Perhaps it's for recruiting purposes? Any rising HS juniors might avoid Indiana if they thought there'd be another coaching change (or even extension uncertainty) while they were there. And these days the elite kids seem to make their decisions (or at least narrow down their options) earlier and earlier.

Do you mean they were "formally" accused - not formerly?

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That's one thing that sucks about spell-check: it doesn't catch it when I typed the wrong word.

Thanks for finding that!

-Sportz

Why not go back to arenas, but sell annex tickets too? Example: championship at MSG, but tickets are also sold for entrance to arenas around the country where fans can pay for the privilege to watch their teams play on the big screen, miles away? It'd be about the same view those fans would have in the upper levels of a dome. And the NCAA could sell out every arena in the country EVERY YEAR!

Just my modest proposal.

But did they get any valuable information?

This ad is not a referendum on whether Hooters girls are too sexy. If the NCAA really had some sort of moral objection, they wouldn't be pulling the ad "at the last minute" - they would never have accepted it in the first place. This smacks of a desperate play for political correctness because somebody is afraid of offending someone somewhere. Lame.

Well I thought the misspelling would exempt Georgetown from the jinx, but evidently it made things worse.


SI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haha..."a Holiday Inn near a mall." You say that like there is a hotel in the Triangle area that's not near a mall. It's the suburbs! The RBC Center is closer to malls than it is to downtown Raleigh.

Hibbert did try to play "tighter and more disciplined." He asked the refs in the first half what he needed to to do avoid picking up offensive fouls, but he was still called for them. When you're six inches taller than the guy guarding you it can be hard not to do that.

Not sure how I feel about Vitale's suggestion. The threat of fouling out keeps some players from being overly physical with smaller teams. I think an argument could be made that it prevents injury. If there's no chance of fouling out by throwing an elbow or dropping a shoulder (assuming it doesn't look flagrant), why not? It would be an interesting experiment for early season tournaments though.

Between the histories, childhoods and family connections of all the coaches and the players involved in these teams, in addition to all the games that have been played over the years, you could seed the field by drawing out of a hat and still end up with compelling matchups. In fact, if you tried to create a bracket WITHOUT stories like these it'd probably be impossible. Doesn't seem to me that the selection committee needs to waste its time looking for drama - it's guaranteed.

The mid-major matchups are curious, however. I don't think that's happened before. The Gonzaga/Davidson game should be awesome - too bad it's in the middle of a workday and the UNC blowout is the primetime game in Raleigh.

Heads up, the link has a typo - missing the "n" from newsobserver.com.