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—Foget Luc Richard Mba a Moute and Kevin Love, last night’s game made it clear the key to the UCLA defense is Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook. Once both of them got four fouls the Hilltoppers started scoring at will. It means either they’re both great defenders, or they were prevented from taking their usual liberties with hand-checking regulations.

—How about that Xavier game? Thirteen lead changes in the last 10 minutes. Four more in overtime. Twenty-Three straight minutes of seemingly do-or-die possessions. This Xavier team has played more high intensity minutes than any team in the tournament. I was at their first round game against Georgia and the atmosphere was extremely tense for almost the entire 2nd half. Their 2nd round game was close throughout. And then you have this game. Who knows whether it will end up being good or bad for them. There is a chance it will lead to one of those “we can’t lose” mentalities and I think those are generally a good things (see: Wildcats, Davidson or Hiltoppers, Western Kentucky).

—It’s so hard to come back against North Carolina because they run the whole game. That’s what makes them dangerous. In order to come back from a 10+ point deficit a team needs to hit shots, get stops, and then run back the other way. Teams can’t do that against UNC because when they hit a shot the Tar Heels run right back at them. And UNC is better at it than everyone else. The pace becomes too frenetic, and the trailing teams runs out of gas before they can really push the ball up the floor.

The big question for the Tar Heels has been whether they’re a dominant enough offensive team to make up for their defensive deficiencies. That was the case in 2005. Right now I’d have to lean towards saying yes, but they still have three more games against three very good defensive teams.

—I hate to say this, especially after yesterday’s rant about cliches, but Tennessee just seemed soft to me. They got pushed around. Louisville just powered through the their defensive pressure. In hindsight it looks like Tennessee was simply the best team in a bad conference who was overrated because they played their best game of the season in their biggest game of their season.

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It’s official. The state of Tennessee does not want you gambling on the NCAA Tournament with furniture. Last December a Memphis furniture store held a promotion promising to repay customers for up to $1500 of furniture if Memphis won the National Championship. Not so fast…

Attorney General Robert E. Cooper issued an opinion last week stating that it is illegal for a business to conduct a promotion that requires a purchase when that purchase is induced by speculation that a person may receive partial or full rebate, depending on a particular team winning the NCAA tournament.

But wait, there’s more. The store now says Cooper approved the promotion before they went ahead with it. I predict in the end the only ones who get screwed are the consumers. Those poor, innocent people who just wanted something to tie the room together and were conned into spending extra in support of the Tigers.

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As Forrest Gump would say, sports and cliches go together like peas and carrots. Whether they come from a broadcaster, coach, or exceedingly glib journalist, you can’t be exposed to some athletic achievement or debacle without hearing a cliche.

So you can imagine my excitement when Devils coach Brent Sutter passed up the opportunity to blame Andy Greene’s struggles on “confidence,” and instead offered a real explanation.

“I’m not real big on that ‘confidence’ thing,” Sutter said.” ‘Why did a player not play well?’ Well, the first thing you always hear is about a lack of confidence. Maybe it’s a lack of other things, too…A lack of work ethic, maybe a lack of [practicing well], maybe a lack in other areas.

He’s right. There are a few exceptions (pitchers without confidence in their fastball will nibble and walk more batters, quarterbacks with no confidence will be afraid to throw the ball downfield), but overall, “a lack of confidence” is a bullshit explanation.

Who knows? A few more people like Sutter and someday there may actually be an intelligent public discourse about athletics in this country.

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Rivals.com is kind enough to have a page listing all of this year’s the high school basketball champions in every class in every state. It’s an extremely nice feature, but it has one problem. Nowhere is there a mention of the Washington D.C. City champions.

Those champions are the Gonzaga Purple Eagles. They’re led by D.C. Player of the Year Max Kenyi (who will be playing basketball at Harvard next fall) and last month they beat Theodore Roosevelt to give coach Steve Turner his city first title. All I ask is that Rivals.com give them the same respect they give Carvel (the Delaware state champions) and everybody else.

