Personally amusing to me that yesterday I was thinking, “You know, despite the rough opening weekend, my bracket isn’t that bad.” I had picked half the Elite Eight, an I still had 3 of my final 4 teams. At the very least it would be respectable. Then Texas loses. UConn and Villanova join the losers and now I’m done. Nothing left. Honestly, I haven’t picked brackets well since Pitt started making the Tournament. I just can’t separate my biases. The primary reason why I don’t bet on sports.

Still, watching the way UConn lost to George Mason was incredible. And terribly instructive. Rudy Gay is a tremendous talent. The best player on the court. Everyone knows it. And it seems, whether consciously or not, the rest of the Huskies take their cue from him — and it finally caught up with them.

Gay lacks that competitive fire. That drive. Something about him, when things don’t go his way or come as easily as they have in the past, he fades. He doesn’t step up and he doesn’t take matters into his own hands. And throughout the past two seasons it seemed to seep through an incredibly talented team.

To see Josh Boone go from an aggressive, bold and bordering on early clutch player as a freshman to this tentative, passive scared kid inside the last two years has been amazing. And it just seemed to spread. UConn grew more careless with the ball than ever before.

Nothing Jim Calhoun did could ever fully penetrate this team. We are talking a hall of fame coach. A brutally honest, at times to the media, guy who just kept failing to reach this team. They escaped each of the first 3 rounds on sheer overwhelming talent, but the lack of heart finally caught up with them.

That must really suck for UConn fans. To know you have one of the best coaches. To have all that talent. But to see the team not have the will and heart.

Not a good day for the Big East or CBS. They can’t be thrilled to have no team from the Northeast in the Final Four. Not to mention no one from the ACC, Big 11 or Big East. Looks like they will be counting on the West Coast and Southeast to carry them. Meanwhile, the rest of the country will be rooting for George Mason.

Conferences
SEC: (2-0) 11-4; 2 teams remaining
CAA: (1-0) 4-1; 1 team remaining
PAC 10: (1-0) 7-3; 1 team remaining
Big East: (0-2) 11-8; 0 teams remaining
Big 12: (0-1) 4-4; 0 team remaining
C-USA: (0-1) 3-2; 0 team remaining
ACC: (0-0) 6-4; 0 teams remaining
MVC: (0-0) 4-4; 0 teams remaining
WCC: (0-0) 2-1; 0 teams remaining
Big 11: (0-0) 3-6; 0 teams remaining
A-10: (0-0) 1-2; 0 teams remaining
MWC: (0-0) 0-2; 0 teams remaining

The Apocolypse may well be upon us.

George Mason’s win is not by itself enough to constitute a credible sign of any impending judgement/doom/Evangelical hoedown (It was enough to send my two brackets sraight to Hell, but I digress.) , but when take with this little tidbit, it does give one pause as to how one spends one’s Sabbath:

Toyota to enter NASCAR Cup competition in 2007
NASCAR announces the entry of the first foreign car manufacturer into Nextel Cup and Busch racing

*ahem* I have to go now. I have a shelter to dig, ammo to buy and food to can.

But before I go, just let me just leave with these final words: REPENT! REPENT, O YOU FALLEN, FOR THE END IS NIGH!!!

Thank you.

I’ll have more in general later, but I’ll pass this along now.

Contact has been made between Pitt and Seton Hall regarding Panther assistant Barry Rohrsse’s availability for the Pirates’ head-coaching job, The Post has learned.

Rohrssen, a Brooklyn native regarded as one of the nation’s best New York City recruiters, appears to be a priority, though Hall athletic director Joe Quinlan declined to name names.
…
Meanwhile, Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon – who signed a contract extension yesterday – wouldn’t be surprised if he lost Rohrssen.

“Almost the entire staff has been in discussion with other schools,” Dixon said. “That’s a good thing. We want our guys to become head coaches.”

Another name to consider is former Manhattan and Villanova coach Steve Lappas, now a CSTV analyst. Lappas, a Washington Heights native, has strong Metropolitan-area ties and is sixth all-time in Big East wins.

Somehow I doubt they’ll go with Lappas. Given that it is Seton Hall, they are probably looking to go cheap.

Now that Pitt has kept Dixon, it’s time to take a look at Arizona State on the reboot.

Actually there was a suggestion earlier in the week to bring back Frieder.

Arizona State needs to go back to the future and hire Bill Frieder. I can hear the groans all the way from the Valley of the Smog.

But think about it, the Devils have had two winning coaches since orange hoops replaced peach baskets: Ned Wulk and Frieder. Both were successful, both were fired. Just shy of his 500th coaching victory, Wulk was chased off by a cruel ASU administration. There are those who believe the Devils are still under a curse because of the way he was treated.

Frieder, 64, was fired after a couple of his kids were caught shaving points. That’s a horrible thing to happen, but it came about because he made a mistake in recruiting players who couldn’t be trusted.

Point shaving. These things happen.

A lot of the focus after ASU seems to be a bit down. They seem to doubt that they could even lure Bill Turgeon from Wichita State.

However, there are reasons Turgeon might want to stay put. As an Oregon assistant from 1992-97, he witnessed ASU’s struggling program from the visitors’ bench at Wells Fargo Arena.

A problem at ASU has been the absence of a home-floor advantage. Last season, ASU averaged 6,731 fans at Wells Fargo, far short of the 14,141-seat capacity. The Shockers averaged 10,433, or near capacity, at 10,512-seat Charles Koch Arena.

And it looks like Turgeon is in line for a healthy raise from the Shockers.

