three-way tie for seventh between Florida State, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest; OR with a Georgia Tech win AND a Florida State loss. Wake Forest will be the No. 9 seed with a loss AND a Florida State win.

VIRGINIA will be the No. 10 seed with a win; OR in the case of a three-way tie with Boston College and N.C. State. Virginia will be the No. 11 seed with a loss AND a Boston College victory AND an N.C. State loss; OR a loss AND a Boston College loss AND an N.C. State win. Virginia will be the No. 12 seed with a loss AND a Boston College win AND an N.C. State win.

BOSTON COLLEGE will be the No. 10 seed with a win AND a Virginia loss. The Eagles will be the No. 11 seed with a win and a Virginia win; OR a loss AND an N.C. State loss. Boston College will be the No. 12 seed with a loss AND an N.C. State win.

N.C. STATE will be the No. 10 seed with a win AND a Virginia loss AND a Boston College loss. The Wolfpack will be the No. 11 seed with a win AND a loss by Virginia OR Boston College. N.C. State will be the No. 12 seed with a loss; OR a three-way tie for 10th place with Virginia and Boston College.

--- Patrick Stevens

A daily review of the teams scrambling for NCAA tournament berths. Maryland fans might want to cover their eyes; this week's activity has pushed the Terps to "Last team in" status on a bracket that will be unfurled later this morning

MOVING UP

Saint Joseph's picked up a huge victory, outlasting Xavier at home. The Hawks have more than their share of flaws (three losses to 100+ RPI teams at home) and haven't played great of late, but they've won their share of road games and now have a signature victory. Phil Martelli's team finishes at Dayton this weekend, and a win there would keep the heat off the Hawks unless they bomb in the A-10 tournament.

In perhaps the least impressive late-season road victory imaginable, Arizona routed Oregon State to send the Beavers to 0-17 in the Pac-10. More importantly, the Wildcats got point guard Nic Wise (knee) back. He had 15 points, three rebounds, six assists and two steals in 34 minutes. If Arizona can win at Oregon this weekend and maybe poach a victory in the Pac-10 tournament, it will probably wind up seeded somewhere in the No. 7-No. 9 range. Like most teams, the Wildcats are a different bunch with a healthy point guard.

MOVING DOWN

In a year of horrible profiles, Arizona State takes worst in show. The Sun Devils are 10-11 against top-200 teams, 3-6 on the road, 4-8 in their last 12 and have the 309th-ranked nonconference schedule strength. Oh, and they lost at Oregon last night to fall under .500 in Pac-10 play.

Speaking of the Ducks, that victory merely gets them mentioned again. Oregon has the exact same faults as Arizona State: 11-12 against the top 200, 5-8 on the road, 5-7 in the last 12, a nonconference schedule ranked 168th, a losing record in league play. The plug didn't get pulled last night in Eugene, but it could be yanked soon enough.

--- Patrick Stevens

Just 10 more days of games before Selection Sunday. ...

EAST REGION

Raleigh, N.C.

(1) ACC/North Carolina vs. (16) SWAC/Alabama State-SOUTHLAND/Lamar
(8) West Virginia vs. (9) Baylor

Birmingham, Ala.

(4) Vanderbilt vs. (13) SUMMIT/Oral Roberts
(5) Indiana vs. (12) Syracuse

Anaheim, Calif.

(3) Stanford vs. (14) WAC/Utah State
(6) MOUNTAIN WEST/Brigham Young vs. (11) Illinois State

Tampa, Fla.

(2) BIG EAST/Georgetown vs. (15) BIG SKY/Portland State
(7) Oklahoma vs. (10) Massachusetts

SOUTH REGION

Birmingham, Ala.

(1) SEC/Tennessee vs. (16) BIG SOUTH/Winthrop
(8) Southern California vs. (9) SUN BELT/South Alabama

Denver

(4) Connecticut vs. (13) CAA/Virginia Commonwealth
(5) Michigan State vs. (12) Virginia Tech

Washington, D.C.

(3) ATLANTIC 10/Xavier vs. (14) AMERICA EAST/UMBC
(6) Washington State vs. (11) Villanova

Raleigh, N.C.

(2) Duke vs. (15) PATRIOT/American
(7) Kansas State vs. (10) UNLV

MIDWEST REGION

Little Rock, Ark.

(1) CONFERENCE USA/Memphis vs. (16) MEAC/Morgan State
(8) Mississippi State vs. (9) Texas A&M

Denver

(4) Purdue vs. (13) Maryland
(5) Marquette vs. (12) Saint Joseph's

Washington, D.C.

(3) Louisville vs. (14) BIG WEST/UC Santa Barbara
(6) WCC/Gonzaga vs. (11) Arizona

Omaha, Neb.

(2) Kansas vs. (15) OVC/Austin Peay
(7) Miami vs. (10) Arkansas

WEST REGION

Anaheim, Calif.

(1) PAC-10/UCLA vs. (16) NEC/Robert Morris
(8) MVC/Drake vs. (9) Saint Mary's

Tampa, Fla.

(4) Notre Dame vs. (13) IVY/Cornell
(5) HORIZON/Butler vs. (12) SOUTHERN/Davidson

Omaha, Neb.

(3) BIG TEN/Wisconsin vs. (14) MAAC/Siena
(6) Clemson vs. (11) MAC/Kent State

Little Rock, Ark.

(2) BIG 12/Texas vs. (15) ATLANTIC SUN/Belmont
(7) Pittsburgh vs. (10) Kentucky

Last four in: Maryland, Syracuse, Saint Joseph's, Villanova

Next four in: Virginia Tech, Kentucky, Illinois State, Arizona

Last four out: Florida, Rhode Island, Arizona State, UAB

Next four out: New Mexico, Ohio State, Mississippi, Southern Illinois

Moving in: Saint Joseph’s, Syracuse, UC Santa Barbara, Utah State, Winthrop

Moving out: Arizona State, Boise State, Cal State Northridge, Florida, UNC Asheville

Multi-bid leagues: Big East (9), Big 12 (6), ACC (6), SEC (5), Pac-10 (5), Big Ten (4), Atlantic 10 (3), Missouri Valley (2), Mountain West (2), West Coast (2)

--- Patrick Stevens

It's been a nasty flu season. And Maryland apparently is taking another hit or two.

The Terps have already played without Cliff Tucker for a stretch, pretty much quarantining him for a game while he battled the flu last month. And Bambale Osby got sick as well, with an ear infection making his life miserable for about a week.

And now ...

"This is certainly another test for us to see how strong we are mentally as well as physically," coach Gary Williams said today. "We have had some flu problems this week as it's gone along. I don't want to be specific a to what players have had it, but that's been out there. It makes it tough. That's part of a season. A season is a long time. You go through things you have to get out of if you expect to do well. I think we'll be in good shape to play Sunday."

Someone (or someones) has a built-in reason for a shaky performance in the regular-season finale at Virginia. Let the guessing games begin as to who (if anyone) might produce an understandable but still poorly timed clunker in C-ville.

--- Patrick Stevens

Just wanted to make a mention of the Virginia-Princeton game that will be simulcast on ESPN tomorrow afternoon. Yes, the mother ship is picking up a regular season lacrosse game --- and in the midst of basketball championship week, no less. In another three weeks, Virginia-Maryland will be carried live on ESPN2.

Will either of these be ratings blockbusters? Almost certainly not. But if you go back a little more than a decade, even a game of the week package on a Baltimore station was a huge deal. It probably doesn't need to be said, but the sport has come a long way.

Player to watch: Alex Hewit, Princeton. The Tigers goalie was lit up in the first half against Johns Hopkins last weekend and will be eager for a chance to rebound against No. 3 Virginia. Princeton came back to make it 14-9 after trailing 8-0, and Cavaliers coach Dom Starsia is wary of what awaits him in New Jersey.

"I would tell you the last time I saw Princeton get beat like that was in 1996 when we beat them like that and they went on to win the national championship," Starsia said. "For our younger players, I told them 'This is a very dangerous lacrosse team. It’s a little bit wounded right now emotionally."

In case anyone was wondering, "emotionally wounded" plus "Bill Tierney" equals a dicey proposition for Princeton's next opponent. The Tigers only have one final four trip in the last five years to their credit, but it would be no surprise if they upended Virginia tomorrow. (Virginia at Princeton, noon, ESPN, ESPNU)

Team to watch: Georgetown. The Hoyas bounced back nicely from an opening loss to trounce St. John's. Now comes a Sunday afternoon trip to the Dome. Syracuse very much looks like it is back, and the Hoyas might just be the sort of team to engage the Orange in an up-and-down affair on the turf. It's also an important game for Georgetown since its opportunities for top-10 victories are not remarkably high the rest of the way: Duke and maybe at Navy. Dave Urick's team could use a high-profile victory as a late-season fallback. (Georgetown at Syracuse, Sunday, 3:30 p.m.).

Game to watch: Notre Dame at North Carolina, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. The Fighting Irish have responded quite well to the suspension of attackman Will Yeatman. The Tar Heels have shown a fair bit of fortitude --- not always the trait associated with this program in the last decade --- while dismissing Denver and Cornell. Both teams are undefeated and should continue to be factors after their showdown at Fetzer Field. Carolina has plenty of chances for big victories in the coming weeks --- Duke, at Maryland, at Hopkins, Virginia --- and will have some wiggle room entering that stretch with a second straight quality win.

--- Patrick Stevens

A light but still significant schedule last night. Here's some quick hitters.

The night's biggest winner was Illinois State, the No. 2 seed in the Missouri Valley. The Redbirds shook off pesky Missouri State (in what was likely Barry Hinson's final game as coach of the Bears) to improve to 22-8. Illinois State has more going for it --- 7-5 on the road, 6-5 vs. the top 100, 105th ranked nonconference schedule, 9-3 in the last 12, only one home loss (to Drake) all season --- than it has going against it (questionable losses at Indiana State, Northern Iowa and especially Eastern Michigan, best win is a sweep of Southern Illinois).

If the Redbirds beat Northern Iowa today, they'll probably solidify their spot in the field.

It can still be said no No. 1 seeds have been harmed in conference tournaments. Austin Peay and Belmont survived yesterday and avoided taking a spot in the NIT (please take note, all NIT bracketologists). Drake also won in the Missouri Valley.

A subtle winner last night was Rider, the No. 2 seed in the MAAC tournament. The Broncs, led by NBA-bound senior forward Jason Thompson, will get bottom-feeding Canisius in tonight's quarterfinal after the Golden Griffins surprised Iona.

The night's biggest loser was clearly Southern Illinois, which had a slim chance of making an at-large case for itself. Instead, the Salukis lost to Northern Iowa and will miss the tournament for the first time since 2001. Still lurking in the Valley, however, is Creighton. The Bluejays have won six of the last nine conference tournaments and get a shot at Drake today in St. Louis --- and will need to win it to have any plausible NCAA hopes.

--- Patrick Stevens

In lieu of going with a full bracket over the next few days, here's a look at how the bottom of one man's at-large board looks heading into Saturday's play.

NEXT FOUR IN

27. Arizona
28. Illinois State
29. Kentucky
30. Virginia Tech

LAST FOUR IN

31. Villanova
32. Saint Joseph's
33. Syracuse
34. Maryland

LAST FOUR OUT

35. Florida
36. Rhode Island
37. Arizona State
38. UAB

NEXT FOUR OUT

39. New Mexico
40. Ohio State
41. Mississippi
42. Temple

ANOTHER FOUR OUT

43. Houston
44. Oregon
45. Dayton
46. Southern Illinois

--- Patrick Stevens

After taking a shot at three different eras, it's time to move onto 1987-1995. This stretch should just be referred to as the Rise of K, and I'm not talking about Tommy Lee Jones' character from "Men In Black."

It was surprising looking back just how good Kenny Anderson and Chris Corchiani were at point guard, especially in comparison to Bobby Hurley. Anderson was clearly asked to do more than those two guys were, and he certainly did. He was a consensus All-American as a sophomore, and for his all-around game, he was the best point guard of the era in the conference.

I imagine if Corchiani and Hurley flipped schools, Corchiani would be more revered, mitigating any talk about what a "winner" Hurley was. So I'll take the overlooked Wolfpack star and his eye-popping 2.6 assist-to-turnover ratio for my second team.

Corchiani's running mate, Rodney Monroe, is in the first team backcourt. State hasn't seen a guard as good as either of them in the last 15 years, though Julius Hodge (arguably a forward) was above average and Anthony Grundy was superlative for about six weeks as a senior.

It's an all-Duke frontcourt on the first team. There are no arguments for the accomplishments of Grant Hill, Danny Ferry and Christian Laettner.

I am a firm believer that for three days, Randolph Childress was a deity among men in 1995. His ACC tournament performance that year (outings of 40, 30 and 37 points), coupled with two strong seasons to end his career, lands him on the second team with do-it-all swingman Bryant Stith from Virginia.

The frontcourt on the second team includes Wake Forest's Rodney Rogers, another one of those forgotten stars, and Maryland center Joe Smith. Yes, Smith really was that good a college player. He might be the fourth best center in ACC history; unfortunately, two of the other guys were either a contemporary (Tim Duncan) or a near-contemporary (Laettner).

The third team features Hurley, Lethal Weapon 3's Dennis Scott from Georgia Tech and North Carolina's Kenny Smith in the backcourt. I'll snag Maryland's Walt Williams and Clemson's Horace Grant as my forwards.

The coach is obviously Mike Krzyzewski. A couple national titles will do that for you.

1st team

G Kenny Anderson, Georgia Tech: 23.0 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 7.0 apg, 1.8 a/to, 47.3 FG%, 78.7 FT%
G Rodney Monroe, N.C. State: 20.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 2.4 apg, 45.7 FG%, 83.6 FT%
F Grant Hill, Duke: 14.9 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 3.6 apg, 1.45 a/to, 53.2 FG%, 71.6 FT%
F Danny Ferry, Duke: 15.1 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 3.5 apg, 48.4 FG%, 78.5 FT%
F/C Christian Laettner, Duke: 16.6 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 1.8 apg, 57.4 FG%, 80.6 FT%

2nd team

G Chris Corchiani, N.C. State: 11.5 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 8.4 apg, 2.6 a/to, 46.3 FG%, 82.2 FT%
G Randolph Childress, Wake Forest: 18.4 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.9 apg, 44.6 FG%, 80.4 FT%
G Bryant Stith, Virginia: 19.2 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.6 apg, 48.3 FG%, 78.9 FT%
F Rodney Rogers, Wake Forest: 19.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 2.2 apg, 57.9 FG%, 69.4 FT%
C Joe Smith, Maryland: 20.2 ppg, 10.7 rpg, 1.0 apg, 3.0 bpg, 55.1 FG%, 73.8 FT%

Coach: Mike Krzyzewski (6 Final Fours, 2 ACC titles, 2 national titles)

Here's Kevin Brewer's team:

First team

PG Bobby Hurley, Duke: 12.4 points, 7.7 assists, 40.5 3-point shooting
SG Rodney Monroe, N.C. State: 20.6 points, 43.6 3-point shooting, 83.6 free throw shooting
F Grant Hill, Duke: 14.9 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 54.6 2-point shooting
F Danny Ferry, Duke: 15.1 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists
C Christian Laettner, Duke: 16.6 points, 7.8 rebounds, 58.6 2-point shooting, 80.6 FT shooting

Second team

PG Chris Corchiani, N.C. State: 11.5 points, 8.4 assists, 82.1 FT shooting
SG Bryant Stith, Virginia: 19.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 51.1 2-point shooting
F Rodney Rogers, Wake Forest: 19.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, 61.3 2-point shooting
F Horace Grant, Clemson: 13.9 points, 8.0 rebounds, 59.8 FG shooting
C Joe Smith, Maryland: 20.2 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.09 blocks

Coach: Mike Krzyzewski, Duke: two ACC titles, six Final Fours, two national titles

And Kevin's argument for his team:

From 1987 to 1995, Duke went to six Final Fours, became the first team to win consecutive national titles since 1973 and produced four players on the era's first team.

Christian Laettner is on the short list of best players in ACC history. The big shots, the stomp to the chest of Aminu Timberlake, love him or hate him, Laettner was a star.

The versatile forwards are Danny Ferry and Grant Hill. As a sophomore, Hill played five games at point guard for the injured Bobby Hurley and averaged 16.4 points and 5.6 assists. The next season, he was the nation's defensive player of the year.

Point guard was the toughest call on the board. Hurley gets the edge over Chris Corchiani, Kenny Smith, Kenny Anderson and Randolph Childress because of his team's success.

Corchiani takes the spot on the second team, even though he was never first team all-conference, a fact more revealing of the voters than his play.

But consider Corchiani’s career line: 11.5 points, 8.4 assists, 3.2 turnovers, 2.1 rebounds, 2.65 steals, 48.9 2-point shooting, 40.8 3-point shooting, 82.2 free throw shooting.

Hurley: 12.4 points, 7.7 assists, 3.8 turnovers, 2.2 rebounds, 1.46 steals, 41.5 2-point shooting, 40.5 3-point shooting, 77.6 free throw shooting.

Hurley holds a clear advantage in one category: teammates.

Shooting guard Rodney Monroe is the only non-Duke player on the first team. Bryant Stith is the shooter on the second team, edging out Dennis Scott.

Joe Smith is the only two-year player on the team, edging out Elden Campbell and Dale Davis of Clemson at center. Instead, forward Horace Grant is the Tigers' representative.

