Well, it’s almost that time. As I wrote last month, I won’t be watching the games live tomorrow, but I will be catching up on Sunday.

Here’s my hope, as stated a couple weeks ago: the games are good. Especially after so many good games in the regionals last weekend. To have another dud like last year, where the games just weren’t worth watching, would really ruin this year’s tournament. It’s set up to be a great Final Four. Hopefully, it won’t be a letdown.

Normally I’d go ahead and give my picks of the games, now that the Final Four is set and half (or more) of the teams I picked are not playing. But, since I picked the entire Final Four correctly, I’ll be letting my picks from two weeks ago stand. I’m tempted to say I’m going to be wrong and make different picks, but I’ll go ahead and let my picks stand even though I lack confidence. I certainly wouldn’t have expected to see my four teams playing, so maybe it will turn out like I predicted after all.

Regardless, I just want some good basketball.

Best Duke comparison - Florida or UCLA?

Pat Forde - who I don’t like - actually has a good article on ESPN from yesterday. He talks about how Florida is being compared to Duke’s 91-92 teams, what with them attempting to repeat this year. He says that perhaps UCLA should also be compared to Duke’s 91 team.

Duke lost in the championship game to UNLV the previous year, and met the Rebels again in 91 on Saturday at the Final Four. UNLV had beaten Duke with ease in 1990, but the Devils had their revenge, upsetting the undefeated Rebels by two, spoiling the tournament favorite’s bid to repeat. It was a foregone conclusion that UNLV would repeat, but it didn’t happen.

Florida beat UCLA with relative ease in last year’s final, and now the Bruins get their shot at revenge on Saturday as well. Most people have assumed that Florida would do the same. Not with as much certainty as UNLV in 91, I don’t believe, but still, they have the best starting five in the country and the experience of a championship last season. UCLA hopes to be to Florida what Duke was to UNLV.

“Experts”

Here’s the picks by ESPN’s so-called experts. Andy Katz and Jay Bilas are the guys I listen to the most. Vitale is too emotional to trust all the time. Doug Gottlieb is an idiot. So, I usually stick with these two. Bilas has the same final as I do - G’town over UCLA. Katz has Florida over G’town.

Rematch

Both Final Four games are rematches from last year. Of course, UCLA-Florida was the title game, and G’town-OSU was a second round game. The title game could also be a potential rematch. Florida beat Ohio State early in the season, when Florida easily dismantled OSU in Gainesville. However, the young OSU team is significantly better than they were then, so I wouldn’t expect a repeat of that game. Florida also beat Georgetown in the tournament last year, in the regional semifinals.

To become only the seventh team to repeat, Florida is going to have to beat two teams it’s beaten in the last year. Michael Wilbon said this week on PTI that, even though he picked Florida to win it all, he thinks it will be difficult to win two rematches. Certainly, facing teams looking for payback, plus having the pressure of repeating - particularly for the players who passed up major cash last year to do just that - could be a factor. Part of it, however, is coaching. Donovan hasn’t been down this path before, but if I was going to pick a young coach to lead my team in such a situation, I’d probably pick him.

Speaking of Donovan, the rumors continue about where he’ll be coaching next year. One report even says he’s told at least one recruit that he’s staying at Florida. Of course, the rumor is just that - a rumor - and it’s nearly impossible to know what’s true and what’s not in these situations. Nevertheless, like Roy Williams in 2003, he’s trying prepare his team to win a national championship while, at the same time, deflecting questions about his candidacy for one of the highest profile jobs in college basketball. He hasn’t said publicly that he’s staying at Florida. Whether or not that actually means anything remains to be seen. My take is - and I may be wrong - that Kentucky is in for a huge disappointment.

More on coaches

John Feinstein’s article on the the coaching rumor mill in the hotel lobby at the Final Four makes me wish I was there. He relays some of the talk going on in Atlanta. It’s a great article, and funny at times. This paragraph cracked me up:

Everywhere [Tubby] Smith turned, he was being congratulated — not so much for becoming the coach at Minnesota as for no longer being the coach at Kentucky.

Man, that’s cold.

ACC

A couple of articles that, of course, would interest me. Barry Jacobs on Familiar Faces at the Final Four and The ACC in the Final Four. This the first time since 1980 that the ACC has not had a team in the Final Four for two consecutive years, although they still have the most appearances and the most titles since that time. They’ve had a pretty impressive run, which I believe will kick back into high gear next year.

