I have to admit, seeing Holy Cross high in the RPI and a good possibility of being in the NCAA Tourney has caused me to wonder for a while, what if Pitt ended up playing the Crusaders as coached by Ralph “it was a tough loss” Willard. Greg Doyel takes it a step further as one of the potential storylines for the NCAA:

5. Pitt vs. Coaching Ghosts: Imagine the Panthers running into the coach they fired (Holy Cross’ Ralph Willard, canned in 1999) in the first round, the coach they replaced him with (UCLA’s Ben Howland) in the second round and the coach they really wanted (Wake Forest’s Skip Prosser, who declined to follow Howland in 2003) in the Sweet 16? It could happen if the Panthers, who have been coached just fine by Jamie Dixon, get a No. 5 seed, Holy Cross a No. 12, UCLA a No. 13 and Wake Forest a No. 1.

Well if that happened, then we would know that the NCAA Selection Committee has a warped sense of humor.