CMJ

Indianapolis.

I also would rather face Irvine, but only because their lack of familiarity with us. If you recall I mentioned pretty early on that I thought they'd be formidable in the semis.

Biggest game in the History of Western Civilization.

Irvine wins by four. Great game!

UAB controlled the game until around 13-14 minutes left and then Irvine made a charge. The last eight minutes should be good.

It was really cool to see a school that has had so much recent success in the NCAA Tournament embrace the NIT like Loyola-Chicago did. Their arena was lit.

Morris wasn't a hire from within. If you want to keep your current culture and you have a guy on staff who seems to be ready, you go with that man. Someone from the staff knows the opportunities and challenges of being the Mean Green head guy. Few never had head coaching experience before he got the Gonzaga job. Hell, if a Blue Blood thinks they have a guy in house they go with that too. Scheyer had no previous head coaching experience prior to Krzyzewski retiring either.

I was talking about West Virginia. Few got the Gonzaga job after their first run to the Regional Final in 1999 (Monson was their coach back then).

Just two years ago you had two non power league schools in the National Semifinals (FAU and SDSU), with one making the Final on Monday night. This is one year where no mid major Cinderellas made the Sweet 16, but I'm not ready to call it a trend yet. However, the big boys will obviously pounce if it goes even three or so consecutive years.

They have a much more storied history in the sport than we do too.

If WVU is paying him like three times what we did, I doubt the luncheon fiasco had a whole lot to do with this.

Dropping football would be crazy, but as I've said before shifting some more money to basketball would be smart. A few hundred thousand goes way further in hoops than on the gridiron.

My only real surprise is it happened before he made the NCAA Tournament. I figured the first time Hodge did so, he'd be gone. This time it was an NIT semi that got Baker the cover to go with someone he knew already.

Before Mark Few got the head job at Gonzaga, he was an assistant there. His boss was Dan Monson who also began as an assistant at Gonzaga. Monson got his start under Dan Fitzgerald...who is the godfather of Gonzaga basketball. Fitzgerald never had the success that Few, or even Monson, did obviously...but he's the one that really got the ball rolling on their way upward to what we think of now. Hire from within if you have the guy.

Some coaches still wear them, but it's only maybe 10-15 percent.

I think we had a pretty bad FT shooting team early in Mac's tenure, but I feel like we've been pretty solid for several years. People always remember games like tonight where we struggle, but we tend to knock them down.

Now that there's replay on all end of game situations, more than likely. Maybe not twenty years ago.

Irvine is no joke. I expect them to beat UAB.

NT 61 ---------- OSU 59 Final

NT 52 ---------- OSU 44 4:30 to go Huge response to the OSU run at us. First Wright with a trey...great defense...and then Massie

NT 43 ---------- OSU 41 7:12 to go It's really getting physical out there right now.

NT 39 ---------- OSU 37 9:51 to go That missed Newell dunk really hurts.

I kind of can't believe Chattanooga ended up coming back from down 16. Gotta give them credit.

NT 38 ---------- OSU 33 11:38 to go Really intense game out there right now...officials letting a lot go. I love the way we're competing.