He Hate Me

It’s almost as if Joakim Noah wants to be disliked. I’ve made no secret that I don’t care for him. It seems that last year he was the darling of the tournament. Everyone loved him, especially the media. Some of them seem to be turning on him. Gregg Doyel is telling him to shutup, and Randy Hill says it’s now easy to hate him. Do a simple Google blogsearch on hate Joakim Noah and you’ll see they’re not alone. The number of Facebook groups devoted to hating him continues to grow. And, when people are starting to invoke the name of Christian Laettner when they’re talking about you, it’s safe to say you’re no longer well liked.

But, as Doyel points out, he brings some of it on himself, with all the attention he seems intent on drawing to himself during games - the screaming, the chest pounding, etc. Certainly incidents with the Kentucky cheerleader and Vanderbilt coach Keving Stallings are part of that as well. Now, of course, he’s even saying that the media hates Florida.

Personally, I like Donovan, and I like Horford and Brewer (they’re probably both better than Noah, too.) And I think that if a lot of people want Florida to lose, for many of them it’s probably more because they don’t like Noah than any dislike of Florida in general.

Humor

If you ever questioned Duke’s success over the years, just take a look at this. Apparently, they were even in the sweet 16 in what I can only assume would be called “Pope Madness”. (Interesting that Ratzinger was a #6 seed. Is that a bad sign?)

Finally, a little Final Four humor from one of my favorites, The Onion: Greg Oden On Final Four Appearance: ‘I’m Happier Than I’ve Been In 30 Years’.

I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Mark Buchanan. His book Your God Is Too Safe is one of my favorites. I recently mentioned wanting to read soon his last book, The Rest of God. Just a couple of weeks ago, his most recent book, Hidden in Plain Sight, was released. A couple of days ago I came across this brief interview with Buchanan in Christianity Today. He describes the book, based on 2 Peter 1, not as a book about spiritual disciplines that “cultivate our spiritual life,” but rather about the “virtues that are the fruit of that life … the goal of spiritual exercises.” A couple of quotes:

One thing I have seriously tried to avoid in all my writings and my preaching is a sort of formulaic approach to spiritual formation, the paint by numbers way of doing life with God. But at the same time, the ancients have always understood that if you are not pursuing some things in terms of character formation, heart formation, that are rooted in some specific disciplines in terms of Scripture, prayer, and so on, you’re not going to get very far.

All the books I have ever read on spiritual discipline assumed I wanted more of God. And I’ve had to realize I have a Jonah heart. I want to run. I want less of God in many ways. I don’t want God intruding and supervising and breathing down my neck.

This sounds like something I will be able to relate to.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere…

Mark Elrod is posting on Walter Wink’s “myth of redemptive violence.” You can see Part I and Part II (and the discussion that follows) over at his place. Also, if you’ve ever seen Fred Thompson at a Church of Christ, you can weigh in here.

I’m not into teaching religion in public school. I disagree with those who want to see prayer (usually Christian prayer) in public school. However, I found this interesting. Bruce Feiler points out an article in Time magazine titled The Case for Teaching the Bible. It discusses “Bible-literacy classes” that are being offered at a few public schools around the country. According to the article, the number is small, but they are becoming more popular. Here’s a quote:

Stephen Prothero, chair of the Boston University religion department, whose new book, Religious Literacy (Harper San Francisco), presents a compelling argument for Bible-literacy courses: “In the late ’70s, [students] knew nothing about religion, and it didn’t matter. But then religion rushed into the public square. What purpose could it possibly serve for citizens to be ignorant of all that?” The “new consensus” for secular Bible study argues that knowledge of it is essential to being a full-fledged, well-rounded citizen.

I’m sure at some point other religions will request or demand equal time. However, part of the reasoning behind these Bible classes is that the Bible has been somewhat of a foundational text of Western culture, and I don’t believe other such texts can make that claim. At least not any time soon. I’ll be interested in seeing how this progresses.

Another interesting post by Feiler - When Germans were Muslim. He quotes a book, describing some of the injustices German-Americans faced during World War I, reminding him of how some Muslim Americans have been treated since September 11, 2001.

