NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 TV Schedule

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Thursday brings more excitement to the living rooms of college basketball fans. It's the first of two nights of third-round action of the NCAA Tournament.

While that might seem like good news to most, there is some bad news: Gus Johnson will not be able to call every game.

But CBS has announced the broadcast teams for the four sites on tap this weekend:

THURSDAY
Region: East
Site: Syracuse
Announcers: Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas
+ West Virginia vs. Washington, 7:27 p.m.
+ Kentucky vs. Cornell, 9:57 p.m.
+ Winners play Saturday, Time TBA

Region: West
Site: Salt Lake City
Announcers: Gus Johnson and Len Elmore
+ Syracuse vs. Butler, 7:07 p.m.
+ Kansas State vs. Xavier, 9:37 p.m.
+ Winners play Saturda, Time TBA

FRIDAY
Region: South
Site: Houston
Announcers: Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg
+ Baylor vs. St. Mary's, 7:27 p.m.
+ Duke vs. Purdue, 9:57 p.m.
+ Winners play Sunday, Time TBA

Region: Midwest
Site: St. Louis
Announcers: Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery
+ Ohio State vs. Tennessee, 7:07 p.m.
+ Michigan State vs. Northern Iowa, 9:37 p.m.
+ Winners play Sunday, Time TBA

Bracket Breakdown: Forecasting The Sweet 16 And Elite 8

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Surprises abound in the Sweet 16, and not all of them are pleasant.

Two days after Michigan State lost star point guard Kalin Lucas for the remainder of the tournament, West Virginia learned Tuesday that its own floor general, Truck Bryant, has a broken foot and also will be unable the rest of the way. I think Lucas' absence hurts the Spartans more than Bryant's hurts WVU.

But getting back to surprises, Cornell and Northern Iowa are hogging all the headlines. Let us not forget, however, about Omar Samhan and St. Mary's. Sure more unpredictable outcomes are on tap; about the only thing that won't surprise us this weekend will be that Miller Lite will show us the ad with Buster the dumb dog 15 times. Here's a preview:

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NCAA TOURNAMENT COVERAGE + WEST REGION: Xavier Fans Love Unheralded Senior Forward
+ EAST REGION: Cornell Cute, But Big Red Will Be Feeling Blue
+ TV CRITIC: March Adness: Cheers To Dos Equis
+ TOURNAMENT TAKEAWAYS: What The First Weekend Taught Us
+ KANSAS COLLAPSE: Jayhawks Fans Left Speechless, Except This One
+ TOURNAMENT TAKEAWAYS: What Day 2 Taught Us
+ TOURNAMENT TAKEAWAYS: What Day 1 Taught Us
+ RECIPE: 7 Ingredients For A National Championship
+ MARCH MADNESS: Tourney No Longer Leads To April Sadness
+ COUNTDOWN: The Top 10 Title Games Since 1979
+ LIST: The Top 10 Analysts In College Basketball
+ LIST: The Top 10 Play-By-Play Men In College Basketball

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+ EAST -- Everybody wants to pick Cornell over Kentucky because a) if the Big Red does pull off the grand upset, they can say, "I predicted it. I'm really smart," and b) when UK wins, no one will really remember the idiots who picked Cornell. You've got brains vs. talent, experience vs. inexperience and discipline vs. the playground. Kentucky's youngsters haven't been bothered by the pressure of the single-elimination, high-stakes event. Cornell is good but Kentucky is better. UK wins and then slices past a West Virginia team that won't necessarily be troubled by Bryant's absence. The Mountaineers' real woes come from their inability to shoot the basketball, a large problem if they hope to beat a Kentucky team that averaged 95 points in its first two tournament games. UK advances to Indianapolis after a physical regional final.

+ SOUTH -- Purdue's grit has been impressive, but Duke is too versatile for the Boilermakers. The Devils are difficult to guard on the perimeter, and they're balanced on the blocks. Slow them down, speed them up, they can play either style and they can defend just as well. Duke beats Purdue and then meets Baylor, an easy winner over St. Mary's, in the regional final. The Baylor-St. Mary's game will be an excellent one, but the Bears will have a little too much firepower, even for Samhan and company. The Duke-Baylor final shall be a dandy, but the basketball gods gave Mike Krzyzewski a dangerous and balanced team this year, as well as a comfortable path to Indianapolis. Of course Duke will advance to meet Kentucky once again when the stakes are high.

+ WEST -- Syracuse, Syracuse, Syracuse. No offense to Kansas State or the Big 12, but the Orange are playing lights out and  I don't believe Arinze Onuaku's return will disrupt any rhythm Jim Boeheim's bunch found in its first two tournament games. And those were some games, eh? The Orange won each time by more than 20 points, including a surprisingly easy blowout of Gonzaga in round two. Syracuse breezes by Butler and will take a large load of confidence into the regional final against KSU. I'm still not fully convinced about Frank Martin. His glare and his overall freakish nature are well documented, and I get the connection he has with his players. But the Elite Eight is the big kid's table, and Boeheim has sat here before. Many times. And Kansas State might be a little beaten up after a nasty regional semifinal against Xavier. KSU will barely beat the Muskies in a knock-down, drag-out brawl. I can't wait to watch that game. But Syracuse advances from the West.
 
+ MIDWEST -- Northern Iowa proves it's not a one-trick pony with a defeat of a battered Michigan State team. I don't think it will require a gimmick or a heroic late shot, either. The Panthers followed up their defeat of UNLV by staying focused enough to beat top overall seed Kansas in the tournament's biggest upset so far. UNI really controlled that game from start to finish, and although it got sloppy late, it had just enough in the tank and will do the same against the tournament savvy Tom Izzo and his proud Spartans. Ohio State worries me some. Many think the Buckeyes are a lock to come out of the Midwest, but Evan Turner could struggle against Tennessee in a regional semifinal. The Vols will throw some athleticism his way, and since he's not a natural point guard, ET might struggle again with turnover problems. Perimeter assassin Jon Diebler will once again need to hit six or seven threes to keep UT's defense away from Turner some. I think Diebler will do it, and OSU will get a stronger fight in this round than against UNI in the regional final. Ohio State advances to face Syracuse in the Final Four.

