Gonzalez’s Pirates lost convincingly at home last night in the first round of the NIT, 87-69 to middling Texas Tech. Seton Hall was (shockingly) still in the bubble conversation a week ago today. In last night’s game he picked up his seventh technical foul of the season and one of his players, Herb Pope, was ejected after throwing a low blow to an opposing player’s crotch. (Video below.)

But Gonzalez didn’t get fired for his lack of wins or number of losses; his behavior unacceptable “both on and off the court,” according to the Star-Legder’s report. He’s to combustible and crude for a private Catholic institution like SHU. The move to hire him four years ago, when he was a hot candidate prospect while at Manhattan, shocked me.

Ironically, his quick departure does the same.

Gonzalez did his best Billy Gillispie imitation while packing his belongings on campus today. (Anyone get any video of him walking at a brisk pace?)

Here’s Pope’s cheap shot.

Gonzalez was 19-13 this year and 66-49 overall. He did not bring the Pirates to the NCAA Tournament during his tenure there. Guesses as to where he ends up? Iowa would be hilarious. I’ve got no idea. I do think he waits a bit, sees what jobs open, and maybe takes a year off. Television? He’d get a gig somewhere while waiting for his next job.

…

Meanwhile, the Star-Ledger is also reporting, by way of a school press release, that Rutgers head coach Fred Hill will be … back? Yep. What if I had told you two weeks ago that Hill would be staying and Gonzalez would be fired? Crazy. Rutgers fans probably aren’t too happy Fred Hill will be sticking around for at least another season.

“Fred Hill is under contract as our men’s basketball head coach. We had a productive meeting and look forward to working together to build the program,” Pernetti said in a statement issued by the school.

Hill has been at Rutgers for as long as Gonzalez was at Seton Hall, but he’s 47-77. He’s won 13 Big East games in four years and has never finished better than 14th. Fans will roll their eyes at this because Hill was owed $1.5 million if he got the boot.

So one more year of mediocrity before the rebuilding process begins in Piscataway, the cynics will surely say.

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Have made no attempts to mask my subjectivity to the Vermont Catamounts (what a nickname). A reset: I lived in South Burlington, Vt., from 1991 to 1998. Grew up there. Went to high school there. Failed to kiss many a young lady there. Was a seven-minute drive from the UVM campus. Have a few friends who are UVM alumni. I didn’t attend a D-I school, so I root for Vermont out of nostalgic, can’t-believe-this-team-actually-got-good reasons.

My heart wants me to find the onions in my system to pick Vermont over Syracuse in the first round Friday night in Buffalo. Let’s pause and think just how freaking unbelievably awesome that would be. Picture it. Envision it. Hear it. Gus Johnson’s going to be on the call, so you get a good idea of what it would be like.

And it would be historic, of course, because 16’s are 0 for 100. What a perfect number to break the cycle. There are few teams who deserve a first-round win more than UVM after the team’s past 10 days.

And there’s a bit of history (and that’s all) on UVM’s side outside of beating Syracuse before. The Orangemen fell in the first 15-over-a-2 game, back in 1990, when Richmond pull off the then-unthinkable.

Is a 16 winning still considered unthinkable?

Some people are calling their shot right now (mostly only UVM homers) and a Twitter feed dedicated to pumping out good karma is giving updates constantly on the impending rematch from 2005. Of course, the Internet messageboards have gotten a little ugly with all the mud being chucked around.

I don’t know what team was the most in vogue 16-over-1 pick, but UVM is approaching trendy with each passing hour.

The second-best story to this being a coda to 2005 is the brothers Joseph playing against one and other. UVM’s Maurice Joseph (the older one) is worth the follow on Twitter and Kris Joseph is probably the most valuable sixth man in the country, though he’ll probably now start since Arinze Onuaku won’t be playing.

Both of their reactions on Twitter after seeing the brackets were absolutely terrific. If you’d like to read a story on them, this is probably one of the five best profile pieces this week, with MoJo repping an old-school Hawks jersey.

What’s terrible is, for as badly as I want Vermont to win, this would be the worst possible year for a 16 to finally beat a 1, what with all the expansion talk that’s happened in the past 10 weeks. If anything else is needed for the bracket bloaters to hammer home their argument, it would be this kind of result.

A bittersweet proposition. When it comes down to it, though, 99 percent of the country will be rooting for the Catamounts to win if the game’s close with two minutes to go, consequences and domino effects be damned.

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Arkansas-Pine Bluff forward Lebaron Weathers shows off after Pine Bluff defeated Winthrop 61-44 in the NCAA college basketball tournament opening game Tuesday. (AP)

CHJ detailed the Golden Lions’ brutal road schedule earlier this season. It didn’t play a home game until mid-January. That kind of ambitious and pay-your-dues scheduling was karmic, as Arkansas-Pine Bluff defeated Winthrop, 61-44.

Full confession: I watched not three minutes of last night’s play-in (never opening round! Never!) game.

Confession No. 2: My car died on the highway as I was driving home. It’s time to move on from the 1995 teal-colored Buick Regal. You don’t realize what 70 miles per hour feels like until you’re sitting in your car and it gets nudged velocity of the vehicles traveling at that speed as they zip past you.

So that’s the reason I missed yet another play-in game. One last confession allowed? OK. I’ve seen maybe one play-in game from beginning to end since the NCAA implemented the 65-team field nearly a decade ago. Something just always gets in the way. Like I’m fated to not watch Tournament play until the Tournament truly begins on Thursday at 12:30.

Nice to see I was spared a fairly uninteresting game, though. I love the annual prop-up argument for this game every year, that both schools get a brief moment in the cloth-covered spotlight. See, I don’t buy that this game is an added boost for both schools because they’re the center of attention. That’s not the case — ESPN broadcast four NIT games on its family of networks last night, and on its College Basketball page today, the play-in game is the fifth item on the Headlines menu. I digress about the game, and I’ll save this thought for a column in another year.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff, which has an absolutely terrifying logo that will scare you to your soul, gets the SWAC off the schnide. The conference hadn’t won a Tournament game in 17 years. That win was by Southern and it beat Georgia Tech.

