The March to Madness

Fifty Things to Know About the Season

Ed Barkowitz of the Philadelphia Daily News has put together a most excellent list of the 50 things to know about the 2013-14 season. Our favorite is reason No. 8, which involves Connecticut and junior guard Ryan Boatright.

The Huskies were barred from the NCAA tournament last spring because of poor academic performance. Barkowitz writes: " 'I think the message is, we ain't ever going to be back on that banned list,' Boatright said, much to the dismay of his English professor."

The Bad Guys Win It

It was fun while it lasted. With nearly every college basketball fan pulling for the little guy — Butler — it was big, bad Connecticut that waltzed away with the title.

There are more snapshots after the jump and still more at 30fps. Click an image to enlarge.

Prop Bets for the NCAA Title Game

At the time of this post, Connecticut is a 3.5-point favorite over Butler. The prop bets posted after the jump are courtesy of the Las Vegas Hilton Race & Sports Book. Thanks to 30fps.

Snapshots From the Elite Eight

VCU? For Kansas fans, this must hurt more than losing. Click an image to enlarge. Thanks again to 30fps.

The Joy of Six

Joel Huerto is managing editor of One Man Fastbreak.net and a sports consultant with Opposing Views.com. He has been a member of the sports media for almost 20 years, which included nine years as a news editor at the Los Angeles Times. He will cover a variety of topics, from coach and player profiles to hot-button issues. Joel is also known as "maniLA ice" for his cool demeanor in the friendly confines of the YMCA hardwood. He loves to shoot the "tear drop" and prefers to play zone to hide his deficiencies on defense.

The game started on Thursday night and ended on Friday morning. It took six overtimes and nearly four hours of court time before Syracuse finally outlasted Connecticut, 127-117, at Madison Square Garden in the second-longest game in Division I history.

Only Cincinnati and Bradley played in more overtimes. On Dec. 21, 1981, Cincinnati defeated Bradley, 75-73, in seven five-minute overtime periods.

"I just got to tell you, I'm more proud of this team tonight than any team I've ever coached because we had nothing. We had nobody out there for a long time. Connecticut had their good players for a couple of three overtimes," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "The heart we showed coming back from six points down in one overtime, the plays we made ... I've never been prouder of a team than these guys tonight.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

I'm still steamed over Jim Calhoun's arrogant and condescending response last week to a question about his salary and the disturbing response by the "journalists" in the room to free-lance reporter Ken Krayeske's follow-up line of questioning. Many bloggers gleefully jumped in, using works like "attack" and "ambush" to describe Krayeske like a jackal looking for an easy prey, saying he picked the wrong place and wrong time to ask Calhoun such questions.

Calhoun, of course, regularly has access to the biggest of bullhorns and he got another opportunity to sound off on the matter Saturday when CBS' Jim Nance tossed an easy lob to the coach. Calhoun refused to apologize for his outburst and was backed by Greg Gumbel, who was playing good cop-bad cop with Seth Davis.

Other coaches are now being asked to justify their sky-high salaries in the crumbling economy. North Carolina's Roy Williams was the latest, and he at least displayed sensitivity to the situation.

Then there is Southern Mississippi's Larry Eustachy, who said he was going to give back a $25,000 bonus to the school, partly because of the economic downturn and partly because he had not done a good job. Southern Mississippi athletic director Richard Giannini accepted Eustachy's offer.

"I respect him for what he did," Giannini said. "He knew the economic times we were having and we need to use every dime we can find."