Xavier Fans Love Unheralded Senior

By JOHN T. THOMPSON
Special To One Great Season

I am a Xavier fan. I went to the school. I have followed the program for more than 15 years. In the late 1990s, I sat along the baseline as Xavier beat hated crosstown rival and No. 1 Cincinnati in The Gardens, photographing the game for the XU school paper. I wrote an XU blog after moving out to the Pacific Northwest. I love my squad. 

Therefore, I cannot care less that the sports world has called Xavier a mid-major for years yet is suddenly ready to recant. Well, color me unimpressed. I've been too busy enjoying a program that also was called "Power Forward U." When your program sends Aaron Williams, Tyrone Hill, Brian Grant and David West to solid NBA careers, it sounds like a pretty legit nickname. I've also been too busy watching a team that's made three straight Sweet Sixteens. And I have definitely been busy enjoying the quiet and astounding career of Jason Love, the epitome of Xavier basketball.

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NCAA TOURNAMENT COVERAGE + EAST REGION: Cornell Cute, But Big Red Will Be Feeling Blue
+ TV CRITIC: March Adness: Cheers To Dos Equis
+ TOURNAMENT TAKEAWAYS: What The First Weekend Taught Us
+ KANSAS COLLAPSE: Jayhawks Fans Left Speechless, Except This One
+ TOURNAMENT TAKEAWAYS: What Day 2 Taught Us
+ TOURNAMENT TAKEAWAYS: What Day 1 Taught Us
+ RECIPE: 7 Ingredients For A National Championship
+ MARCH MADNESS: Tourney No Longer Leads To April Sadness
+ COUNTDOWN: The Top 10 Title Games Since 1979
+ LIST: The Top 10 Analysts In College Basketball
+ LIST: The Top 10 Play-By-Play Men In College Basketball

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When the "little writer that couldn't" in Minnesota predicted that the Gophers should handle the Muskies with ease in Friday's first-round of the NCAA Tournament, he showed his ignorance of the program that helped mold Jason Love. He came to Xavier as a lightly recruited player from Philadelphia. His personal stats started off slowly but have steadily climbed to 11.8 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. Not too impressive, you say? Why should I care about this no-name, no-stats fella from Eggs-zavyer? I'll tell you why: because the respect XU and "mid-majors" have suddenly earned this week via the collective wisdom of the national media (tongue planted firmly in cheek) is the result of wins.

And this year, Love became the winningest player in Xavier basketball history. XU has won 108 games during Love's four years, and Muskies fans hope there are still more left in the tank. That's an average of 27 wins a season from a team full of guys just like Love. And did I mention the four straight Atlantic 10 championships?

No one can tell me how many points XU averaged last weekend in winning two more NCAA Tournament games, but I can tell you that Xavier is 7-2 in the last three trips to the Big Dance. And in the SportsCenter era of highlight-reel dunks and self-promoting one-and-dones, XU never forgets the bottom line. Just win, baby.

But was the national media ever paying attention? Did writers do their homework over the past four seasons? Or even this year? Could even Cincinnati's local media rattle off these fully impressive statistics (I'm looking at you, Enquirer beat writer Shannon Russell)? Will XU supplant UC on more pages of the Cincinnati Enquirer now that the tables have so definitively turned? The answer to all those questions is a resounding "no." And the response from true Xavier fans is a simple shrug, because we don't need the adulation. We don't need the dunk clips. We don't need the pre-game style when we can settle for the post-game substance: the win.

Up next is Kansas State under the psycho-killer watch of coach Frank Martin, whom we all know Martin is a Bob Huggins protege, but we don't know if he has learned from Huggs to dine out for the rest of his life on one great postseason run. As for the daggers Martin shoots at his players for the smallest of mistakes, didn't that approach run its course when Bobby Knight faded into the Texas Tech sunset? KSU did smoke Xavier early this season when the Muskies were going through some serious growing pains. The convincing 15-point loss dropped XU to 5-3, but helped star player Jordan Crawford begin to adopt Love's team-first attitude that would help them win games like that one. Or this one.

While I don't fall into the trap of trying to predict the next round's games, I'll go in a different direction and will give you guarantees. Crawford will take some shots you wish he wouldn't, and he'll make them. Kenny "The Glacier" Frease will foul opposing players in an interesting manner. And win or lose, Love will play hard and with passion and will represent his program just as impressively as any other player from any other team, mid-major or not.

John T. Thompson is a die-hard Xavier fan who lives in Portland, Ore.

Cornell Is Cute, But Big Red No Match For Big Blue

By BEN JACKEY
Special To One Great Season

I've always thought there would only be one instance in which I would turn to Flavor Flav for clarity. If for some reason I was running late to an appointment and my cell phone battery was dead and I forgot my watch at home, I’m pretty sure that, judging by the comically large timepiece adorning his neck/chest/lower abdomen, he could tell me what time it is. Well, amazingly, I turn to Flav on another subject –- Cornell basketball. Flavor’s words of widsom? Don’t believe the hype!

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It's funny to me how when America latches onto a Cinderella, it seems to forget the carriage that got her to the dance was a frickin' pumpkin. That glass slipper is really a cheap pump from Payless made by Wizards of Waverly Place (look it up) and assembled with inferior materials. Apparently, at this ball, the punch is Jonestown Kool-Aid, and we all know how that ended. Yeeah Boy!

Whenever anyone talks about Cornell, all uneducated basketball fans immediately point to its January trip to Kansas. Yes, that game was close. Yes, a mid-major held its own against the nation's best. Yes, to the other "Greatest" Ali, Kansas was beatable. This is the same Cornell that lost to Seton Hall, was pounded by Penn and squeaked by Princeton twice before beating up on a quality Temple team and an atrocious Wisconsin team so far in the NCAA Tournament. 

The pundits, novices and idiots (sometimes one in the same) have the axles wobbling on the Big Red bandwagon partly because it's being driven by a pasty-white, Ivy League, feel-good story. Plus, now the Big Red gets the chance to face Public Enemy No. 1: Kentucky. The minute they see me, fear me.

Cornell is to Kentucky what Mike and Mike are to good radio. Kentucky is just not likable outside the Commonwealth. Cue ignorant comments now:

+ John Calipari is a cheater. His two vacated Final Four appearances were due to Marcus Camby getting an agent and the NCAA Clearinghouse's botching of the Derrick Rose situation.
+ DeMarcus Cousins is a thug. How quickly we forget Chas MacFarland's attempt to behead him and Melvin Goins' attempt to de-ball him. 
+ Kentucky fans are obsessive, obnoxious and lack class. OK, I have nothing to rebut that.