Keith Brenton posted a great piece on hell the other day. It seems that the view he takes here has become more common in recent years (or, at least more people are admitting it that it seems they did in the past.) I’ve had a lot of questions about hell and how it relates to a loving God over the years, and so such discussions interest me.

I suppose I’d heard of it before, but the first time I recall reading about the annihilation viewpoint and actually taking it seriously was through Edward Fudge’s GraceEmail, which I used to receive daily back in the mid-late 90’s. Perhaps the fact that he was an elder in my church tradition (Churches of Christ) caused me to look at it more closely without dismissing it. I’ve now had Fudge’s book, The Fire That Consumes, sitting on my shelf for years, but have never read it. I actually had pulled it out last week, prior to Keith’s post, to put it in my short stack of books I want to read soon.

For even more hell/eternal destination-related posts of late, you can also check out Matt Wisdom’s post from a couple of weeks ago, which is what prompted me to pull out Fudge’s book in the first place (although it is not the same theme as Keith’s.) Also, check out the beginning of what will be a multi-post series over as Scott’s place - Thoughts on Reconciliation: Introduction.

Finally, I came across this site a couple of days ago - Sweet Jesus I Hate Bill O’Reilly. I admit I found it a little humorous, O’Reilly being the clown he is, but I have to wonder about the creators of the site. When you’re devoting so much time to “hating” someone - even if it is a loudmouth, know-it-all windbag - you might just need to get a life.

I came across a Duke Chronicle article a while back titled The Last Basketball Dynasty. It begins with the call from Vern Lundquist:

There’s the pass to Laettner… puts it up… YESSSSSSS!

“Welcome To Kentucky…where Duke Sucks”

Two years before that call, in the 1990 East Regional final, Christian Laettner, with Duke behind by one in overtime, hit a game winning buzzer-beater to upset Connecticut and send Duke to the Final Four.

Then, two years later, Lundquist’s call in the 1992 East Regional final capped off an amazing finish to Duke’s win over Kentucky. It was deja vu all over again. With Duke in the exact same situation - down by one in overtime - Laettner hit the game-winning shot at the buzzer, once again punching Duke’s ticket to the Final Four.

That final play has become one of the signature plays of March Madness, shown endlessly each year alongside game-winners by Keith Smart, Michael Jordan, Bryce Drew and Lorenzo Charles.

Today is the 15th anniversary of that game, considered by many to be the greatest college basketball game ever played.

The article chronicles that 1992 Duke basketball team and their accomplishments that year, as well as the years preceding it. I thought today was a good day to share the article along with a few more thoughts on that team and what they really accomplished. I wrote last year about the game, and some of it will be repeated, but this year it’s a little broader, about the team, the season, and that particular era of Duke basketball.

I’ll start with a quote near the end of the article:

Fifteen years later, no team has matched the Blue Devils back-to-back titles, and with the way the college game is changing, it seems unlikely anyone ever will.

I cannot agree with the conclusion drawn here. I don’t think it is unlikely at all that another team will eventually repeat. In fact, Florida, last year’s champion, is just two games away from a repeat, and all season long it’s been evident that they have the best shot at repeating in the last 10 years. Like the 95 Arkansas team, for example, and the 92 Duke team, this Florida team has all of their key players back. I believe they are the only team in recent history that has all five starters back. I’ve already stated in a previous post that I don’t think they’ll repeat, but that’s beside the point. It’s the idea that it’s “unlikely” that I reject. I don’t doubt that, eventually, it will happen again, even if it’s not this year.

Nevertheless, that 1992 Duke team was quite a special team that accomplished a great deal. Did they do something that will never be duplicated? Well, possibly. But it’s not back-to-back titles, in my opinion. So what’s even more difficult to duplicate? First, a little more about that team and that season.

The Duke team of 1992 was the best team in the country that season and they knew it. They were confident - some say arrogrant - and they expected to win every time they took the floor. They didn’t back down from anyone. They didn’t mind playing any team, anywhere.

They loved playing on the road, strutting into other teams’ buildings and leaving with a win. For a whole year, they were the greatest show in the country, the team everyone wanted a piece of but just about no one could beat. They relished walking into a gym and seeing the fear in the other team’s eyes, the feeling that they would have to play their best game to beat Duke.

