March Madness even hits San Diego

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

There’s so much going on this week – it is March Madness time after all – that I thought I would devote a whole post to just college basketball stuff – other than the stories we’ve already covered.

• As we get closer to Selection Sunday – and yes, it should be on the liturgical calendar – one group of people become part of our national consciousness: the selection committee. And no, they don’t have an easy job.

We ran this story in some editions this morning, and it’s an interesting look behind the scenes of the committee.

• Everybody has their field projection today, with bracketology this and bracketology that. But this projection from USA Today sort of got my blood up. Why? Spokane is given two 4-5 pods, which means no No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the Northwest. When a projection has Lexington, Ky. with a 1 and a 2, and Sacramento with a 1 and a 3 (WSU), that’s not right.

• Speaking of bracketology, this post has WSU as a three, GU as a 10 and Stanford in the tournament. The most respected bracketologist, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, still has Gonzaga listed as Gonzaga/WCC (didn’t the Zags win the WCC tournament title about a month ago?) and as a 12 seed in Buffalo.

• There is more on Brad Holland’s firing at USD, with this story and column from the Union-Tribune and this story from the North County Times.

Here is Holland’s reason why he’s out, taken from Tim Sullivan’s column in the Union Tribune: “There’s a monster up in the Pacific Northwest that wins our league every year and that’s been hard for all of us to overcome,” Holland said. “Gonzaga winning year-in and year-out – that’s just been tough for everybody in our league.”

• Arron Affalo had a poor game Thursday in UCLA’s loss to Cal, and L.A. Times columnist Helene Elliott had this piece on how it could affect the rest of the Bruins’ season.