March 13
GEORGIA ON MY MIND
While a lot of people have talked about Lefty Driesell taking four different schools to the Big Dance, another coach from Georgia also turned that trick.

Congratulations to Jim Harrick, who is taking the Bulldogs to the NCAA tournament. That's his fourth school in the Dance. He previously led Pepperdine, UCLA and Rhode Island there.

CALIFORNIA DREAMING
California is the hotbed of college basketball right now. Six schools from the state are in the field of 65: UCLA, USC, California, Fresno State, Stanford and Cal State-Northridge. That's the most of any state.

North Carolina is second with five: Duke, North Carolina, UNC-Greensboro, Charlotte and Wake Forest. More than one user has e-mailed to say that Winthrop makes six for North Carolina, but Winthrop is located in South Carolina.

RETURN TO THE FINAL FOUR?
If Arizona can make it to Minneapolis, Eugene Edgerson will be one happy camper. Edgerson was a member of the Wildcats team that won it all in Indianapolis in 1997. He redshirted last season.

ELITE EIGHT
There are eight coaches in this year's field who are in their first year at their respective schools.

Both Mike Davis and Brad Soderberg are interim coaches who deserve to be named full-time bosses at their respective Big Ten schools. The other six in their first year at the helm are: Thad Matta at Butler, Paul Hewitt at Georgia Tech, Bill Self at Illinois, Matt Doherty at North Carolina, Mike Brey at Notre Dame and John Thompson III of Princeton.

Speaking of Doherty and Thompson III: Back in 1982, Doherty played on the Tar Heels' national championship team. Thompson III's father, John Sr., was Georgetown's coach in that game.

THINKING AHEAD
Wouldn't it be something if Duke and Kentucky met in the Elite Eight of the East region? That would be played in Philadelphia. Remember the Christian Laettner buzzer-beater against the Wildcats in '92?