You know what helped the most? Winthrop failing to hit anything from beyond 21 feet. When breaking down games, we always talk in verse about how teams need to continue to do the things they do so well in order to win. What’s rarely a talking point is how teams’ faults can also, just as much, lead to losses. No team in the country was worse from 3-point range this season than Winthrop, and the Eagles played to their statistics, making 2 of 21 attempts from downtown.

The 18-15 Golden Lions now get Duke (again, how did they not get paired with Kansas?) in a Friday-night tilt that tips at 7:15 in Jacksonville.

As the UAPB site tells us, these are the only other Tournament wins in SWAC history.

1980 Alcorn St. defeats South Alabama 80-62
1983 Alcorn St. defeats Xavier 81-75
1984 Alcorn St. defeats Houston Baptist 79-60
1993 Southern defeats Georgia Tech 93-78

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Jacksonville's Ben Smith shoots against Arizona State's Ty Abbott. (AP)

• The Ivan Brothers are quirky and probably the best March Madness PR ideal {YouTube}

• Forbes has gotten into the habit of making this an annual thing, and North Carolina saw ridiculous economic growth despite a bad year on the court. {Forbes}

• It’d been over since January, but it all officially came to an end yesterday for Ernie Kent. {Oregonian}

• From possible bubble team to upset victim on its home floor against Jacksonville in a week’s time. {Arizona Republic}

• The numbers are a little tricky, but Maryland’s graduation rate is at the bottom among Tournament teams. Gary Williams has spoken out. {WaPo}

• Last night, Jim Calhoun got over the team he coached before going to UConn two decades ago. {Courant}

• Want to be the head coach at DePaul? You can actually apply online. A statement all to itself. {Tremendous Upside Potential}

• And this one’s going to zip under the radar. Duquesne suspended Bill Clark and nobody knows why. Will it carry over into 2010-11? {AP}

• The coincidences are very scary. {The Dagger}

How about this? Rand Paul doesn’t stand a chance.

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Did everyone forget about Wisconsin? That's no surprise.

CHJ’s final regional preview comes to you in the dinner hour, and it’s a full meal of games that the East is offering up. In fact, a buffet’s more like it, and you won’t want to treat this group of tilts like an à la cart menu (too heavy on the food metaphors? Stopping now). In the past decade no region has had more unpredictability, in terms of which seed gets to the Final Four, than the East. There’re quite a few storylines to get mention, and we’ll get to those below, but the lingering question for me with this bracket is: When does West Virginia lose?

The sites of the first weekend: Jacksonville, New Orleans, San Jose, Buffalo.

Most total tournament appearances: Kentucky (50), Temple (27), Texas (27), Marquette (27).

Least: Cornell (four), East Tennessee State (one), Wofford (none).

Ready for his March moment: Darington Hobson. The New Mexico forward has been no secret to any hoops fan living in the Mountain time zone, but I think it’s time he introduced himself to the rest of the country. Hobson was the Player of the Year in the Mountain West and led New Mexico to a 29-4, 14-2 record. He leads the Lobos in scoring, rebounds and assists. He’s a middle-class man’s Evan Turner.

The stats, trends and notables:

Dairese Gary, left, and Darington Hobson. They are Lobos; hear them roar.

—Clemson coach Oliver Purnell has never won a Tournament game. Clemson fans collectively chime in, “Yeah? And?”
—Temple coach Fran Dunphy has a 1-11 career record in The Dance.
—You’ve heard the stat, but it’s worth repeating: Texas went from No. 1 in the country to an overvalued 8-seed in six weeks.
—Midwest Final Four representative the last five seasons: 3, 1, 2, 11, 1.
—The youngest team in the field, Kentucky, is playing in New Orleans. Just sayin’.
—We’ve got some slow ones. Temple, Cornell, Wisconsin and Marquette (if it loses offense) are content to win a game in the 50s.
—Missouri’s last game was a los to Nebraska. Angry and ready to redeem, or checked out on a season?
—West Virginia has won eight of nine.
—Wake Forest has lost five of six.
—Da’Sean Butler hits more game-winners than anyone, but will we have some buzzer-beater fatigue? Butler has hit home SIX game-winners this year. Boy’s gun might be empty..

The storylines:

Kentucky is young, stupid and ridiculously talented. Should I waste words on this? Does it matter? Probably. But Kentucky plays on emotion. Biggest key: avoid falling behind by as many as 10 points. If that happens in the second half of any opponent second round and beyond, I question UK’s ability to fight back. Damn are they fun, though.

Morgan State is dealing with an illness. DeWayne Anderson has been in and out of the hospital and battling leukemia. Terribly sad. Way too much sadness around The Tournament this year.

Temple-Cornell and all that’s involved. They both got screwed! The little guys! But we’re all eager to watch. And I’m absolutely on Temple in this one. Cornell fell to a terrible team from Philly this season, Penn, and Temple’s like everything Penn wishes it could be. An absolute must-watch, this game is a noon tip on Friday. I feel so, so bad for you if you’re working then.

Can Texas scare Kentucky if it gets past Wake? Yep, we know Texas has the talent to hang with Kentucky, but is it even going to get past Wake? If so (man, I cannot pick that game for the life of me), Damion James would need to have the game of his season to lift the Longhorns up. Dexter Pittman-DeMarcus Cousins is get-your-popcorn viewing, though, and I’m ready and eager for that. I can absolutely see Texas staying with Kentucky through until the end and losing it in the final minute.

