So much for inevitable fate of three Big East teams in the Final Four. Louisville should have saved something from that 40-point beatdown of Arizona the other night, because they looked like an exhausted team in the second half today and never even made a run to get back into the game once they got down for good.

The Spartans went on a 26-9 run in the second half en route to a 64-52 win in Indianapolis in front of a crowd that included a green-clad Magic Johnson.

And isn’t this just a classic Tom Izzo game? Sure, he’s got a lot of talent, but it just seems that he finds a way to get the most of every guy in his rotation in big games like this. Nobody was giving the Spartans a chance, even as a #2, to make the Final Four this year.

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Any grousing about how the Big East didn’t deserve three 1 seeds in the tournament is pretty much dead and buried at this point, isn’t it? Aside from the fact that the original argument relied exclusively on “because it just shouldn’t be that way” rather than “because Memphis/Duke/Oklahoma earned it more than UConn,” it’s been proven true throughout the tournament, and especially today.

(FTW! No seriously, this was for the win.)

During the early game, UConn held off the same unusually frisky Missouri team that ran Memphis right out of the gym. The final was 82-75, with freshman (eep!) Kemba Walker scoring 23 points on just nine shots from the field (EEP!) for UConn.

That game didn’t hold a candle, though, to one of the best Elite 8 games of all time, as Pitt and Villanova (both Big East, mind you) went toe-to-toe, using every single bit of their 40 minutes before Villanova prevailed, 78-76. Read more…

It’s probably not the biggest shock in the world, but ESPN really wants the NCAA men’s basketball tournament rights. You can’t blame them; it’s one of the most-watched TV spectacles every year, it stretches across three weeks and draws viewers & advertisers like nothing else outside of the Super Bowl. Still, CBS has owned the rights to the annual hoops escapade for so long that it’s hard to imagine a cable network breaking in to steal it away.

(And the 2018 Final Four goes to, drum roll please … Bristol, CT!)

Well, prepare yourself folks. ESPN is going to to get it at some point, at least if ESPN President George Bodenheimer has anything to do with it. When asked by COLLEGE HOOPS JOURNAL whether or not his network would get back to covering the tournament, Bodenheimer’s answer was pretty unequivocal: “We would love to get back into the men’s tournament.”

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• Playboy is looking for one lucky college writer to cover the Final Four.

Candidates must be able to find girls with a great set of Gonzagas.

• Some NFL squads can learn a lot from the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders.

• Being fat, drunk, stupid and a Lions fan is no way to go through life, son.

• Abracadabra! Eddie Jordan disappears as Wizards coach.

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Guys like sports. And guys like Playboy. Now Hef’s mainstream mammary mag is offering one aspiring sportswriter the best of both worlds - a trip to cover the Final Four, financed by Hugh himself.

(First stop, NC-Double-A - Next stop, NC-Double-D’s!)

USA TODAY’S GAME ON alerts us to a great opportunity to join the ranks of such sports figures as Amanda Beard, Ashley Harkleroad & Lisa Guerrero by strutting your stuff for the Bunny. It’s a good way for budding sports reporters to build resume material, but best of all, you & your friends can now honestly claim to buy Playboy for the articles.

Details after the jump. Read more…

For all those hoping that Billy Packer would soon be sent packing from CBS basketball broadcasts, your prayers have apparently been answered.

Barry Jackson of the MIAMI HERALD reports that the aggravating analyst will not be returning to the network next season, ending 27 years as a b-ball blowhard for the Columbia Broadcasting System. Read more…

The Kansas Jayhawks have the floor - and it’s the one on which they won this year’s NCAA basketball national championship.

The LAWRENCE WORLD-JOURNAL reports that Kansas is all set to purchase the actual court that was set up in the Alamodome, where the Jayhawks knocked off North Carolina & Memphis to claim the 2008 crown. Estimated cost for the Final Four floor space is around $35,000.

So, what exactly will the school do with it? Read more…

If you just lost a national championship in OT after being up by nine with two minutes left in regulation, who’s the first person you’d want to see?

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, of course!

The SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS reports that the good reverend gave “hugs and encouragement” to Memphis players Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts, minutes after the Tigers’ 75-68 loss to Kansas.

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I chose to start the second half thread with the sublime over the ridiculous. This blur of speed and agility is none other than newly minted Hall of Famer Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon. Thanks to Brooks for the attempt to capture a dream in pixels.

And now onto the ridiculous…
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Welcome to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Game, otherwise known as The Last Chance to Make Back the Money You Lost on Your Brackets. Brooks has descended on San Antonio for the pinnacle of amateur sports, the podium for the purity of the human spirit, the reward for young men’s desire to succeed for the pride of their scho…

… no, but seriously, Brooks is at the Alamodome tonight for the game. We’ll be getting live reports from him all night. You can see his weekend report at FOXSPORTS.COM.

I will be your master of ceremonial snarkery, Tuffy. I’m drinking beer from Wisconsin tonight, so expect the repartee to be plodding and painful but fundamentally sound.
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