Even though Notre Dame bowed out of the tournament in the second round (I like to think of it less as a loss, more of a mercy killing so they didn't have to face the buzzsaw known as North Carolina), this weekend was a fantastic one for college hoops after last March's snoozer.  Two quick points to make before we get into the breakdown:

1)    Add "...Of the Weekend" to every heading, with the weekend consisting of Thursday at noon through Sunday evening.
2)    There is a bias against teams that took care of business in beat-down fashion, as I think it goes without saying I didn't watch that much of their games.  Teams affected by this include, to varying degrees, North Carolina, Kansas, Louisville and Texas, and a few other teams who I may have only watched one of their games.  A.J. Abrams and Ty Lawson should probably be more prominently involved here, and I apologize.

My Favorite Game...

6) Marquette vs. 3) Stanford - You could argue another half dozen games in here and you wouldn't be wrong, but I loved this match-up for a number of reasons.  You had overtime, a PAC-10 vs. Big East throwdown, two tough shots in the final few seconds and one of the most glaring contrasts of styles you'll see in a tournament game.  This game had a ton of mini-runs as each team asserted their will for brief spurts, whether that be with a Marquette guard slashing into the area not occupied by a Lopez twin while they were on the bench, or Brook or Robin simply destroying Barro, Burke and Blackledge down on the block.  

As far as Stanford looking ahead, they're playing a team very similar to Marquette in Texas, only one that's a little better at every position.  As tough as beating the Golden Eagles was on a neutral floor in California with guard Mitch Johnson logging 16 assists to only one turnover, they now have to do it on a very partisan Houston floor against a team with more talented big men.  

Runners up: Duke vs. Belmont, Western Kentucky vs. Drake, Texas A&M vs. UCLA, Davidson vs. Gonzaga/Georgetown, Rocky Top vs. Butler, Villanova vs. Clemson

Coach Smiling the Widest...

Tom Izzo, Michigan State, on Sunday evening, as he enjoyed Easter with his family, his team safely in the Sweet Sixteen, noticing "Oh my God, Memphis really is that bad at free throws."  I think this will manifest itself as an eight point lead at the under four timeout for the Tigers, at which point it quickly evaporates as Memphis trades empty or half-empty trips to the free throw line for Drew Neitzel threes.  If you're in the last five minutes of the game, have less than four fouls and Joey Dorsey is touching the ball, by all means, hack away each and every time.

Blown Opportunity...

Belmont's Rick Byrd did nearly everything right in his team's quest to upset Duke, loading up on backdoor cuts and never getting nervous when the Blue Devils - who seemed on roughly the same talent level as the Bruins - would inch out to a lead.  But his final four possessions were all disasters, starting with two empty possessions up one where it was just a simple isolation meant to run time off that ended in forced shots, none of the three Bruins in the lane taking a charge on Gerald Henderson, the debacle of an inbounds play and the final crucial error: not using his final timeout to set up at halfcourt after the long inbounds.  Belmont could have had the ball right at the middle of the floor with somewhere around 1.5 seconds left, but instead they were taking a contested, off-balance three.  Still, the game did set up an awkward story for every Blue Devil fan to tell for the next decade or two.

"And then, Gerald Henderson sliced through the lane and made the lay-up, putting us up one!"

"And this was against?..."

"Belmont.  In '08."

"...were they really good that year, or something?"

"Well, no, it was a 15 vs. 2 match-up, but still, a sweet shot!

"Oh, so surviving that was like a springboard to a national title run?"

"Well, no, we lost in the next round....but it was still awesome!

Least Surprising No-Call...

With Duke gone, at least we still have one team 90% of non-partisan fans can agree to hate.  Enjoy!

(Peter and I are going to collaborate on a "Why every basketball fan should loathe Ben Howland" treatise at some point in time, but for now, just do it on trust.)

Most Incompetent Officiating...

Overall, I thought the officials did a pretty bang-up job over the four days, with a few glaring exceptions.  First, the technical-happy ref in the Stanford/Marquette game should never see the floor for the rest of the tournament.  Secondly, and this might not be entirely the officials fault as the clock kept messing up, but last six minutes of the Purdue/Xavier game literally took nearly an hour.  Worse yet, CBS refused to switch away from the most boring part of the game, a parade of free throws and forced threes that result in a comeback maybe one out of every ten times.  Speaking of CBS...

Least Ideal Position To Be In...

CBS on Sunday afternoon as Davidson/Georgetown and Butler/Tennessee rolled down at the same time.  Thanks to the glory of Mega March Madness I could just split screen them on the Ranchero big screen and enjoy, but not an enviable position.  Do you just keep mercilessly toggling, or do you go split-screen and cause massive squinting for every household that doesn't have a wide screen or HD?  As they say, that's why they get paid the big bucks.

Favorite Team To Watch...

Probably Xavier, who faced deficits in both of their games but were so undeniably confident in their system that they never rushed, never got out of position and never seemed worried that they would just defend like crazy, get some easy points in transition and get to the foul line.  I have them to the Elite Eight or Final Four in all of my brackets after very limited watching over the course of the season, but I'm thrilled to have invested my picks in such a well-coached, balanced team.  I will be terribly sad whoever loses their game to West Virginia, as both teams have earned a special place in my hoops-loving heart.

Least Surprising Final Game...