Bruising battle of the Tigers. Clemson and Missouri face off in the biggest toss-up of all the 8/9 and 7/10 games. Underrated game that should be good, but could be a 20-point difference if one team overextends itself a 20-turnovers its way to a loss. Friday at 2:45.

A healthy Jon Leuer. Wisconsin is the sleeper Final Four pick and I don’t have the stones to make it. Leuer is a classic Wisconsin player. Not afraid to say it: white, stable, country-strong and willing to take seven charges per game. Badgers vs. Wildcats in the regional semis would be unimaginably interesting. Leuer determines how far this team goes.

You know who wins lots of close games? Marquette. Golden Eagles lost a lot of close ones early and then learned how to right the ship. Or it was good karma. Either way, they get Washington in the first round, which has won seven straight. Lazar Hayward vs. Quincy Pondexter in a battle of the shoulders. Both teams are small. Tough call.

Anthony Johnson. Went into detail about his great story here, and it’s going to be hard to root for New Mexico when Montana has all the makings of a great Cinderella story.

¶

The Sweet 16 teams I WANT to see (bolded is Final Four desire): Kentucky, Temple, New Mexico, Morgan State.

The Sweet 16 teams I THINK we’ll get: Kentucky, Temple, New Mexico, West Virginia .

Buzzer-beater karma from the ghost of the East region’s past:

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Baylor is the hot pick to make it out of the South. That means you should absolutely pick it to lose early.

Now we’re going to talk about Duke and all that’s been handed to it and how easy it’s going to be for it to saunter to the Final Four. Wait. We’re not doing any of that. See, Duke can’t “win.” Either it reaches the Final Four and everyone rolls their eyes, or it loses before then and Duke gets pummeled for not being able to roll through what’s conceived to be (and is) the weakest region. Let’s count the ways in which Duke can fail to reach yet another Final Four despite getting a top-two seed. (Doesn’t mean it still can’t happen.)

The sites of the first weekend: Providence, Spokane, Jacksonville, New Orleans.

Most total tournament appearances: Duke (33), Villanova (30), Notre Dame (27).

Least: Siena (five), Sam Houston State (one), Arkansas-Pine Bluff (none).

Ready for his March moment: Robbie Hummel. Just kidding! Tweety Carter. Baylor’s sprite point guard is like a 6-year-old on Skittles in the Bears’ offense. BU is careless with the ball, but Carter has been exceptionally capable in late stretches of games from the past month. In fact, I wonder if five other players have improved as much at their respective position as Carter this season. Strange combination of a point guard who would probably get the last shot in a tie game.

The stats, trends and notables:

This is probably reason enough to make you love or hate Richmond.

—Mike Krzyzewski has 71 Tournament wins, the most of any coach in The Tournament, but Duke hasn’t beaten a team with a seed higher than No. 5 since the team won it all in 2001. First Duke 1-seed since 2006.
—Only two regular-season conference champions are below Duke until you get to Old Dominion at No. 11.
—Conversely, 10 of the 16 teams ranked in the RPI top 40 are in this bracket. Hmm.
—Midwest Final Four representative the last five seasons: 1, 1, 1, 4, 5.
—A dash of opinion here: Old Dominion won the CAA this year, which was pretty damn competitive. I’m liking that 11-over-6 result more and more by the hour.
—The East preview is coming up in a bit, so I ask now: Which 8/9 game is more frustrating, Wake/Texas or the South’s Cal/Louisville? I’ll go Bears-Cardinals because both teams were gift-wrapped their seed … but also punished by getting Duke in round two.
—Siena has its starting five back from last year’s team, which threatened to take Louisville’s Sweet 16 appearance away from it.
—Richmond hold foes to 39 percent from the field. They’re the toughest defensive team in this bracket, easily, now that Purdue’s hobbled.
—Saint Mary’s gets the long haul, traveling all the way to Providence to play the Spiders.

The non-1-seed everyone loves: It’s Baylor. And I mean LOVES. The Bears were my sneaky little obsession for the better part of the past two months, but now everyone knows about them. I’m turning and jaded like the guy whose favorite band hits it big-time. Baylor. Fucking SELL-OUTS.

The upset pick I hate: Siena over Purdue. There’s not much else happening by way of upsets in this bracket. Purdue looked so bad against Minnesota I can’t help but think it’s going to be one of the five most motivated teams come Friday. That might not last for more than one game, but one game is enough to nix Siena’s two-year streak of winning in the first round.

The storylines:

Duke’s road. It’s all about where Duke got slated and how EASY it’s going to be. After it knocked out the 9-, 12- and 6-seed to win the ACC championship. Even Chad Ford chimed in.

Houston. That’s where you can counter on the Duke argument. It’s not only feasible, but very possible that the Blue Devils will face Texas A&M and Baylor in Houston if they reach the second weekend. For once, Duke is on the other side of home-court advantage. I’d say that balances out to the 1-seed it got.

Villanova’s wretched mis-sseeding. Don’t care if Villanova reaches the Final Four; its season did not warrant a 2. I was absolutely inundated with e-mails yesterday by angry Villanova fans for daring to suggest Richmond had the better starting backcourt.

Harangody’s last chance. The Irish missed the NCAAs last year and Luke Harangody wasn’t confident enough in going to the NBA made the decision to return his senior year with the objective of getting back to here. Irony, given how much he may play.

Whatever the opposite of arachnophobia is. Everybody loves the Spiders, and I do too. David Gonzalvez and James Anderson are a pair of guards I hope the country really gets to know. Experts all over the place are picking Richmond to easily beat Saint Mary’s and then challenge, if not win, against Villanova.

Scottie Reynolds and March. Remember what he did last year?

Louisville’s chances against Duke. Well, it is a tough matchup for the Devs, but now that we’re thinking Duke is vulnerable in the first weekend there’s no chance it’s losing that early. That’s just the way these things work.

Purdue’s short shelf life without Hummel and a healthy Lewis Jackson. That’s how quickly your season can go down the drain.

