12 of the Sweet 16 were expected to be there. St. John’s beating Kansas was fun, but hardly an upset. That leaves 9-seed Iowa (over Clemson), 6-seed Tennessee (over Virginia) and 11-seed Texas (over Gonzaga). All from the two predominant power conferences. Your “Cinderella”, Texas, has an athletic budget of $350 million, by far the most in college sports. Not exactly a scrappy underdog.

Does that mean that recent apocalyptic changes to the game have made the tourney boring? Far from it.

First off, we had a genuine buzzer beater: St. John’s Dylan Darling hitting a layup as time expired to beat Kansas. Despite the tourney’s reputation, this is rare. In fact, Darling’s shot was only the seventh true buzzer beater since Kris Jenkins hit one in 2016 to win it all for Villanova. Let’s re-live one of the best. This one’s for Villanova graduate Melissa Knouse.

In addition, double-digit-seeded mid-majors High Point and VCU had solid first-round upsets. High Point showed their win was no fluke in the second round, with 5-foot-10 senior Rob Martin (30 points) going toe-to-toe with Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr. As great as Acuff was (37 points), no one could guard Rob Martin. Not an upset, but a game I’ll remember.

Sprinkle in the Otega Oweh shot to send the Kentucky-Santa Clara game to overtime; Siena putting a very legitimate scare into No. 1 Duke; and Iowa’s upset of defending national champion Florida.

Let’s not forget UConn’ Tarris Reed Jr. with 31 points and 27 rebounds against Furman, the most boards in a tournament game since 1973.

We even had a memorable miss. The beyond-half-court shot by Vandy’s Tyler Tanner ranks right up there with Gordon Hayward’s desperation heave that almost went in against Duke in 2010; that won gets the edge because it was in the national title game. How close was Tanner’s shot to going in? This close.

Not sure who I’m arguing with, exactly. Myself, apparently, to justify my continued obsession with this tournament. I think it comes down to this. Every playoff in sports is exciting when the four best teams are left. This tournament, uniquely, is best when 64 teams are still in the mix. Anything can happen and it often does. If you look away, you might miss it. If you do, I’ll make sure the highlight is just a click away.

Bad week for Bobby Hurley (brother of UConn’s Danny). He was fired as coach at Arizona State. And then his college assist record was broken by Purdue’s Braden Smith. His record stood since 1993. The school he played for slips my mind.

Arizona State replaced Hurley with Randy Bennett, who has been the St. Mary’s coach this whole century. Quality coach, but not sure he’s the guy for instant high-major success. We’ll see.

It took less than 24 hours for Utah State’s Jerrold Calhoun to bolt to Cincinnati. I thought he would hold out for a better job (no offense Bearcats). I didn’t realize that he played for Cincy and coached under Bobby Huggins. Utah State keeps hiring good coaches they can’t keep. Great hire for Cincinnati.

Kansas State fired Jerome Tang. The highlight of his Kansas State career? Beating the Kentucky team led by Oscar Tshiebwe in the Sweet 16 in 2023. Moving on.

Finally, North Carolina fired Hubert Davis. I don’t think Davis was a good fit at UNC; maybe this was for the best. That said, I’m guessing UNC beats VCU if Caleb Wilson doesn’t get hurt, in which case I am not writing this paragraph. Everyone agrees that Davis is a wonderful person, but he was awfully defensive and evasive in the press conference after the VCU loss. That didn’t help. UNC prides itself on staying “in the family”. I think that is complete nonsense. Look no further than the limited success of thecoach of my team. My guess is UNC throws a wide net. Which I’m guessing is the reason that Florida is desperately trying to re-negotiate Todd Golden’s contract despite the Gator’s early tournament exit. Say what you will about Hubert Davis, but he beat Mike Krzyzewski in the Final Four to prevent coach K from retiring with another national title. A grateful nation salutes you.

When Kansas tied the game with 14 seconds to go against St. John's on Sunday, I had no idea that the Jayhawks had only fouled twice in the second half. That meant they had four fouls to give before putting St. John's on the line. So, foul. Which Kansas did, four times. The problem is, Kansas fouled without really making a play on the ball. Worse, those four fouls caused less than 10 seconds to run off the clock. So, St. John's has nearly 5 seconds to get a last second shot. And if Kansas fouled at that point, it put St. John's on the free throw line. Did that contribute to the awful defense that Kansas played at the end? They let Dylan Darling, the third guy picked on your rec league team, get all the way to the cup with no help defense. I think Kansas' Bill Self blew it. Atypical is becoming the norm in the Little Apple.

By the way, Bill Self says the rumors of his imminent retirement are based on "bad info".

One last thing. They call Dylan Darling "Bells". Short for church bells. Because Rick Pitino said (and I'm quoting here) "he has balls as big as church bells". And that was before he hit the big shot against Kansas.

This is the first Sweet 16 since 1954 that doesn’t include Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA or UNC.

This morning, Mrs. Notes asked if there were games tonight. "Yes, I replied, four of them. Much more manageable." Without missing a beat, she replied "I love the madness part. It's not Manageable March!". 🤣🤣🤣 

Sweet 16. Let's get to it!

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