65 little pieces of madness

1. So Tubby Smith is trying to hold his first news conference as a coach who has taken Minnesota to the NCAA tournament, and some guy in the back of the room won't stop yakking into his cell phone. Smith tells the guy to take it somewhere else.

Then he realizes it's Gophers AD Joel Maturi. At that moment, Smith probably regretted hiring the guy.

2. My pick for national champion: North Carolina, if the Tar Heels can get through the first weekend without needing much from point guard Ty Lawson and his injured ankle.

3. Last year four No. 1 seeds made it to the Final Four for the first time in tournament history. With no great teams, you could imagine four No. 2s making it this year -- Memphis, Oklahoma, Michigan State and Duke.

Except that Duke will probably choke.

4. Matchup to salivate over: Oklahoma's Blake Griffin vs. Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough in the South Regional final.

5. No 16 has ever beaten a 1. Never. Despite the hype, this tournament is about little upsets, not big upsets. Only four No. 15 seeds have won tournament games.

7. It's taken Tubby two years to take the Gophers to the tournament, and they'll be better next year. If Minnesota can get him to stick around, he could win a Big Ten title in the next three years.

8. Michigan is the sleeping giant of the Big Ten. There is no way the Wolverines, with great in-state talent and a rich tradition, should go 11 seasons between NCAA tournament appearances. Thank you, Tommy Amaker.

9. Sometimes the talking heads get it right. Last year, CBS' Clark Kellogg predicted that all four No. 1 seeds would make the Final Four. Bingo.

10. North Carolina drew its 13th No. 1 seeding, most in tournament history.

11. UConn got sent to the West Region. Bad deal? No. UConn has won two national titles coming out of the West.

13. If you were one of the people who believed ESPN's projection that Minnesota would or could play in Minneapolis, you have to learn not to believe everything you read. The University of Minnesota is hosting the first two rounds in Minneapolis, making the Gophers ineligible for that bracket.

14. Plenty of good seats available for the Minneapolis games, by the way.

15. So the Gophers make the tournament for the first time in four years, and coach Smith brings three players to the news conference -- Damian Johnson, Jamal Abu-Shamala and Jonathan Williams. Apparently Hosea Crittenden was unavailable.

16. If this weekend proved anything, it's that conference tournaments should be abolished.

What we saw this weekend was teams that care (those on the bubble or needing a tournament victory to advance to the NCAA tournament) often beating teams that don't care (because they knew they were already assured of an NCAA bid.) To value conference tournament victories is to reduce the importance of the regular conference schedule, and the regular conference schedule should be the most important phase of the season.

18. We're going to find out two things about the Big Ten in the NCAAs -- whether Big Ten teams were really good defensively or just facing bad offenses; and whether their physical style will translate to the national stage or whether every Big Ten player in the tournament is going to foul out.

19. North Dakota State guard Mike Nelson on the best thing about rooming with Albert Lea product and NDSU all-time leading scorer Ben Woodside: "His mom does a great job of keeping our deep freeze full, and every now and then I kind of mooch off him and eat all his mom's food."

20. The Minneapolis group features two good local angles: Big Ten champ Michigan State and North Dakota State.

21. If you play for North Dakota State, don't expect to build up a lot of frequent flier miles. They won the Summit Conference tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D., then got snowed in and bused back to Fargo the next day. Now they'll be busing to Minneapolis. NDSU coach Saul Phillips had been begging for Miami.

22. The Gophers haven't won an NCAA tournament game since 1997, when they went to the Final Four.

24. That victory came over Syracuse as the Gophers made it to the Elite Eight.

25. Active coaches who have taken four different programs to the tournament have Kentucky roots: Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith, John Beilein.

26. Even if they lose to Texas, the Gophers will always have Glendale, Ariz. That's where they beat Louisville, the tournament's No. 1 overall seed, this season.

27. Alabama State will play Morehead State in the play-in game. If Alabama State sounds familiar, that's because it's the alma mater of Vikings quarterback Tarvaris Jackson.

28. Alabama State is also the place where Donald Watkins tried to get Arab sultans to build a football stadium, before he came to the Twin Cities promising to build the Twins a ballpark and buy the team. Haven't heard from him in a while.

30. The Gophers had to know they had made it when, during the selection show, Wisconsin popped up as a 12 seed. The Gophers swept Wisconsin this year. Wisconsin made it to the tourney for the 11th consecutive season, the second-longest streak in the Big Ten behind Michigan State, which has 12.