¶

The Sweet 16 teams I WANT to see (bolded is Final Four desire): Duke, Utah State, Old Dominion, Richmond.

The Sweet 16 teams I THINK we’ll: Duke, Texas A&M, Baylor, Richmond.

Buzzer-beater karma from the ghost of the South region’s past:

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The view from above the Midwest is a cluttered, hot mess. Whichever team escapes from this region could be considered the favorite in Indy because of the road it traveled to get there.

Heard it called The Man Region yesterday, and that’s a great call. I went on the radio last night to talk about these 16 teams, and as I was feebly trying to come off as something barely resembling an analyst, I realized this region is great for us, the viewers. Yeah, it really sucks that Kansas got the toughest region possible, but what a television experience this quadrant is going to be. Let’s see how it’s going to unfold.

The sites of the first weekend: Providence, Spokane, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City.

Most total tournament appearances: Kansas (38),  Ohio State (25), Georgetown (25).

Least: UNI (five), San Diego State (five), Lehigh (three), UC-Santa Barbara (three).

Ready for his March moment (non-Evan Turner): Houston’s Aubrey Coleman. There is a gaggle of players I could’ve picked for this category from this region, but let me go with the guy who’s led D-I in scoring all season long. Coleman has been big in clutch moments lately, and you wonder if he could have a little Stephen Curry in him. Coleman vs. Greivis Vasquez will be great theater.

The stats, trends and notables:

Evan Turner's time to shine, no doubt.

—Thad Matta is 12-7 coaching in the NCAA tournament. If he hadn’t gotten Greg Oden and Michael Conley, his mark would likely be barely above. 500.
—San Diego State has never won a Tournament game. Last appearance: 2006.
—Midwest Final Four representative the last five seasons: 1, 1, 1, 1, 5.
—Last year’s amazing coach job (Tom Izzo) could go up against this year’s (Gary Williams) in round two.
—Nothern Iowa’s a 9. Nine-seeds only have three Sweet 16 appearances since 1985.
—Houston is playing in The Tournament for the first time in 18 years.
—The Midwest has had the 12-over-5 upset happen the past six years, and the 13 has won the past two seasons. In fact, the Midwest was a slaughterhouse last season, with the 9-13 seeds winning in the first round.
—The last team to not win at least 10 games in a row prior to The Tournament and win it all was Michigan State. Kansas, Michigan State and Northern Iowa did it this season.
—The MAC hasn’t won a game in six years. With Ohio getting a terrible matchup against Georgetown, expect that streak to extend.

The non-1-seed everyone loves: Ohio State. And why not? If you dislike Evan Turner you probably kill innocent animals on the regular.

The upset pick I hate: Georgia Tech over Ohio State. I run a pool and have received a few sheets. Three of them have this. C’mon now. And I’ve seen talk that Georgia Tech’s NBA talent could give OSU a run. Now we expect the Jackets to start playing up to potential?

The storylines:

The prevailing one: No. 1 overall seed Kansas got jobbed. How can Kansas possibly win this region? Bill Self won’t complain and neither will his players, even though people are saying this is the toughest region in the history of the expanded field. If Northern Iowa gets past UNLV in the first round, who knows what kind of problems it could give Kansas on Saturday. But no team has a better collection of talent, depth, consistent play and good coaching. It’s why Kansas has spent the majority of the year at the top of the polls; why it’s the No. 1 overall seeds; and why it will be the team more people in your pool pick to win it all.

But for as strong as the 1 through 9’s are, the bottom half of the bracket is probably the weakest out there, when you really examine it. Lehigh, UC-Santa Barbara and Ohio are probably the weakest collective crop of 14-16 seeds, and Houston was overvalued at the 13 line. New Mexico State somehow managed to get to a 12, despite only having decent wins over Utah State and UTEP.

Will Evan Turner have a Carmelo-type performance? It’s expected of him, especially since Ohio State has no bench (which is another storyline all to itself).

And the prospect of two future lottery picks going after each other? Yes please. Turner and the Buckeyes would match up interestingly against James Anderson and Oklahoma State. Evan Turner hasn’t taken one game off. I hope Anderson, who can absolutely carry his team (he would be the player who just missed the cut above) but has shown some tendencies to disappear in games, acts the same way Turner has. The NCAA tournament is no time for crawling into your shell.

All those Draft picks. Aldrich. Turner. Monroe. Anderson. Vasquez. Henry. Lawal. Chism. Coleman.

Austin Freeman continuing to learn how to play with diabetes.

Northern Iowa trying to prove itself as a legitimate perennial mid-major team. (Will need to win in round one and keep it close against Kansas.)

Michigan State is quietly sitting in the weeds and waiting to pounce. We’ve seen this play out before. The Spartans have fallen off our radar juuuuust enough to surprise us once again.

¶

The Sweet 16 teams I WANT to see (bolded is Final Four desire):  Kansas, Michigan State, Georgetown, Ohio State.

The Sweet 16 teams I THINK we’ll: Kansas, Michigan State, Tennessee, Ohio State.

Buzzer-beater karma from the ghost of the Midwest region’s past:

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Arinze Onuaku's quad injury could be a massive factor in determining who comes out of the West. (AP)

Today is the day I’ll be doling out all the previews for all the regions. I don’t want to get you straight-and-narrow analysis and over-exhaustive breakdowns from every game; you can find that in plenty of places, and it’s often way, way too much, wouldn’t you agree? Doesn’t a lot of the stuff so many people slave over just become white noise? So, my own little take on the games, the schools, the trends and a few stats you might not be aware of. Here’s the region I think will have the most upsets: the West.

The sites of the first weekend: Buffalo, San Jose, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City.

Most total tournament appearances: Syracuse (32), Brigham Young (24) Kansas State (23).

