The NCAA Final Recap

We know, we know.

You're all terribly depressed. Another NCAA Tournament has come to an end, which means no more great basketball (please, don't try to sell me on anything related to the NBA). No more great endings. No more witty and entertaining recaps from your favorite recapper (that's us, in case you're wondering).

Then again, it also means no more Billy Packer for several more months.

In any case, it's time to draw the curtain on this tournament. But before we do, it's time to take note of some important things we learned over the last weekend...

1. Luther Vandross' "One Shining Moment" is now overplayed. Sorry, I can't sit around waiting for two hours for CBS to do their little video tribute to the tournament. And I can't enjoy the video after watching Greg Gumbel act like a carnival barker telling us to wait for it all evening. The video highlight package is now more overrated than Sean Penn.

2. Sean May is a BEAST. It helps that every high school big man since the turn of the century has turned pro, leaving a 6-8 guy like May to dominate, but you have to appreciate a guy with hands that soft and a terrific understanding of how to play in the low post. I'm also grateful that Jim Nantz didn't use the awful pun, "May...Be the Most Outstanding Player!"

3. Roy Williams is no longer the Coach Who Can't Win the Big One. Eddie Sutton, please pick up the white courtesy phone.

4. Speaking of coaches, we know that Illinois coach Bruce Weber's orange jacket was a tribute to former Illini coach Lou Henson... but considering that Henson never won a Final Four game, maybe he should have just gone with an orange tie. But I have to ask -- where do you get an orange jacket? Maybe I should consider wearing one of those at my wedding.

5. The gecko doing the robot commercial for GEICO grows on you. In fact, all of GEICO's commercials are fun to watch. Unlike Bruce Weber's orange jacket.

6. Yes, it was a good title game, very compelling an fun to watch, with some terrific athleticism on display. But for all that, these two very talented teams didn't demonstrate much basketball intelligence for much of the game. Did anyone else wonder why a good team (Illinois) couldn't figure out how to break a zone on Monday night? The Illini struggled for a while against Louisville's zone on Saturday night before clamping down on defense and remembering how to drive into the lane and attack the soft spots in the zone. They promptly forgot Monday night when UNC went into a zone midway through the first half to protect Felton from earning his third foul. Illinois complied by launching three after three and missing. Maybe that orange jacket was affecting their concentration.

7. Meanwhile, UNC understood that their best weapon was Sean May, and passing him the ball created easy shots for May or for teammates after May was doubled. Yet UNC blew a second half lead when they seemingly forgot about May for about six minutes, and it nearly cost them. It's like both teams were channelling Syracuse, circa the 1980's, when the Orange featured talented players like Sherman Douglas, Rony Seikaly and Pearl Washington, who had all the talent in the world... and perhaps one brain between the three of them.

8. With all that being said, UNC is the best team, and a worthy champion. Of course, they would be more worthy if they hadn't been the beneficiary of that atrocious traveling call against Villanova in the Sweet Sixteen, but we've let go of that, we swear. Seriously. We mean it. Now, where's my voodoo doll of that referee?

9. One key rule was observed: it's always a good NCAA Tournament when Duke doesn't win.

10. Rick Pitino took his third team to the Final Four, yet I also noted that the guy's hair hasn't changed since he first appeared on the antional scene. You tell us which is the more impressive achievement.

11. I tried it Saturday night, and I suggest it to all of you next year -- listen to the radio broadcast and avoid the screeching banshee known as Billy Packer ("The refs just aren't calling the moving screen!"). Bill Raftery and John Thompson don't give us that fingernails on the chalkboard feeling that Packer brings to the table.

12. The much-coveted Award for Best Hair in the tournament goes to Adam Morrison of Gonzaga, for a mop top that reminded me of a young Keanu Reeves. Morrison probably has more acting talent than Reeves, too.

13. The Best Game of the tournament is still the Wake Forest-West Virginia double-OT classic from Round Two. We know Kentucky and MSU came close, West Virginia-Louisville was great, Villanova-UNC came down to the wire, Vermont-Syracuse was spectacular, Bucknell-Kansas was an upset special and Illinois-Arizona was amazing... but we can't pick against a game that ends with the immortal Kevin Pittsnogle and his teammates victorious.

14. Speaking of which, the best way to describe what happened to Michigan State in the second half Saturday night in three words: they got pittsnogled.

15. We're glad CBS gave us promos for terrible movies throughout the tournament. First, there was Spring Break: Shark Attack. Then there was the Elvis movie. Finally, this weekend we got to watch promos for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Okay, I don't have any proof that the movie will be terrible... but based on the recent track record, we're reasonably sure this will happen. It's like guessing that Duke will be the beneficiary of good calls from the referees -- no one's certain, but it's a good bet.

Hope you all enjoyed the tournament. Stop by next year, when I get to mock Hillary Clinton's Senate re-election campaign during the tourney.