Ryan Wittman is tough and Cornell is very disciplined. The Big Red screens like crazy and they can shoot the lights out. They are a very good basketball team, but they are not Kentucky. Leave it to Flav to be the voice of reason.

Ben Jackey is a die-hard Kentucky fan living in Louisville.

March Adness: Cheers To Dos Equis

If you're like us, you've probably got some opinions on the many commercials you absorbed (or ignored) in front of your television or computer watching the NCAA Tournament all weekend. That's why we thought we'd take a different route today and have once again asked Steve Susi, founder of branding consultancy Brand Spanking New York, to chime in with his thoughts on a few of the ads aired/streamed the most often during those many (oh, so many) timeouts.

By STEVE SUSI
Special To One Great Season

Of course, we all know the Super Bowl is the holy grail of football, and — aside from the self-absorbed ad industry itself — probably the only time and place where advertising is legitimately included in the main event. But long after the cocktail flu kept you home that fateful following Monday has faded, the month of March belongs to the high-profile NCAA Basketball Tournament, which has in its own right become a hugely important vehicle on the media calendar. For advertisers with new creative seeking a "captive audience" (if that even exists anymore outside of a jail cell) of college-educated, 18-to-59 year-old men to show it to, these few weeks of Madness represent the first reason to live since Drew Brees shocked the world with his admission that he was going to Disneyworld.

Over the course of this frenetic weekend, here are the five spots which appeared to be in heaviest rotation and their requisite critiques.

Dos Equis, "Snow Monkeys", "Lady Luck", "Ice Fishing" (Euro RSCG)
Courtesy of Euro here in New York, the latest ad flight of the “Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign from Dos Equis stands as one of the few beacons of creativity remaining, seemingly, on earth. Or at least the American TV ad landscape. His mother has a tattoo that reads "son." How much fun is it to handle this account? Must be great. Excellent scriptwriting (by now a constant), tasteful shooting, and A-plus editing render this marketing push the best in broadcast by far today. And what often goes uncelebrated in rare moments like these is how smart and gutsy the clients are. Talented creatives can be found in agencies all over the country (and world), but it’s only because of great clients that spots like these see the light of day. (Client-side marketing execs, this means you.)

Miller Lite "Love – L-L-Love" (DraftFCB)
In stark contrast to the above, this beer campaign succeeds only in its achievement of greater levels of embarrassment. Someone please tell me what DraftFCB and their clients at Miller Lite are thinking, assuming they are. We all know that it’s been the currency of beermakers for decades to prey on the young single guy’s inability to commit to relationships as fodder for their ads. But what research is showing men are now being forced to choose between the two? Not sure about your college, but in my experience, they were often found together in close quarters. Anyway the campaign isn’t funny, and worse, what the hell kind of alcoholic is your target that he’s ready to sacrifice his dog, mother, and okay-looking girlfriend for a bottle of see-thru beer? Bad, half-brained, insulting.

Southwest Airlines "Battle Cry" (GSD&M)
The Texan discount carrier is betting that the US traveler is so against bag fees that he'll select the friendly airline famous for it’s Cincinnati-Who-concert-bumrush-style seating process. That might be a stretch in my opinion, but whatever. What certainly will be a stretch is the public’s tolerance of seeing this spot 20 times every basketball game. The five-second shelf-life of the humor of outta-shape Joe Sixpacks removing their shirts to reveal “BAGS FLY FREE” painted across their collective chests is so predictable, but not insulting or anything like that. It’s just, now that ad inventory has plummeted throughout the TV world in favor of more digitally focused media budgets, the traditional advertisers left standing see their spots rotating over and over again during any given program, guaranteeing viewer fatigue and annoyance and multiplying exponentially its lack of surprise. This one included.

Capital One, "Ivan Brothers" (DDB Chicago)
“What’s in Your Mullet?” has to be one of the most universally despised campaigns in history. (The “Hands in Your Pocket” spot that ran in Canada is the high point, and the David Spade units were OK, I guess.) For nearly a decade we’ve been treated to nitwit dads and buffoon desert island castaways performing low-quality slapstick before delivering the same rhetorical question/tagline. (I’ll give them that, though — consistency is key to great branding; unfortunately for the world’s largest credit card issuer, so is interesting, relevant creative). But this new “Visigoths” push takes mediocrity to brand new heights of dumb. Our country is so litigious that no one can target anyone as the butt of a joke anymore because the client might be sued or flamed by some watchdog organization, so agencies are left to create stories around fictitious “people.” (See also Geico’s “Cavemen.”) Sure, this alleviates legal risk. But how much longer are we going to be subjected to these idiot Vikings (including Ogre from "Revenge of the Nerds") with Cockney accents putting change in their laptop disk drives, sniffing rental bowling shoes, putting a mace through the airport metal detector, bringing goats to the ski slope, and raising bearded children? Who wrote these things, seventh-graders? Enough already. I speak for the world when I beg of thee: please, please stop. With sprinkles on top.

HP, "Let’s Do Amazing" (72andSunny)
I want so badly for this new $40 million campaign for the computer giant from 72andSunny — a departure from HP's agency of record, San Francisco’s Goodby, Silverstein & Partners — to be great, what with the casting of Kiwi comic genius Rhys Darby of "Flight Of the Conchords" and all, but they’ve underwhelmed. Smacking of Cisco’s current campaign, which uses Ellen Page to go around her hometown and explore the awe-inspiration that is Cisco, we see Darby barge in on Dr. Dre during a recording session, bumble with questions at a UPS facility, and touch things he shouldn’t in The Venetian’s security office. That’s it? Come on, guys. When the best bit you write in for a hilarious dude like Rhys is his little beat-boxish noises at the end of the Dre spot (which I do find genuinely funny), you’ve wasted a massive opportunity to separate yourself from other tech concerns like, lo and behold, Ellen and Cisco. I pray we see you flex your comedy-writing muscles (or let Darby do it) soon.

Be sure to give Susi a follow on Twitter. He's at @BrandSpankingNY.