Duke’s best player on that team was Christian Laettner. He may or may not be the best to ever put on a Duke uniform - that’s debatable. Certainly names like Dick Groat, Art Heyman and Johnny Dawkins would be mentioned along with Laettner. I would say that he is the most accomplished Blue Devil player ever. And, he was probably a bigger lightning rod than any player in Duke history.

Laettner was college basketball’s biggest villain, and he loved it. Duke scheduled a game against Canisius, up in Buffalo near where Laettner grew up. It was a Homecoming game of sorts for the big man, but he refused to take a shot in the first half. Krzyzewski asked him what was wrong, but Laettner just said the people from his hometown knew how good he was. He wanted them to know how good his teammates were.

He was good. Very good. He knew it. He would have told you himself. And he didn’t care what anyone thought of him. That’s part of what made him so successful. And so despised.

In fact, it’s my opinion that it was the 1992 team, and Laettner in particular, that fueled the hatred of Duke and made “Duke-hating” a national pasttime. (For years now, there have been websites devoted to hating Duke, published - I can only assume - by people who have no life.) When he graduated, Laettner passed the baton (or lightning rod) to Bobby Hurley - already hated while playing with Laettner for his first three years - and it’s continued on since then. Chris Collins. Steve Wojciechowski. Shane Battier. J.J. Reddick. Greg Paulus seems to be the target of the current team. My guess is incoming freshman Kyle Singler (who is being compared to the likes of Adam Morrison, Dirk Nowitzki and even Larry Bird) will be next. But while it may have started before the Laettner years (Danny Ferry directly preceded him), it reached an entirely new level in 1992. Certainly their success played a part in many people growing tired of them - having been to four Final Fours in a row and five of the previous six coming into the season. But having such an outstanding player with Laettner’s attitude on the team propelled it to that next level.

It also didn’t help that, in that East Regional final on March 28, 1992, Duke beat a team that was so beloved by it’s home state and - at least for that evening - by much of America. Kentucky had just emerged from the embarrassing probation years after Eddie Sutton’s tenure there, and were back in post-season play after a two-year ban. They were coached by Rick Pitino, who was well on his way to becoming the great head coach that he is known as today. They were led by one of the best young players in the country in sophomore Jamaal Mashburn, and by four seniors. Those seniors all could have left the program (like other more talented players had) when the hard times hit. But, these guys grew up on Kentucky basketball and wanted to be Wildcats, and so they stayed. With Pitino’s guidance, they became the core group that would reestablish Kentucky basketball as a national power. And their fans and their school loved them - so much so that they retired the jerseys of all four players after they finished their careers on the court. The following year, Kentucky would return to the Final Four.

And not only did Duke beat them, they beat them in a most fantastic fashion, winning the game that, during the final timeout, appeared to be “unwinnable”. The game had gone to overtime. Kentucky’s Sean Woods had just scored to give the Wildcats a one point lead. It was an amazing shot in it’s own right, and were it not for Laettner’s heroics, Woods’ shot might very well be the one remembered as one of the greatest in NCAA tournament history instead of Laettner’s. After it went through, there were only 2.1 seconds remaining on the clock. Duke had called timeout, hoping to save their season and their place in history. But, it seemed far more likely that their reign was about to come to an end and that Kentucky was headed for the Final Four. All that remained was for Duke to heave a desperation shot as time expired and the Wildcats would be on their way to Minneapolis.

But Krzyzewski had another plan. He told the team in the huddle that they were going to win. Few people, if any, outside of that huddle believed that was possible. I suspect a majority inside the huddle had their doubts as well. But Krzyzewski tried his best to convince them that it was true. Duke was going back to the Final Four for the fifth straight year and a shot at doing what no team had done in 19 years: repeat.

Before the huddle broke, Krzyzewski had one last instruction for Laettner. “The clock won’t start until you touch the ball inbounds,” he said. “Take your time.”

That final instruction by Krzyzewski to his superstar may have been as big as Rick Pitino’s decision to not guard Grant Hill, who was passing the ball inbounds.

When Hill’s pass reached Laettner, he caught it with his back to the basket. Instead of immediately attempting to get a shot up, he did exactly what Coach K told him - he took his time. He dribbled once as he faked to his right, then spun left and shot the turn around jumper that is one of the most memorable shots in the history of the sport. The ball went through, Duke wins by one, and Duke fans were as ecstatic as Kentucky fans were stunned. Possibly the greatest game ever had ended on one of the greatest plays ever.