I watched Rodney Rogers consummate two breakaway reverse dunks against N.C. State in Reynolds Coliseum.

Mike Krzyzewski is the coach, the best coach since John Wooden.

--- Patrick Stevens

This comes from the cutting room floor of my story for tomorrow, which explores both the bad bubble and the pleas of coaches to expand the NCAA tournament. There's a disconnect there, obviously.

Maryland obviously gets a mention, but when I talked to collegerpi.com's Jerry Palm on Thursday, the Terps weren't the focus of the entire discussion. But they did come up, and he pointed to their biggest coup -- the Jan. 19 win at North Carolina.

"If that's all they have, somebody is probably going to come and take their bid," Palm said. "If they don't have anything else, they can probably start making plans for the NIT."

The inference there is Palm believes Maryland probably needs three more victories. The Terps play Virginia tomorrow. A win gets them the No. 5 seed and a date with N.C. State. A victory over the Wolfpack would get them a shot at the loser of tomorrow's Clemson-Virginia Tech game.

(At this point, pretty much everyone agrees Maryland would be in dire straits if it lost at Virginia tomorrow).

It's still a lot of conjecture at this point, but Palm's as well-versed in this stuff as anyone.

More on the ACC, the CAA tournament (where I'm at right now) and more in the next 24 hours.

-- Patrick Stevens

Ever driven a few hours and felt just a bit drowsy?

Here's one way to shake that: Get hit in the head with a basketball.

Indeed, with my head buried in my laptop looking at scores like Belmont-Jacksonville and Cornell-Princeton, a ball got loose from George Mason's warmups and conked me in the noggin here at the CAA tournament in Richmond.

Finally, a legitimate reason to miss deadline! Short-term memory loss!

What was I talking about again?

Oh yeah, not paying attention to flying basketballs. That still seems like a better fate than having Mike Jones crash into your laptop during an NIT game. Or Bambale Osby step on it during an NCAA tournament game in Buffalo.

At least I know the Official Dot Com Diva would be able to commiserate.

More a bit later on, once I get myself refocused.

--- Patrick Stevens

A look at the seeding situation in the ACC tournament heading into today's final two games: Virginia Tech-Clemson and Maryland-Virginia:

No. 1: North Carolina
No. 2: Duke
No. 3: Virginia Tech-Clemson winner
No. 4: Virginia Tech-Clemson loser
No. 5: Maryland with a Maryland win; Miami with a Maryland loss
No. 6: Miami with a Maryland win; Maryland with a Maryland loss
No. 7: Georgia Tech
No. 8: Wake Forest
No. 9: Florida State
No. 10: Virginia
No. 11: Boston College
No. 12: N.C. State

--- Patrick Stevens

A big flurry of activity. Here's who helped themselves (and hurt Maryland) and vice versa:

MOVING UP

For some teams, it was an "erase all doubt" day. Among those who shouldn't be sweating are West Virginia, Baylor, Oklahoma, Mississippi State, Kansas State and Arkansas. Most of them were in great shape anyway; now, they just don't have to hear about bad possibilities this week.

UNLV, Massachusetts, New Mexico , Villanova and Arizona State didn't trip up.

Dayton continued its trip back from the dead, beating Saint Joseph's in the Flyers' airplane hangar to win their third straight. Dayton still has those victories over Pittsburgh and Louisville; now what the Flyers need are victories over Saint Louis and Xavier to open the A-10 tournament. At 20-9 (8-8 in the league), things suddenly look a lot brighter for Dayton.

Speaking of the A-10, Temple maintained its surge, beating La Salle to earn the No. 2 seed in the league tournament.

Mississippi will have to be reckoned with at some point. The Rebels won at Georgia to move to 7-9 in the SEC and 21-9. They'll face the Bulldogs again on Thursday in the SEC tournament.

Syracuse won't go quietly. The Orange almost predictably took out Marquette, and are now off to Carrier Dome East (MSG) to solidify their resume.

Oregon is back in play after sweeping two games this week, including yesterday's victory over Arizona.

No huge surprises in the three conference title games. Winthrop, Austin Peay and Belmont all win. UNC Asheville and 7-foot-7 Kenny George becomes the first team to lock itself into the NIT. They could be coming to a major conference arena near you in another week and a half.

In the tournaments still in progress, Davidson and Virginia Commonwealth won quarterfinals, while Drake and Illinois State won their Valley semifinals and Butler won a Horizon semifinal.

MOVING DOWN

No team is more confounding than Arizona. The Wildcats are 18-13, but have a great profile on paper. They really could have used a win at Oregon to avoid a Pac-10 tournament play-in game. They'll get roadkill Oregon State in the opener, then Stanford. Losing to Oregon State would be the basketball equivalent of walking around with a scarlet letter.

People want to say Miami is a bubble team. I'm not really buying it. The Hurricanes played well early, played well late and have a signature victory and a great RPI. Their seeding might get damaged with a quick flameout in the ACC tournament, but they're probably safely in the field even after losing at Florida State yesterday.

Conference USA took it on the chin yesterday, with both UAB and Houston losing games. Neither team is all that accomplished, and you've got to do something even in a bad year for the field. "Something" does not include being down 28 at the half to Memphis (like UAB was) or losing at Texas-El Paso (as Houston did).

Saint Joseph's did not need to lose at Dayton. They're right back in a precarious position, and they'd be wise to beat Fordham and Richmond in the A-10 tournament. The first two days of that event will be utter madness, with a bubble team potentially playing in all but one of the first eight games of the tournament.

Creighton joins Southern Illinois on the sideline as traditional Valley powers that are NIT bound.

A team continuing a long slide was Texas A&M. The Aggies have dropped five of seven, but still have victories over Kansas and Texas to their credit. They'd be wise not to lose to a Nebraska/Missouri/Iowa State type to open Big 12 tournament play.

Rhode Island really must not want to make the tournament. The Rams tumbled to Charlotte, and get the 49ers again on Wednesday.

--- Patrick Stevens

NEXT FOUR IN

27. Illinois State
28. Kentucky
29. Villanova
30. Arizona

LAST FOUR IN

31. Virginia Tech
32. Syracuse
33. Arizona State
34. Maryland

LAST FOUR OUT

35. Florida
36. Saint Joseph's
37. New Mexico
38. Oregon

NEXT FOUR OUT

39. Mississippi
40. Ohio State
41. Temple
42. Dayton

ANOTHER FOUR OUT

43. UAB
44. Rhode Island
45. Florida State
46. Western Kentucky

--- Patrick Stevens

UMBC has played in three leagues over the last 15 years --- the Big South, the Northeast and the America East --- and all of them at this point play their conference finals on the home court of the highest remaining seed.

The Retrievers have never made it that far (let alone been a No. 1 seed), so there's never been any concern about the main use of their home floor in mid-March --- as the home of the Maryland state girls basketball championships.

Until this year. And until today, when the Retrievers bested Vermont in the AE semifinals.

So what's the answer? Well, Maryland's state high school association said late last month it would work around any scheduling conflicts.

I'm pretty sure UMBC coach Randy Monroe would like a heavy demand to use the RAC Arena up in Catonsville in March to remain for several years.

--- Patrick Stevens

Maryland probably didn't want a Dorenzo Hudson situation on the court tonight.

So two guys were left at home for the trip to Virginia.

Shane Walker and Dino Gregory are both battling the flu, and become the third and fourth Terps to miss a game because of illness in the last month.

--- Patrick Stevens

Who says sportswriters don't have accountability?

I dredged up the projected records for the dozen teams in the ACC today. And needless to say, it was a far from perfect exercise.

Some of the picks were fairly spot on. Others (N.C. State, Virginia and Virginia Tech), not so much.

So here's a then-and-now, in the preseason order of predicted finish.

North Carolina

Prediction: 27-4, 13-3 ACC
Actual: 29-2, 14-2 ACC
Looking back: This was pretty much on target. The Tar Heels didn't wind up playing Louisville in Las Vegas back in November, and there weren't as many really good teams in the league as expected.

N.C. State

Prediction: 22-8, 10-6 ACC
Actual: 15-15, 4-12 ACC
Looking back: Oops. Things didn't go well in Raleigh. There were point guard issues, the frontcourt didn't mesh as well as it should have and the season ended in a tailspin. This is a cautionary tale for reading too much into surprising runs the previous March.

Duke

Prediction: 22-8, 10-6 ACC
Actual: 26-4, 13-3 ACC
Looking back: Didn't give Coach K his due, which is really dumb. Probably should have set the Blue Devils at least at 11-5. Some of their success also gets credited to a weaker than expected middle of the pack.

Virginia

Prediction: 19-10, 9-7 ACC
Actual: 15-14, 5-11 ACC
Looking back: OK, so Sean Singletary couldn't carry a team with spotty-to-nonexistent frontcourt on his own. Lesson learned. The Cavaliers' freshmen struggled mightily in January, and that is the reason for much of the discrepancy.

Maryland

Prediction: 22-9, 9-7 ACC
Actual: 18-13, 8-8 ACC
Looking back: The nonconference losses to American and Ohio account for half the difference. The rest? Pick your poison. Inconsistency all over the place and an inability to effectively close out games cost the Terps at least four games -- if not more.

Clemson

Prediction: 20-10, 8-8 ACC
Actual: 22-8, 10-6 ACC
Looking back: The anticipated free throws problems weren't as costly, and the non-Duke-and-UNC portion of the league didn't poach the Tigers as much as expected. Basically, to invoke Dennis Green, Clemson was who we thought they were.

Boston College

Prediction: 17-12, 8-8 ACC
Actual: 13-16, 4-12 ACC
Looking back: I expected BC to get better as the season progressed, in part because of Al Skinner on the sideline. The Eagles did not, losing 12 of their last 13. I'll take solace in projecting their nonconference record (9-4) on the button.

Georgia Tech

Prediction: 17-13, 8-8 ACC
Actual: 14-16, 7-9 ACC
Looking back: Didn't think the Yellow Jackets would lose to UNC Greensboro or depleted Georgia. This was almost a reverse Boston College -- a good idea of how a team would be late, but not quite accurate early on.

Miami

Prediction: 16-14, 6-10 ACC
Actual: 21-9, 8-8 ACC
Looking back: I'd feel bad, but nearly everyone else was further off in the preseason. A lot of the Hurricanes' young, athletic players improved greatly from last season to this year. Point guard questions weren't as glaring as anticipated, either.

Florida State

Prediction: 16-15, 5-11 ACC
Actual: 18-13, 7-9 ACC
Looking back: Another perfect nonconference projection. The Seminoles were probably a team that benefited from the middle of the pack not being so great. It's not a bad record for the year after Al Thornton left.

Virginia Tech

Prediction: 15-15, 5-11 ACC
Actual: 18-12, 9-7 ACC
Looking back: These guys fulfilled the uneven preseason expectations, and could have slipped into a rut after getting run off the floor at North Carolina last month. Instead, the Hokies won four straight and managed to create hope of an NCAA berth.

Wake Forest

Prediction: 14-15, 5-11 ACC
Actual: 17-12, 7-9 ACC
Looking back: There wasn't a stupid nonconference loss for a young team, and both James Johnson and Jeff Teague wound up even better than expected. If you're going to be wrong, it as well be while guessing incorrectly about freshmen.

--- Patrick Stevens

A quick rundown...

1. North Carolina (29-2)
2. Tennessee (28-3)
3. Memphis (30-1)
4. Kansas (28-3)
5. UCLA (28-3)
6. Texas (26-5)
7. Duke (26-4)
8. Wisconsin (26-4)
9. Georgetown (25-4)
10. Xavier (26-5)
11. Stanford (24-6)
12. Louisville (24-7)
13. Butler (28-3)
14. Purdue (24-7)
15. Notre Dame (24-6)
16. Connecticut (24-7)
17. Drake (28-4)
18. Gonzaga (25-6)
19. Vanderbilt (25-6)
20. Michigan State (24-7)
21. Mississippi State (21-9)
22. Indiana (25-6)
23. Davidson (25-6)
24. South Alabama (26-5)
25. Washington State (23-7)

26. Southern California (20-10)
27. Marquette (22-8)
28. Brigham Young (25-6)
20. Massachusetts (21-9)
30. Clemson (22-8)
31. Oklahoma (21-10)
32. Kansas State (20-10)
33. Miami (21-9)
34. Saint Mary's (25-6)
35. Pittsburgh (21-9)
36. Ohio State (19-12)
37. Kent State (24-6)
38. West Virginia (22-9)
39. New Mexico (24-7)
40. Baylor (21-9)

41. Kentucky (18-11)
42. Texas A&M (22-9)
43. UNLV (23-7)
44. Illinois State (24-9)
45. Villanova (19-11)

--- Patrick Stevens

As a time-saver, this will be done in list fashion for much of the next week. It's still not hard to match everything up. (*-automatic bid)

EAST

1. North Carolina*
2. Georgetown*
3. Wisconsin*
4. Vanderbilt
5. Butler*
6. Gonzaga*
7. Southern California
8. Oklahoma
9. West Virginia
10. Texas A&M
11. Kent State*
12. Syracuse
13. Illinois State
14. Belmont*
15. UMBC*
16. Alabama State*/ Sacred Heart*

SOUTH

1. Tennessee*
2. Duke
3. Louisville
4. Purdue
5. Washington State
6. Michigan State
7. Kansas State
8. Pittsburgh
9. South Alabama*
10. UNLV
11. Arizona
12. Saint Joseph’s
13. George Mason*
14. Siena*
15. American*
16. Morgan State*

MIDWEST

1. Memphis*
2. Kansas
3. Stanford
4. Notre Dame
5. Indiana
6. Clemson
7. Mississippi State
8. Baylor
9. Saint Mary’s
10. Massachusetts
11. Villanova
12. Arizona State
13. Oral Roberts*
14. Utah State*
15. Austin Peay*
16. Winthrop*

WEST REGION

1. Texas*
2. UCLA*
3. Xavier*
4. Connecticut
5. Drake*
6. Marquette
7. Brigham Young*
8. Miami
9. Kentucky
10. Arkansas
11. Ohio State
12. Davidson*
13. Stephen F. Austin*
14. Cornell*
15. UC Santa Barbara*
16. Portland State*

NEXT-TO-LAST FOUR IN

27. Texas A&M
28. Arizona
29. Ohio State
30. Villanova

LAST FOUR IN

31. Arizona State
32. Syracuse
33. Illinois State
34. Saint Joseph’s

LAST FOUR OUT

35. Virginia Commonwealth
36. New Mexico
37. Mississippi
38. Virginia Tech

NEXT FOUR OUT

39. Oregon
40. Dayton
41. Florida
42. Maryland

FOUR MORE OUT

43. Temple
44. Florida State
45. Rhode Island
46. UAB

Moving in: George Mason, Ohio State, Sacred Heart, Saint Joseph's

Moving out: Maryland, Robert Morris, Virginia Commonwealth, Virginia Tech

--- Patrick Stevens

Well, there's something in the apparent wreckage of Maryland's season.

Both James Gist and Greivis Vasquez were named to the All-ACC second team.

All-conference selections, like conference RPI, are not factors for NCAA tournament selection, so it only helps the Terps so much.

--- Patrick Stevens

Remember the hullabuloo two years ago when Maryland coach Gary Williams said his team was declining an NIT berth, only to reverse course a few minutes later and accept a berth because the tournament had a contract signed by athletic department administrators.

Well it shouldn't happen again. The declining-the-bid part, anyway.

"If we do not make NCAA, we'll play in the NIT," Maryland senior associate athletic director for external operations and eternal optimist Brian Ullmann said today.

The mix-up two years ago made it necessary to ask what would typically be a common-sense question. But so too did the emergence of the 16-team College Basketball Invitational.

There are two obvious reasons why Ullmann's reply makes a world of sense. Maryland is 18-13 and likely needs a deep run in the ACC tournament to have even a chance at the NCAA tournament. An athletic department has to plan for contingencies, even if they aren't that pleasant.

As for the CBI, it is run by the Gazelle Group. The NIT is run by the NCAA. It makes little sense for any school to trifle with the new tournament at the risk of irritating the NCAA. And as frustrating as Maryland has been of late, the Terps would still have some appeal for the NIT (even though they did bomb out against Manhattan in 2006).

--- Patrick Stevens

If you read this at 2 p.m., it will already be out-of-date.

Just another reason to love this week, arguably the best on the sporting calendar.

EAST REGION

Raleigh, N.C.

(1) ACC/North Carolina vs. (16) SWAC/Alabama State-NEC/Sacred Heart
(8) Oklahoma vs. (9) West Virginia

Tampa, Fla.

(4) Vanderbilt vs. (13) WCC/San Diego
(5) HORIZON/Butler vs. (12) Syracuse

Omaha, Neb.

(3) BIG TEN/Wisconsin vs. (14) ATLANTIC SUN/Belmont
(6) Southern California vs. (11) New Mexico

Birmingham, Ala.

(2) BIG EAST/Georgetown vs. (15) AMERICA EAST/UMBC
(7) Gonzaga vs. (10) Texas A&M

SOUTH REGION

Birmingham, Ala.

(1) SEC/Tennessee vs. (16) MEAC/Morgan State
(8) Pittsburgh vs. (9) Massachusetts

Denver

(4) Purdue vs. (13) SUN BELT/Western Kentucky
(5) Washington State vs. (12) CAA/George Mason

Washington, D.C.

