John Walters

Love. Mayo. Beasley. Harangody. Akognon. The stars came out on the first night of March Madness, which provided two upsets (Kansas State over USC and Texas A&M over BYU) and one near-monumental upset. That last name may be a little less familiar, but no one will forget Duke's Gerald Henderson went coast-to-coast for the game-winner, just like his dad's former Boston Celtic teammate, Danny Ainge, once did for Brigham Young against Notre Dame. Speaking of which, BYU lost and Notre Dame won on Thursday night, though they did not face each other.

One shining moment: Josh Akognon, Cal-State Fullerton
The Titans were making their first appearance in the tourney since 1978 and the 5-foot-11 junior from Petaluma, Calif., did his best to make it memorable. Akognon scored a career-high tying 31 points and even led the Titans in rebounds, with eight, as the 14th seed made it to halftime down just two to No. 3 Wisconsin. The Badgers pulled away late to win 71-56.

Most impressive team: Kansas State
The Wildcats were supposed to be too callow and star-oriented to defeat Southern California. Instead, the No. 11 seed pulled off the day's biggest upset (granted, there were only two) as they led the No. 6 Trojans throughout and won 80-67. Freshman All-American Michael Beasley was nabbed with his second foul just 4:15 into the game, but his four fellow frosh teammates bore the load well. Billy Walker, a high school teammate of USC's O.J. Mayo (who wore socks with the NBA logo), had 22 points. Next up for the Wildcats: the Badgers of Wisconsin.

Most exciting game: Belmont-Duke
Without a doubt. Text messages galore when the 15th-seeded Bruins found themselves up 70-69 and with possession with less than 50 seconds remaining. The Blue Devils overcame the Cinderella mojo — and Vince Gill — thanks to Gerald Henderson, who grabbed a rebound and then went coast-to-coast with abandon and conviction.

Still, you have to wonder about the Blue Devil blue-chippers. Point guard Greg Paulus, who's a junior now, had just one assist. Senior team captain DeMarcus Nelson had just two points. This wasn't against North Carolina; this was versus Belmont.

Also, you have to wonder about Duke's psyche. Duke basketball reminds me a lot of Notre Dame football: the current players, so weighted down by the expectations fostered by their program's past, rarely seem to be having fun. Rather, they carry themselves like the overburdened caretakers of the successful family business.

"We knew the situation," Duke sophomore guard Jon Scheyer, who actually played well (13 points, five boards) said. "There was so much pressure on us. Pressure to win. Ninety percent of the building wanted us to lose."

Envy never sits alone, Jon. The question is whether Duke's players can summon the necessary competitive arrogance of past winners such as Laettner and Battier, or whether they'll fold before Easter Sunday. One thing is guaranteed: Mike Krzyzewski versus Bob Huggins (the coach of Duke's next opponent, West Virginia) is the most intriguing coaching battle of the entire tourney.

G'Day and great night: Aron Baynes, Washington State
The Cougars' Aussie center was a perfect 9-9 from the field, finishing with 19 points and a game-high eight rebounds as Wazzu polished off Winthrop, 71-40. At the half the score was knotted 29-29, then Winthrop guzzled the Kent State juice and scored just 11 second-half points (and barely that … the Eagles scored 5 points in the first 16:54 after intermission).

Second-most impressive team: West Virginia
Joe Alexander was the only Mountaineer that Joe Fan could name a week ago, and rightly so. Alexander had scored more than 30 points in three of WVU's past six games. But against Arizona Alexander's 14 points were only tied for 3rd-highest as the Mountaineers put on an outside — not to mention clutch — shooting display in beating Arizona 75-65.
The Mountaineers shot 50.9 percent from the field, 57.9 percent from beyond the arc and 88.9 percent from the line. And this was not against Mississippi Valley State. Be afraid, Duke, be very afraid.

More deserving of CSI's attention than SI's: UCLA 70, MVSU 29
The top-seeded Bruins led 40-16 at halftime. Mississippi Valley State shot 1-14 from three-point range and converted just 2 of 6 free throws. Guard Stanford Speech was especially inarticulate, I mean, inaccurate, shooting 1-13 and missing both free throws.

All of which only reaffirms this point: the tournament need not be expanded. Until a 16 seed beats a No. 1 seed, that suggestion should not even be made by anyone who considers himself lucid.

This is what happens when the 62nd or 63rd-rated team in the tournament faces the No. 1. What would the score be if the 127th or 128th-best team did?

On Sunday night Mr. Media, Bob Knight, floated the idea of having the tourney double in size so that more schools would be able to experience March Madness first-hand, so that they'd have the opportunity to have this special experience in their curriculum vitae. Knight suggested perhaps having each lower-seeded team play at the site of its higher-seeded opponent for the tourney's first round … which then would feel nothing like the tourney's first round, never mind the fact that about one-fourth of these schools would be on spring break. Now that would be a great in-game atmosphere, eh? Imagine, 64 play-in games.

Here's the problem: If everyone — or at least twice the present number — of schools can qualify for the tourney, then by design it squanders its cache. If everyone gets a trophy, what's the value of a trophy?

Bob Knight is a highly intelligent individual. And he's all about character. So I'm not saying anything that he does not already know. Which makes you wonder why he would post such an idea. Perhaps it's because he is looking out for the coaching fraternity.

Telling Trend: 40-minute men play for losing teams
Five players never got a rest on Thursday evening, and all of them played for one-and-done teams. Winthrop guard Chris Gaynor played all 40 minutes, scoring 15 points on five threes. Two pairs of Pac-10 teammates also played 40 minutes and are going home. USC's Daniel Hackett and O.J. Mayo played the entire game in the Trojans' loss to K-State, and Arizona's Jerryd Bayless and Jawann McLellan played all 40 minutes of the Wildcats' loss to West Virginia. In fact, interim Arizona coach Kevin O'Neill played his starting five 40, 40, 39, 38 and 33 minutes.

Hey, Notre Dame does know how to win in the postseason
The Fighting Irish ended their postseason drought in the big-time revenue sports with a 68-50 defeat of George Mason. The Irish last won an NCAA tourney game in 2003 and have not won a bowl game in football since New Year's Day 1993.

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