While I still haven?t watched last night?s Gonzaga/San Diego game, I have been closely following the automatic qualifiers from conferences many of us forget even exist til this time of year. Quakers and Seahawks and Jaspers, oh my! It?s especially important to pay attention to potential Cinderellas this year, as any number of potential 3-6 seeds are capable of going one and out. Like say a certain team in blue.

But, you can?t get too excited about these qualifiers immediately picking up where they left off in the NCAAs. Take Creighton for instance, they finally put a good game together against Southern Illinois after squeaking by Indiana State and Wichita State. But now they have to sit around and wait for 10 or 11 days before taking on their next opponent. Can they maintain their intensity and winning ways simply by scrimmaging in practice for a week? Is there a benefit to resting, versus coming in to the NCAA Tournament relatively fresh with less than a week layoff? The answers to these questions will help shape one of the most unpredictable tourneys of most of our lifetimes? We?re talking ?83 N.C. State possibilities.

The other thing to remember is teams that are playing in their post-season tournaments are playing on successive days which they haven?t had to do all season, and they won?t even have to do when it really counts next week. In other words, don?t get too worked up one way or the other over how a team performs playing 3 or 4 games in as many days. Because that kind of stamina just doesn?t mean anything when you?re only required to play and win 2 games in a 4-day span.

Some other miscellaneous end of the season notes:

As a Duke fan I?m extremely embarrassed at Chris Duhon?s inclusion on the Wooden Award finalists list. All Duhon brings to the table is a gaudy and misleading assist to turnover ratio, which speaks as much to his teammates? (Dahntay Jones, J.J. Redick and most recently Shelden Williams) ability to finish, than his own playmaking ability. Even worse, Dahntay makes first team ACC, while Duhon barely makes the third team—–a season in which he was named pre-season ACC Player of the Year. If the ACC has it figured out, why in the hell doesn?t the Wooden committee? Even worse than taking a spot away from more deserving guys on his own team (Dahntay) is the fact that Kentucky?s Keith Bogans, Wisconsin?s Kirk Penney and Syracuse?s Carmelo Anthony, guys that actually exceeded expectations and successfully carried their teams to a 1 or 2 (or in Wisconsin?s case a 4) seed, aren?t on the list.

Speaking of exceeding expectations—-how can you not love Bobby Knight? In an age of hold-outs and contract renegotiations, where “it?s not about the money” means exactly the opposite, it?s nice to see a sports figure say I?m not earning my keep, so I?m not accepting the terms of my contract. Whether it?s a ploy to motivate or divert attention from his team or not, college basketball needs more surly, entertaining characters like him. Though it doesn?t really matter, as Texas Tech and Knight are one and done once again this season—-assuming they get off the bubble.

Teams that aren?t fortunate enough to get an at-large invite this year, have a lot less to complain about than in years past. Michigan, Georgia (told ya Jarvis would declare), and Fresno State, all had tournament quality teams, and all are staying home due to self-imposed bans on post season play. That means at least three more bubble teams get in that otherwise wouldn?t.

I?ll wait until the brackets are announced before I start breaking down the darkhorses, and measuring them against the favorites (Arizona and Kentucky), but rest assured that I have my eyes on a number of teams and how they perform in the first couple of games of their conference tourneys (Cincy, Maryland, Stanford, Cal, Tennessee?).

That?s the dedication and focus I bring to the table, if only for one month a year. Which is why my heart skipped a couple of beats when in a staff meeting yesterday, I was told to expect longer hours to meet an increased workload the next 4-6 weeks. I?m not talking my Desipio staff meeting either, which normally consists of Karry Ling asking me to pull his finger, and Andy flipping for Hector Villanueva baseball cards. Thank God I haven?t used all of my sick days, because I feel another bout of something contagious coming directly my way.

It?s also why I couldn?t stay down too long, or be too upset by an over the back no-call on Kansas? Michael Lee, leading directly to a Kirk Hinrich 30-foot trey and Jayhawk win. Or that Dahntay Jones couldn?t be bothered with a quick glance at a winding down game clock, leading to yet another Sunday ruined by the Blue Devils. You gotta shake it off, and say next play. We?re about to wipe the slates clean, make 65 teams 0-0, roll the ball out and see what happens.

Lastly, I?ve got a couple of questions. Why was Gideon Yago, an MTV personality improbably even more annoying than John Norris, on last night when I tuned in expecting to see Real World/Road Rules: Battle of the Sexes? And when?s the next time I can expect to see a new Coupling on the BBC? (If you didn?t catch our boy Jeff dancing around in a SpiderMan outfit, than you missed one of the top three laughs of this television season.) And are all people that actually buy and wear Dr. Scholl?s products, retarded and gay enough to really sit around and say things like, “I?m like Magellan, I?m so gellin?”? Who really would have won in a fight between Matt Doherty and Chris Collins? Would Wojo have jumped on Doherty?s back? Should C-Mac, Cary, and I head to West to Oklahoma City or East to Nashville for 1st and 2nd round games? Will C-Mac get more lit up during our road trip, or while pitching for our softball on April 3? Can Creighton?s Funk, dunk?

These are just a few of the random, nonsensical thoughts that will bump in and out of my brain until Selection Sunday—- now only 125 hours away?Oh yea, and I?ll be working and stuff?

I just had someone interrupt me and ask if we could meet about, blah, blah, blah… Don’t they know I’m listening to Tom Crean and Lute Olson on The Jim Rome Show, and had I taken that meeting, I wouldn’t have heard Lute call the Pac-10 Tourney ‘asinine’? March is all about priorities. Hopefully yours, are a little better adjusted than mine…