(3) Louisville vs. (14) MAAC/Siena
(6) Michigan State vs. (11) Arizona

Raleigh, N.C.

(2) Duke vs. (15) PATRIOT/American
(7) Kansas State vs. (10) UNLV

MIDWEST REGION

Little Rock, Ark.

(1) CONFERENCE USA/Memphis vs. (16) BIG SOUTH/Winthrop
(8) Baylor vs. (9) Saint Mary's

Denver

(4) Notre Dame vs. (13) SUMMIT/Oral Roberts
(5) Indiana vs. (12) Arizona State

Anaheim, Calif.

(3) Stanford vs. (14) WAC/Utah State
(6) Clemson vs. (11) Villanova

Omaha, Neb.

(2) Kansas vs. (15) OVC/Austin Peay
(7) Mississippi State vs. (10) MAC/Kent State

WEST REGION

Little Rock, Ark.

(1) BIG 12/Texas vs. (16) BIG SKY/Portland State
(8) Miami vs. (9) Kentucky

Tampa, Fla.

(4) Connecticut vs. (13) SOUTHLAND/Stephen F. Austin
(5) MVC/Drake vs. (12) Ohio State

Washington D.C.

(3) ATLANTIC 10/Xavier vs. (14) IVY/Cornell
(6) Marquette vs. (11) SOUTHERN/Davidson

Anaheim, Calif.

(2) PAC-10/UCLA vs. (15) BIG WEST/UC Santa Barbara
(7) MOUNTAIN WEST/Brigham Young vs. (10) Arkansas

LAST FOUR IN

31. Villanova
32. Arizona State
33. Syracuse
34. New Mexico

LAST FOUR OUT

35. Saint Joseph's
36. South Alabama
37. Mississippi
38. Illinois State

NEXT FOUR OUT

39. Virginia Commonwealth
40. Virginia Tech
41. Oregon
42. Dayton

FOUR MORE OUT

41. Florida
42. Maryland
43. Temple
44. Florida State

--- Patrick Stevens

I wrote a few weeks ago about Dave Neal's interest in bracketology. So it seemed reasonable to ask him what he thought of a handful of bubble teams from around the country after today's practice session at Charlotte Bobcats Arena.

Sure enough, Neal didn't shy away from any team he's had a decent chance to get a look at this season.

South Alabama: "I think they're going to get in."

Syracuse: "No, they're done."

Villanova: "I think if Villanova gives Georgetown a run for their money, I think they'll get in."

Saint Joseph's: "I don't think so."

Ohio State: "I think they have to win at least one in the Big Ten tournament to get in."

Florida: "I don't think so."

Kentucky: "I think the one team that's going to sneak in there is Kentucky. They're a good team and Billy Gillispie has them playing well."

As for his Terrapins?

"I think we need to win two and give Duke a run and we should be in because there's a lot of bubble teams," Neal said. "There's a lot of mid-major teams that are losing in their conference [tournaments] that are guaranteed in. If we come out here and take care of business, I think we have an easy path and we should be fine."

--- Patrick Stevens

The ACC tournament already has its first upset.

Bambale Osby put an end to Maryland's practice session this afternoon.

That might not seem like much, but the Terps have a tradition of ending practices the day before a game with a halfcourt shooting contest. The practice is officially over when someone actually makes one.

And today, Osby did it. In the first attempt. Not just for himself, but for the team.

"First one. First one of my career," Osby beamed. "The freshmen have been winning them lately and we had to bring it to an end."

But not all was well. Forward James Gist couldn't believe what had transpired. Boom? With a halfcourt heave? Before his fellow senior even had a crack it?

"Oh, man. I didn't even get a chance," Gist said with a stunned grin. "I wanted to get a shot up. Usually we go around two or three times around before someone makes it. That's his first one. Usually, he doesn't even get it near the rim."

Sophomore guard Eric Hayes was a bit more magnanimous, though also more blunt about the well-coiffed big man's range.

"Boom's never even come close to making one," Hayes said. "I was happy for him that he made one finally because it's one of his last chances to do it."

If he tries that in a game, he probably won't get another chance in any setting.

Photo by Associated Press

--- Patrick Stevens

This post is no good without video. And I didn't have the equipment to provide that sort of complement to this blog from the ACC tournament.

But I saw something truly amazing during Maryland's session --- Dave Neal slamming home an off-the-backboard dunk.

Now, I like Neal. I like his bracketology interest, like his wry way of looking at a lot of things. But if you asked me to list the Terps in order of likelihood of making an off-the-glass slam, he probably wouldn't make the top 10.

And I probably wouldn't have been wrong.

"That's the first," Neal said. "I don't know where it came from. I thought I'd try something different. Luckily it went in."

And what would have happened if it didn't?

"I guess I kind of embarrass myself a little bit," Neal said. "But I tried to make it fun a little bit."

Another Terp who can offer some wry insight under the right circumstances is Eric Hayes. And Hayes hit just the right note while analyzing Neal's feat.

"I thought he was capable of it, but he's got to have the right timing and everything set up in a line for it to happen," Hayes said. "But it happened out there."

Just don't bet on it happening again.

--- Patrick Stevens

Syracuse is out. So is Sacred Heart. Mount St. Mary's is in. So is Saint Joseph's --- for now. Ask around 5 p.m. if that's still the case.

The team I'm watching (from afar) today is Mississippi. (OK, I'm not going to be watching them since they play at the same time Maryland does). But nevertheless, they are the most difficult team to figure in the field. Lots of good wins, great nonconference record, but a 7-9 mark in a bad SEC division and a poor road record. The Rebels must beat Georgia tonight. If that happens, it's a near-lock Mississippi will be one of the most hotly debated teams come Sunday.

EAST REGION

Raleigh, N.C.

(1) ACC/North Carolina vs. (16) SWAC/Alabama State-NEC/Mount St. Mary's
(8) Oklahoma vs. (9) West Virginia

Tampa, Fla.

(4) Vanderbilt vs. (13) WCC/San Diego
(5) HORIZON/Butler vs. (12) Saint Joseph's

Omaha, Neb.

(3) BIG TEN/Wisconsin vs. (14) ATLANTIC SUN/Belmont
(6) Southern California vs. (11) New Mexico

Birmingham, Ala.

(2) BIG EAST/Georgetown vs. (15) AMERICA EAST/UMBC
(7) Gonzaga vs. (10) Texas A&M

SOUTH REGION

Birmingham, Ala.

(1) SEC/Tennessee vs. (16) MEAC/Morgan State
(8) Pittsburgh vs. (9) Massachusetts

Denver

(4) Purdue vs. (13) SUN BELT/Western Kentucky
(5) Washington State vs. (12) CAA/George Mason

Washington, D.C.

(3) Louisville vs. (14) MAAC/Siena
(6) Michigan State vs. (11) Arizona

Raleigh, N.C.

(2) Duke vs. (15) PATRIOT/American
(7) Kansas State vs. (10) UNLV

MIDWEST REGION

Little Rock, Ark.

(1) CONFERENCE USA/Memphis vs. (16) BIG SOUTH/Winthrop
(8) Baylor vs. (9) Saint Mary's

Denver

(4) Notre Dame vs. (13) SUMMIT/Oral Roberts
(5) Indiana vs. (12) Arizona State

Anaheim, Calif.

(3) Stanford vs. (14) WAC/Utah State
(6) Clemson vs. (11) Villanova

Omaha, Neb.

(2) Kansas vs. (15) OVC/Austin Peay
(7) Mississippi State vs. (10) MAC/Kent State

WEST REGION

Little Rock, Ark.

(1) BIG 12/Texas vs. (16) BIG SKY/Portland State
(8) Miami vs. (9) Kentucky

Tampa, Fla.

(4) Connecticut vs. (13) SOUTHLAND/Stephen F. Austin
(5) MVC/Drake vs. (12) Ohio State

Washington D.C.

(3) ATLANTIC 10/Xavier vs. (14) IVY/Cornell
(6) Marquette vs. (11) SOUTHERN/Davidson

Anaheim, Calif.

(2) PAC-10/UCLA vs. (15) BIG WEST/UC Santa Barbara
(7) MOUNTAIN WEST/Brigham Young vs. (10) Arkansas

LAST FOUR IN

31. Ohio State
32. Arizona State
33. New Mexico
34. Saint Joseph's

LAST FOUR OUT

35. South Alabama
36. Mississippi
37. Illinois State
38. Virginia Commonwealth

NEXT FOUR OUT

39. Virginia Tech
40. Oregon
41. Dayton
42. Syracuse

FOUR MORE OUT

41. Florida
42. Maryland
43. Temple
44. Florida State

--- Patrick Stevens

Yep, it's ACC tournament time. The first of two quadrupleheaders tips off in a few minutes. The Wake Forest is band is playing its catchy fight song. Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton is still searching for the moving target that is the NCAA tournament. Sean Hull, Gary Maxwell and Jamie Luckie will be officiating the first game. Billy Packer has color commentary on the Raycom broadcast. And I'm buckling up for a looooong day of basketball.

I'll be among those closing down the joint, too. Maryland-Boston College is the final game of the day, and this place could well be empty by halftime of what will likely be a 9:40 p.m. tip. Two years ago, you could clearly hear Gary Williams screaming at his players while sitting on the other side of the floor.

That was a 3-6 game. This is a 6-11 game. And there's no bump from having a Carolina school play the game before; Virginia-Georgia Tech will precede the Terps' game.

"There will be about 10 people here," longtime Maryland booster Jack Heise said yesterday during the Terps' practice session. "I'll be here."

At least Garyland South's population won't be zero tonight.

--- Patrick Stevens

Already had an entertaining moment here in Charlotte.

Wake Forest center David Weaver launched a 3-pointer from the top of the circle. You could tell it wasn't a good idea since all of the Demon Deacons fans --- who at this point are easily the largest contingent in the building --- could be heard groaning in dismay.

Except for the fact Weaver actually made it, improving to 2-for-2 this season. Not bad for a 6-foot-10 guy who probably shouldn't have taken that shot.

"Now he can go down as the greatest 3-point shooter in ACC history," intoned Billy Packer, who is sitting three feet in front of me.

Florida State's up 15-11 in the battle for the right to be cannon fodder for North Carolina tomorrow, and we've had our first plug for Southern restaurant chain Bojangle's with a little less than 13 minutes remaining. It won't be the last time that place is mentioned during this tournament --- either on air or on this blog.

--- Patrick Stevens

Charlotte dry cleaners are big N.C. State fans this week.

Sidney Lowe has brought out his bright red jacket again.

The Wolfpack made it to the the title game as a No. 10 seed last year, Lowe's first back at State. He wore the red jacket every game.

So far, Miami is up 4-2 at the under-16 timeout.

Jason Rich just got done dropping 22 on Wake Forest in the opener. So Florida State gets North Carolina in what will be a much more juiced environment.

At least things have filled in some here. The No. 12 seed has won the 5-12 game in back-to-back years. But I like Miami to prevent it from becoming three.

--- Patrick Stevens

Two more teams to stick a fork in are Dayton and UAB. I do so to Dayton with reluctance, given the Flyers' midseason injuries and impressive victories over Pittsburgh and Louisville. But they really needed a victory over Xavier, and they didn't get it.

Meanwhile, UAB really didn't do much other than knock off Houston and almost beat Memphis. The Blazers lost to Tulsa today, pretty much ending their slim chances. It's a shame Robert Vaden will be stuck in the NIT, but his team's body of work is pretty sparse.

Miami's up 24-17 at halftime over N.C. State here in Charlotte. To call the quality of play "subpar" is probably accurate. The score is also about where it should be with these two teams.

--- Patrick Stevens

The great thing about having the ACC tournament is getting to play in front of an audience that usually appreciates it. Really, for the last 50 years, what better events were regularly contested in North Carolina?

(The other candidates are the NHL's Hurricanes, the NBA's Hornets and Bobcats, NASCAR's trips to Charlotte -- and back in the day, North Wilkesboro and Rockingham -- and a PGA Tour stop in Greensboro that Sam Snead won about 53 times.)

The bad thing is the the fans down here possess certain "mother bear tendencies" when it comes to the event. They're protective, and do not much like it when an outsider would dare to crash their party.

So with that in mind, it was entertaining when a Florida fan -- decked out in all sorts of Gators gear -- was named the winner of a promotion that brought the opportunity to attend a conference tournament of his choice this weekend during the Miami-N.C. State game.

The provincial crowd booed and hissed its protests, particularly after the fans declared he would be back in Charlotte for Sunday's final after ducking down to Atlanta for the SEC tournament.

Perhaps the crowd would have been better served saving its derision for the Wolfpack; in more than 28 minutes of action to that point, N.C. State had scored only 23 points.

-- Patrick Stevens

Well, Houston joined UAB on the Conference USA sideline and back in the NIT pool, which is where they belong with their empty profiles.

Now, does Arizona State wind up there, too, after losing to Southern California? That 9-12 record against the top 200 in the RPI and the 306th-ranked nonconference schedule is a deadly combination. They'll be out of the bracket tomorrow morning.

About to get underway with Virginia-Georgia Tech, which should be the day's most entertaining game. Sean Singletary on one side, a posse of athletes who have won three of four on the other. It's the one game I get to enjoy in pretty much the role of a fan with a really good seat, so I'm looking forward to it.

Bryan Kersey (who it seems like I've seen a dozen times this season, whether in the ACC or CAA), Les Jones and Brian Dorsey are the third game's officials.

--- Patrick Stevens

From Barker Davis, live from Madison Square Garden in NYC, here's a selection of the best quotes from yesterday's quarterfinals of the Big East tournament:

"Jessie normally plays well when he gets to give his momma a hug."
-- John Thompson III after junior guard and Harlem native Jessie Sapp tagged the Wildcats for a career-high 23 points on just 12 shots (6-of-9 from 3-point range).

"I feel pretty fresh."
-- West Virginia coach Bib Huggins when asked if fatigue would play a role in the Mountaineers' semifinal matchup against Georgetown. West Virginia has played two games in two days to Georgetown's one.

"It was beautiful, just very beautiful. How else do you describe 25 assists on 28 field goals?"
-- Georgetown's Jessie Sapp when asked to describe the team's offensive efficiency.

"Those Hoyas got lucky again."
-- Former Georgetown coach John Thompson Jr., serving up verbal crow in the Georgetown locker room to those (see Rick Pitino) who have repeatedly dismissed some of the Hoyas' success in close games as luck.

NEW YORK -- Georgetown freshman guard Chris Wright made his long-awaited Big East debut Thursday against Villanova, returning from a nagging foot injury that has kept him sidelined since before New Year's to give John Thompson III a major bump in backcourt depth and talent.

"It was good just to see him out there," said Georgetown junior guard Jessie Sapp (career-high 23 points). "I think he's going to make us all better basketball players. He actually got me started today."

Wright entered the game with 13:41 remaining in the first half and the Hoyas leading 14-10, and it took the 6-foot-1 McDonald's All-American from Bowie exactly seven seconds to notch his first Big East assist on a drive-and-kick that Sapp converted into the first of his career-high six triples. Wright scored his first points in league play on a 3-pointer from the right wing that put the Hoyas ahead 34-19 with 4:02 remaining in the first half and finished with six points, four assists and no turnovers in 15 minutes.

"I was just excited to finally get out there," said Wright, who was averaging nearly 18 minutes per game during Georgetown's non-conference schedule before aggravating his foot in practice prior to Georgetown's Big East opener at Rutgers (Jan. 5). "My foot feels fine."

Wright's return can't be underestimated.

* His presence gives coach John Thompson III the option to run against smaller, more athletic teams by giving him his best up-tempo backcourt option. It's no coincidence the Hoyas scored 82 points yesterday, the team's second-highest total against a Big East team this season.

* His availability gives Thompson another ball-handler against the press and pushes sophomore Jeremiah Rivers back a slot in the rotation. Rivers is an excellent defender but a massive liability on the offensive end. Once again, it's no coincidence that Rivers' minutes dropped precipitously in yesterday's game, in spite of the fact that it was a guard-centric affair. Rivers had been averaging over 19 minutes in Big East games but played just 10 against the Wildcats. With Wright as the team's third ball-handler, Rivers can return to his role as a lockdown defensive specialist.

* Finally, Wright gives the Hoyas their best dribble-drive option against zone defenses, an element to their attack which has been sorely lacking throughout the season. At least three times during yesterday's game, Wright knifed into the Villanova defense, beat his man, drew help and whipped a pass to an open teammate for an open look. That ability could prove invaluable to the team as the postseason progresses.

"We've missed him," said Thompson. "We've had to adjust and tweak and change a lot of things based on how I had anticipated playing during the course of the year... You saw plenty of flashes earlier this year of how good he can be, and I didn't think he showed many signs of rust out there today."

- Barker Davis

Highlight of the second half of the third game: Virginia's Sean Singletary received a nice ovation from the crowd after leaving with 20 points. The bad part for him: He and the Cavaliers (15-15) got run out of Charlotte in the second half, losing 94-76.

Don't be surprised if Georgia Tech gives Duke a nice run tomorrow. I saw those two at Cameron in maybe the season's most poorly officiated game. Both teams played poorly, and Duke only won by seven. On a pseudo-neutral court, the Yellow Jackets could fare quite a bit better.