Tournament Takeaways: What The First Weekend Taught Us

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

One of the best opening weekends in recent NCAA Tournament history drew to a close shortly before 8 p.m. ET Sunday, and if you're anything like me, you've already begun counting down every tenth of a second for Thursday's Sweet 16 round to get here.

What did the first two rounds show us? Besides the fact that I can't fill out a bracket with even the slightest bit of success, plenty:

+ No one is invincible. Kansas, not just a No. 1 seed, but the tournament's top overall seed and heavy favorite to win its second national championship in three years, learned that the hard way. The Jayhawks had a star or a budding star at every spot on the floor, but they might not have taken seriously enough the one thing Northern Iowa seemed to have more of: heart.

+ The Big Ten is back. Isn't that what we said in the first week of January, after the college football bowl season? It is, and the same is true on the hardwood. With No. 1 Kansas and No. 3 Georgetown out of the way, Ohio State is the logical pick to rule the Midwest, though it might need to knock off league foe Michigan State -- gimpy guards and all -- in the Elite Eight. And not enough can be said about Purdue's gutsy overtime defeat of Texas A&M, making the Big Ten the only conference to send three teams into the next round. Gritty Chris Kramer doesn't want his career to end just yet. The Purdue senior is straight ballin'.

+ Cornell is legitimate. So is Xavier. Those are two fine basketball teams. That Cornell-Kentucky matchup will be one of the most interesting Sweet 16 games in recent memory. And the Muskies are no longer a precious little mid-major. The Muskies can beat anybody. I loved that rookie coach and hometown fave Chris Mack jabbed a Minneapolis writer after XU took it to the Golden Gophers Friday.

+ Despite the Big Ten props, I do agree with most analysts -- Len Elmore and Seth Davis, in particular -- who say the best-conference debate is a waste of time. Conferences aren't playing conferences. Individual teams are playing other teams in high-pressure, single-elimination games where personnel matchups are critical. That said, what up with the Big East?

+ Looking ahead, if Kentucky and West Virginia win their third-round games in the East, they'd meet in what would no doubt be the best regional final of the tournament. If those teams do make the Elite Eight, that could very well be a de facto national championship game.

+ On the TV front, CBS once again did an outstanding job showing 48 games over 80 hours, and switching to late-game situations. One complaint I did hear came from a colleague in the Bay Area who was disappointed to have to watch the last minute of Sunday's Duke-Cal yawner instead of being switched to the thrilling Xavier-Pittsburgh and Purdue-Texas A&M finishes that unfolded simultaneously at other locations. But overall, I thought CBS got it right again and I hope The Eye continues to broadcast America's greatest sporting event for as long as I'm alive.

+ The Miller Lite commercials are still awful, the Capital One viking ads have never once been funny, the new Dos Equis spots are just as strong as last year's successes, the girl in the Palm commercial is beautiful, Rhys Darby has already jumped the shark with those bad HP ads and Southwest Airlines appears poised to annoy us with their shirt-lifting baggage handlers for two more weeks. More on that from OGS contributor Steve Susi soon.

NCAA Ouster Leaves KU Fans Speechless ... Except This One

By WHITNEY MATHEWS
Special To One Great Season

I take comfort in knowing all of your brackets are f**ked.

The inhabitants of my household -- dog included -- are all staring at the television, shaking their heads. Yeah. Northern Iowa just happened. (Though the dog is diabetic, so maybe it's just time for his insulin shot, because he is a dog and dogs don't understand basketball.)

I wish I could say I haven't felt like this before, but it brings me back to a certain St. Patrick's Day a few years back. The team was Bradley. Before that, Bucknell. Bill Self has coached Kansas to a title, but also three of the worst losses in program history (Northern Iowa included). I'm not releasing the hounds or anything, but I worry about his coaching abilities against mid-majors.

What kills me about this loss is that KU shot 6-of-22 from three-point range. Cole Aldrich tweaked his ankle and was out the majority of the second half, and when he was in, he was getting handled by that giant Jordan Eglseder. It took away one of KU's most powerful weapons and forced the ball to the perimeter -- not Bill Self's game plan, I'm sure. Also, Sherron Collins is selfish when he doesn't deliver. It's been a thorn in KU's side all along.

In the end, UNI found and exploited the Jayhawks' weak spots, and the Panthers deserve to advance. Kansas didn't play like a national champion -- or even a Sweet 16 team -- in either round.

Now the question is ... do Xavier Henry and Cole Aldrich declare early for the NBA draft? I say maybe not to Xavier. Cole should've gone last year, though his nice-guy attitude may have him reconsidering this time around. KU will activate redshirts Mario Little and Travis Releford. I think they'll be motivated after being stuck on the bench for Saturday's disaster.

And then there's this: http://twitpic.com/19vqyg.

Sad.

At this time I will conveniently leave the country for four days on business. I would say "well, at least we have baseball season to look forward to," but I live in Kansas City and we all know how well that's gone the last 20 years. At least the World Cup will kill some time and our MLS team could be a playoff squad.

So for now, I'll leave you with a mashup of failures from our most-hated rival -- Missouri -- because it makes me feel better to insult others.

See you in 2011.

Mathews is a KU grad and works for the Lawrence Journal-World. Visit her Web site, and then follow her on Twitter.

Ali Farokhmanesh Leads Northern Iowa Upset Of Kansas

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

To heck with Kevin Pittsnogle. The Kansas Jayhawks got Farokhmaneshed.

That's right, the NCAA Tournament's top overall seed and prohibitive favorite to win a second national championship in three seasons was eliminated in Saturday's second round by No. 9 seed Northern Iowa, 69-67.

Just two days after Ali Farokhmanesh drilled a late three to give the unheralded Panthers a first-round win over UNLV, the sharpshooter made another one with 35 seconds left to give his team a four-point lead that UNI would not relinquish.

The Panthers, who became the first Missouri Valley Conference team to advance to the Sweet 16 since Larry Bird's Indiana State squad did it in 1979, controlled the first half and weren't shy in the opening minutes of the second half, either.

UNI took its game right at the Jayhawks, occasionally settling for outside shots but frequenly working the ball inside, right at KU interior stud Cole Aldrich. After three first-half treys, Farokhmanesh did go cold from beyond the stripe in the second half, but his teammates made enough big plays on offense to keep the pressure on the Jayhawks.