Least: North Texas (two) Vermont (three), Oakland (one).

Ready for his March moment: Jimmer Fredette (BYU). Fredette has eclipsed 40 points this season on multiple occasions. As long as he’s not sick (which has happened nearly as many times as the 40-point games) he’s making opposing coaches ill.

The stats, trends and notables:

Nobody's paying any attention to Florida State, the vaguest 8/9 seed in the field.

—Gonzaga and Brigham Young are the only teams west of the Central time zone playing in this region. Seven teams who abide by EST are involved.
—Winning seeds to come out of the West the past five years: 1, 1, 1, 1, 4.
—Gus Johnson will be dominating your television on Friday and Sunday, when these games take place.
—This is only Minnesota’s seventh Dance trip.
—BYU hasn’t won a Tournament game since 1993, and it breaks the trend of getting put in the 8/9 game three straight years, two of which it faced Texas A&M.
—Gonzaga gets the 8/9 game in Buffalo while Washington gets an 11 in San Jose out of the East?
—Butler is on the longest winning streak in the nation, 18 games.
—No region has a cooler collective of colorful nicknames than the West. Orange. Mean Green. Golden Grizzlies. Golden Gophers. Even Catamounts is a great one, despite its lack of ROYGBIV cred.

The non-1-seed everyone loves: UTEP. Yep, UTEP. It’s a terrific matchup for the Miners against Butler in the 5-12 game, and then I’ve seen and heard many a guy pick the Miners (who are better than a 12) beat Vanderbilt.

The upset pick I hate: Not seeing Minnesota over Xavier at all. Gophers looked nearly as bad against Ohio State as they did good against Purdue. X is much more OSU-like (Ohio connection, too) than Purdue-esque.

The storylines:

Outside of the seeding foulups, there aren’t many stories in this region. It’s quiet, which means it will get the loudest storm. Onuaku’s quad injury is a concern. Vermont-Syracuse in itself is noteworthy, as is the Evan Fjeld situation.

If Onuaku can’t go, Syracuse is going to be faced with a second-round opponent that will have an advantage inside. Gonzaga has Robert Sacre and Florida State has Solomon Alabi.

BYU will have quite an advantage if it can get out of the first weekend. The regionals are in Salt Lake City, and the Cougars fans would show up in droves.

And more on BYU. Its head coach, Dave Rose, beat some very slim odds to overcome pancreatic cancer. Comeback story of the year right there, folks.

How angry will Frank Martin get? It’s his time on the national scene, and I hope we get plenty of that scathing scowl.

The Sweet 16 teams I WANT to see (bolded is Final Four desire): Gonzaga, Butler, BYU, Xavier.

The Sweet 16 teams I THINK we’ll: Gonzaga, Butler, K-State, Xavier.

Buzzer-beater karma from the ghost of the West region’s past:

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Former Iowa coach Todd Lickliter.

• One-time podcast interviewee Jon Jaques is killin’ it with this blog stuff for the New York Times. {The Quad}

• Of course Barack’s going to fill out a bracket again, but there are many picks that have some serious political weight behind them. {USA Today}

• Todd Lickliter did not attend the press conference that announced his removal from the Iowa program. This past season was the worst in Iowa’s history. {Gazette Online}

• Kind of a shock: Bobby Lutz, out at Charlotte. {Charlotte Observer}

• Central Florida got rid of its coach, who was apparently lousy in the recruiting area. He was there 16 years. Can you name him? {Bright House Sports}

• Brackets scandal! Who peeped the field before it was announced? {Bracketology 101}

• Blake Stepp, who I loved at Gonzaga, is now trying to be a professional poker player. {Lost Letterman}

• Fran McCaffery is not the slightest bit happy about having to face Purdue in round one. {Albany Times-Union}

• You’re late to the party, Dan Bickley. {Arizona Republic}

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Below, the NIT field, which features 32 teams. This is the fifth year in which all Division I conference regular-season champions that will not be in the NCAA Tournament are guaranteed an NIT bid (the eight this year include Weber State, Troy, Coastal Carolina, Kent State, Jacksonville, Stony Brook, Quinnipiac and Jackson State). The NIT, founded in 1938, is the nation’s oldest postseason college basketball tournament.

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Episode 7 should be up in the iTunes store by now, but if you’d like to listen to it on your choice of media player, then click here and you can begin.

Gus:

—Puts my voice to ABSOLUTE SHAME
—Talks about how he prepares to cover The Tournament
—What his schedule is this week for the Buffalo games, traveling, etc.
—Indulges us with which sport he feels most comfortable covering
—Recalls his favorite moments and calls he’s done with The Tournament
—More. Oh, yes. More.

Plus, I get into the bracket and talk about the first-round things, seeding mishaps and what matchups really have sparked some good conversation in the aftermath of Selection Sunday. Give it a listen, and feel free to leave some feedback in the comments, e-mail, Twitter.

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I hope you gave your clean bracket a little time to itself before you went out and defaced it. And your picks are defacing, admit it. You know it and I know. That thing is going to look like a delinquent sophomore’s English paper by the time the third round is finished.

But before all that, what you have before you is a clean slate; a world of possibility. Are you like me? Have you not even touched yours yet? No way, right? Gotta keep doing some research. Overthink this as much as possible. I never put the pen to the paper until Tuesday morning at the earliest.

So what’s staring you in the face right now, taunting you to no end? The 7/10 games are a LOT harder to pick than the 8/9 ones, if you ask me? Richmond-Saint Mary’s is the only no-brainer, really. And how will you handle Duke? For all the bitching the Blue Devils have gotten, everyone seems resigned to the fact they’ll get back to the Final Four. Is is that easy? Or will Louisville, which plays a style the exact opposite of Duke, get the Blue Devils and blow the whole thing up?

