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 was only a short week ago when an “illegal uniform” technical was called on an Illinois high school during their title game, and their margin of defeat was that one free throw. Oh, and the call was the first technical of the sort they’d been issued all season long. Now it looks like “nofunski basketball Stalinists waiting until March to enforce obscure rules” isn’t just a one-off occasion, but a practice.

(As you’ll never see him again.)

That’s Pitt’s beastman forward, DeJuan Blair. On those mammoth arms, Blair has helped carry the Panthers to the Elite 8, where they face familiar Big East foe Villanova tonight. He’ll look different, though, as accordng to PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, the NCAA has finally decided those double-biceps armbands had to go. Immediately. Read more…

Oklahoma State played like the second-best team in the nation this afternoon. There was one tiny problem, however, with Oklahoma State’s virtuoso performance, and that is that they were facing the best team, Texas. The Cowboys’ feisty resistance kept them in the game all day long, and Texas was only able to escape, 28-24, after a last-second Hail Mary fell harmlessly to the turf, batted down at the 10-yard line. Sure, superman WR Dez Bryant had gotten past the Texas secondary, but that’s mainly because the secondary was playing the ball, which was nowhere near Bryant when it came back down to earth. It was a gritty, gutty fight on both sides, though, certainly a better fight than (ahem) Oklahoma put up, and only the most careless of pollsters will drop Oklahoma State more than a spot or two for this loss.

Elsewhere in college football this afternoon… Read more…

Maybe I’m being a little arrogant, but I’ve always said that if a sports media person isn’t reading sites like SbB or DEADSPIN, they aren’t doing their job. I felt similarly when I read this post on BUSTED COVERAGE today about the curious case of Pitt Panthers football beat reporter Paul Zeise.

(Paul, Erin, Erin, Paul)

During an online chat on the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE’s website yesterday, Zeise was asked, “Is Erin Andrews hotter in person or on TV?” Read more…