And when KU staged a rally inside the eight-minute mark, as the crowd inside Oklahoma City's Ford Center knew it would, the Panthers certainly bent but did not break.

UNI couldn't handle the Kansas full-court pressure. Several turnovers led to points for Kansas, but the upstarts squeezed out just enough big plays as they needed to avoid the complete meltdown.

What was once a 12-point edge for UNI after the break was sliced to one point with less than a minute left. But there was Farokhmanesh, ready to break his cold spell with a wide-open three. Feet set, he swished a long-range bomb to give his squad a 66-62 advantage, and it was nearly a piece of cake from there.

Kansas is the first No. 1 seed to exit in the second round since Kentucky and Stanford both suffered the same fate in 2004, but neither of those squads was the heavy national favorite that Kansas was to win this tournament.

Tournament Takeaways: What Day 2 Taught Us

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

For fans of Cinderella, underdogs and buzzer-beaters, the second day of the NCAA Tournament didn't deliver the dramatics that day one did, but we still saw some quality basketball on Friday.

Saturday brings us the first day of the second round, and there are some good matchups on deck this weekend. But let's review the highs and lows from the second-best day in American sports:

+ Ohio State's Evan Turner is the best player in the country, but he's far from perfect. His poor night from the field isn't what should concern OSU fans, but his sometimes lazy and sloppy ballhandling should. I've actually thought this for a few weeks, particularly in the Big Ten Tournament semifinal against Illinois. Turner is dangerous on the bounce during transition or when he has a path to the basket, but sometimes when he tries to attack the lane in the half-court, he forgets to protect the basketball. Being 6-foot-7 and not a natural point guard, I'm sure he's used to being vertical, but as the Buckeyes advance, he'll need to protect the rock against smaller guards who've lately been able to knock the ball from him with regularity.

+ Nice to see the Big East bounce back with three wins in four tries Friday, after Thursday's disastrous 1-3 effort. West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Syracuse coasted to fairly easy wins. But Louisville got embarrassed by Cal, giving what was supposed to be a weak PAC 10 two wins in two games against the alleged top league in the country.

+ I'd read a bunch about Cornell the last three months but never once saw the Big Red on television until Friday. If the way they played is how they always play, then that was no upset. An excellent team beat Temple, and handily. It was pretty impressive when, after a few trips, CBS would show tight shots of Cornell players getting back on defense after a make. Sorry for the cliche, but you really could see a good, positive, laser-focus in the eyes of those players. They'll give Wisconsin a tough game Sunday. Or will Wisconsin give Cornell a tough game?

+ Glad to see Purdue get a gritty win over a game Siena team. The Saints might be a Gonzaga East in the making, as they've pulled off upsets the last two years and were subsequently a fashionable first-round upset pick for many. But even without Robbie Hummel, the Boilermakers showed they can win some games when their star is down. Chris Kramer was hardly the hero of the game for the winners, but if you're teaching your son how to play good, solid, fundamental basketball with a high motor, Kramer is Exhibit A.

+ And speaking of the Big Ten, a 4-1 start isn't too shabby. In addition to OSU and Purdue, Wisconsin and Michigan State hung tough to avoid upsets. Minnesota couldn't complete the skunking, however, as the Gophers fell to a very well-prepared Xavier team. XU coaches turn over every few years, but whomever is at the helm, the Muskies never disappoint come tournament time.

+ No. 10-seed Georgia Tech and No. 7 Oklahoma State squared off to settle an ACC-Big 12 dispute. Wake Forest beat Texas on Thursday, and early Friday, Missouri bounced Clemson. The Yellow Jackets won the rubber match, advancing to a very winnable game against Ohio State in Milwaukee on Sunday.

+ Friday's best Tweet came from KySportsRadio, who said after Louisville's horrendous start against California, "If this keeps up, Rick Pitino is only going to be able to get women in an Olive Garden."

+ And kudos to CBS' Seth Davis for breaking down the end of the New Mexico State-Michigan State game. Davis said on Twitter he'd spoken to the NCAA coordinator of officials by telephone and that both of them dissected the replay of what was thought by many to be a questionable lane-violation call. But Davis showed viewers at about 12:45 a.m. ET that it was the right call. However, Davis also showed the officials did screw up moments later when a ball was batted out of bounds with 0.7 seconds left in the game. By the time the operator stopped the clock, it read 0.3, but the officials didn't add the extra time, which could have been significant to New Mexico State.

+ For those who love Gus Johnson, here's an excellent soundboard of some of his great calls.

Tournament Takeaways: What Day 1 Taught Us

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

The first day of the first round of the NCAA Tournament brought great excitement into living rooms, sports bars and office cubicles everywhere.

We probably say it more than we remember, but I can't recall the opening day of America's greatest sporting event being as excellent as Thursday was. Here's what we'll take away from it:

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NCAA TOURNAMENT COVERAGE + BRACKET BREAKDOWN: Scouting Each Region
+ WHY TOP SEEDS WILL WIN: Kentucky | Kansas | Syracuse | Duke
+ RECIPE: 7 Ingredients For A National Championship
+ MYTH MADNESS: 3 Tournament Trends To Ignore This Year
+ FREE ADVICE: Here's How To Win Your NCAA Office Pool
+ QUOTEBOOK: Selection Chairman Dan Guerrero Explains Himself
+ NCAA TOURNAMENT: First-Round Pairings Announced
+ MARCH MADNESS: Tourney No Longer Leads To April Sadness
+ COUNTDOWN: The Top 10 Title Games Since 1979
+ LIST: The Top 10 Analysts In College Basketball
+ LIST: The Top 10 Play-By-Play Men In College Basketball

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+ Georgetown, a popular No. 3 seed in the Midwest, didn't deserve the pre-tournament hype it got. I had a funny feeling about the Hoyas all year, remember? Sure they put together a nice run in New York last week, but let's remember, they took 10 losses into the tournament. A 14th-seeded Ohio University team from the Mid-American Conference hangs nearly a hundy on a rough and rowdy Big East side? Ouch. Gary Trent and Chad Estis are high-fiving somewhere.

>+ Mid-majors are back in style this spring. In addition to those OU Bobcats, Murray State (a 13 seed from the Ohio Valley Conference) beat No. 4 Vanderbilt (nice effort, SEC East) at the buzzer, and Old Dominion (11, Colonial) sent No. 6 Notre Dame packing. BYU (7, Mountain West) needed double overtime to oust Florida and Robert Morris (14, Northeast) should have beaten an abysmal Villanova team before falling in overtime.