I love how certain teams just taunt you. Utah State, which I jockeyed all year, is expecting some sort of favor. Butler wants me to finally repent and write it into a Sweet 16, which I’ve never done. And that damn Missouri/Clemson matchup in the East is giving me the finger because I know whichever team I pick is going to lose. We all have that Moby Dick in our picks.

But please, indulge me, and give it another couple of hours before you really go to work and begin scribbling. You only get about a day or so each year to have an empty canvas. Keep it that way until your comfortable with the mistakes your proudly choose.

Because if there’s one rule almost everybody breaks every year, it’s the go-with-your-gut rule. Who actually sits down and fills out a bracket in 60 seconds without going back and changing anything? I’ll tell you who: my mother.

Nobody that watches at least three games in a season can settle with a sheet filled out so fleetingly. We’re overthinkers and that’s part of the annoying charm. The best thing to do is convince yourself into a few picks, let the destruction happen and throw your bracket into the fire by the Elite Eight as you enjoy what little basketball we have left this season.

Savor that flawless sheet as long as you can, though. It makes the week go by slower, and who doesn’t want to soak up this anticipation for as long as they can?

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If you’d like to relive all of these great moments, let’s do this. There were good and bad — could Kansas have looked more bored? — so let’s go with the memorable ones. Wofford took to its school auditorium (cheerleaders dressed in uniform!) to celebrate.

Cornell: Thrilled with a 12 while Temple is a little less than that with its terrible under-seeding.

Saint Mary’s: thrilled with the 10-seed.

“Let’s go!!!!!” from Richmond. A view from behind the CBS camera.

Montana took in the seeding experience with some wings and bro-like enthusiasm. They’re all just chilling when euphoria suddenly takes over.

The view from the table as New Mexico State gets shocked by its 12-seed. I think we all sort of were.

Nice to see Baylor excited about its seeding and regional placement.

Also, still waiting on an explanation for what a Bang-Bus is.

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The catch-22 about pitting two schools against each other in the first round that don’t come from one of the six major conferences is that while one of them has to win, the other certainly must oblige in losing.

Here are the Thursday and Friday games that feature programs whose athletic budgets are dwarfed by their BCS-conference contemporaries.

In the Midwest: No. 8 UNLV vs. No. 9 Northern Iowa. In the West: No. 5 Butler vs. No. 12 UTEP. In the East: No. 5 Temple vs. No. 12 Cornell. In the South: No. 7 Richmond vs. No. 10 Saint Mary’s.

The half-glass-full view of this is that the NCAA is trying to squeeze out the smaller schools as quickly as possible by forcing these teams to play each other as quickly as possible. Can we look big-picture? Do you really believe NCAA brass approached the selection committee and urged them to create matchups with as many non-majors as possible so it could ensure the best television product with the most notable schools by the time the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight came around?

(Well … doesn’t seem that far-fetched.)

But let’s not be so jaded. That’s certainly not the case.

Where do you side on this issue, because, I have (hate) to admit, I’m not totally against it. We’re guaranteed four non-majors into the weekend, and then you’d figure at least one of those teams will move on to the Sweet 16. Given that Temple is a 5 and Richmond gets a plum placement as a 7 in Villanova’s quad, chances look decent that we’ll go 2 for 2.

The reaction on the Internet was immediate to the pairings. Temple and Cornell’s fan bases aren’t happy about the decision. Basketball Prospectus chimed in on the Little Guy hatred, as did ESPN. From Prospectus …

There are 15 non-BCS schools on seed lines 5-12 in this bracket. Eight of them are playing each other. Thanks, NCAA. Just what the fans want. … That’s the object lesson here. The NCBSAA wants a Sweet 16 made up of BCS schools and maybe Gonzaga or Butler or Xavier, so why fight it?

I think that’s a little too cynical, but I understand it. Point is, the first weekend is fun because of all the matchups and upsets (which are rarer than your mind tells you) but our attention is still captured regardless of which teams are still around by the third and fourth round. It’s fun to get the occasional dark horse, but we have no evidence that this sort of matchup predicament prevents smaller schools from getting to the second weekend. After all, one team is mandated to win, and that’s a better prospect than facing a BCS school for those who wish to see as many small-guy schools as possible.

The committee showed faith in non-major schools by drafting 12 at-larges into the field this year. It’s on those schools to prove them right by having a decent showing in the second weekend. How would you qualify it a successful year? Two teams? Nah. I think three’s the number to aim for, and I think we’re going to reach it. In fact, four’s my pick.

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The Selection Committee voting on cheesecake or brownies for dessert.

• I document who Lunardi has when his first bracket is released. Fun to see how far we’ve come. {CHJ}

• How great is this thing? Keep clicking until Lehigh wins. Wheee!!! {Bill Mill}

• The NIT field. Do I do a post on it? Eh. Maybe. Depends on if I have enough time. {AP}

• You knew Seton Hall felt it had no shot at an at-large when it kicked a starter off its team yesterday. {NJ.com}

• Sean McManus and CBS are going to have to really attack The Tournament this year and show the NCAA it not only wants it, but can be forward-thinking in how it will broadcast it. {MultiChannel}

• Totally agree on the issue of timeouts and how they interrupt flow at the end of games. Nothing new, but would coaches be willing to amend certain rules on when to use them? {New York Post}

• A terrific database for the NCAA tournament. Select and see the stats. Bookmark this immediately. {WaPo}

• No state sent more teams to The Dance than Texas, which will be represented by seven. {Dallas News}

• Tom Penders’ history against Maryland. His Cougars get the Terps in round one, in case you forgot. {Sports Bog}

• Oregon State: back to defend its CBI title. Pride, baby. {AP}

• Your CIT field! {College Insider}

And in case you missed it, which you didn’t, Kyle Singler plowing into Dan Shulman yesterday.

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Selection Committee Chairman Dan Guerrero.

