North Carolina sails past Washington State, while Tennessee edges Louisville. While I’d love to see Tennessee beat North Carolina, I don’t think it’s gonna happen.

I already said that I’m not going to jinx my Jayhawks by making assumptions about KU beating Villanova and then Davidson (getting one more game out of their Cinderella run with a win over Wisconsin), but I’m definitely predicting both as Jayhawk victories. The Jayhawks are so deep and such a complete team that I don’t see either team keeping them from the Final Four. But I can tell you this: if Davidson was in any other region other than ours, I’d be cheering like crazy for them to get to the Final Four.

What I’m really hoping to see is the media-favored Tarheels going down at the hands of the Jayhawks in the Final Four. Now THAT would/will be a game.

And I can just see the T-Shirts on KU Fans: “We still don’t give a s**t about North Carolina”

In the South, I’m predicting that Texas gets past Stanford and Memphis gets past Michigan State. Then Texas beats Memphis. Yep.

UCLA doesn’t have much to worry about in the West. They should beat Western Kentucky, and then either Xavier or West Virginia (I’m leaning toward Xavier to beat WVa.).

So I’m sticking with my original Final Four: North Carolina, KU, Texas and UCLA. And I’m still predicting an all-Big 12 Final, with KU beating Texas in the championship game.

As predicted. Now the Jayhawks face 12-seed Villanova next weekend in the third round. That looks good on paper. But this is March and I’m not gonna jinx my ‘Hawks by making assumptions.

All is right in the state of Kansas. Not only did KU win, but the KState Beasleys lost to Wisconsin, in a game that was never really in question after half-time. Early in the day, before the games began, commentators were gushing fantastic about how Michael Beasley and Bill Walker were capable of carrying the Wildcats into the Final Four. Anyway.

KState’s brush with greatness is over. Beasley can start looking for a condo in Miami.

And then there was the one who got away from KState. After leaving KState at the altar last year, Bob Huggins went to West Virginia, where his Mountaineers sent Duke packing, and punched themselves a ticket to the Sweet Sixteen.

Stanford beat Marquette in OT yesterday, with their coach watching from the locker room after being ejected after two technicals.

Texas A&M ALMOST killed their giant. But UCLA squeaked by them with a 4-point win, after being down by as much as 10. It would have busted my bracket completely, since I have UCLA in the Final Four, but I wouldn’t have minded seeing Turgeon’s boys pull out the win. I like what Turgeon did at Wichita State, and think he’s headed in the right direction at A&M. Plus he’s a former Jayhawk. What’s not to love?

And speaking of giant-killers, how about Davidson? Took down the mighty G-Town Hoyas today. I’ll be lovin’ these guys until KU has to face them in the Elite 8. Until then…

Stephen Curry, will you marry my daughter?

In between Ant’s first two tournament games, we headed over to a restaurant in the Casino complex next to the gym the team was playing in to watch the second half of the KU game. It was the closest place, and our folks weren’t going to miss any more of the game than they had to. So we sat in this restaurant that smelled like the smoke leaking out of the casino, which was pretty well packed on a Saturday afternoon, and eating a pretty mediocre meal while we watched our Jayhawks lose to the Ok State Cowboys. Bummer.

My overriding thought during the game was that the Jayhawks will need to have a couple of things go very differently to make a deep tournament run this year.

To begin with, Darrell Arthur needs to stay out of foul trouble and stay in the game, preferably for at least 30 minutes — we need our best big guy. Our ‘Hawks also need to be more consistent with both making AND defending the three-ball. It might not hurt to deploy a 3-2 zone at times, serving the dual purpose of intimidating shooters and potentially keeping Arthur out of foul trouble? Not that I’m gonna do too much second-guessing of a WINNING basketball coach who obviously knows his business much better than I do. . . but what’s the fun of watching a game if you can’t play arm-chair analyst?

Anyhow. . . the game only killed about half of the time we had between games, thanks to a poorly managed division schedule in our tournament. So we went to a mall after the game, and I managed to feel better after buying about $30.00 worth of different chocolate treats for the family (including a chocolate-covered twinkie that I decided I have to try).

I felt even better after we got back to the gym and Ant’s team won their game 56-30, sending them to the championship game.

And the good feelings just kept coming. . . after Ant’s game, I checked my phone and found a text message from Snacky. It said “KState Lost HaHa.” Turns out Baylor beat them 92-86. So at least I can rest assured that the kitties aren’t going to edge past us in any rankings.

But I’ll hand it to KState — they went out with a bang. Michael Beasley broke the record for freshman double-doubles previously held by Carmelo Anthony. Beasley now has 23. He scored 44 points, which is the most points scored ever in a Big 12 game. Beasley’s teammate, the highly expressive Bill Walker, scored 31 points.

If you’re adding, that means Beasley and Walker scored 75 out of 86 KState points. And they still lost. WOW. I’m not even sure how to comment on that, except to say that next year is going to be a GIANT buzz-kill for the Wildcat nation. I’ll also direct your attention to the fact that KState’s AD has resigned and is moving on. Hmmmmmm.

AND finally. . .

The big NCAA basketball news is that previously unbeaten Memphis is no longer unbeaten, thanks to the Tennessee Volunteers. Let’s face it: the fate of every unbeaten team is to get beaten. Of course, I missed that game completely because it was going on while mama’s baby was kickin ass — but I got to see the highlights.