>+ Just last week, I got some heat for offering up a not-so-fast reaction to Sean McDonough's claim during the broadcast of the Big East Tournament that the league is "clearly the best in the country." My take was that there might be some Big 12 folks who'd be happy to share a contrarian view. Thursday gave us three wins in four tries for the Big 12 and only one win in four tries for the Big East. And those three Big 12 wins were by an average of 15 points.

+ That one guy from BYU is as good as those two writers said he was back in mid-season. Good to see one of the nation's finest scorers get some national attention.

+ Good for Washington giving the PAC 10 -- pretty much a mid-major this year -- some much-needed street cred by beating a solid Marquette squad. I can't remember if it was CBS analyst Seth Davis or ESPN's Doug Gottlieb, but somebody said yesterday the winner of this game would advance to the Elite Eight. I'm a big fan of Lorenzo Romar, and I hope he and his Huskies do make a nice run.

+ One other thing we learned Thursday was that ESPN's "Sports Nation" program has heard of One Great Season. The popular show tipped its hat to OGS in its "Site We Like" segment yesterday. The darling Michelle Beadle described OGS by referencing a story I wrote this week, saying, "They give us a great rundown of the seven key ingredients every national champion needs to have." Her co-host, Colin Cowherd, followed up with nothing short of authentic sincerity by calling the site "a must read." Thanks, gang! I'm still waiting to find out of this quailfies me for drinks with Beadle. I'll keep you posted.

Bracket Breakdown: Scouting Each Region

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

The two conferences that competed all season for the right to call themselves the best league in the country will have a chance to settle it once and for all in Indianapolis in April.

Two teams from the Big East and the Big 12 will reach the coveted final weekend in Big 10 country.

Kansas and Syracuse are easy picks, but two surprises -- Baylor and Marquette -- will spoil the party for many.

MIDWEST: Kansas sails through this region with an Elite Eight defeat of Georgetown, which proves too big and physical for Ohio State in the Sweet Sixteen.

Houston beats Maryland in this region's biggest first-round upset, derailing a potentially excellent second-round game between the Terps and Michigan State. The second-rounder between Oklahoma State and Ohio State, however, will be a great one, featuring two of the nation's top individual players in James Anderson and Evan Turner.

WEST: Syracuse has recovered from its shipment out West and will mow through its first two games without Arinze Onuaku.

Xavier and Pittsburgh will be a nice second-round game that Pittsburgh should barely win. Another interesting matchup in the round of 32 will be No. 12 UTEP vs. No. 13 Murray State, surprise early winners over Butler and Vanderbilt, respectively.

Kansas State will come out of the bottom sub-regional, then beat Pittsburgh before falling to Syracuse if AO returns for the Orange.

EAST: Kentucky's talent level is no secret, but I don't think the young Wildcats, not seasoned the way a Big 12 or Big East team might be this time of year, will have the psychological toughness to grind past the Elite Eight.

That's why Marquette gets my pick to come out of this region. The Golden Eagles are nice on the perimeter but they can play a physical game as well. Marquette also is well coached and seems to prefer playing in the kind of nerve-wrackingly close games its fans absolutely hate. Marquette beats Bob Huggins' No. 2 West Virginia team and slips past Kentucky in the Elite Eight.

Wofford is capable of beating Wisconsin, but the Badgers I think will sneak by in a close one. In the same sub-regional, Temple dismisses the cute Cornell team that everyone has been jocking on for four days.

SOUTH: The sub-regional below Duke's gives the Blue Devils an easy Sweet Sixteen win, but it's the second-round game against probably Louisville that could be troublesome in the first weekend. Still, Duke is a smarter team that comes to play each night out, whereas the Cardinals are inconsistent. Duke wins a tight one, then advances to that Sweet Sixteen round, where some low-hanging Texas A&M fruit awaits.

The bottom half of this bracket is very interesting. A Sweet 16 matchup between Baylor and Richmond puts the winner into the Elite Eight against Duke. Baylor wins both and advances to Indianapolis.

FINAL FOUR: Kansas beats Syracuse and Marquette beats Baylor. And in the final, the Jayhawks show the nation the Big 12 is best in an easy defeat of an exhausted team of Golden Eagles.

Why Duke Will Win The NCAA Championship

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I recently asked a savvy sports blogger if he knew any Duke writers who could write a piece about how the Blue Devils could win the national championship. I just wanted to have each of the No. 1 seeds represented at least once this week here on OGS.

His reply, humorously, was, "No, thank God."

I know it's something most of us do: hate Duke basketball. Coach K and his Devils are a lot like Notre Dame football. We call both programs elitists and we ridicule the NCAA for its man crush on each. Instead of hating the faceless NCAA, we direct our vitriol toward Mike Krzyzewski and his troops and feel like vomiting every time we hear about Touchdown Jesus.

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NCAA TOURNAMENT COVERAGE + GUEST COLUMN: Why Duke Will Win The National Championship
+ GUEST COLUMN: Why Syracuse Will Win The National Championship
+ RECIPE: 7 Ingredients For A National Championship
+ GUEST COLUMN: Why Kentucky Will Win The National Championship
+ MYTH MADNESS: 3 Tournament Trends To Ignore This Year
+ FREE ADVICE: Here's How To Win Your NCAA Office Pool
+ QUOTEBOOK: Selection Chairman Dan Guerrero Explains Himself
+ NCAA TOURNAMENT: First-Round Pairings Announced
+ MARCH MADNESS: Tourney No Longer Leads To April Sadness
+ COUNTDOWN: The Top 10 Title Games Since 1979
+ LIST: The Top 10 Analysts In College Basketball
+ LIST: The Top 10 Play-By-Play Men In College Basketball

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But once you get beyond the childish hatred, the reality is that Duke has one of the best college basketball programs in the modern era. Still, we call the Devils chokers because it's been nine whole years since they won their third national championship in a decade. How awful.

So if we can be objective for a minute, we have to accept the fact that Duke could very well win another national championship this year, and here's how:

First of all, its backcourt is one of the best in the country. John Scheyer and Nolan Smith are a great tandem, and although Kyle Singler is hardly listed as a guard, he can bring a guard's game with a decent handle and excellent outside range for a big fella.

