A late post with a few things I've stumbled onto and a story on Gonzaga's reaction to facing Louisville on Saturday instead of Xavier. Read on.

Gonzaga basketball players thought that making the trip 1.7 miles from McCarthey Athletic Center to the Spokane Arena to continue their basketball season would put them face-to-face with an old foe. The Bulldogs have met Xavier the past two seasons in the NCAA Tournament, earning a split. Louisville changed the plans.

So, if you watched Gonzaga on Monday you saw history in the making when Courtney Vandersloot reached 2,000 points to go with 1,000 assists. Combined with Louisville's upset, there is more history on tap for the Spokane Arena. I had a sneaking suspiciion that a Regional semifinal with seeds 1-5-7-11 might be the first time only one top 4 seed made it or to put it another way, three underdogs filled out the bracket. I asked Graham Hays at ESPN.com and his research confirmed mine, every past regional had at least two top four seeds. Of course the four No. 1's are still alive so parity is still a little sketchy.

Just want to throw it out there ... before Gonzaga's two amazing wins last weekend to get to this point, the best women's basketball game possibly ever played here was the women's regional final in 2007, when Stanford out-scored Maryland. Now the Cardinal is coming back to face Norther Carolina. Stanford coach remembers that weekend.

Another ESPN writer, Michelle Voepel touches a lot of Sweet 16 storie lines, including GU coach Kelly Graves and his point guard.

Of course there is a lot of intrigue left.

 

Typical of this time of year when the best of the best is what remains. there is a sense of familiarity. Angie Bjorklund (U-Hi) remembers facing Ohio State's star, which plays Bjorklund and Tennessee at 9 a.m (our time) on ESPN2.

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