FINALLY, it's time for Maryland to play. Tip off is looking like it will be at approximately 9:40 p.m. This game is ending past my bedtime, which makes me nearly as cranky as the hour-long power outage on press row. We've also had the wireless access conk out (thank heavens for the broadband card) and heretofore unconfirmed rumors the media shuttle will shut down at midnight, about the time Gary Williams will begin talking about this game.

Oh, wait, the power went out again. Could someone summon Benjamin Franklin from the ether to demonstrate how electricity works? No, OK, I'll just kill five minutes figuring out how to fix it myself.

This game's top official is none other than Ted Valentine. At least I'll be entertained at this late hour.

--- Patrick Stevens

The number of teams that apparently want to improve their tenuous postseason hopes and make the NCAA tournament does not seem to be a large one.

Yesterday's losers, in relatively chronological order: Villanova, Dayton, UAB, Arizona State, Baylor (in 2OT), Houston, Florida, Oregon, Massachusetts, Maryland, Mississippi (in OT), New Mexico (in OT), Arizona.

Yesterday's winners: Florida State, Saint Joseph's, Temple, Texas A&M, UNLV.

Wow. From yesterday's at-large board (with 34 teams in), Nos. 26, 29, 30, 32, 33, 36, 40, 41, 43, and 44 all lost.

Florida State must have felt like a golfer who went out early and shot 70 on the final day of the U.S. Open, then went back to the clubhouse and watched the field slide back toward him. What all those losses mean is the Seminoles could easily play their way in, but they'll need to beat North Carolina today. No easy task.

The biggest beneficiaries of the day: Virginia Commonwealth, South Alabama and Illinois State. Who knows if any of those teams can get in. But at this point, they all at least have a chance.

--- Patrick Stevens

Here's a very similar variation of what ran in today's print edition.

I'll check in again around 5:45 with a final version, plus the always anticipated NIT projection.

EAST

1. North Carolina*
2. Georgetown
3. Wisconsin*
4. Washington State
5. Butler*
6. Brigham Young
7. Southern California
8. Texas A&M
9. West Virginia
10. Baylor
11. Saint Joseph's
12. Western Kentucky*
13. San Diego*
14. CS Fullerton*
15. UMBC*
16. Coppin State*/ Mount St. Mary's*

SOUTH

1. Tennessee
2. Duke
3. Stanford
4. Pittsburgh*
5. Clemson
6. Indiana
7. Oklahoma
8. UNLV*
9. Kansas State
10. Kentucky
11. Villanova
12. Arizona
13. Cornell*
14. Boise State*
15. American*
16. Texas-Arlington*

MIDWEST

1. Memphis*
2. Kansas
3. Louisville
4. Michigan State
5. Notre Dame
6. Vanderbilt
7. Gonzaga
8. Mississippi State
9. Kent State*
10. Davidson*
11. Ohio State
12. Temple*
13. Oral Roberts*
14. Belmont*
15. Austin Peay*
16. Mississippi Valley State*

WEST

1. UCLA*
2. Texas*
3. Xavier
4. Connecticut
5. Drake*
6. Purdue
7. Marquette
8. Arkansas*
9. Miami
10. Saint Mary's
11. Virginia Tech
12. South Alabama
13. George Mason*
14. Siena*
15. Portland State*
16. Winthrop*

--- Patrick Stevens

Georgia is putting the finishing touches on its absurd run through the SEC, so someone is getting bumped out of the field.

I think it should be Arizona. I don't think the selection committee will agree.

So that leaves it to someone else. And even though I had Ohio State ahead of South Alabama, I've changed my mind. The Jaguars are better on the road, better of late, and have more top-50 victories despite having half as many chances as the Buckeyes.

The last four in are Villanova, Virginia Tech, South Alabama and Arizona. The last four out are Ohio State, Illinois State, Dayton and Arizona State (flipped with Massachusetts after a night of thought).

EAST

1. North Carolina*
2. Georgetown
3. Wisconsin*
4. Washington State
5. Butler*
6. Brigham Young
7. Southern California
8. Texas A&M
9. West Virginia
10. Baylor
11. Saint Joseph's
12. Western Kentucky*
13. San Diego*
14. CS Fullerton*
15. UMBC*
16. Coppin State*/ Mount St. Mary's*

SOUTH

1. Tennessee
2. Duke
3. Stanford
4. Pittsburgh*
5. Clemson
6. Indiana
7. Oklahoma
8. UNLV*
9. Kansas State
10. Kentucky
11. Villanova
12. Arizona
13. Cornell*
14. Boise State*
15. American*
16. Texas-Arlington*

MIDWEST

1. Memphis*
2. Texas
3. Louisville
4. Michigan State
5. Notre Dame
6. Vanderbilt
7. Gonzaga
8. Mississippi State
9. Kent State*
10. Davidson*
11. Virginia Tech
12. Temple*
13. Oral Roberts*
14. Belmont*
15. Austin Peay*
16. Mississippi Valley State*

WEST

1. UCLA*
2. Kansas*
3. Xavier
4. Connecticut
5. Drake*
6. Purdue
7. Marquette
8. Arkansas*
9. Miami
10. Saint Mary's
11. Georgia
12. South Alabama
13. George Mason*
14. Siena*
15. Portland State*
16. Winthrop*

--- Patrick Stevens

This is the dream scenario: Maryland meets UNC Asheville in the first round. Bring on Kenny George.

Here's a 32-team field.

EAST

1. Maryland
2. Dayton
3. Illinois State
4. VCU*
5. Wake Forest
6. Texas Tech
7. Robert Morris*
8. UNC Asheville*

SOUTH

1. Florida
2. Mississippi
3. Minnesota
4. Florida State
5. Rhode Island
6. Creighton
7. Stephen F. Austin*
8. Alabama State*

NORTH

1. Ohio State
2. Syracuse
3. Massachusetts
4. Oklahoma State
5. UAB
6. Charlotte
7. Wright State
8. Morgan State*

WEST

1. Oregon
2. Arizona State
3. Nebraska
4. New Mexico
5. Southern Illinois
6. Houston
7. Utah State*
8. UC Santa Barbara*

Last four in: Wright State, Creighton, Texas Tech, Charlotte

Last four out: Akron, California, Tulsa, San Diego State

--- Patrick Stevens

The final bracket was about as good as I've ever done.

It still wasn't perfect.

I missed badly on the one team I excluded from the field. Oregon is a No. 9 seed. There are eight at-large teams on the lines below the Ducks. Oops.

Virginia Tech did not make it. More than any other team, I probably relied on the eyeball test in assessing the Hokies. They were 3-1 in games I saw, and extending North Carolina to the final second was proof enough for me. I'd bet good money Tech was the team bumped from the field by Georgia; it's hard to argue the Hokies weren't playing as well as anyone else who missed the field.

I placed 14 teams in their exact spot in the bracket, and 37 in the exact seed. A total of 53 were within a seed of correct placement, which is a good but hardly great record. I was, however, rather pleased with the West bracket, which had 1-3-4-5-6 pegged exactly.

The two major foul-ups beyond Oregon were with Winthrop (picked 16th seed, actually 13th seed) and Georgia (picked 11th seed, actually 14th seed). I have no excuse on Winthrop; as for Dennis Felton's Bulldogs, I was scrambling after beating traffic to Fairfax, did some minor juggling and plugged them into an open spot. With a little extra time, I probably would have found a way to move to the No. 12 or No. 13 lines.

As for the site projections in this morning's print edition, I got 11 of the 16 pods correct. There was a nice shuffle with Georgetown (Raleigh instead of Birmingham), Louisville (Birmingham instead of D.C.) and Duke (D.C. instead of Raleigh). Pittsburgh was shipped west to Denver instead of Tampa, and unanticipated No. 4 seed Vanderbilt was in Tampa.

Obviously, in a revised NIT bracket, you can plug Virginia Tech into the No. 1 line in place of Oregon. And as one commenter has already rightfully complained, IUPUI belongs in the discussion someplace. Just remember, it's hard out here for a bracketologist.

--- Patrick Stevens

So you want to be a sportswriter, huh? Then you'd better be ready for days like yesterday.

(And if you want to be a sportswriter, you'd better be prepared to have a blog as an outlet for complaining about anything. Usually, it's not productive. But this story is amusing enough, I think, to warrant a rundown in diary fashion).

Start with this prelude: I started losing my voice on Friday, could barely sleep that night and after a brief bump on Saturday morning grew considerably worse off as the day went on. I finally crashed in my hotel room a little after 10. I set my phone alarm for 5:50 a.m., a wakeup call for 6 a.m. I believe in redundancy plans.

So here we go:

5:05 a.m. --- Orbitz calls to inform me my flight is on time and leaving in three hours. Nice work. That call cost me 45 minutes of sleep, not that I didn't try to reclaim it.

6:20 a.m. --- Checked out and made the brief drive over to the airport. Stopped to fill the gas tank on the way. It was a poor choice.

6:45 a.m. --- Enter the terminal only to discover the never-ending line for US Airways. I'm glad I had my running shoes on. I got a workout.

7 a.m. --- It's pretty clear things could get dicey. By this point, it's obvious there are folks stranded in the airport overnight because of the nasty weather in the Southeast. And US Airways seems to have found a way to staff as minimally as possible with a big basketball tournament in town. Well played.

7:22 a.m. --- I swipe my credit card into the kiosk at baggage check-in, only to be told it is less than 45 minutes before the flight departs. For those doing the math, it's now 43 minutes before the flight leaves. As it turns out, the kiosk is chock full of much more information and usefulness than anyone behind the counter.

7:33 a.m. --- Things are starting to get nasty. The service agent, a middle-aged lady who is clearly in over her head, lives up to her place on the employment food chain and slowly moves from task to task. Some of the folks in line begin to get belligerent. The agent halts her already paltry pace and offers a snippy reply. Somehow, someway, I turn out to be the voice of reason and point out no one is escaping a bad situation if all anyone is going to do is complain. Trust me, this doesn't happen much. Did I wake up in Bizarro World?

7:40 a.m. --- A 50sish couple scheduled for the same flight as me gets rebooked onto a 3:15 p.m. flight to Baltimore. That's not looking good for my chances to make it to Mason by 6 p.m.

7:46 a.m. --- It's actually worse. The 3:15 is sold out. I'm on the 4:25, and on standby for any other flights. "Your chances are slim," the agent says. I check my bag for the 4:25 flight and ponder my options.

7:48 a.m. --- I call an editor and leave a message that the construction of the day's game plan has already fallen apart.

8:01 a.m. --- Thinking this is a truly messed up situation, I fire up my laptop and go to US Airways' website and check to see if there are any other flights. Sure enough, there are seats in the front row of coach class for an 11:40 flight. My already fading opinion of US Airways takes a hit. Is it any wonder so many of these airlines have filed for bankruptcy? This is low on the list of why most carriers are flagging (actually, it probably shouldn't be on the list, since the airline got an extra $275 from me).

8:14 a.m. --- After finally making contact with my editor, I make the purchase. I say a little prayer to Al Gore, patron saint of the Internet, and think fondly of my decision two months earlier to purchase a broadband card. If there's any day it's important for a college basketball writer to be at home, Selection Sunday is it. It's not negotiable, and Christmas is. As someone who's worked in some way on five of the last six December 25ths, I know that to be an axiom to live by.

8:30 a.m. --- I squeeze through security, which is also a zoo. One woman checking IDs looks a bit tired but still has a smile. I ask if it's enough to make her hate basketball. "This is nothing compared to the CIAA a few weeks ago," she says.

8:50 a.m. --- Time to fire up the laptop again and get some work done. Those area capsules in today's paper? Yep, that was fine airport work. Other things accomplished in the next couple hours: My lacrosse top 20 ballot, the bulk of my final AP basketball ballot and an IM conversation with another editor.

1:20 p.m. --- The flight lands 10 minutes late at BWI. I've about sworn off US Airways at this point, but don't feel the need for too much karmic trouble. I still have a bag in Charlotte.

2:01 p.m. --- Roll into my Glen Burnie abode. The cats run down the stairs and greet me. It's like "It's a Wonderful Life," minus Clarence. And a wife. And singing. Well, at least I'm not deaf in one ear.

3:20 p.m. --- After watching the end of the ACC final, it's on the road to Fairfax.

4:09 p.m. --- Guess what? There's an accident at River Road. I'm at Georgia Avenue. On a related note, I get to listen to Ian Eagle and Bill Frieder tell me about Georgia's pending victory over Arkansas in the SEC title game.

5:30 p.m. --- Finally get to Mason and start setting up. At least they brought out Doc Nix and the band. It's the highlight of my day.

6:17 p.m. --- Mason quickly goes off the board. I book a flight on good, old, reliable Southwest to Denver. There's no reason to mess around with US Airways ever again. I'm through with those yokels.

8:08 p.m. --- Nearly all the copy is in, at long last. Capsules: Done. A1 story: Done. All that's left is to play the waiting game for the NIT selection show. As Homer Simpson once said, "The waiting game stinks. Let's play Hungry, Hungry Hippos instead."

8:45 p.m. --- Could this be the lowest point of the day? Maybe. I say aloud "I sure which I could find a TV with ESPNU so I could watch the NIT selection show."

8:51 p.m. --- I find a TV with ESPNU so I can watch the NIT selection show.

9:45 p.m. --- I file the last of my stories on the day. It's nothing remarkable, but it does punch my ticket out of Fairfax.

9:50 p.m. --- While wandering back to my car on a campus I'm not wholly familiar with, I call up an editor. Right as I get to my car, I turn around and some scraggly wino is within 10 feet of me. Needless to say, it did not take long for rather coarse language to be exchanged. The next-to-last thing I needed was to be accosted by some belligerent homeless dude looking for a cigarette. The last thing I needed was for Fairfax's answer to Otis the Town Drunk to be packing heat. Fortunately, he was not. In a related note, I was certain I would not fall asleep on the drive home.

10:24 p.m. --- I recount the day to a colleague, who is most amazed at the fact my picture won't be seen on most wanted signs around the country. "There's still time left in the day," I remind him. I realize I am the anti-Jack Bauer. It's not a fun realization.

10:53 p.m. --- I park at BWI's hourly garage and head to baggage claim. This had better of worked.

11:08 p.m. --- Success! I'm back to the garage and heading home, with my suitcase in the trunk.

11:22 p.m. --- Back home again. And as it turns out, nothing else goes wrong beyond trying to figure out three All-America teams for AP. That's tough work.

11:59 p.m. --- Time to say a little prayer to the heavens --- and Al Gore --- for helping me survive a truly bizarre day. And just think, there's still three more weeks of basketball to go.

--- Patrick Stevens

I called two colleagues in my line of work (one who works at my paper, one who works at the crosstown competitor) last night once I left George Mason and informed them Maryland had been sent on the road in the NIT.

Both laughed hysterically.

When I IM'd loyal Discourse reader Bill OB will the same news, his reaction was "Hilarious."

Is this a product of good old-fashioned Terps fatigue (which I will acknowledge I am guilty of perpetuating, if only because I'm the Maryland beat writer)? Or just the vindictive joy many people get from watching the mighty fall?

Actually, my guess is that it's seen as sort of a comeuppance for the embarrassing NIT display of two years ago against Manhattan. A team that didn't look like it wanted to be there --- even if only James Gist and Dave Neal remain from that squad --- is well-remembered.

We'll see what Gary has to say this afternoon. He's the only person from the program available for interviews, which is frankly sort of weak. What will be more interesting is just how many reporters bother to show up.

My guess: Times, Post, Sun, Capital, Diamondback and Comcast SportsNet.

--- Patrick Stevens

By the time the first quadrant of the NIT field, I already messed up more than the entire NCAA field.

As it turns out, there were four miscues out of the 24 at-large berths.

I had Wake Forest, Texas Tech, Wright State and Houston in.

Instead, the NIT included California, Cleveland State, Akron and San Diego State.

I have major qualms with none of those choices.

Cleveland State made it to the Horizon final; Wright State didn't.

California is a mild surprise. The Golden Bears lost eight of their last 10. They shouldn't be playing at home, that's for sure.

Akron, as I've said before, might be the best program to not make the NCAA tournament in the last four years. In that span they've won 19, 22, 26 and 23 games. That's 22.5 wins a year.

San Diego State is sort of a blah team, outside its victory over Brigham Young and its loss to Northern Colorado.

Houston didn't beat anyone of merit and folded like a tent once the calendar turned to March. No complaints about the Cougars being left out. Wake Forest and Texas Tech were sub-.500 in major conferences. They can't whine too much, either.

--- Patrick Stevens

Well, here's an unofficial head count for today's media session:

Washington Post
Washington Times
Annapolis Capital
Terrapin Times
Diamondback (on spring break, no less!)
Baltimore Examiner
Carroll County Times
Baltimore Pressbox (I think)
Redskins Radio

There was also one cameraman, who came in late. I would presume it was Comcast SportsNet, but no promises.

That's a lot of people listening to Gary Williams politick for more NCAA tournament berths for the ACC and, really, little else.

I shook my head when Billy Packer asked last night about the bid disparity between the ACC and the Big East. How many years do you have to watch this stuff to know it's about individual teams and not leagues?

Coaches don't like to hear that, especially when they sit in the No. 1 conference in the RPI as Williams does. And coaches do tend to be a single-minded lot; give them a stat that backs up their case and they'll lock their jaws in like a bulldog.