The villain Laettner would finish a perfect game with 31 points on 10 for 10 from the floor (including one 3-pointer) and 10 for 10 from the line. And Duke needed every one of those shots to go in for them to win. They would go on to the Final Four in Minneapolis and defeat Krzyzewski mentor Bob Knight’s Indiana team and Michigan’s “Fab Five” to win their second title in two years.

Duke was not quite perfect, though. A mid-season injury to Bobby Hurley slowed them down a little, and Duke ended up dropping two games that year. During their game at Chapel Hill, Hurley broke a bone in his foot in the first half. He managed to finish the game despite being less than 100 percent. In a game where Laettner did not hit the big shot, missing two shots in the final minute with a chance to tie, Duke lost by two points. Later, at Wake Forest, Duke lost by four with Hurley out of the lineup. That game also featured the same play that beat Kentucky, with Duke down two in the closing seconds. However, it did not work as the pass went too close to the sideline and Laettner stepped out of bounds as he caught the pass. A subsequent Duke foul gave Wake two more free throws for the final margin. Still, Duke finished 34-2, and was ranked #1 in the polls every week that season. Even after the two weeks in which they lost a game, the teams directly below them had lost as well, and they never lost their #1 ranking all season long.

Since that season, no team has pulled off a repeat. A couple have come close - Arkansas in 95 and Kentucky in 97 - and some have probably had the talent but fell short of even the Final Four (UNC 94 and Duke 02 come to mind.) But they accomplished other things that are, in my opinion, going to be far more difficult to duplicate.

First, as I mentioned, they were ranked #1 wire to wire. That’s hard to do in college football these days, much less college basketball. The odds are that nobody will be so fortunate that the two or three teams below them also lose the same week (or weeks) that a game is lost. It seems that going undefeated would be the best shot at remaining #1 for an entire season. However, Indiana’s undefeated season in 1976 has rarely been threatened. Only Larry Bird’s Indiana State team in 79 and the UNLV team of 91 have gotten close. Therefore, in my opinion, a lot of stars are probably going to have to align to see a #1 wire to wire again.

Next, they went to five straight Final Fours, and seven in nine years. Nobody else has been to the final four that consistently. The best runs belong to Kentucky and Michigan State, who both made three straight trips to the Final Four. Kentucky went to four in six years, having made the trip in 93, 96, 97 and 98. Michigan State managed four trips as well, in seven years - 99, 00, 01 and 05. I should also mention that North Carolina went to six Final Fours in ten years (1991-2000), which is close to Duke’s seven of nine. But even during that time, they never managed more than two in a row, and did that only once (1997 and 1998). While six of ten is impressive, seven of nine is more so, especially considering the five year streak. I’ll be surprised if any team replicated these three programs successes for a while. Duke’s run may very well never be equaled.

Finally, Duke is the only school to have players who went to the Final Four four straight seasons - all four seasons they played. Prior to the mid-70’s, freshmen did not play, so the great UCLA teams who went to seven straight Final Fours never had a player who played in more than three. Clay Buckley and Greg Koubek played for Duke from 1988-1991, and Brian Davis and Christian Laettner from 1989-1992. All four of these guys played on a team that went the distance, playing until the final weekend of the season, every season they played for Duke.

While Duke’s regular season success has been more impressive over the last 10 years than it was during the late 80’s and early 90’s, most people remember what you do in March first. Duke’s program in that Ferry-Laettner-Hill era, with five straight Final Fours (and seven of nine), two classes that never missed the Final Four, back-to-back titles, and a team that was #1 every week of the season, had one of the greatest periods of success in the history of college basketball. It has been unmatched in the 30+ years since UCLA’s dynasty ended. They truly were, for that time, a dynasty. Were they the last? Will there never be another? It’s hard to say. With the NBA game having so encroached on the college game, taking it’s players after only a year or two, it’s going to be much more difficult. Not impossible, but certainly more difficult with even less continuity from year to year.

But, with all of their accomplishments considered, they may very well be the last college basketball dynasty of that magnitude. Nobody will ever duplicate UCLA’s run in the 60’s and 70’s. And it’s almost as likely that Duke’s success during their dynasty years will not be duplicated, either. Only time will tell.