And unlike typical Duke interior units of years past, the Devils can actually bang on the blocks this time around. Brian Zoubek, Miles and Mason Plumlee, Andre Dawkins and Lance Thomas are hardly stars, but together they give the Devils depth, athleticism in some spots and 25 fouls. That will be key in the Elite Eight when Duke matches up with Baylor, whose backcourt is about equal to Duke's.

Although the ACC brought subpar competition this season, the Devils went outside the league to play six teams from BCS conferences, as well as Gonzaga, going 5-2 in those games. Seasoning cannot be underestimated. Denny Crum used to take his lumps during the regular season, losing eight or 10 games every year, never sniffing a No. 1 ranking, but always had Louisville prepared for the NCAA Tournament in March.

And an admirable schedule will have come in handy by the time the Final Four rolls around. Kentucky didn't play a difficult schedule, but what it lacks in seasoning, UK certainly makes up for by being immensely talented. Duke won't need to necessarily slow things down, but against the Wildcats, the Devils might want to exhibit patience the way a more experienced team should be capable of doing.

And if Duke gets to the title game against Kansas, you've got two of the game's best coaches, matching championship pedigrees and trying to out-strategery the other. While KU is the most complete team in the country, I can't help but think Coach K would have a strong game plan ready for the Jayhawks. Not everyone can play great every night, and Oklahoma State of all teams showed the nation that KU is defnitely beatable.

Why Syracuse Will Win The NCAA Championship

By SEAN KEELEY
Special to One Great Season

I thought it was a typo when I saw that Syracuse's No. 1 seed is its first since 1980. I was reasonably sure that we had secured a top seed in the early 1990s with one of those Lawrence Moten or Billy Owens teams. I checked and, while those guys had their share of 2 seeds, it was in fact true that it's been 30 years since SU's last appearance at the top of a bracket.

I think it speaks to the Syracuse basketball program's reputation perfectly. SU has almost always been good, sometimes verging on great, but very seldom has it been dominant. So you'll have to excuse Orange fans if they're a little like Corey Feldman in "The Goonies," digging around in the well in search of lost wishes and dreams.  We've thrown a lot of coins down that well hoping for an opportunity like this, and now that another title is within reach ... we're taking them back. We're taking them all back.

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NCAA TOURNAMENT COVERAGE + GUEST COLUMN: Why Syracuse Will Win The National Championship
+ RECIPE: 7 Ingredients For A National Championship
+ GUEST COLUMN: Why Kentucky Will Win The National Championship
+ MYTH MADNESS: 3 Tournament Trends To Ignore This Year
+ FREE ADVICE: Here's How To Win Your NCAA Office Pool
+ QUOTEBOOK: Selection Chairman Dan Guerrero Explains Himself
+ NCAA TOURNAMENT: First-Round Pairings Announced
+ MARCH MADNESS: Tourney No Longer Leads To April Sadness
+ COUNTDOWN: The Top 10 Title Games Since 1979
+ LIST: The Top 10 Analysts In College Basketball
+ LIST: The Top 10 Play-By-Play Men In College Basketball

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Syracuse will win the national championship this year for a multitude of reasons. But those reasons begin and end with the players on the court. Before the season started, Jim Boeheim raved about Wes Johnson, saying he was so good that he'd probably only spend one season wearing Orange. We expected Wes to be good but we didn't know he was going to be this good.  What he lacks in pure stats he makes up for in the "Oh My God" factor. As in, at least three times a game, he makes a play that elicits an "Oh My God" reaction from you. Not bad for a guy who's also unselfish to a fault.

Wes was named Big East Player of the Year and to multiple All-American lists but there's one Syracuse player who might even be more important than he is.  Senior Andy Rautins came to SU as a scrawny, three-point specialist. He will leave as the team's emotional leader and a complete basketball player.  As Andy goes, so go the Orange. If he keeps his head on his shoulders and doesn't fall into a turnover spiral, the Orange can go as far as Andy can take them.

As much as this team has individual talent, it's the way it plays as a singular unit that has made the Orange so successful, especially on defense.  Everyone and their mother have raved about how the 2-3 zone is responsible for SU shutting down opponents this season. The only problem is, SU has been playing the 2-3 zone forever, so what's different? The players themselves. This unit is head and shoulders above any SU defensive unit in years.  Between having the best frontcourt in years, the athleticism of Johnson and Kris Joseph and underrated work by Rautins, Brandon Triche and Scoop Jardine up top, SU might not have the most talent but it has the best guys on the floor for this system.

Helping matters is that the Orange officially have a giant chip affixed to their shoulders again. They ended the season losing two in a row. They've been hearing all week how they shouldn't be a 1 seed or that they're not a lock to make the Final Four like Kansas and Kentucky seem to be. This team plays much better when it has the world working against it.  The Orange have something to prove again.

As for their draw? Nothing to sneeze at but nothing to complain about either. As long as Arinze Onuaku is back in some form by the second weekend, the Orange can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the bracket. Though they may be wary of Pittsburgh, who beat up on the zone and the Orange earlier this season, I would imagine they welcome the opportunity to get some revenge as well.

Syracuse has the talent to win it all. It has the system to win it all. It has the coach to win it all. And it has the opportunity to win it all. Now the Orange just have to go do it.

Sean Keeley is a Syracuse grad who writes the Web site Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician. Follow him on Twitter @nunesmagician.

Why Kansas Will Win The NCAA Championship

By WHITNEY MATHEWS
Special To One Great Season

While I'm smarter than the average girl bear when it comes to college hoops, I'm completely irrational when it comes to the Kansas Jayhawks. Just ask JPW.
 
Last year I told him (with a straight face) that he was a total idiot for not coming to one Kansas football game during his One Great Season college tour. KU went on to lose seven games in a row and our coach "resigned" for being too fat and grouchy to recruit effectively. Whatever.

So, every year I fill out two brackets, one with Kansas as the national champion and the other a little more realistic. Speaking as a somewhat educated yet ridiculous fan, both of my brackets this year have the Jayhawks victorious on April 5.