(Today's example: Williams said he saw Boston College listed as a bad loss last week for the Terps, but a good win for Massachusetts. That's maybe the only good thing about the Minutemen missing the tournament --- that we don't hear that chestnut another 47 times).

Maybe doing away with conference RPI and taking it off the table would be a good idea. Actually, no, less information is never good. But it certainly does add an extra layer to the back-and-forth on the Best Conference Question, which coaches seem to stake their lives to.

"I don't know the answer to that, unless it's the number of announcers or talking heads say it on television," Williams said. "Let's see, 74 said the Pac-10, 68 said the ACC. Thing there's only 2,000 of those guys now on television. I might have missed some. That might be underestimating how many experts there are out there."

"You got to go out there and get the expert superdelegates," I said dryly.

"That's what they are," Williams said. "I think guys are putting brackets out there today for next year."

Maybe so. But as for this year, the Terps are stuck in the NIT again. And they found out almost like everyone else did.

"We didn't get any call or anything," Williams said. "One of my assistants was running with the brackets as C.M. Newton was sitting in his sweater on television. It's a good sweater, it was very nice. Right by the fireside with a pipe."

C.M. Newton is no FDR, or even Mister Rogers. But fortunately, none of those guys were in College Park today.

I'm a bit envious of those old dudes, even though two of them are dead.

At this juncture, they don't have to listen to pointless politicking. Which is, of course, the worst kind of all.

--- Patrick Stevens

Here's the final one:

1. North Carolina (32-2)
2. Memphis (33-1)
3. UCLA (31-3)
4. Kansas (31-3)
5. Tennessee (29-4)
6. Texas (28-6)
7. Wisconsin (29-4)
8. Duke (27-5)
9. Georgetown (27-5)
10. Stanford (26-7)
11. Louisville (24-8)
12. Xavier (27-6)
13. Butler (29-3)
14. Notre Dame (24-7)
15. Drake (28-4)
16. Clemson (24-9)
17. Pittsburgh (26-9)
18. Connecticut (24-8)
19. Purdue (24-8)
20. Michigan State (25-8)
21. Gonzaga (25-7)
22. Vanderbilt (26-7)
23. Washington State (24-8)
24. Marquette (24-9)
25. Davidson (26-6)

26. Southern California (21-11)
27. Indiana (25-7)
28. Brigham Young (27-7)
29. West Virginia (24-10)
30. Mississippi State (22-10)
31. Oklahoma (22-11)
32. South Alabama (26-6)
33. Kent State (27-6)
34. UNLV (26-7)
35. Miami (22-10)
36. Texas A&M (24-10)
37. Saint Mary's (25-6)
38. Kansas State (20-11)
39. Saint Joseph's (21-12)
40. Villanova (20-12)

--- Patrick Stevens

Thanks to the good folks at Awful Announcing, we have the broadcaster pairings for the first weekend of the tournament.

And --- here's the great news for George Mason fans --- Gus Johnson will be courtside in Denver.

Now, people have different opinions about Gus Johnson. But if there's one thing everyone should be able to agree upon, it's that he can make a horrible game interesting. And that is a great credit for any broadcaster.

Johnson will be paired with Len Elmore on the first weekend.

The other pairings:

Jim Nantz/Billy Packer will be in Raleigh (with Georgetown, UMBC and play-in game winner to be named).

American will come out man-da-man in Birmingham because Bill Raftery will be there, along with Verne Lundquist.

Craig Bolerjack and Bob Wenzel will be at Verizon Center.

Dick Enberg/Carter Blackburn and Jay Bilas will be in Anaheim. No clue whether they're going to merge two play-by-play guys into one.

Kevin Harlan and Dan Bonner draw the Omaha assignment.

Ian Eagle/Jim Spanarkel will be in Little Rock, while Tim Brando/Mike Gminski have the pleasure of going to Tampa.

Bill James, the much revered analyst of all things related to stats and baseball, has weighed in on the sport of college basketball in a recent online column.

James, an avid Kansas Jayhawks fan, asks: "How do you know when the contest is not officially 'over,' but the outcome is no longer in doubt?" To answer his own question, he devised the following formula:
* Take the number of points one team is ahead.
* Subtract three.
* Add a half-point if the team that is ahead has the ball, and subtract a half-point if the other team has the ball. (Numbers less than zero become zero.)
* Square that.
* If the result is greater than the number of seconds left in the game, the lead is safe.

I can already think of one game that violates the formula.

Consider that James says: "A 10-point lead, plus the ball, gives you a 7.5-point safety margin. It's safe for 56.25 seconds—56, rounded down." In other words, he says a 10 point lead with 56 seconds is right at the line of being an impossible lead to relinquish.

Clearly, James wasn't watching this game.

-- Tim Lemke

In addition to the weekly voting privileges that come with being part of the AP poll, there's also the responsibility to choose three All-America teams, player of the year and coach of the year.

As it turns out, the player of the year was the easy part.

It's Michael Beasley. Period. He's the best player in the country. It doesn't matter that he's a freshman, doesn't matter he does not play for the No. 1 team in the land, doesn't matter that he makes it look absurdly easy. The Kansas State gets my vote because he is better than every other player in the land, and I won't change my mind no matter how much other people fawn over intangibles.

Coach of the year is a really tough vote, because you have to decide what's most important. Is it the coach whose team most exceeded expectations, even if the expectations were flawed? Is it the coach who constructed the most talented team, even if everyone figures it was done in a shady manner? Is it the coach who handled in-season adversity the best?

I don't think there's a right answer. It's in the eye of each individual voter. I took a look at Drake's Keno Davis and Purdue's Matt Painter, and both deserve credit for fine jobs this year. But it's hard to argue that Texas' Rick Barnes (thriving in the post-Durant era) and Pittsburgh's Jamie Dixon (doing more than treading water despite injuries) weren't even better.

I ultimately gave my vote to a guy whose team won 27 games, spent nearly the entire season in the top 10, and played an entirely revamped offensive system this season. Although I will never be accused of being a Mike Krzyzewski fan, it is impressive that he adapted so well so deep into his career when he could have just stuck with what got him where he is and wound up with a borderline NCAA tournament team.

(And please, spare the "Duke has 10 McDonald's All-Americans" argument. The same people who use that ploy are the ones who correctly point out those designations are awarded after most players make their commitments. If you don't think school choice doesn't have some influence in the Mickie D's selection process, I have some oceanfront property in Alberta to sell to you).

As for the All-America teams, it felt like there were four post players for three first team spots. Beasley and Tyler Hansbrough were locks, and I gave a slight nod to Luke Harangody over Kevin Love. That is obviously highly debatable, but both were really good. It's not a choice I'll lose sleep over.

It became really hard to differentiate players after about nine guys. The three teams are below, but I felt like I should mention a few other guys I gave a long look at before going in another direction.

* Charron Fisher, Niagara: A scoring dynamo out of the MAAC, but even I don't seriously believe two of the 15 best players in the country hail from a single mid-major league.

* Gary Forbes, Massachusetts: Joined Derrick Byars as former Virginia players from the Pete Gillen era who won conference player of the year awards at their next stops. Really a fine year from the swingman.

* Robert Vaden, UAB: The only reason the Blazers even sniffed the NCAA tournament discussion. Mike Davis has to be very happy Vaden followed him from Indiana.

* Kyle Hines, UNC Greensboro: A 6-foot-6ish tank who averaged 19.5 points and 9.1 rebounds for the Spartans.

First team

G D.J. Augustin, Texas
G Chris Douglas-Roberts, Memphis
F Michael Beasley, Kansas State
F Luke Harangody, Notre Dame
C Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina

Second team

G Darren Collison, UCLA
G Stephen Curry, Davidson
G Jerryd Bayless, Arizona
F Shan Foster, Vanderbilt
F Kevin Love, UCLA

Third team

G Sean Singletary, Virginia
G Brandon Rush, Kansas
F Ryan Anderson, California
F Jason Thompson, Rider
F D.J. White, Indiana

--- Patrick Stevens

I had an 8:15 flight to Denver today. I won't be leaving until at least 9:15 since the plane is still in Manchester, N.H.

Where was this delay a few days ago in Charlotte?

Well, no matter. At least I won't have to return to the Denver airport later to pick up luggage. I'm employing a "No checked bags" policy for the rest of the tournament, even if it does become a challenge to stuff four or five days worth of clothes in a carry-on.

8:25 a.m. EDIT:

Someone should come up with an airport etiquette list. At the top: Make sure your kids (and memo to women with particularly immature and dimwitted spouses: That means your husbands, too) behave themselves.

That means your teenage daughter isn't hopping around like a ballerina. That means your 10-ish-year-old son isn't playing catch with dad with a mini-basketball.

That means your extracurricular activities do not include nearly crashing into me and my laptop.

Want to walk around? Fine. But no matter how much fun Southwest Airlines is, I'd bet even they'd say they're not operating a gym at Gate A7 at BWI.

These people will be a real treat on a four-hour flight.

--- Patrick Stevens

There is something sort of magical about a 30-win regular season in college basketball.

Think about. It isn't the easiest plateau to reach, although the expanded season has made it a little less challenging now. But when you can play 31 games plus three in a conference tournament, it still is pretty impressive.

Anyway, had this note passed along by Joey Johnston of the Tampa Tribune as part of the world-famous Jerome pool. He notes that with North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas and UCLA, there are now 30 teams that have entered the NCAA tournament with at least 30 wins.

Thirteen of them --- the first being 1985 Georgetown --- reached the Final Four.

Exactly zero have won the national title. If you think history holds up, pick Texas to win the national title. The Longhorns are the best of the non-30 win bunch.

OK, my plane has arrived, and has a nice Lone Star State design on it. Let's hope (a) it doesn't take me to Texas and (b) is up to maintenance specifications. I'll check in later in the day from Denver.

--- Patrick Stevens

Haven't filled out a bracket yet? Looking for a couple upsets? Here are Ryan O'Halloran's NCAA tournament selections.

Drum-roll ...

EAST

First round: North Carolina, Arkansas, Notre Dame, Washington State, St. Joseph’s, Louisville, South Alabama, Tennessee.

Second round: North Carolina, Notre Dame, Louisville, Tennessee.

Sweet 16: North Carolina, Louisville.

Regional final: North Carolina.

MIDWEST

First round: Kansas, Kent State, Clemson, Vanderbilt, Kansas State, Wisconsin, Davidson, Georgetown.

Second round: Kansas, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, Georgetown.

Sweet 16: Kansas, Wisconsin.

Regional final: Kansas over Wisconsin.

SOUTH

First round: Memphis, Oregon, Michigan State, Pittsburgh, Kentucky, Stanford, St. Mary's, Texas.

Second round: Memphis, Pittsburgh, Stanford, Texas.

Sweet 16: Pittsburgh, Texas.

Regional final: Texas over Pittsburgh.

WEST

First round: UCLA, Texas A&M, Drake, Connecticut, Baylor, Xavier, West Virginia, Duke.

Second round: UCLA, Connecticut, Xavier, Duke.

Sweet 16: UCLA, Xavier.

Regional final: UCLA over Xavier

FINAL FOUR

Semifinals: North Carolina over Kansas, Texas over UCLA.

Final: North Carolina over Texas.

My wife has historically done very well in NCAA bracket pools, and told me yesterday that she really thinks the Baylor Bears will win their first round game over Purdue. Her reasoning? The Baylor team was really, really excited when their name appeared during CBS's NCAA Tournament Selection Show.

Baylor was the last team announced, so you can imagine its player and their fans were on pins and needles hearing Greg Gumbel call 64 teams before finally getting around to announcing the Bears as an 11th seed to play in D.C. And I will concede that their reaction was more heartwarming than the reaction of the Memphis players, who looked like they just got invited to jury duty.

If Baylor plays with as much energy and excitement appearing in this video,
Purdue may be in for a tough game.

-- Tim Lemke

You want a gorgeous view? Drive in from the Denver airport to the city. Of course, you'll get a good look at it, because the airport's locale is downright Dulles-like.

(So says the guy who has avoided using Dulles all but once in the last five or six years).

Anyway, I'll be heading over to the arena here in a little bit. George Mason doesn't practice until the final session, which was rather convenient for me to get an extra night at home at this time of year. You take them any way you can get them; come April 8, I'll list the various places I have found repose in the previous month. Here's hoping a gutter isn't among them.

More to come later, including a few sneaky picks for your bracket (these coming from the guy who correctly called the biggest upsets of the last two tournaments --- 2007 Winthrop and 2006 Northwestern State).

--- Patrick Stevens

Just arrived at the Pepsi Center a half-hour ago, and here are the early highlights:

* I knew I had officially arrived at the NCAA tournament when I was handed a Dasani cup to go with my drink. It won't be the last one over the next few weeks.

* Sitting right behind me here in the press room is none other than Jerry Palm. Well, not quite this second. We both did double takes. I sure didn't think he'd be here; there are far better sets of teams than the eight sent to Denver. He sure didn't think I would be here, but he underestimated my ability to escape NIT purgatory.

Palm, by the way, expects to see an upset very quickly here tomorrow when Michigan State plays Temple.

* Washington State just began the second set of press conferences. Notre Dame, Winthrop and George Mason will follow later in the afternoon (remember, it's still 4:20 or so here).

* The setup looks to be really slick and efficient. I think this will turn out to be a fun couple days --- and maybe four if Mason can reprise its 2006 role.

--- Patrick Stevens

Last year produced an exceptionally chalky tournament, and all of the supposed rules of picking upsets were thrown out the window. A 12 always beats a 5? Not in 2007. Late night games are prime upset possibilities? Not so much.

So rather than go over a bunch of guidelines that didn't work last year, it seemed more sensible just to find an 11 --- or lower --- seed in each bracket capable of pulling an upset over the next few days.

The odds are this will be a much more entertaining tournament than a year ago. It just has to be. There just has to be someone seeded lower than 11th that advances, and there just has to be someone seeded lower than seventh than moves on to the second weekend.

With that in mind, here are the prime possibilities:

EAST: No. 11 Saint Joseph's

Nothing foretells NCAA tournament success quite like steady, balanced offense. The Hawks have five players averaging 9.7 points, and go up against a streaky Oklahoma team in the first round. In particular guards Pat Calathes and Tasheed Carr and power forward Ahmad Nivens provide the sort of look most teams in any conference would like. Phil Martelli's team did lose seven of its last 13, but slipped a pair of victories over Xavier into that stretch. They'll be a headache in the first weekend.

MIDWEST: No. 12 Villanova

The Wildcats were downright horrible for a two-week stretch, losing five straight games and putting their season on life support. The rest of the time, they were 20-7 with victories over George Mason, Temple, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Connecticut. Scottie Reynolds can be ridiculously uneven, but he's capable of carrying a team for a night. Plus, Clemson is a horrid 62.4 percent at the foul line. That will doom the Tigers, quite possibly in the first round.

SOUTH: No. 12 Temple

The Owls have won seven straight games, including a three-day run to the Atlantic 10 tournament last week. They have two dynamic guards in Dionte Christmas and Mark Tyndale that will make it worthwhile to be in an arena at 10:20 a.m. local time. They beat Saint Joseph's twice and Xavier once. They get an erratic Michigan State team which went 7-8 outside its home state. And they have the Jerry Palm seal of approval. That might be better than anything else.

WEST: No. 13 San Diego

The Toreros aren't all that chic a pick against Connecticut, which speaks to the soundness of Jim Calhoun's team. But Bill Grier has done a fine job in his first season, unleashing the inside-outside combination of Gyno Pomare and Brandon Johnson quite well. San Diego has defeated Kentucky, Gonzaga and Saint Mary's (twice), and is certainly plucky enough to do some damage. No team seeded 13th or lower is a better bet to win a game.

--- Patrick Stevens

If you picked up a local copy of Sports Illustrated today, you'll see Georgetown's DaJaun Summers on the cover with players and coaches (and refs!) from the rest of the tournament field. It was one of six regional covers featured on the mag, which also had players from UCLA, UConn, Tennessee, Xavier and Kansas on the front.

Click here for a bigger version of the Summers/Georgetown cover, and hit the back button to scroll through the other cover images.

For what it's worth, this week's issue has at least two stories that will interest DC area readers:

- A long profile by Alexander Wolff on John Thompson III, Georgetown's coach with the famous name.

- A "Shooting for 60" story on Alex Ovechkin by Michael Farber

And finally, SI's pick to win it all: UCLA

- John Taylor

DENVER --- Really, how much better a setup is there? Basketball in the a.m., Jerry Palm and Gus Johnson both in the building, tournament committee chairman Tom O'Connor within a couple yards, a distinct upset possibility about to tip off, and a chance to see the fantastic Temple duo of Dionte Christmas and Mark Tyndale.

I've been up since 5 a.m. local time, both anticipation and a lingering bout with a nasty cold conspiring to keep me awake, and finally it's ready to go.

I'm not a big bracket guy --- haven't seriously filled one out since 2002. But since people seem to want picks from anyone and everyone, here's a Final Four: North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA and Texas. Very chalky, I know.

National champion: Against my better judgment, Kansas. The Aughts have been all about the guys who people said couldn't win the big one. Gary Williams, Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams, Billy Donovan. All were pilloried in some fashion or another for premature tournament flameouts. Now all have a national title. Here's thinking Bill Self and his balanced, athletic team add another coach's name to that list.

--- Patrick Stevens

Ted Valentine has just arrived courtside at the Pepsi Center. This is huge. It is no secret that I'm always pleased when I see Valentine arrive at a game. No ref seems to enjoy his work as much as Valentine, and he certainly brings some showmanship to the profession.