Here are a couple of articles related to the 1992 East Regional game:

• Game of the Century
• ‘92 loss to Duke proved UK could win again

Here’s another article on streaks which is worth looking at as well.

• UCLA Final Four Record - Untouchable?

And, as if isn’t shown enough during March, here it is one more time…

A friend of mine sent me this.

Not too surprisingly, Stan Heath is out as Arkansas’ basketball coach. I like Heath and think he’s a great guy. However, I’m not sure he was going to get the job done, at least not the job that was expected of him - bringing Arkansas basketball back to what it was from the late 80’s through the mid-90’s under Nolan Richardson. (Richardson, by the way, sounded off yesterday, making all kinds of ridiculous statements. He always takes an opportunity to take a shot at Broyles, and reporters always seem to flock to him to give such an opportunity.)

Heath had 20 or more wins the last two seasons and reached the NCAA tournament. However, it seems they didn’t feel he was getting it done as a bench coach, and they felt like, with all the talent returning, it would be a good time to get someone else in there. Word is Billy Gillespie is target #1. It was reported locally last week that a deal was already being made with Gillespie, and would be made final upon Heath’s exit. We’ll see…

Speaking of coaching Billy’s, when Tubby Smith fled Kentucky last week, expectation was that Billy Donovan would be at the top (or very near the top) of their target list. One of the prominent rumors (reported earlier on a Lexington television website, although since removed) is that Kentucky has already made a deal with Billy Donovan’s agent that will make Donovan the new Wildcat coach. He would be introduced next week after the Gators are finished with the NCAA tournament.

I’m not sure what to think about that. Donovan was on PTI yesterday (see video at ESPN), and Kornheiser asked him directly if he was interested in the job. Donovan only replied that he’s focused on the task at hand – preparing his team for the final four. Kornheiser persisted with a follow up, asking, what about down the road, after the tournament? Donovan again said he was only thinking about this weekend. I don’t know what Kornheiser was expecting. “Yeah, I’m interested in the Kentucky job.” He’s just not going to answer that question right now (and shouldn’t have to.) Fortunately, he didn’t say “I’m not going to be the Kentucky coach.” That might come back to haunt him.

I thought a couple of years ago that Donovan would leave if Kentucky called (and I knew Smith was in his final years then.) Now, however, I’m not so sure. Especially if they were to win it all again this weekend. But, occasionally, when a coach is losing a lot of key players, they are more inclined to be wooed elsewhere. (See Roy Williams in 2003.) Florida will almost certainly lose four starters, if not all five. Not to mention that, at Florida, football is king. If he wants to be at a school where basketball is king, there’s probably not any place better than Kentucky. I’ll be anxious to see if anything comes of this. Honestly, I’ll believe it when I see it.

Also, apparently Iowa has been given permission to talk to Bruce Pearl. Whether or not anything comes of that I have no idea. If Pearl is interested in returning north, that might be a job he’ll consider.

And, by the way, here’s my Final Four picks, from my post last week:

Not too bad, if I do say so myself. I am 46-15 after 61 games for a percentage of 75.4%. Even if I missed all three games next weekend, I’d end with over 71%. That may be a personal best. If I hadn’t picked Notre Dame to beat Winthrop, I’d probably have gone with Oregon to the regional final, which would’ve put me over 80% at this point. Oh, well…

* By the way, was I the only one that noticed the cheap shot given by Rayshawn Terry with :40 seconds left, well after the whistle blew? Sure, it wasn’t real hard, but it was unnecessary and, again, well after the whistle. Or was I the only one that noticed that UNC - whose fans whined endlessly after the final regular season game when Duke was fouling with less than a minute to go, down by double digits - fouled with :05 on the clock, down by double digits? Maybe it’s just me… or maybe UNC is no better than what they accused Duke of being three weeks ago.

The regionals in the NCAA tournament have been pretty good up to this point. Even the regional finals yesterday - which were both double-digit wins - were stretched out pretty late and they were undecided until the final minutes. With one more today, which should also be a good one, this has been one of the better regional years as far as I can remember (after a less-than-great first two rounds.)