31. Seven Big Ten teams made the tournament. So the Big Ten played five months of basketball and a conference tournament to eliminate four teams. What is this, the NHL?

32. Tubby Smith on the tourney: "It's one of the greatest sporting events in our culture." Swarm lacrosse games are No. 2.

33. Illinois must be the only No. 5 seed ever to be held in the 30s in two conference games. Quite an advertisement for the Big Ten.

34. My Final Four picks: North Carolina, Duke, Missouri, Louisville. (I'm a Mizzou grad, and I'm begging.)

36. Parity might be another word for mediocrity. The Big Ten may not have a senior who will be a starter in the NBA, and the best players in college basketball -- including Griffin and Hansbrough -- might not be stars in the league.

37. Ohio State got quite a draw. As an 8 seed, the Buckeyes are getting to play home games in Dayton, with a first-round game against Siena. OSU athletic director Gene Smith is on the selection committee.

38. Arizona has the longest active streak of tournament appearances -- 25. Kentucky had a streak of 17 appearances in the tourney ended under Tubby's replacement, Billy Gillispie.

39. The last NCAA tournament held in Minneapolis featured the future champion (Florida) and two future Timberwolves first-round draft picks (Florida's Corey Brewer and Villanova's Randy Foye).

40. My personal college basketball guru, FSN's Mike McCollow, picks North Carolina as his off-the-cuff, I-forced-him-to-make-a-pick-before-he's-ready choice to win it all.

42. Good draw for McCollow -- he coached with Kansas coach Bill Self when they were assistants at Oklahoma State, and Self was in his wedding. So his buddy and fellow Bloomington native Cole Aldrich, the Kansas center, will be seeing McCollow this weekend.

43. How important is RPI, the ratings percentage index? Well, Duke was No. 1 in the country in RPI and got a No. 2 seed. Connecticut was No. 8 in the country and got a No. 1 seed.

44. Florida became the first team to follow back-to-back NCAA titles with back-to-back NIT berths. The Gators miss Corey Brewer's bulk.

45. The coach in this tournament with the highest NCAA tournament winning percentage? Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, at 69-21 (.767).

46. Tubby Smith's NCAA tournament record: 29-13 (.690).

48. Northern Iowa reached the NCAA tourney by winning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament thanks to guard Kwadzo Ahelegbe and forward Adam Koch. Ahelegbe, who played for Tartan, scored 57 points in the three tourney victories. Two other former Tartan players -- Eric Coleman and Erik Crawford -- played instrumental roles recently on Panthers tournament teams. Coleman ranks sixth in UNI career scoring.

49. No whining if you didn't prove you deserved to be in the tournament over the past five months. This means you, San Diego State. SDSU had the best RPI nationally (No. 34) of the teams not getting a bid.

50. After SDSU, Creighton had the highest RPI of those left out, at No. 40.

51. The highest RPI to get an at-large bid belonged to No. 62 Arizona.

52. Utah State has a local connection in 6-3 junior Stavon Williams of Minneapolis Roosevelt. He's averaging 6.2 points per game.

54. The Akron-Gonzaga first-round matchup pits the Zips and the Zags.

55. The Gophers' last NCAA appearance came in North Carolina, too. They lost 64-53 to Iowa State in Charlotte in 2005.

56. Fear the Turtle: After surviving rumors that his job was in jeopardy, Maryland's Gary Williams nudged his team into the tourney by riding dynamic guard Greivis Vasquez. Gophers fans should feel better about those Tubby-to-Terps rumors, because Williams looks to be sticking around.

57. It's been a tough year for Randy Wittman, but his son, Ryan Wittman, is the leading scorer for Cornell, No. 14 seed in the West.

58. The Gophers beat four regular-season conference champs -- Cornell, Bowling Green, Louisville and North Dakota State.

60. Memphis and UCLA are the only teams to have made the Sweet 16 the past three years. North Carolina has made the most appearances in the Sweet 16 (22).

61. Texas A&M is only a ninth seed, but the Aggies have beaten Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma State this year.

62. East Coast bias? Kansas' title last year broke a streak of seven championships won by teams based on the East Coast -- two by Florida, one each by North Carolina, Connecticut, Syracuse, Maryland and Duke.

63. Minneapolis has hosted three Final Fours. Duke won the past two, in 2001 and 1992. Kentucky won the one in 1951.

64. The six BCS conferences took 30 of the 34 at-large bids. That's the highest total this decade.