We now have a committee chairman (Tom O'Connor), a bracketologist supreme (Jerry Palm), an ultra-excitable announcer (Gus Johnson) and the most entertaining ref in the nation (Valentine) inside the Pepsi Center. Some sort of crazy astrological event is upon us, I'm sure of it.

About ready to tip off here. Elsewhere, Georgia is up 11-8 on Xavier and Kansas leads Portland State 4-3.

--- Patrick Stevens

Greetings from Verizon Center. It's about two-thirds full here, which is actually a pretty healthy crowd for a 12:20 game featuring two non-local teams. The matchup of Xavier and Georgia has some intriguing story lines, but I think most people are looking forward to a potential game between Xavier and Purdue on Saturday.

There were scalpers outside selling tickets, but I'm told you can buy one by just walking up to the box office. You'll need a separate ticket to the night session, which should take place before a close-to-packed house because Duke is playing.

All that being said the Bulldog and Muskateer fans are pretty enthusiastic. I'm actually somewhat surprised at the number of Georgia fans, since it's doubtful any of them actually thought last week that they'd be here to watch their team.

Just based on what I've seen from Georgia so far in this game, they do not look like a team that's exhausted from their improbable four-wins-in-three-days run through the SEC tournament.

- Tim Lemke

OK, can't help but to admit some mild disappointment in the first half of Michigan State-Temple. I'd bet Owls coach Fran Dunphy would agree.

Temple stars Mark Tyndale and Dionte Christmas are a combined 1-for-8, and Christmas hasn't even scored. Michigan State's Drew Neitzel is 1-for-6 from the floor, and that basket came in the final minute.

Sparty is up 35-26 and has received baskets from nine players.

Not quite as fun as D.C., where the upset of the tournament might go down early on the first day (Georgia up 37-28 early in the second half).

--- Patrick Stevens

In pursuit of some chicken strips at halftime of the Georgia-Xavier game moments ago, I ventured to the Verizon Center's upper deck thinking the lines might be shorter.

Wrong.

At least, I thought, I would have some ranch dressing with my lunch.

Wrong again.

What's the deal, Verizon Center? Did you not expect a lot of people to show up?

The good news: I didn't order a hot dog.

At 1:20 p.m., they were out of hot dogs.

- Ryan O'Halloran

When Georgia coach Dennis Felton arrived in Athens in 2003, he was charged with not only rebuilding a basketball team but with restoring the program's academic integrity. Former coach Jim Harrick had turned UGA basketball into a laughingstock, allowing his players to enroll in assistant coach Jim Harrick Jr.'s class, where final exam questions consisted of such mind benders as, "How many halves in a basketball game?" and "How many points do you get for a three point shot?"

Enter Felton, who took over a Bulldogs team that had been banned from both the SEC and NCAA tournaments that seasons and was being ripped by every media outlet for being everything that was wrong with college athletics. He needed a special type of player -- a perfect mix of bookish brains and basketball brawn.

Felton found his man in senior team captain Dave Bliss (and no, there is zero relation to the other Dave Bliss), who has been a rock-steady member of the starting five and the Dean's List ever since coming to campus. When Bliss -- who was valedictorian of his Westau West (Wisconsin) high school class -- completed his degree in Honors Political Science last spring, he could have enrolled in ball room dancing, underwater basket weaving, or one of the other brain teasers that many student athletes who graduate before their eligibility expires elect for. Instead, Bliss decided to pursue a second degree, this one in real estate.

So I had to wonder, what multi-national corporation will Bliss be lending his brain trust to in the near future?

"That makes three of us," said Bliss' father, during halftime of the Dawgs opening round match against Xavier. "I don't really know what Dave is going to do."

It might have something to do with hoops. To complete his real estate degree, Dave Bliss must hang around Athens for summer school and the fall semester, which his father says he plans on doing. To keep himself occupied, Dave is looking into a possible position as a graduate assistant.

Papa Bliss said his son was "absolutely," going to look into basketball game his life-long occupation.

- Harlan Goode

The Georgia Bulldogs pulled off one of the most incredible feats in college basketball history last week, winning three games in 29 hours to take the SEC Tournament and capture an improbable ig Dance bid. The marathon miracle exacted quite the physical toll on the UGA players. Back-breaking exhaustion. Hands-on-hips fatigue. Spots-in-your vision mental breakdown.

Imagine what it did the tuba player.

"It was hard the one day we had the double header," said Dori Musselwite, who plays the baritone in the Redcoat Band. "It was rough cause we had no sleep."

From the Dawgs' opening round overtime win over Ole Miss to the upset of Kentucky to the Championship triumph against Arkansas, Musselwhite and her mates were there, cheering and playing.

"It's exhausting because we have never been as good as we are right now," said Musselwhite, who hails from Roswell, Ga. "We have been screaming so loud and getting so excited."

When a tornado blew through town and forced them to flee the Georgia Dome, Musselwhite calmly blew her horn.

"It was pretty scary," recalled Musselwhite, who said she will always remember being frantically rushed out of the Dome.

After the Dennis Felton and company took care of the Razorbacks Sunday afternoon, the Redcoats rushed back to Athens for Monday classes and a few days of learning before departing again for Washington.

"It was absolutely amazing -- we never thought we could do it," said Musselwhite, before breaking into another rendition of "Glory, Glory." "We got together as a band, as a team, with the cheerleaders, and made it happen."

- Harlan Goode

As Georgia watched its 11-point lead whittle away to nothing, one old Dawg was in feeling feeling the pain more keenly than most. Detroit Pistons forward and former Washington Wizard Jarvis Hayes, who was a member of the UGA team that blew a large lead in the second round of the 2002 East Regional tournament and fell to underdog Southern Illinois.

"I remember being up like 32-17, and then SIU came back and won," said Hayes, watching his alma mater in Pistons sweats from a courtside seat. "The emotion was amazing. There is nothing like playing in the NCAA tournament."

Hayes' '02 squad was the last UGA team to qualify for the NCAAs, but since Georgia was forced to forfeit all its records during the scandal-tainted Jim Harrick era, Hayes' team -- which defeated Murray State in the opening round before falling to Bruce Weber's upstart Salukis -- technically doesn't exist.

Don't tell that to Hayes, who scored 57 points over the two games.

"It's been six years since we've been here, and it feels good," said Hayes, who lists Sundiata Gaines as his favorite player on the Georgia roster. "There is a sense that we are back where we belong."

-- Harlan Goode

Early in the second half, third seeded-Xavier found itself staring down the narrow tunnel of a double-digit deficit. Good thing they had the hero of "The Great Escape" on their bench. Well, not quite -- the Musketeers didn't exactly have Steve McQueen leading them to second-round freedom, but they did have Charles Bronson their side.

While 6-foot-9, 232 pound junior center Charles Bronson may not look much like Hollywood's ultimate tough guy, he has more of a fan following in the Xavier locker room than the rugged 1960s action film star.

"Yes I'm a fan of Charles Bronson -- I am a fan of all my teammates," said freshman forward Joe Hughes, who said he's never even heard of the old Magnificent Seven member. "I haven't seen any of those movies."

"I have no idea who that is," said first-year guard Stephen Duckett, when asked about the "other" Charles Bronson. "What are some of his movies?"

Even Bronson -- who has been relegated to the bench most of the season after transferring from Redlands (TX) Community College -- said he wasn't too familiar with the man who shares his name.

"I know who he is," said the fourth Musketeer (Bronson wears number four), who lists Deathwish as his favorite Bronson flick. "I'm a little bit of a fan of his."

Turns out Xavier's Bronson has a little more McQueen in him. While he has the same quiet, confident voice as the Tunnel King, when asked in the team media guide for an adjective to describe his game, the former top 75 recruit listed "smooth."

So not-Bronson. He was rough as bad guy Harmonica in "Once Upon a Time in the West" and tough as gritty Detective Lou Torrey in "The Stone Killer," but Bronson was never "smooth."

Despite the lack of "Love and Bullets" fans on the Xavier roster, basketball's Bronson says he gets his fair share of grief on the court.

"I get a lot of jokes and stuff about it," said Bronson, whose nickname is a very unBronsonesque "Lucky." "People talk to me about, "Oh, your name is so tough, how come your game isn't?"

From here on out, and until the Musketeers are ousted from the Big Dance, Bronson and his boys are to be known as "The Dirty Dozen."

- Harlan Goode

Last year, I declared Pittsburgh was ultra-vulnerable and could be toppled by Wright State in Buffalo, where I happened to be deployed for the first weekend.

That one didn't work out too well.

So I wasn't falling into that trap this year. And sure enough, Pittsburgh is here in Denver. And the Panthers are drilling Oral Roberts 47-24 at halftime.

That's not atypical for the tournament's first seven games. Three are in the books, with the favorite (by seed, anyway) winning all three. There are three more routs in progress at halftime --- all with the better seed ahead. Sixth-seeded Marquette up five on Kentucky in the lone remotely compelling game of the second set.

Could we be looking at a rerun of last year, when those who were waiting for upsets were left hanging the entire tournament? Maybe I'll go ask Jerry Palm what he thinks.

--- Patrick Stevens

Wondering what the Purdue Boilermakers might do tonight after polishing off Baylor? A few have very specific plans for supper. Included in each Boliermaker baller's profile in the team media guide is the always-entertaining "If I could have dinner with three people dead or alive they would be..." prompt.

As usual, Jesus gets the most dinner invites. Sophomore guard Chris Kramer lists Jesus, Michael Jordan and Adam Sandler. (Would Jesus know the words to "The Chanukah Song?"). Loquacious center JaJuan Johnson would like comedians Martin Lawrence and Chris Tucker to accompany Jesus at the table (Would God's son be able to get a word in?). Sophomore guard Geno Parker would like to break bread with his grandfather, Pete Maravich and Jesus, in that order (Would Pistol bother passing the mashed potatoes, or hog them all for himself?).

Nemanja Calasan, a junior forward from Bosnia and Herzegovina, lists Croation ballers Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac, and Grammy-winning babe Beyonce. Mmmm ... Bootylicious meets Bjelovar-Bilogora.

Chris Reid lists the Three Stooges, which may explain why every Boilermaker lists Reid as the "teammate that makes me laugh the most."

Robbie Hummel, by far the most entertaining Purdue player to watch, also has the most dynamic dining trio: Jordan, Denzel Washington and Will Ferrell.

But the oddest couple award definitely goes to junior guard Marcus Green, who would like to share a meal with Mahatma Gandhi and Jonnie Cochran. I had to ask -- why the pioneer of non-violent resistance and the man who got O.J. off?

"Just the enlightenment, with Gandhi and being in his presence," said Green, sipping a Powerade. "Jonnie Cochran is one of my heroes, so just to be able to sit down and be able to talk to him."

What would they have to eat? Would Gandhi eat at all?

"Me and Gandhi, I think we'd be eatin' rice, maybe some fish," said Green with a laugh, apparently amused by the idea that Gandhi might fast through his dream dinner. "Cochran would probably have some soul food."

While in the District, Green -- who claims meatballs are his favorite food -- plans on trying to make it to Ben's Chili Bowl, per Gilbert Arenas' request.

-- Harlan Goode

One thing a particularly careful viewer might have noticed is the new signage at NCAA tournament sites.

The NCAA has gradually moved away from those halfcourt banners that used to be attached to the scorer's table. You know the ones: Long white banners with four schools listed at each end.

They became blue in recent years, and some venues even made them electronic. But so far as I can tell, the banners are being replaced each game to include only the teams on the court at that time.

That's a shame, since one of the subtle Diamondback traditions back in the day was to come home with a banner from Maryland's first/second round site. (This was when Maryland actually played in the first and second round every year).

One guy hauled a rolled up banner back from Minneapolis in 2000 (and nearly left it on his flight). Another snagged one from Boise in 2001. And (since both the statute of limitations has run out and a maintenance worker actually gave them to me) I walked away with both the alternate D.C. banner (with play-in game LOSER Alcorn State listed instead of Siena) and a gaudy CBS Sports sign in 2002. Friends will attest the CBS banner now hangs in my guest bedroom.

As for the long D.C. sign (the eight teams on it: Alcorn State, Connecticut, Hampton, Maryland, Michigan State, N.C. State, St. John's, Wisconsin), it is rolled up and stashed by a bookshelf at my house. Turns out its hard to find a way to make one of those suckers fit someplace.

Alas, those with slightly kleptomaniacal tendencies will be turned away these days. The NCAA has seen to that. Just one more piece of illegal fun the folks in Indianapolis have put the kibosh on.

--- Patrick Stevens

RALEIGH, N.C. -- UMBC's Jay Greene is accustomed to underdog status.

"Nobody is giving us a chance against Georgetown, and that's fine," said Greene, the junior point guard prepared to lead the 15th-seeded Retrievers (24-8) against the heralded Hoyas (27-5) on Friday. "I'm used to that. People have been telling me I was too small my whole life, and I've always refused to listen."

At 5-foot-8, 160 pounds, Greene can't remember the last time he wasn't the smallest player on the court. Thanks to his size and a hometown matching his stature (Whitehall, Pa.), Greene garnered exactly one Division I scholarship offer as a prep senior in the tiny burg just north of Allentown. It didn't seem to matter that Green was the Morning Call's two-time Player of the Year in the Lehigh Valley; there isn't much demand for the vertically challenged, however skilled, in the sport of giants.

Even UMBC's offer involved a fair degree of serendipity. In 2005, UMBC coach Randy Monroe was scouting a big man at an AAU tournament in Florida when then-assistant Kevin Baggett called his attention to the diminutive guard dominating play on an adjacent court. Monroe swallowed his better judgment and invited the guard to make an official visit, and Greene committed upon touring the Baltimore campus.

By his own admission, it might have been the best gut decision of Monroe's career.
"He's pretty much started since the first day he set foot on our campus," Monroe said. "He's the straw that stirs our drink."

Mirroring his Georgetown counterpart Jonathan Wallace, Greene's entire career at UMBC has been an exercise in efficiency and overachievement. Entering today's game against the Hoyas, Greene ranks second in the nation in both assists (7.3) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.68-1) while shooting better than 40 percent from 3-point range.

"I'm more proud of the assist-to-turnover stat," said Green, who was named the MVP of the recently completed America East tournament after collecting 25 assists against only three turnovers in the Retrievers' run to the title. "This time of year especially, you've got to value the ball."

After several days of watching UMBC on film, Georgetown players were universally impressed with Greene. When a member of the media made a snide comment about Greene's size yesterday in the Georgetown locker room, junior forward Patrick Ewing Jr. immediately came to his defense.

"Have you seen him play?" asked Ewing. "He's for real. If you look at him, he doesn't really look like a basketball player. But once the game starts, he jumps off the tape at you. He has great court vision. He doesn't turn the ball over. He finds guys in great positions to score. He's got great range from behind the arc. He can play. I don't care how big he is or what league he's in or whatever, he's definitely one of the better point guards in the nation."

And for a kid who has spent his entire life playing David, Georgetown is simply today's Goliath.

"This is something you dream for since you're a little kid, and this is an opportunity to showcase what our team can do," said Greene. "We know we have a good team, and we are not going to back down to Georgetown."

- Barker Davis

Belmont University is perhaps best known for its sterling reputation as a music school (notable alumni include country music stars Brad Paisley, Lee Ann Womack and Trisha Yearwood) and its Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music, which has produced numerous record label CEOs. With Belmont's campus nestled in the heart of the Music City, you would expect each Bruin basketball player to be a budding Bob Seger or an up-and-coming Eric Clapton.

Wrong.

According to the team media guide, junior forward Will Peeples is the team's lone musician. Besides Peeples -- who plays the piano in his spare time -- none of the Bruins play an instrument or are pursuing careers in the music industry after graduation.

In contrast, Duke, Belmont's first-round opponent, has three players (DeMarcus Nelson Martynas Pocius and David McClure) who list "music" as their favorite downtime hobby.
The tin-eared Bruins seem to be in good rhythm so far tonight, especially junior guard Andy Wicke, who had a harmonious 11 first-half points.

- Harlan Goode

Peeking over the shoulder of a Duke trumpet player and a stone's throw from Coach K himself are Paula and David Carr, a powder blue drop in a sea of a darker shade. The Carrs, dressed in matching "My Two Favorite Teams are Carolina and Anyone Who Plays Duke" and Tar Heels baseball caps drove all the way from Atlanta in hopes that they would get to see their hated rivals lose.

Well, not exactly. David (Not that David Carr), a Carolina alum, took a gamble earlier in the year and bought tickets for the DC venue, thinking that his beloved Tar Heels were headed for the nation's capital. When Roy Williams and Co. were sent to Raleigh, the Carrs found themselves in possession of tickets to a game some 230 miles from where their favorite team would be playing -- and a priceless opportunity.

"We hope they lose," said Paula. "We're trying to make the best of it."

With the Blue Devils entangled in a tight one with Belmont, the Carrs were hopeful that they would be able to do some yapping to make up for their 600 plus mile journey and the torrent of verbal barbs hurled their way Thursday night.

"Some the Duke fans gave us a hard time on the way in," said Paula.

AND MORE: The Carrs are not alone. Belmont fans traveled well, and the majority of the West Virginia faithful -- who have been trickling into Verizon since before the Belmont-Duke tip -- are voicing their solid support for the underdog Bruins.