However, there’s a long way to go for the Big Dance to surpass the Division II championship game this weekend. Barton College defeated Winona State by two, scoring four points in the final 9 seconds, including the winning layup at the buzzer. I saw these highlights yesterday, and I pass them on now. This is an amazing finish, and I’ve not seen many better, if any. What makes it even more incredible is the fact that it is the championship game. If you haven’t seen it, check it out:

A few years ago a bought a Todd McFarlane action figure for $2.99 on eBay. I’d tried a couple of times and lost out, but finally managed to win one. The figure? Alice Cooper. A 6-inch tall Alice, complete with boa constrictor, cane, saber, top hat, severed head and a guillotine with sliding blade. Cool.

Now, after enjoying it on my shelf at work for a few years (my wife wouldn’t let me keep it at home for fear of frightening the kids), I’ve decided to let it go. I put it up on eBay a few hours ago. It already has a bid, so it’s on it’s way out. Rock on, Alice.

Two of the Final Four are set, with Ohio State and UCLA winning yesterday. I picked them both. Florida is currently leading midway through the second half, so if they hold on, I’ll have at least three of the four. Of course, I’m really needing Georgetown to come through, since I picked them to go the distance. We’ll see…

Some cool pictures of the mountain gorillas in Rwanda on the blog of a friend of mine, Todd Brogdon. Todd and his family moved to Rwanda last fall and are occasionally blogging their experience there. Check out the pictures in this post.

After a first weekend lacking the upsets and thrilling games we’ve become accustomed to, the regional semifinals started off with some great games last night. The primary games here were probably the two best - the games in San Antonio.

In San Jose, the Kansas-Southern Illinois game was apparently very good as well. We got to see a fair amount of it at the beginning, and they switched over late to show the end. I was really hoping Southern Illinois could pull it out, but it didn’t quite happen.

The late game was not a blowout, either. I didn’t really see any of it, so I can’t speak much about it, but watching the score change at the top of the screen indicated it was relatively close all the way through, with UCLA winning by 9 in the end.

Many people were picking Texas A&M to the Final Four since they were playing in San Antonio. I thought Memphis was extremely fortunate. The final minute included a missed layup by Acie Law and then a phantom foul that gave Memphis the winning free throws. Yes, he brushed his chest with his arm, but there was no advantage there, the shot was not affected and was not going in anyway. Usually in end game situations, they don’t make a call like that. Unfortunately for A&M, they did last night. It didn’t cost them the game - Law’s miss may have done that - but it was still a pretty weak call.

The late game began with Tennessee on fire, hitting 3’s from all over. They ended up hitting 16 for the game, I believe. Late in the first half, they were up by 20 until Ohio State scored on the final play of the half. It appeared that Tennessee was well on it’s way to the upset.

At this point, I went to bed. Not because I thought it was over - I assumed OSU would play better in the second half, Tennessee might cool off a little and the gap would be closed. Granted, I didn’t know if they’d be able to pull out the win. But still, I set the DVR to record the rest. I was too tired and not feeling well, so I called it a night.

And what a night it turned out to be. I turned on the game this morning while getting ready for work, and started skipping through the opening minutes. The gap was closing. It was down to 14, then 11, a finally 6 points. I then started watching it and with around 8 minutes to go, I believe, Ohio State was all the way back - the score was tied. I watched the rest, right down to the final play when Oden swatted Tennessee’s final shot out of bounds at the buzzer. Ohio State pulled out another one that they probably should have lost.

Some say they’re a team of destiny. They’re actually looking a little like Connecticut last year. Nevertheless, they play on.

I’ve already seen some Tennessee fans complaining about fouls and free throws. Basically, that OSU took 35 free throws to Tennessee’s 18 free throws. Okay, it’s very simple - when you shoot half of your field goals from behind the 3-point line (62 FG taken, 31 were 3FG), you’re just not going to get fouled as often on the offensive end, so you’re going to shoot less free throws. Oh, and if you shoot better than 47% from the line (8 of 17), you win the game anyway. So these complaints are pretty weak.

All in all, last night’s games were pretty good, and very good by this year’s standards thus far. All the high seeds won, which is somewhat rare. Hopefully, tonight’s games won’t disappoint, either, and there will be a few more very good games.

