The Madness Builds

A few quick notes on Championship Week, the best sports week of the year:

• Kudos to AU. They got their first ever NCAA bid today by winning the Patriot League. We'll get at least one more local team in tomorrow, as Morgan St. and Coppin St. battle for the MEAC championship, while UMBC plays for the America East one and Georgetown faces Pitt once again for the Big East.
• Speaking of Pitt, they've gone on quite a run during the Big East Tournament. I bet they're going to be that team that everyone says, "Wow, they went on quite a run in the conference tournament and they had the talent all along -- they're going to make some noise in the big one!" And then they get taken out by a 12-seed (See: Syracuse, 2006).
• The Pac-10 has been a treat all year and the tournament has not disappointed. Brook Lopez of Stanford has shattered the scale -- he's an 8-diamond player at this point.
• What's up with O.J. Mayo holding the ball until the clock ran out and then chucking up the potential game-tying three at the buzzer? He may be good, but that says a lot about his team play.
• I don't know where Wazzou is going to find the offense to go deep into the tourney.
• Holding to form in the ACC. We may get that Duke-NC final. Between that one and the potential Texas-Kansas Big 12 final, the committee may be holding off on some #1 seeds until Sunday afternoon.
• Game Not To Watch on Saturday? Memphis plays in the Memphis Invitational, er, C-USA title game.