Each time Andy Wicke sinks a jump shot in Greg Paulus' grill or Matthew Dotson skies past Kyle Singler for a rebound, he is greeted by a resounding cheer which echoes all over of the arena.

The relocated Cameron Crazies can't even get in a "Let's Go Devils" chant without being droned out by a legion of fans rabid to see David topple Goliath.

-- Harlan Goode

Best sign award goes to Duke fan dressed in a Greg Paulus jersey, holding a colorful acrostic banner reading,

Call
Back
Spitzer

-- Harlan Goode

The guy in the front row of Verizon Center going crazy every time Belmont hit a 3-pointer? The guy working the referees during a timeout? The guy exchanging high fives with other Bruins fans throughout?

None other than country singer Vince Gill.

Gill said after Duke's escape/victory tonight that he has known Belmont coach Rick Byrd for 20 years and is a season ticket holder.

Asked if he usually works the stripes during a game, Gill, dressed in a leather jacket, laughed and said: "Every game. That's the main reason for coming."

-- Ryan O'Halloran

Tonight marks Arizona's 24th straight tournament appearance, the longest current streak in men's basketball and second to North Carolina's 27 consecutive tournament trips from 1975 to 2001. The last time the Wildcats spent March at home was the spring of 1984.

None of the current Arizona players were alive to see it.

Only two Wildcats -- fifth year senior center Kirk Walters and junior forward Mohamed Tangara -- were even born during before Arizona began its run of domination. When Lute Olson took the Wildcats to that first tournament back in 1985, Walters was a four-month-old in South Rapids, Mich., and Tangara -- the Wildcats' resident gray hair -- had just celebrated his sixth month in his native Mali).

The streak was in its infancy when sophomore star Chase Budinger was an infant, and by the time leading scorer Jerryd Bayless came along in August 1988, the Wildcats' had already made their first Final Four.

-- Harlan Goode

Well, at least Maryland didn't end its season in a virtually empty building this time around in the NIT.

I didn't get to see the Terps' final two games --- the first back-to-back Maryland games I've missed since the Maui Invitational in November 2005 --- so I'm left to rely on box scores and thoughts while keeping tabs on the game on game tracker last night.

But it seemed like a pretty typical finish. Maryland ran out of gas, despite getting great games from James Gist and Bambale Osby. And they finished with 19 victories, the same total as 2005 and 2006 when the Terps also landed in the NIT.

This could be an interesting offseason, one with the possibility of as much upheaval as any in recent memory. There is a coaching position to take care of, rumors of a mystery transfer have floated around for months, one JUCO transfer (point guard Bobby Maze) has already committed and another (teammate and forward Ken Bowman) supposedly wants to come. ... it will not be boring in Garyland this offseason, that's for sure.

I'll have some more reflections once I get back from Denver this weekend. And who knows? Maybe something will have happened between now and then.

--- Patrick Stevens

In Baltimore and Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston, New York City and the Clyde's near Verizon Center, American University alumni gathered to watch the Eagles' game against Tennessee, a close call that ended with a deceiving 15-point loss (72-57) to Tennessee.

Along with a colleague this afternoon, I checked out the second half of the game on the second floor of Clyde's.

The organizers expected 50.

Nearly 300 turned out.

The buffet spread had long since been destroyed. The tubs holding cold beer had been emptied. And it was loud.

One recent graduate estimated the crowd was half graduates from the last 2-3 years and half from 10-plus years ago.

"And a lot of us are on a two-hour lunch break," the grad said. "I didn't think it would be this close for this long."

The alumni watched the game on three flat-screen televisions.

Several alumni said watching No. 15 seed Belmont lose 71-70 to No. 2 seed Duke gave them hope for an American upset. The Eagles were making their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance (Division I).

Although they never led in the second half, the Eagles certainly got their fans' hopes up. Down 48-40 with 9:10 remaining, the room was quiet, as if the fans were thinking what I was thinking: "Heckuva effort, but reality has set in."

But then eight straight points, punctuated by consecutive 3-pointers and the room erupted ... for a few seconds. A Tennessee triple made it 53-49. AU would score next to make it 53-51 Vols. With 1:38 remaining, people started applauding, acknowledging AU's effort.

-- Ryan O'Halloran

... I am not afraid to say I'm not sad to be escaping this site tomorrow.

It was already fairly short on truly great stories, and the chalky results yesterday made it even less compelling. Michigan State's interviews are in progress, and Pittsburgh, Washington State and Notre Dame will follow. All are fine teams, but from the outside none of the except for maybe Washington State are all that exciting.

Some of it has to do with style issues. Notre Dame is the only true up-tempo team of the bunch. Washington State qualifies as methodical. Michigan State and Pittsburgh just take a "There Will Be Blood" approach; tomorrow's game between the two could be a 54-51 type game by design.

It didn't help that the four games here yesterday were, quite frankly, painfully boring. Michigan State, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh were fully in control at halftime. Washington State simply couldn't miss in the second half against Winthrop, turning a tie game into a rout faster than you can say "First to 45 wins."

More a bit later on after the second set of afternoon games.

--- Patrick Stevens

Barring anything truly ridiculous, San Diego (as predicted) will wind up with at least a share of the upset of the first round.

That's a nice set of victories for the Toreros this season: Saint Mary's (twice), Gonzaga, Kentucky and Connecticut. And it's a good thing they got the win when they did; engaging in another OT without your top two players against an athletically superior team is never a good idea.

Amazingly enough, San Diego outlasted both of its fellow West Coast Conference members to win its first NCAA tournament game and advance to the second round. And the Toreros' victory ensures a mid-major presence in the Sweet 16; they'll meet Western Kentucky on Sunday.

There's still the night session to come, but here are some early rankings on the quality of each site so far:

1. Tampa. A 12-5 and a 13-4 upset to start things, and the possibility of a rerun in the night session (Villanova-Clemson and Siena-Vanderbilt) makes this a no-brainer.

2. Washington. Two really solid games yesterday for Verizon Center, including the fantastic Duke-Belmont thriller. Xavier-Georgia wasn't bad, and both second round games could be very entertaining.

3. Raleigh. Two words: Stephen Curry. Davidson won its first NCAA game since 1969 and stands an excellent chance of knocking out Georgetown on Sunday. Well, at least compared to a typical No. 10 seed.

4. Omaha: Michael Beasley and Bill Walker KO'd the O.J. Mayos in the biggest upset of the first day.

5. Birmingham: American showed enough pluck against Tennessee to elevate this site to the middle of the pack; the Oklahoma-Saint Joe's game is among the most promising of the remaining games.

6. Little Rock: Sort of blah so far, other than a fantastic performance by Miami's Jack McClinton. It was a 30-minute highlight tape --- all offense --- that landed him in Coral Gables. He put together a 20-minute reel today, dropping 32 of his 38 points on Saint Mary's in the second half.

7. Anaheim: You don't see a team only score 29 points every day in the NCAA tournament. And Kentucky gave Marquette a run. But overall, it was pretty tame.

8. Denver: An average victory margin of 19.8 points, no game that was closer than 11 points, no upsets and just one contest that entered the second half remotely competitive. It couldn't have been much more boring in the Mile High City.

--- Patrick Stevens

Here's an indication of how unpredictable the first two days of this NCAA Tournament have been: of the more than 3.65 milion entries into ESPN's bracket challenge, the best anyone did was record 30 out of 32 correct. In fact, only about 50 people even did that well, and all but seven of the entries have already lost at least one Sweet 16 pick. It will be interested to see if anyone has a perfect Sweet 16 by the time the weekend is over.

One thing that's interesting about this year's tournament so far is that some things are playing out the way a lot of people had predicted, but in a more convoluted way than expected. For instance, it seemed many people had a gut feeling that Connecticut was not primed for a deep tournament run. Lo and behold, the Huskies got bounced early, but everyone assumed it would be Drake pulling off the mini-upset in Round 2. Few people expected upset wins by both San Diego and Western Kentucky yesterday.
Similarly, many folks saw Vanderbilt as overrated as a four seed, and the Commodores' early exit is validation of that. But most fans who picked against Vandy saw the team dropping its second round game to Clemson. Few predicted a Villanova-Siena matchup in the Midwest region.

For what it's worth, I got 24 of the first 32 games correct and now have 14 of my final 16 teams remaining. I'm predicting Purdue, West Virginia and Notre Dame to pull off upsets today, so we'll see if I'm still looking respectable by day's end.

-- Tim Lemke

Just like everybody else, the Tampa Debacle ruined an otherwise decent round of opening-game predictions. If form had held in Florida, I would have been a solid 25-7.

But wins by Western Kentucky ... and San Diego ... and Siena ... and Villanova, plummeted me to 21-11.

The good news is that I'm something like 1,242,524th in the ESPN Tournament Challenge rankings.

I picked No. 9 Arkansas, No. 11 Kansas State and No. 10 Davidson.

Region by region ...

East: 6-2. Have all four Sweet 16 teams remaining. Losses were St. Joseph's and South Alabama.

Midwest: 5-3. Have Kansas, Wisconsin and Georgetown alive. Losses were Vanderbilt (a Sweet 16 pick), Kent State and Gonzaga.

South: 5-3. Have all four Sweet 16 teams remaining. Losses were Oregon, Kentucky and Saint Mary's.

West: 5-3. Have three Sweet 16 teams remaining. Losses were Connecticut, Drake and Baylor. I'm in trouble, though -- I think Duke and Xavier both lose today and I had them reaching the Sweet 16.

The final tally: 21-11. Fourteen of my Sweet 16 and all of my Elite Eight/Final Four teams still alive.

-- Ryan O'Halloran

... happens to be the Mountaineers' color analyst on their radio broadcasts.

It was a bit of a surprise with a minute to play when Jay Jacobs hopped up from his spot in the front row of press seating, turned around and began imploring the crowd to roar. It was a bit surreal, far surpassing anything I've ever seen in terms of unusual media behavior.

(It also made the dozens of reporters who stood and applauded Dean Smith at the ACC tournament last week in Charlotte look a lot less lame).

Jacobs, who played at West Virginia during the Jerry West era, rushed over toward the band and led some more cheers after the buzzer. And since the Mountaineers' media guide lists him as being in his 31st season as an analyst, it's probably fair to say he's both an institution and a legend. So chances are, this has happened before and West Virginia folks love him for it.

Still, I wasn't the only person in the press corps surprised by the outburst. Then again, you can't spell West Virginia without "W-E."

--- Patrick Stevens

Apparently, the Duke women's basketball team was not a welcome guest last night at Comcast Center for its first round game. One Duke player said today she was surprised there was such a large concentration of Murray State fans in College Park.

Others weren't so shocked.

"It's Duke, c'mon," Maryland center Crystal Langhorne said.

Indeed, the Blue Devils aren't going to get much love in CP. As Maryland coach Brenda Frese jokingly told reporters on her way back to the Terps' locker room, "C'mon, you guys don't like Duke, either."

--- Patrick Stevens

After a winter of studying film, Navy started spring football practice yesterday. Coach Ken Niumatalolo kicked it off with a 45-minute session with reporters. A wide array of topics were discussed, but none more than his continuing adjustment to the position he took over in December after Paul Johnson left for Georgia Tech. More on that in the coming weeks.

Niumatalolo said his philosophy for the next couple of months is simple: Improve the team. The Midshipmen have won the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy five straight years, and the ultra-competitive coach isn't looking for that streak to end any time soon.

"We don't want to get complacent," he said. "We know the other two guys we're competing against for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy are getting out there. We don't want to be the staff or group that drops the ball"

Niumatalolo and his staff will spend the spring evaluating plebes and Navy's other inexperienced players, as is typical of spring practices. But they will need to see how their personnel changes work. Niumatalolo said he wants his best players on the field as much as possible, so he shifted the roles of some of his talented backups to fill needs left by seniors.

Notable changes on the spring depth chart:

* Junior Andy Lark moving from nose tackle to center. Lark is one of the strongest players on the team, and the graduating Antron Harper left a void at the position. Lark was stuck behind starting nose tackle Nate Frazier, so Niumatalolo moved him to the other side of the ball.

* Backup quarterback Jarod Bryant seeing time at slot back and serving as the main punt returner. Bryant succeeded when subbing for starting quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada last season. He was quick and shifty, showing an ability to make tacklers miss. Thanks to Reggie Campbell, Navy's return game last season was stellar, and Niumatalolo would like to see that continue. It will be interesting to see how Bryant adjusts to the increased workload, since he is still one play away from being the team's quarterback, and will need to prepare for that.

* Junior linebacker Clint Sovie and senior safety Jeff Deliz, both starters who missed the majority of 2007 with injuries, will be back practicing this spring and competing to reclaim their starting spots. Their injuries opened the door for a slew of younger players to get game experience last year, although for the most part watching the Mids defense last year wasn't pretty. The unit should be improved in 2008, and these two could play a big part in that.

- Mike Fratto

This comes from 24 hours ago from the fine people at Awful Announcing. I was on a blogging moratorium yesterday, then just had to juggle a bunch of other stuff today.

Anyway, the No. 1 team of Nantz/Packer will be in Houston. That has a chance to have the best games, though I like my odds of seeing some great stuff in Charlotte (where the enviable Enberg/Bilas combo will also be at work. Oh my.)

The best storylines of at least the semifinals are in Detroit --- Davidson and Villanova. Fortunately, Gus Johnson will be there (along with Len Elmore). Denver, by the way, was a total waste of Gus Johnson thanks to its six games decided by double digits.

The estimable Lundquist/Raftery pairing will be in Phoenix, where Xavier will come out playing MANDAMAN --- with alacrity --- on Thursday night against West Virginia.

--- Patrick Stevens

It's spring football time in College Park, and Ralph Friedgen had a presser today talking about a variety of topics --- mostly of his choosing.

There was even a powerpoint presentation lining up all of the program's accomplishments over the last seven years. It's something I haven't seen out of Ralph before, and the only two words I could think of to describe it were "insecurity" and "off-putting." I'll have the nuts and bolts of all the slides later, but the highlight to me was contrasting "1986-2000" and "2001-2007." Didn't expect to see that.

A factoid unsurprisingly left off: Three losing seasons in four years. This fall is a big one for Ralph, especially as work on Byrd Stadium (the new scoreboard is up in the closed end zone) continues.

Here's some quick hitters that will pop up at the bottom of my story for tomorrow:

* Junior Chris Turner enters the spring as the No. 1 quarterback ahead of erstwhile starter Jordan Steffy and junior Josh Portis, who was suspended last season.

"He'll go in as No. 1, but it's a wide-open situation," Friedgen said of Turner. "I think that competition is still going to take place."

* Guys missing the spring with injuries: Tackle Tyler Bowen (foot), linebacker Rick Costa (shoulder), linebacker Moise Fokou (shoulder), defensive end Mack Frost (knee), tight end Matt Furtsenberg (shoulder), linebacker Dave Philistin (shoulder) and defensive lineman Joe Vellano (shoulder).

It didn't sound like anyone was missing the spring because of academic issues. Nevertheless, there is a scholarship crunch that I'll delve into a bit deeper once the basketball tournament is over with. The bottom line is there will have to be some level of attrition between now and late August.

* Likely coming back: Holder Matt Goldberg, who will be going to grad school in the fall. Likely changing positions: Dominique Herald, from safety to strong-side linebacker. Likely to be nominated by Ralph for a Rhodes Scholarship: Tight end Dan Gronkowski, who is nearing completion of his MBA.

* Ralph said Josh Portis would not be taking kickoff returns at this juncture. You might recall that idea was toyed with just before last season --- and just before Portis was suspended for the season after cheating on a quiz.

--- Patrick Stevens

One of the little items in Maryland's spring football notes is package is a list of the dozen Terps who have changed numbers since last fall.

Sometimes, the number makes the man. Not often, but sometimes. So here's what could be expected if certain Terps take on the characteristics of the last guys to wear their new numerals.

FB Haroon Brown: From No. 47 to No. 30 (Last year: J.J. Justice)

"The R&B Fullback" could soon answer to "Which way did he go, George?" That's not an upgrade.

LB Chase Bullock: From No. 42 to No. 44 (Last year: Lance Ball)

Maybe the new number will bring some durability; the senior could certainly use a little luck to stay on the field.

DL Ricardo Dacosta: From No. 73 to No. No. 50 (Last year: Jermaine Lemons)

As long as the new number wasn't in the 70s --- and thus an O-line number --- the walk-on defensive lineman will be OK.

OL Evan Eastburn: From No. 64 to No. 50 (Last year: Jermaine Lemons)

Few guys on last year's team were as resilient as Lemons, who overcame a massive knee injury to contribute as a senior. Eastburn has yet to see the field in two years.

RB Morgan Green: From No. 20 to No. 5 (Last year: Isaiah Gardner)

This could go two ways at the same time. Few players talked as good a game as Gardner. And few played with as much pain as Zeke. After an injury-plagued redshirt freshman year, Green could definitely use the second.

DB Trenton Hughes: From No. 37 to No. 21 (Last year: Keon Lattimore)

A half-brother who is a near-lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame will stop by from time to time.

TE Drew Gloster: From No. 86 to No. 15 (Last year: Jason Goode)

He becomes the next Jason Goode --- which is exactly what the Terps want. Alas for noted Yellow Jacket killer Goode, Georgia Tech is off the schedule.