Yes, it’s time to bitch about the seedings. It’s an annual rite of passage, and before any of you roll your eyes, the public has just as much of a right to chastise the committee when it does wrong for as frequently as it does right. And it often does right. More times than not.

But not this year. Where do I begin? One by one, I’m going to roast the committee, because although it picked the 65 right teams (woo hoo! First time ever I went 65 for 65) it really fouled up on where to put all those clubs. Dan Guerrero, the chairman whose job is the envy of everyone except ON Selection Sunday, had a teleconference last night with the media. If you’d like to see any of what he had to say, click here.

This was a lazily-put-together bracket. There are some gross mis-seedings and general breaking-the-rules procedures that happened. For as much as I love the bracket, so pristine and so pure, I hate when it’s tainted by the judgments of men who overthought themselves through the process and gave us a final product that fails to live up to what it could have been. You’ll never please everybody, but when the chorus is this loud, you know it’s been a bad year. I write this just hours after the Selection Show; I can’t wait to see what columns, blog posts and commentary awaits tomorrow when people have had a night’s sleep to build up their stamina and talk about these brackets. So here’s my initial take.

Duke getting the third No. 1 seed over Syracuse is what’s getting the most play right now, and rightly so. Hell, it was becoming all but accepted that Duke would move to the 2 line and West Virginia would take over after winning so dramatically in the Big East tournament. Some subterfuge by Syracuse at play, and the committee doesn’t by the balk with it. Is Arinze Onuaku’s injury the reason why? If so, good for the committee on calling Cuse’s bluff, but I still don’t see how Duke’s profile beats out SU’s.

So then you’ve got the Ohio State fans, who are certainly not happy with getting slotted in Kansas’ bracket, which would mean OSU was the weakest No. 2. That’s certainly not the case, right?A team that won all but one game since Jan. 27 couldn’t possibly be considered on the same plane as another No. 2, Villanova, which has lost six of its last 10 games and has three fewer total losses on the season. Yet Villanova finds itself in Duke’s region. Villanova? Streaking and skidding down the stretch worse than anyone outside of Wake Forest and Texas (and how appropriate those two grease fires get to play each other).

And Gonzaga? An 8? It’s been a lower seed than the public expected many times before, but nothing like this. And it gets a Florida State team, which, frankly, is also mis-seeded. You want to know why Gonzaga got the shaft? Because it only has two wins over teams in the field: Wisconsin and Saint Mary’s. That seemed to be a real point of emphasis this season. How did you do against other teams that made The Tournament. Gonzaga is much better than an 8, and it deserved something more than facing Syracuse in the second round.

Vanderbilt as a 4. What a joke. Ho-ho! I’m startin’ feel like Costanza! George is gettin’ upset!

And have yet gotten an explanation on how the committee goofed on its no-conference-teams-can-play-each-other-until-the-Elite-Eight rule? Because Marquette and West Virginia (who’ve had a lot of good games) are on a collision course for the Sweet 16. Can Andy Katz or someone get an explanation to how and why this happened? This is a sloppy error, a rookie mistake. Things like this bug the maniacs like me because we take the selections seriously. You send a message of poor oversight and sloppiness by committing such a mistake.

BYU was one of the biggest goof-ups in seed placement this year. (AP)

Back to seeding. Tennessee’s skid gave it a 6, but it did beat UK and Kansas, remember. Are they unfairly positioned? See how many questions I’m having to ask? More questions from people means a bad job by the committee. No other team in the field has wins over two 1-seeds. And with a top-15 RPI, you know Guerrero stood by his word when he said RPI was not a huge factor this year. Not terribly upset about UT’s placement, but Vols fans who had banked on a 5 at worst aren’t taking the news well.

Vanderbilt as a 4. What a joke. Ho-ho! I’m startin’ feel like Costanza! George is gettin’ upset!

BYU-Florida is the mis-seeded special in my eyes. BYU could’ve gotten a 5 and no one would’ve complained. But a 7? Sigh. The team is a 7 on KenPom’s rankings. Guess that 14-4 road/neutral mark just wasn’t good enough. And Florida, which I thought would make it, is laps ahead of the other at-large stragglers with a 10? Wow. More and more, this thing looks hastily put together. What I’m understanding is that even if Chandler Parsons’ 65-foot 3 doesn’t fall in the North Carolina State game Florida is still in. Mind-boggling.

And those who don’t agree with me on BYU-Florida surely will about California-Louisville. That’s an 8/9? Because it feels like it should be an 11/12. Shame on me for entertaining the thought that Louisville would miss the cut. Like Lloyd Christmas, I was way off. Winning the Pac-10 meant more to the committee than we could have ever known. Louisville’s profile is fairly hideous, so I can’t perceive how it gets a 9 with two wins over Syracuse yet Tennessee is practically punished and gets a 6.

Temple-Cornell just isn’t fair. I’m going to make that an entirely different post. Way too many non-Big-Six-conference teams pitted against each other in the first round. I think Temple at a 5 is the third-most disgusting mis-seeding, right behind Louisville and BYU.

Man, Notre Dame play well enough to get to a 6-seed? How badly did the committee fall for that Big East tournament? Yet, WVU got gypped.

New Mexico State is a 12? Huh? Now I’m a confused child just wandering the halls of a grocery story.

Houston, becoming a chic upset pick (can’t blame that logic) is still a 14 at heart, not a 13, but I’m beginning to nit-pick.

That’s what I see, and I haven’t even gotten into the geography arguments. We’ll save that for another time.

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WEST: Butler (5) vs. UTEP (12). The Miners have Derrick Caracter and Randy Culpepper for a nice inside-out combination, and you wonder how Butler will stymie that. It’s absolutely crucial for Matt Howard to not get into foul trouble, but what do you want to bet he does? This has turned into the chic 12-over-5 pick, and I can see why. Early reaction: Do I have to make a choice now? If forced, I’d take Butler.

