I’m bracing for the inevitable Jim Boheim howls of protest and/or calls for the field to be expanded to 128 teams.

Words you heard someone saying hours in advance : “I think Winthrop is going to be this year’s George Mason.” And I pray we’ll not hear them again. BC have a possible 2nd round meeting with Georgetown looming, and who amongst us would blame Al Skinner if he granted amnesty to all suspended players/those with overdue video rental fines?

6 Big Ten teams made the field of 65, while only 6 mid-majors qualified (compared to 8 in ’06). I’m not nearly as troubled by those numbers as I am the nagging feeling Georgetown were deserving of a no. 1 seed.

No. 6 see Duke will face VCU in a Western Regional first round matchup, marking just the 2nd time in the last decade the Blue Devils weren’t a no. 1 or 2 seed.

For a game where neither team had a ton to play for, seeding-wise, today’s Big 12 Final between Kansas and Texas was yet another loony rollercoaster ride (2nd week in a row UT blew a huge early lead), and my own rooting interests aside, Julian Wright and Mario Chalmers are as gutty as it gets. I’d love to see these teams hook a third time (unlikely), much as I’d love to see the rest of the conference cower in the improbable event Durant and Augustin both returned as sophmores.

Who exactly at Bristol U. did Rick Majerus piss off so badly that he was left off the NutriSystem Gravy Train?

If you’d like to pit your mad prognostication skills against the rest of CSTB Nation, David Roth is working on a no-dough-required pool, details to follow in this space very shortly.