Even Memphis, which had two absolutely emphatic wins in Houston this weekend versus Michigan State and Texas, struggled in its second-round victory against Mississippi State. The Tigers and Bulldogs were tied with 8:36 remaining and at the very end, the Bulldogs had the ball down by three with :03 on the clock.

Only North Carolina has breezed through all four of its victories en route to San Antonio. Then again, only North Carolina has played four games in North Carolina.

All of which is to say that "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" and "All Chalk Final Four" are not symptomatic of a larger trend in college hoops. After all, what would that larger trend be? The dominance of NBA-ready frosh? Kevin Love of the Bruins and Derrick Rose of the Tigers may be their team's most valuable players, but so were Michael Beasley of Kansas State and O.J. Mayo of Southern Cal. And neither of those schools got past the first weekend (yes, they did play one another in the first round).

Is it coaching? Then how do you explain the absence of Mike Krzyzewski from the Sweet Sixteen or of Billy Donovan from the tournament altogether?

It is neither pedigree nor coaching nor NBA-worthy freshmen. Simply put, there are two types of impossible. There's the impossibility that is physically impossible (e.g., Bob Knight donning a tie for ESPN) and the impossibility that simply has yet to happen (a 16-seed defeating a 1-seed). The appearance of all four No. 1's at the Final Four falls into the second realm.

One of the great pop philosophers of the current age, Chuck Klosterman, once wrote that he did not believe in odds. Klosterman, in his book "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs", wrote that the odds of anything happening are 50 percent. His reasoning was simple: Either something will happen or it will not.

Klosterman's reasoning may be unorthodox; and there may be an actuary or two million who'd find fault with it (and a fewer, hipper number who'd point out that you'd do well not to listen to a man whose favorite all-time band is KISS). But his is as solid an explanation as any as to why we are looking at an All-Four-One Final Four next weekend as any: It happened because the four best teams in the nation went a collective 16-0 over the past eleven days.

That's not so unfathomable, is it?

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