S Antwine Perez: From No. 3 to No. 20 (Last year: Morgan Green)

Fortunately for Perez, he won't have to hear comparisons to Steve Slaton. That lofty recruiting ranking isn't going away, though.

LB Ben Pooler: From No. 59 to No. 42 (Last year: Chase Bullock)

Bullock is usually one of the first to get his hands on the new NCAA Football game from EA Sports in July, so Pooler's got that to look forward to.

S Terrell Skinner: From No. 10 to No. 1 (Last year: Erin Henderson)

Maybe he'll get the ability to talk faster than anyone else on the planet. It's a safe bet Skinner won't be starting at linebacker.

TE Lansford Watson: From No. 41 to No. 80 (Last year: Joey Haynos)

Watson won't get Haynos' walk-on-to-possible NFL Draft pick tale. But he could still be the next decent Maryland tight end.

WR LaQuan Williams: From No. 18 to No. 3 (Last year: Christian Varner)

Morphing into a D1scourse favorite would be welcomes by many. Chatty, confident, determined and sharp, Varner always had something interesting to say --- and a way of saying how he felt without ticking anyone else off. LaQuan probably wouldn't be sad to leave a three-year starter a few seasons from now, either.

--- Patrick Stevens

The benefits of going to Charlotte:

* It's the only site with all four top seeds intact.

* I'm 3,000 miles or so away from angry West Virginia fans, who really shouldn't be angry that they're in Phoenix. Or that they lost a coach in John Beilein who might be one of the top 10 coaches in the country in terms of preparation and managed to go hire another one of the top 10 coaches in the country in terms of preparation.

* Rick Pitino and Bruce Pearl will operate on opposite sidelines on Thursday night.

* Ty Lawson, Tyler Hansbrough, Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver will all be on the floor at the same time.

* North Carolina could continue doing its Loyola Marymount imitation in the regional final; it's difficult to see the Tar Heels topping 100 points against Washington State.

* Charlotte has a Cabo Fish Taco. Yum!

* Davidson College is about 25 miles or so away from Bobcats Arena.

The bad side of going to Charlotte:

* Davidson College's basketball team will be in Detroit.

* There's no true underdog story left, not even Washington State.

* Charlotte's airport carries bad memories for me, though I'm circumventing that by flying to Raleigh and driving across the state tomorrow morning.

So all in all, it's a pretty good site, filled with promises of good basketball and great storylines. I'll have more tomorrow from Bobcats Arena, a place I've become quite familiar with over the last few months.

And as a frequent traveler, that's a nice benefit, too.

--- Patrick Stevens

The NCAA has this strange rule (stop me if you've heard that before) that says TV stations can't show NCAA tournament highlights until all of the games are over that day. Pretty silly, but that's the NCAA for you.

So Penn Holderness of NBC 17 in the Raleigh-Durham area found a clever way around that rule this past weekend, when Duke was in D.C. to take on Belmont: He used toys, dolls and stuffed animals to re-enact the game.

Hat tip to FishBowl Dc.

And sure, this seems awful silly, but it's certainly not near as silly as some of the things the NCAA attempts to regulate.

- John Taylor

As promised, I wanted to provide a transcript of what Ralph had to say during his three-minute slide show during Tuesday's press conference.

At best, it seemed a little unusual. Maybe this would be something to show fans (and perhaps that was the point, since it can be seen on the athletic department website now; you'll have to go about 15 minutes or so in).

But airing a laundry list of accomplishments over the last seven years isn't going to make me (and the other reporters assembled) forget the program has three losing seasons out of four. Or that the overall record in that span is 25-23.

So maybe there was a shaky audience choice. One other nit to pick: It takes a little gumption to count finishing tied for second in a division as a second-place finish, as the Terps did in 2006.

As much as I hate to lend credence to basketball coach Gary Williams' protests about football, he's right in this case. You split a league into two halves, go 5-3 and you finish second in your division and can boast about that. In basketball, the league is one entity, you finish at or around .500 and you are fifth or sixth. But in reality, you're about the same as that 5-3 football team. But it sounds a whole lot different being "second" than "fifth."

There is only one true second-place team in football in the expanded ACC, and that's the team that loses the league title game. Any other claim is disingenuous.

Anyway, here's what Ralph had to say about the program. What are your thoughts on his comments --- and his motivations for making such a case five months before the first snap of the 2008 season?

"$51 million expansion broke ground in December. 64 luxury suites, 500 mezzanine level seats and a presidential suite and a state of the art scoreboard you can see is already up.

Out of the top 25 crowds in Maryland football history, 20 have occurred in the last seven years. If you take the top 25 crowds EVER in Byrd Stadium or Chevy Chase Field, 20 of them have happened in the last seven years. Our home attendance last year was 51,280, third highest in school history. Our Maryland Gridiron Network, in 2001 we were 200 members raising $40,000. Now we're 1,200 members raising $500,000 which goes to football.

Our class, we had 14 Terps participate in winter graduation this year. Three of the Terps had eligibility remaining. Two of the Terps are currently enrolled in graduate school. Graduation rates and academic honors. In 1986 to 2000, 32 all-ACC academic honors in that time period. [From] 2001 to 2007, 32 all-ACC academic honors. Graduated 131 players, 19 players per year. 60.3 percent graduation rate is higher than the normal student population. 19 of our 23 2004 freshmen class will graduate, three of which transferred.

Thirteen All-American selections since 2001, OK, 26 first-team all-ACC choices since 2001, 28 current Terps on NFL rosters, including 14 local products. Seven first-day draft picks in the last five years, including No. 6 overall Vernon Davis and including No. 12 overall Shawne Merriman.

On the field, from 1986 to 2000, 15 years, four head coaches with zero ACC championships and one bowl game. Highest finish was fourth place. From 2001 to 2007, one ACC championship, five bowl appearances with three wins, three victories over top 10 teams, three second-place finishes and one of four ACC schools to play in a BCS bowl ever.

Those are just some of the things I think this regime has accomplished. We haven't even talked about facilities and things we've been able to improve in that area. I think we've grown a lot in seven years, but I still think we're only scratching the tip of the iceberg of what can be accomplished here.

--- Patrick Stevens

There's both good and bad things about a chalk NCAA tournament.

The first few rounds are fairly dull. The final two weekends, though, set up to be wildly entertaining.

I bring this up because the women's tournament was quite short on upsets in the first two rounds. Of the 16 teams left, none is seeded worse than sixth in its region --- the first time that's happened since the all-chalk regional semifinals of 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s in 1999 back when those teams all got to host the first two rounds.

For the rap the women's game gets for the relative lack of depth of great teams, the upshot is the elite tend to stick around for a while. And that means a chance for some incredible games, if you're willing to forget only 15 of the first 48 games were decided by less than 10 points. (As a point of comparison, there were 18 such games in the men's tournament, eight in the West bracket alone).

It's just something to keep in mind as the Marylands (a No. 1 seed), the George Washingtons (one of two No. 6 seeds left) and everyone else in between enter regional play starting Saturday night.

--- Patrick Stevens

The original Final Four picks on this end were North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA and Texas. Don't see any reason to change them now.

Here's the calls for the other four regional semifinals: Louisville, Davidson, Xavier and Memphis.

Louisville is playing exceptionally well right now, and be able to force enough turnovers to get a jump on Tennessee.

Wisconsin is the class of the Big Ten, and the Badgers are exceptionally well-coached. But Davidson has Stephen Curry, who is making me feel foolish for listing him only as a second-team All-American.

Xavier has balance, depth and a strong defense in far greater quantities than either Arizona or Duke did. West Virginia won't flop, but the Musketeers will earn the right to lose to UCLA in the West regional final.

Memphis has prompted teams to resort to junk defenses and grind-it-out approaches. Michigan State plays that way, anyhow. It would not surprise me in the slightest to see the Spartans KO the Tigers in Houston tomorrow night.

--- Patrick Stevens

Maybe the college basketball world was due for a relatively quiet coaching carousel.

After all, in 2006, there were 61 coaching changes among the roughly 330 Division I schools (it's up to 341 now). Among those were 14 in power conferences, including half of the Big 12 as well as Indiana, N.C. State and Washington State (which did quite well in elevating Tony Bennett to the top job).

In 2007, there were 62 more openings. Eleven of those were from the BCS conferences, with Kentucky the biggest prize out there.

So far this season, there are only 25 changes (seven in power conferences). The Indiana gig is open again, and a total of 17 top jobs remain open. Other than IU, the big names remaining --- California, Louisiana State, Oregon State, Providence and South Carolina --- aren't all that big.

In the last 20 years, those five schools have combined for five Sweet 16s and one Final Four (Louisiana State two years ago). And yes, I realize that timeframe cuts out the 1987 runs of Providence (Final Four) and Louisiana State (regional final). The point remains: There isn't much out there.

A lot of times, one opening can trigger a whole lot of openings. Last year, all sorts of jobs were tied together. The Tubby Smith-Billy Gillispie-Mark Turgeon-Gregg Marshall-Randy Peele chain tied together Minnesota, Kentucky, Wichita State and Winthrop --- and ex-Minnesota coach Dan Monson landed at Long Beach State.

There was another thread connecting Liberty (Ritchie McKay), New Mexico (Steve Alford), Iowa (Todd Lickliter) and Butler (Brad Stevens). All but McKay had a choice of leaving their old job in that process.

So far, no huge dominoes. The only "by choice" thread is James Madison hiring Matt Brady from Marist. Erstwhile Louisiana State coach John Brady has already resurfaced at Arkansas State, proof that a Final Four appearance means something.

Maybe things will change in the next few weeks. By then, the carousel will probably slow down --- if it ever speeds up in the first place.

--- Patrick Stevens

Here in eastern Washington state, the Maryland women's basketball team is about 27 hours away from playing Vanderbilt in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament.
Both teams, along with Game 2 participants Pittsburgh and Stanford, went through 50-minute workouts at the Spokane Arena this afternoon. The practices were open to the public but only a handful of folks were in attendance.

Maryland coach Brenda Frese made an interesting move this week. The Terps' game Tuesday night got over around 11:55 p.m., by 1:30 p.m. the next day, the team was on the bus for the airport. They arrived here nearly three full days before the game.

"For us, being the last game of the Sunday-Tuesday format, we felt it was critical to get out here and get adjusted to the time change," Frese said after practice today. "It was a quick turnaround but it was the best thing for us. Yesterday, the kids were able to hang out at the mall and go to the movies and be relaxed given how much is on their plate the next two days."

The Terps went through what Frese called an "excellent" practice Thursday at Gonzaga University.

What happened two years ago prompted Frese's decision.

The Terps played the first two rounds in State College, Pa., and bused back to College Park. They were scheduled to fly to Albuquerque, N.M., the customary two days before the regional semifinal game. Their flight out of Baltimore was delayed more than four hours. Even though the Terps won the two games in New Mexico, Frese figured the extra day couldn't hurt this time around.

- Ryan O'Halloran

Some notes from Maryland’s 80-66 win over Vanderbilt tonight here in Spokane.

* Kristi Toliver had eight assists. She is seven away from the school career record of 583 set by Debbie Lytle (1979-83).

* The Terps got one point from their bench (a Jade Perry free throw), which was their second-lowest total of the season –- no points at Duke on Feb. 17. Maryland’s starters played 22, 38, 39, 36 and 39 minutes. Laura Harper was limited to 22 because of foul trouble. “From our end, when you look at the talent we have and the media timeouts are about five minutes long in the tournament so I just felt today that we were well rested,” coach Brenda Frese said.

* Maryland shot 50.9 percent from the field and are 16-0 when it shoots better than 50 percent. “Toliver handles the ball extremely well and just has a really good sense of the game,” Vandy coach Melanie Balcomb said. “We gave Langhorne position inside and that’s really hard to stop because of their balance -- a great guard, other guards who can shoot it and then you have Langhorne inside. They have all the pieces to the puzzle defensively.”

* Vanderbilt shot 38.7 percent. The Terps are 22-1 when opponents fail to crack 40 percent efficiency. “They were switching every time on pretty much all the screens so I didn’t get very many open looks,” Christina Wirth said. “The ones I did have, I just didn’t knock down.”

* Maryland had four players in double figures for the 19th time this season.

* One point of emphasis for Frese today should be defensive rebounding. Vanderbilt had 19 offensive rebounds. Granted, the Commodores couldn’t cash in (19 second-chance points), but a team like Stanford will.

* Vanderbilt’s three guards -– Jennifer Risper, Merideth Marsh and Jessica Mooney – combined to shoot 8 for 37.

* A key part for Maryland was the last five minutes of the first half. The Terps led 34-16 with 4:43 remaining and led by 15 points at halftime. Last week, they allowed Nebraska to get in the game over the final few minutes of the half. “We talked about it,” Frese said. “We didn’t want to lose our focus and we wanted to play a complete 20 minutes. It was great to be able to see the focus and the intensity we had on the defensive end.”

As if playing in the second weekend of the NCAA tournament wasn't big enough for Marah Strickland and the rest of the Maryland women's basketball team, there was a little encounter in the lobby of their Spokane hotel Wednesday with Henry Winkler.

That's right, the Terps met "The Fonz."

"It was so exciting," Strickland said. "We mobbed him. It was 10 6-foot-1 girls running at him."

Strickland said Winkler was probably about 5-foot-7 and he posed for pictures with the players.

Crystal Langhorne recognized Winkler from his role as the football coach in "The Waterboy."

But that's not what caught my attention during a brief chat with Strickland.

"I saw Mick Jagger in the elevator the first day we got here [Wednesday]," she said.

How he's look?

"He looks good -- it was awesome seeing him," Strickland said. "He had some people with him on the elevator [as security]."

...

Maryland's quarters this week have been palatial, "the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in," Strickland said.

Strickland earned a brownie point for laughing at my joke about how Keith Richards is like 112 in Drug Years. …

Why Kristi Toliver is a favorite: She's blunt and honest. About tonight's game against Stanford, she said: "This is the game everybody has been waiting for since Selection Monday when they had the split screen on TV and you saw us happy and you saw Stanford [ticked] off. Now it's the showdown." …

Stanford's media guide includes a great feature on every player/coach bio: Their favorite song. Among my favorites were assistant coach Amy Tucker ("These Are Days", 10,000 Maniacs) and forward Morgan Clyburn ("Mr. Jones," Counting Crows).

- Ryan O'Halloran

It's another Late Night With The Terps for those back home watching on ESPN. Game time is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. tomorrow against Stanford. Insane.

Maryland and Stanford both went through the obligatory media appearances today.

A couple nuggets of information.

* Stanford star Candice Wiggins has played USA Basketball competitions with three Terrapins: Crystal Langhorne, Marissa Coleman and Laura Harper.

* Stanford coach Tara Vanderveer was still steamed about Wiggins getting tossed into the basket standard against Pittsburgh last night. "I was really disappointed with the call against Candice having watched it," she said. "When I saw it the second time, I thought it really put her at risk to get hurt and that was something that had me really upset. … I think hard fouls are part of the game, but a play should be made on the ball."

* Stanford guard Rosalyn Gold-Onwude was recruited by Maryland and the Terrapins and Cardinal were her final two schools. "It was a really intense recruiting effort," Terps coach Brenda Frese said. "She had visited our campus numerous times with her mother and we did a home visit with her. She's a special player whose had a tremendous career for Stanford."

* Don't be surprised if the game is high-scoring. Maryland averages 81.9 points per game, Stanford 75.0 points.

* Finally, the men's Final Four is set. I ended up selecting six of the Elite Eight, missing on only Memphis (had it losing to Pittsburgh in the Sweet 16) and Davidson (had it losing well, last week at some point). I picked three of the Final Four teams: UCLA, North Carolina and Kansas. I had Texas beating Pittsburgh.

- Ryan O'Halloran

A few writers had a discussion at last year's Final Four in Atlanta and tried to come up with a list of teams that could win the national title in 2007-08.

Ultimately (with the help of a handful of assumptions), it wasn't hard to agree upon five schools: North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas, UCLA and Georgetown.

And so a year later, four of those teams survive heading into the final weekend. Georgetown's the lone exception, the performances of Wisconsin (run off the floor) and Kansas (barely survived) against Davidson should assuage some of the pain from that second round loss.

The bottom line remains: Anyone could have conjured up this Final Four a year ago. It isn't often your see quite so predictable a collection of teams; the last time that might have been the case was 2001, when Maryland, Duke, Arizona and Michigan State all started the season in the top five (this comes with apologies to last year, when Georgetown opened as a top-10 team and then flailed around in November).

A big difference between '01 and this year, however, was that Maryland struggled in the middle of the season. There wasn't a time when this year's semifinalists ever really looked like they wouldn't make deep postseason runs. The last time all four teams remained anchored in the top 10 all season was 1993, when North Carolina, Michigan, Kentucky and Kansas made it to New Orleans.

--- Patrick Stevens

Well, one Maryland player made it to San Antonio. As did one from Georgetown.

James Gist will be there for a dunk contest on Thursday night. So will Patrick Ewing Jr.

I'll take my chances on Virginia Tech's Deron Washington, who was anointed the favorite by ESPN's Jimmy Dykes a few weeks ago --- assuming the Hokies didn't last until the NIT title game.

They didn't, which means Washington will be part of a seven-man field also featuring Will Bullard (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi), J.R. Giddens (New Mexico), Brian Randle (Illinois) and Sonny Weems (Arkansas).

--- Patrick Stevens