Roy Hibbert's six points and one rebound against a team that was playing guys six inches shorter on him the entire time.  I realize it's "the system," but if your system involves having a guy that much bigger than anyone on the opposition setting high screens instead of just posting up - regardless of foul trouble - your system sucks.  Hibbert supporters will tell you how he's come so far since a freshman project with no basketball ability, and I would say it's great that a guy who seems like a good person has positioned himself to make a nice living playing basketball.  Still, the progress doesn't mean I should have every pundit and announcer telling me how great Hibbert is when he's simply not that good, justifying or ignoring his awful outputs while praising the rare twenty-point game as if he's the second coming of Hakeem.  If a student had awful grades going into high school but rallied and made himself into a B average student by graduation, you'd certainly be proud, but you wouldn't put him into any advanced classes or start writing recommendations for Ivy League schools.  There's a difference between respecting the progress Hibbert has made and using that progress to justify constantly talking him up as a NBA lottery pick when he's just not an elite player.

Favorite Announcing Crew...

Was pretty pleased with everyone, including Len Elmore (who I have an irrational dislike of, perhaps because he reminds me of Admiral Ackbar) and the Jim Nantz/Billy Packer combination (only because I really limited how much I listened to them).  Poor Gus Johnson got handed five awful games and one decent Michigan State/Pittsburgh throwdown, as every CBS executive cursed them for not switching him and Tim Brando, who did an admirable job managing the chaos in Tampa.  I found Bob Wenzel annoying because I think he was trying to sound too much like Bill Raftery, but no one stuck out as awful, other than perhaps Jay Bilas permanently entrenching Kevin Love's balls in his mouth.

But my favorite?  Verne and Bill, who got a bunch of great games and handled them all eloquently like a couple of old pros.  My favorite line of the weekend might have come towards the end, when Verne aptly pointed out near the finish of the Butler/Rocky Top game that "...Mike Green has a big smile on his face."  They properly praised great play and chided missteps, but they captured every great moment with near perfection.

Worst Screw Job...

A lot of people said this at the time of the Selection Show, but seriously, how was Butler a seven seed?  You go 29-3 and return a team that hung with Florida in the Sweet Sixteen and you get slotted as a seven, playing two road games in Birmingham against South Alabama and Tennessee?  Oklahoma might have been the worst six seed ever, but by that same measure, Butler may very well have been one of the best sevens.

(Still, when you miss as many lay-ups as the Bulldogs did in the last few minutes of that game, you deserve to go home, as sad as it is.)

Your All-Tournament Team...

G Stephen Curry, Stephen Curry- Really nothing to say here that hasn't already been said, but if he manages to take out Wisconsin, it would be the best two defenses taken out in a row since Dwyane Wade ripped apart Pittsburgh and Kentucky in back-to-back games in 2003.  You'd have to a be a pretty worthless NBA coach to not find a place for a guy who can move without the ball, handle and shoot like Curry, but hopefully he sticks around college for at least another year, because it's really a joy to watch.

G Tyrone Brazelton, Western Kentucky- 48 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists, including a perfect dish at the end of the Drake game to set up the buzzer-beating three by Ty Rogers.  Bob Knight made the excellent point (I'm enjoying the insight of him and Doug Gottlieb most so far this tournament) that for Brazelton, who had 33 points, including going 6-of-10 from behind the arc, to not force that shot but instead deliver a great pass to Rogers was a lesson in selfless basketball.  The defense is going to get substantially stiffer (and more clingy, thuggy and cheaty) against UCLA, but the Hilltoppers have a chance if Brazelton has another solid performance.

G Jerel McNeal, Marquette- Fifty points in two games, including the tour-de-force against Stanford that involved not one but two go-ahead shots (one in regulation and one in overtime) that were eventually negated by a Lopez twin and scoring nine of the Golden Eagles' ten overtime points.  Bonus points for how awful Marquette was without him in the tournament last year.

F Gyno Pomare, San Diego- While the loss of A.J. Price certainly helped the Torero guards out, Big Gyno still had to deal with Thabeet, Adrien and Robinson essentially by himself.  42 points on 17-for-22 shooting over the course of the tournament, including a 10-for-12 outing against Connecticut that kept dragging Thabeet away from the basket in a useless attempt of contesting his money jumper.

C Brook Lopez, Stanford- Cornell obviously had no answer for him and Tom Crean also couldn't figure out the center, who went for thirty points, including the ridiculous fall-away leaner at the end of overtime that was either the most beautiful shot you've ever seen or the ugliest, luckiest toss-up in the history of basketball.  Bill Simmons, for as bad as his tournament picks are, made the great point that people are uncomfortable considering Brook and Robin as top-tier prospects because they sound like two super-hot prep school girls.  If Michelle Trachtenberg's bitchy new character on Gossip Girl was named Brook Lopez, would anyone not go "Ooo, that's a good name for a nasty high school girl?", followed by "But why isn't she Hispanic?".  

Honorable Mentions/I would have made the first-team bigger but I didn't want to be like the Big East...

G Scottie Reynolds, Villanova- Probably should be on the above team with 46 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists and a 8-for-12 stroke from three that knocked off probably the two toughest teams anybody had in their path to the Sweet Sixteen save for maybe Davidson.

F Joe Alexander, West Virginia- For the numbers, the general bad-assness (talking shit to DeMarcus Nelson gets you a lot of credit in my book) and for making me think on Saturday afternoon against Duke, "The rest of the team could get into foul trouble, but they can still score as long as Joe's on the floor."  

F Kevin Love, UCLA- As much as the Bruins cheated at the end, Love was rather unstoppable down the stretch against A&M, banging in tough jumpers and blocking, sometimes cleanly, any Aggie that wandered into the lane.