Breaking News Update 4:00pm: Tubby Smith leaving Kentucky for Minnesota. Who’s next at Kentucky? My guess is they’ll call Billy Donovan first. I think he’ll stay at Florida, so who’s their next choice? Back to the original post…

This is not what I’d originally planned, but here’s a few things as the tournament starts up again tonight.

I haven’t watched the NIT too closely, but did catch the final minutes of a couple of games this week. Two nights ago, NC State’s run ended at West Virginia, and then last night Clemson held off Syracuse. They join Mississippi State and Air Force in the NIT Final Four.

I also watched a little of one of the women’s NCAA tournament games - Ole Miss knocking out defending champion Maryland. Maryland was hot at the end of last season and won the title, but despite having everyone back and a preseason #1 ranking, they haven’t really been a top five team all year. Ole Miss was up by more the 20 for a while and won without too much difficulty.

Saw a rumor about Steve Alford possibly leaving Iowa for New Mexico yesterday, but thought there was probably nothing to it. I stand corrected. ESPN is reporting that, according to sources, a a deal has been made and Alford will be introduced as the new Lobo coach tomorrow. I don’t know if I fully understand that move. New Mexico has good basketball tradition, but I was surprised that he’d leave a power conference for that job. However, according to the article, he was looking for a school where basketball comes first (which is probably not true at any Big Ten school, with the exception of Indiana.) And, there is apparently a Bob Knight connection that may have been part of the equation as well.

Not surprisingly, Duke’s Josh McRoberts will enter the NBA draft. How that affects the team next year remains to be seen. If power forward Patrick Patterson chooses to come to Duke, then the effect will not be as great, as I believe he will help their inside play. If he doesn’t, then it will be a bigger loss, with Brian Zoubek their only other true inside player.

Hopefully, McRoberts’ exit will make Duke more appealing to Patterson (who’s also considering Kentucky, Florida, Wake Forest, Virginia, and West Virginia), since they’d be playing a similar role on the team (much the way Carlos Boozer waited to sign until after Elton Brand declared in 1999.) Zoubek’s improvement between now and then is a key regardless, but if he’s all there is, then there’s a lot more pressure on him to perform. They have another very talented class coming in next year in Nolan Smith, Taylor King and Kyle Singler, and will have several outside threats, but they need another strong inside presence.

I was planning to write more about the tournament thus far, but just don’t have the time or will. The first weekend, for the most part, produced little drama or excitement. There were a few overtime games, but, based on the NCAA definition of an upset being five seed spots difference between the teams, there were only three upsets (Winthrop over Notre Dame, VCU over Duke, UNLV over Wisconsin.) That’s pretty boring. With the exception of the Vanderbilt win over WSU (6 over 3), all of the other low-seed wins were in 8-9 games and their second round equivalent, the 4-5 games, and those type of games aren’t really considered upsets.

However, that also means that a lot of quality teams are in the Sweet 16 and, hopefully, will produce a lot of quality games. We’ll see starting tonight. My predictions for this round would be as follows:

Midwest : Florida, Oregon
West : Kansas, UCLA
East : UNC, Georgetown
South : Ohio State, Texas A&M

Yes, I picked the higher seed in every game but one (A&M-Memphis). But the way it’s been so far, that seems about right. I’ll be a big USC fan tomorrow night, and would love to see Butler reach the Final Four. I’d even like to see UNLV in the Final Four. But most of all I’ll be pulling for Georgetown at this point, since I picked them to win it all.

By the way, I mentioned in a post last April or so about how I’d changed my mind about Billy Donovan and actually liked him now. Of course, I actually disliked him (for no good reason, just the whole Pitino factor from the past). This year, I have a couple of coaches that I’ve actually come to like a lot this year.

One is JT III at Georgetown, which is another reason I want them to win. I was never a fan of his dad until after he stopped coaching, but I really like III already. He did a great job at Princeton, and I hope he continues to do well at Georgetown.

The other is Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl. Despite my general dislike of all things Tennessee (see 1998), I’ve already admitted that I’ve grown to like Pat Summitt over the years, and now I’m saying the same about Pearl. He reminds me in some ways of the young Jim Valvano at NC State. He seems like he’d be a great guy to hang out with and talk about basketball, and he seems to really have fun coaching. I still can’t be a Tennessee fan, but I am starting to like Pearl more and more.

Phil Fulmer, don’t hold your breath.