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Here’s some streaming video of what I was talking about…

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What Sean Singletary did in last night’s NCAA post-season tournament game was worthy of being on every highlight show in the country—if it had only been in the NCAA tournament…or even the NIT. Instead in happened in the College Basketball Invitational.

Old Dominion led Virginia by four with 35 seconds left when Singletary made two free throws to cut the lead in half. The Cavs fouled and Old Dominion made one of two. Singletary then calmly marched down court and banked in the game tying three. ODU held for the last shot, but as ther point guard attempted to get free Singletary picked his pocket and went the other way for the go-ahead three point play. It was an Anthony Atkinson-like performance.

It was also a fitting exclamation point for a remarkable career which saw Singletary named first team all-ACC three straight years in a row. Singletary’s career probably didn’t end the way he envisioned (the CBI?), but he will leave with that one last unforgettable, game-changing performance.

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The almost “goal of the year”…

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Ulysses P. Winfield is one of the ten most important people in my life right now. Never heard of him? I don’t blame you. He doesn’t exist. Although that’s generally a major shortcoming, it didn’t stop good ol’ Ulysses from using his Gmail account to sign up for CBSsportsline’s March Madness on Demand.

As it turns out, Ulysses and three of his exist-only-in-cyberspace friends (who all suspiciously share the shame IP address as me) have agreed to let me use their MMOD accounts. Their generosity will allow me to stream four tournament games on my computer at once. It’s a contribution that cannot go unrecognized, and before the tournament kicks off I encourage everybody out there to take a moment and thank their friends (or aliases) who make it possible for them to catch every single second of the tournament.

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When the NCAA tournament kicks off tomorrow there are two schools which stand to make a shitload of money. One is the big-time college basketball program that wins the title. The other is the small conference school which rises above all the others to become the tournament’s #1 lovable, never-say-die, faith-in-humanity-restoring underdog.

So how much does a deep tournament run reward schools from one-bid conferences? Rober Baker, the director of George Mason’s Center for Sports Management, decided to find out. Baker’s research found that since Mason’s Final Four run:

• Admissions inquiries increased 350 percent
• Out-of-state applications increased 40 percent
• Total freshman applications increased 22 percent from the 2005-06 academic year
• Active alumni increased 25 percent, while online registration rose 52 percent
• GoMason.com (the official Athletics web site) page views increased 503 percent, while unique viewers increased 702 percent in March 2006
• Men’s basketball games have consistently had CAA record-setting attendance for home games in 2007 and 2008, and season ticket sales doubled in one year
• An estimated $677,474,659 in free media was earned by Mason during the 2006 NCAA Tournament through national, regional and local broadcast, print and electronic media coverage (including games)

Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all. Of course both the college application process and NCAA basketball revenue acquisition tend to be zero-sum games. That is not good for James Madison and Old Dominion.

Finally, before finding your ass groove on the couch tomorrow afternoon, check out my tournament preview for SI.com.

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That’s what the NCAA selection committee thinks.

St. Joseph’s went 9-7 in the A-10, 21-12 overall. Their most impressive non-conference win came against Sienna. The only thing they had going for them was two wins against Xavier.

Ohio State wen 10-8 in the Big 10, 19-13 overall. Their big non-conference wins came against Syracuse, Florida, and UMBC. They also beat Purdue and Michigan State.

So which of these teams got into the tournament? St. Joseph’s of course.

Now let’s move onto the big boys.

Xavier finished 14-2 in the A-10, 27-6 overall. They didn’t make their conference tournament championship game. They’re big non-conference wins were against Indiana and Kansas State.

Wisconsin finished 16-2 in the Big 10, 29-4 overall. They won their conference tournament. In addition to beating Texas, Wisconsin beat Indiana and Michigan State twice.

Somehow, Wisconsin dropped to a #3 seed while the committed ignored Xavier’s conference tournament loss and and generously handed them the same seed as Wisconsin.

I don’t blame the committee for shafting the Big 10. The Big 10 sucks, and everybody knows it. But the A-10 lovefest that went on Sunday evening might be the conference’s most unexpected boon since Cuttino Mobley was draining threes to lead Rhode Island to the Elite Eight.

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