WEST: Syracuse (1) vs. Vermont (16). A 1 vs. a 16 as the most intriguing? You bet. This one will take place in Buffalo, so both teams’ fanbases will be able to make the trip. Kudos to the selection committee for throwing us this gem. While Syracuse fans let out that big groan when this pairing was put on CBS’ screen around 6:20, Vermont fans most likely shrieked in joy. The Catamounts have only won once in the history of the NCAA tournament (and have only been there three times: 2003, ‘04 and ‘05) and that win came against Syracuse (video below). The Orange do not have the most athletic man on the floor; Marqus Blakely of the Catamounts is a high-flyer. And one more cool nugget: Kris Joseph of Syracuse is brothers with Maurice Joseph of Vermont. Early reaction: I like Syracuse, but only to pull away in final six minutes.

SOUTH: Texas A&M (5) vs. Utah State (12). The battle of the Aggies. Get to see what Utah State can do now that it got in the field. Problem is, A&M has been playing so, so well. Stew Morrill’s Aggies went 14-2 in the WAC and won 17 in a row before falling against New Mexico State. Hot DAMN emotion just hit me as I was writing this piece because I truly expect this to be the best start-to-finish 5/12 game we get. Early reaction: Taking Texas A&M in overtime. Think we’ll truly get a gem here, but I bet it’ll be tucked away and hidden in its quad slot of games.

EAST: Temple (5) vs. Cornell (12). This is the “it” game of the first round. Bummed because Temple got absolutely shafted on seeding, but it should be a tight contest. Whoever wins is certainly doing so in single digits and I’m guessing it’s going to be Temple. However, Cornell shoots 3-pointers extremely well and Jeff Foote will be one of the three best passers on the floor, so it’s looking like more and more of a coin flip to me. Temple could be leading 54-47 with two minutes to go and and Cornell could get still take the game on four good possessions in a row. Early reaction: Temple, no doubt, and I love it because Cornell’s going to be a really popular pick.

Now, what game did I skip that you think’s appointment television?

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Love seeing which teams play at what times. So here you go.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON

12:20 PM – Oklahoma City I, Florida vs. BYU, Kevin Harlan/Dan Bonner

12:25 PM – New Orleans I, Notre Dame vs. Old Dominion, Dick Enberg/Jay Bilas

12:30 PM – Providence I, Villanova vs. Robert Morris, Verne Lundquist/Bill Raftery

2:30 PM – San Jose I, Vanderbilt vs. Murray State, Spero Dedes/Bob Wenzel

approximately 2:50 PM – Oklahoma City II, Kansas State vs. North Texas, Harlan/Bonner

approximately 2:55 PM – New Orleans II, Baylor vs. Sam Houston, Enberg/Bilas

approximately 3:00 PM – Providence II, Richmond vs. St. Mary’s, Lundquist/Raftery

approximately 5:00 PM – San Jose II, Butler vs. UTEP, Dedes/Wenzel

THURSDAY EVENING

7:10 PM – Oklahoma City III, UNLV vs. University of North Iowa, Harlan/Bonner

7:15 PM – New Orleans III, Kentucky vs. East Tennessee State, Enberg/Bilas

7:20 PM – San Jose III, Marquette vs. Washington, Dedes/Wenzel

7:25 PM – Providence III, Georgetown vs. Ohio, Lundquist/Raftery

approximately 9:40 PM – Oklahoma City IV, Kansas vs. Lehigh, Harlan/Bonner

approximately 9:45 PM – New Orleans IV, Texas vs. Wake Forest, Enberg/Bilas

approximately 9:50 PM – San Jose IV, New Mexico vs. Montana, Dedes/Wenzel

approximately 9:55 PM – Providence IV, Tennessee vs. San Diego State, Lundquist/Raftery

FRIDAY AFTERNOON

12:15 PM – Buffalo I, West Virginia vs. Morgan State,Gus Johnson/Len Elmore

12:25 PM – Milwaukee I, Xavier vs. Minnesota, Ian Eagle/Jim Spanarkel

12:30 PM – Jacksonville I, Temple vs. Cornell, Jim Nantz/Clark Kellogg

2:30 PM – Spokane I, Purdue vs. Siena, Tim Brando/Mike Gminski

approximately 2:45 PM – Buffalo II, Clemson vs. Missouri, Johnson/Elmore

approximately 2:50 PM – Milwaukee II, Pittsburgh vs. Oakland, Eagle/Spanarkel

approximately 3:00 PM – Jacksonville II, Wisconsin vs. Wofford, Nantz/Kellogg

approximately 5:00 PM – Spokane II, Texas A&M vs. Utah State, Brando/Gminski

FRIDAY EVENING

7:10 PM – Buffalo III, Gonzaga vs. Florida State, Johnson/Elmore

7:15 PM – Milwaukee III, Oklahoma State vs. Georgia Tech, Eagle/Spanarkel

7:20 PM – Spokane III, Michigan State vs. New Mexico State, Brando/Gminski

7:25 PM – Jacksonville III, Duke vs. Arkansas Pine Bluff/Winthrop, Nantz/Kellogg

approximately 9:40 PM – Buffalo IV, Syracuse vs. Vermont, Johnson/Elmore

approximately 9:45 PM – Milwaukee IV, Ohio State vs. UC Santa Barbara, Eagle/Spanarkel

approximately 9:50 PM, Spokane IV, Maryland vs. Houston, Brando/Gminski

approximately 9:55 PM, Jacksonville IV, California vs. Louisville, Nantz/Kellogg

My reaction: love getting that 8/9 late game Friday night. I think the block of games with the best probabilities for upsets is that final Friday block. I think this slate is much more balanced with must-watch games than many in years’ past. The usual suspects are placed into 7 p.m.-hour games, but that’s to be expected. Gus Johnson gets the Buffalo region, so be on the lookout for that.

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