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NCAA TOURNAMENT COVERAGE + RECIPE: 7 Ingredients For A National Championship
+ GUEST COLUMN: Why Kentucky Will Win The National Championship
+ MYTH MADNESS: 3 Tournament Trends To Ignore This Year
+ FREE ADVICE: Here's How To Win Your NCAA Office Pool
+ QUOTEBOOK: Selection Chairman Dan Guerrero Explains Himself
+ NCAA TOURNAMENT: First-Round Pairings Announced
+ MARCH MADNESS: Tourney No Longer Leads To April Sadness
+ COUNTDOWN: The Top 10 Title Games Since 1979
+ LIST: The Top 10 Analysts In College Basketball
+ LIST: The Top 10 Play-By-Play Men In College Basketball

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Why will Kansas win? The level of talent is just unfair. Similar to the 2008 title team, there is an answer for every question on the court. Take it anywhere near the rim, and you'll see the Minnesota Not-So-Nice of Cole Aldrich. He's changed the game defensively in the Big 12 since his KU fans got a glimpse of his capabilities during the 2008 national semifinal against North Carolina. (P.S. - As a KU fan, was that a great night, or the greatest night? I go with the latter.)

Here are two words: Sherron Collins. Here are two more words: Tyshawn Taylor. The backcourt is in good hands.

Every national title team has to have a white guy who can make threes. KU has two! Tyrel Reed (white guy, not-so-white name) and Brady Morningstar are solid perimeter shooters. Did you see Reed's two game-changing threes in Saturday's Big 12 Championship game defeat of Kansas State?

The X-Factor, Xavier Henry, is a probable one-and-done who was cold during the first part of conference play. But if he finds his groove, God help you. He can contribute from nearly anywhere -– especially in the cute smiles department –- and has averaged 15 points per game since early February.

What else makes KU so dangerous? (Sing it with me) ... And twins. Marcus and Markieff Morris. Easily the two most improved Jayhawks from 2008-2009. It turns out an extra 20 pounds of muscle and working with Danny Manning for a few hours every day is a good thing. And if they don't get you with their basketball skillz, they'll confuse you with their matching tattoos. Tricky.

Bottom line? KU is so talented across the board that we don't need a John Wall. Our John Wall is Henry, who has embraced the unselfish, experienced style of play that defines the current era of Kansas basketball. It will get KU fans where we need to be. It has before.

I will say my gut reaction to the Midwest bracket is "what kind of f**kery is this?" Both teams who straight-up pwnd the Jayhawks this season (Tennessee and Okie State) are in the Midwest, as is Michigan State, which ousted KU from last year's Sweet 16. It’s like going to a party and 20 percent of the dudes there are your ex-boyfriends.

I won't complain about a competitive path. Bring it on. Like Coach Bill Self said Monday morning, whomever comes out of the Midwest has earned it. I'd rather my team earn a Final Four than have it gift-wrapped in $100 bills and served up in a bejeweled chalice by 40 virgins <cough>Duke</cough>.

Anyway, is it Thursday yet?

Mathews is a KU grad and works for the Lawrence Journal-World. Visit her Web site, and then follow her on Twitter.

National Championship Recipe: 7 Key Ingredients

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

You've spent all winter in the kitchen, trying to find the perfect combination. A little bit of this, a whole bunch of that and a dash of something else.

There are many variations to the recipe. What works for your mom might not work for your dad. What works for your neighbor might not work for Bill Self.

You could line up 100 ingredients and still not have the right mix or the cohesiveness you need to win six straight games this month.

Or you could throw out most of them and consider keeping it simple. That's what I would do. And I'd need only these seven ingredients to win a national championship:

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NCAA TOURNAMENT COVERAGE

+ GUEST COLUMN: Why Kentucky Will Win The National Championship
+ MYTH MADNESS: 3 Tournament Trends To Ignore This Year
+ FREE ADVICE: Here's How To Win Your NCAA Office Pool
+ QUOTEBOOK: Selection Chairman Dan Guerrero Explains Himself
+ NCAA TOURNAMENT: First-Round Pairings Announced
+ MARCH MADNESS: Tourney No Longer Leads To April Sadness
+ COUNTDOWN: The Top 10 Title Games Since 1979
+ LIST: The Top 10 Analysts In College Basketball
+ LIST: The Top 10 Play-By-Play Men In College Basketball

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+ Defense -- Last season, North Carolina was a dominant offensive force that could have won the title by playing defense on their backs. But in most years, champions earn the crown because they play excellent team defense, usually led by one or two individual defensive stars. Even fans know it. Have you ever heard an "OFF - ENSE" cheer?

+ Coaching -- Tubby Smith led Kentucky to the 1998 national championship in no small part because he outcoached Mike Krzyzewski -- not an easy task -- and Duke in the South Region final. In a frantic, up-and-down second half during which UK staged a furious comeback and Duke had no timeouts, both teams were spent but Tubby knew his deeper squad was in better condition. So he let his boys play on without giving Duke a chance to catch its breath. Kentucky advanced with the 86-84 win.

+ Guards -- It's such a cliche to talk about how important guards are to your NCAA Tournament chances. But just because something is frequently repeated doesn't make it wrong. In a single-elimination tournament, it's critical to control the tempo in games against teams with contrasting styles. If your guards control the pace, you have a great chance to advance.

+ Big-Money Shot Taker -- There's a reason why Bill Raftery's "Onions" call is as recognized as it is: It often follows huge shots that win games. Many players -- but definitely not all -- want the ball in their hands late in a tight game. And only a few can come through in the clutch the way that Stephen Curry did in 2008.

+ Big-Game Experience -- Listen to the experts talk this week and most agree this is a key reason why Kansas has the edge over Kentucky. Each team is immensely talented, but Sherron Collins and company have been tested, whereas UK, as dangerous as it is, is built around freshmen who are playing in their first NCAA Tournament. Even junior forward Patrick Patterson is a newbie.

+ Big Men -- Guards are great and all, and backcourt-heavy teams with little interior presence have advanced, but rarely do they win championships. The NCAA Tournament is all about matchups, and if Ohio State and Georgetown meet in the Sweet 16, you might see what happens to a team thin on the inside when it plays a physical team with great talent and better depth on the blocks.

+ Depth -- It's not as important as many think, but is still key nonetheless. Young kids are in their physical primes, so in many cases these guys can handle playing 40 minutes. But foul trouble and the possibility of injury are more difficult to control ... and overcome.