They Call it Madness for a Reason

Some random thoughts after four rounds of the NCAA tournament:

* I've long believed that nothing beats the first two rounds of the NCAA tourney, but in terms of drama, this was the rare year where the second weekend was actually better than the first.

* Lost in the craziness of the past four days is the fact that Kenton Paulino's trey was the first true buzzer-beater the tournament has had in three years. I hate when people throw the buzzer-beater label on shots that leave time on the clock. A true buzzer beater is when the buzzer sounds while the shot is still in the air. Paulino's shot on Thursday was the first since Drew Nicholas's shot in 2003.

* Where were Adam Morrison's coaches and teammates after the Gonzaga-UCLA game on Thursday? I don't know how they could just leave their heartbroken MVP writhing on the floor like that with only a camera man there with him.

* Let the debate begin: Where does George Mason's win rank on the list of all-time college basketball upsets? On the plus side, Mason was an 11th seed, a mid-major, had never won a tourney game before this year, the Huskies have at least 4 future pros and UConn was the consensus favorite for the title. But on the minus side, everyone agreed that UConn was vulnerable, Mason was good enough to earn an at large bid, and the team had already shown its mettle by beating Michigan St. and North Carolina.

In the end I think it's a bigger upset than Villanova over Georgetown, and from a pure basketball standpoint, bigger than Texas Western over Kentucky. But I still don't think it will unseat NC State over Houston for the top spot on the list.

* While Glen Davis and Tyrus Thomas have turned LSU into a dominant frontcourt team, but how good would the Tigers be if Brandon Bass hadn't left for the draft? Based on his stat line, Bass may wish he had returned for his junior year.

* Speaking of guys who left early, Charlie Villanueva picked an ironic day to post a career-high 48 points.

* This Final Four proves that all of the talk about conference strength is pure hot air. Year after year, pundits use the tourney results to make arguments about how the Big 10 was overrated or the Missouri Valley is underrated, etc. My hope is that people realize that the tournament is a crapshoot, "trends" are usually coincidences and individual teams do a poor job of representing an entire conference.