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