Turgeon received an extension a year ago that runs through the 2009-10 season. It increased his compensation to $460,000 annually, second in the Missouri Valley Conference only to Creighton’s Dana Altman, whose total compensation is more than $700,000. Any potential increases in Turgeon’s contract, Schaus said, would be discussed later.

Like Turgeon, George Fahnestock was still smiling after the Shockers’ season ended. Fahnestock is one of the Shockers’ most influential boosters and attended each postseason game.

“It was so exciting, having such a great, great season like this,” he said. “Even after losing the game tonight, it still feels so magical.”

Yet Fahnestock knows there is reason to worry about WSU’s ability to keep Turgeon.

“When you step up to join the elite, you’re going to have players and coaches people are talking about, people they would want for their team,” he said. “I hope and pray we can keep Mark for a long, long time. But I’m sure he will have lots of choices to make.”

It is expected that Turgeon will get a pay raise that will put him around $700,000. With the MVC establishing that it is can be a multi-bid conference, Turgeon doesn’t have to jump until it is exactly the right fit.

That means Rick Majerus could be the man. Though some hope not, and frankly don’t understand why.

Welcome to Arizona State, Lisa Love. It’s nice that you have visions of grandeur for your basketball program, but Jamie Dixon’s rejection should tell you something: ASU is a second-tier program that is not going to attract the hot coaching candidate unless A.) he has some personal reasons for coming, or B.) the Sun Devils throw so much money at him he can’t say no.

Dixon has West Coast roots. He coached at Northern Arizona University. His wife was born in Hawaii and would prefer to live where the sun shines.

He was an ideal candidate, but he turned ASU down because while the quality of life in Pittsburgh can’t compare to Tempe, the quality of basketball is far better.

The same, by the way, can be said of Wichita State and its coach, Mark Turgeon. He’s the other hot property, but if he’s going to move, it will be for a better job than ASU.

Love, then, might have to lower her sights. Find a capable young coach, like St. Mary’s Randy Bennett. Or Sun Devil alum Lionel Hollins, who would settle down here rather than view ASU as a pit stop.

Anybody but the one man Love, ASU’s vice president of athletics, is now pursuing: Rick Majerus.
…
What’s truly baffling about ASU’s reported interest in Majerus is that Love was an administrator at USC when Majerus did his about-face. You’d think that after getting burned once, she wouldn’t stick her hand in the oven again.

I think she may have no choice with Majerus. She’s whiffed badly with Dixon. ASU was known to want Dixon since December or January. To be that focused on one guy that long and miss is a huge blow. You almost have to get a big name at this point to save face.

Oh, and it looks like Missouri has found a new coach at long last. They will bring in Mike Anderson, formerly the head guy at UAB.

Anderson, who helped Arkansas develop its relentless defensive style as an assistant under Nolan Richardson, has driven UAB to the NCAA Tournament in three of his four years at the school. He owns a record of 89-41 and won at least 21 games in all four seasons.

Sources said Anderson was in Columbia on Saturday afternoon and that details of a five-year contract were being worked out with MU officials.

Anderson will become the 16th head men’s basketball coach in school history and is the first black head coach of an intercollegiate sport at the university. Melvin Watkins, who coached MU’s final seven games of a 12-16 season after Quin Snyder quit Feb. 10, is also black. However, Watkins was only an interim coach.

Missouri officials declined to comment Saturday. By early evening Saturday, sources said that MU officials and Anderson were working out final details of a contract that had yet to be signed and approved by both sides.

In that regard, two sources said Missouri might not announce the signing of Anderson until Monday. But the target date, both sources indicated, is today.
…
The wild week continued swirling into Saturday morning with speculation regarding MU closing in on a potential deal with Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon. That talk ended, however, with reports that Dixon turned aside interest from Missouri and Arizona State, and took an extension at Pitt.

Missouri was known to have asked permission to interview only three coaches who were currently employed by other schools — Anderson, Dixon and Iowa’s Steve Alford.

Hey, at least Missouri had a quick fall back plan.

A win for everybody. Coach Dixon gets around 50% raise and 3 more years on his deal. Pitt keeps its head coach, and at a price lower than what he was reportedly offered to move to Tempe — not to mention much lower than it would have cost to try and snare someone like Calipari or Prosser.

Dixon would not say if he ever considered leaving Pitt, but he made it clear that Arizona State was a second option. Arizona State officials were upset late Friday night when they learned Dixon was staying at Pitt. While Arizona State never offered Dixon a contract, Sun Devils athletic director Lisa Love was under the impression that Dixon was willing to coach at Arizona State and believed the two parties were on their way to completing a deal.

“It never really got that far,” Dixon said last night at the Petersen Events Center.

When asked what was the determining factor in his decision to stay, he said: “I just wanted to be here. I made it very clear. And they made it very clear that they wanted me to be the head coach. We talked during the year. Jeff approached me about a contract and we both agreed that it would be best if we talked about it after the season. We started Monday. We both made it very clear that I wanted to be here a long time. The commitment from both sides was huge and really set the tone. I agreed [Friday]. We got it done in four days. That’s pretty good considering I was on the road recruiting.”

And talking with another school. Apparently Coach Dixon is actually a hell of a multi-tasker. Negotiating with 2 schools, traveling, recruiting and somehow being mostly invisible to the media. And really it was just over a few day period.

The loss to Bradley was on Sunday. There may have been an initial offer made by Pitt on Monday. Contact from ASU Tuesday and some talk. His lawyer reviewing Pitt’s contract offer. Dixon going on some recruiting roadies. Still talking to Pitt and ASU through Wednesday. Thursday had more contract talks and the big offer from ASU. Probably a new offer from Pitt. Somewhere in all of this he had to be actually weighing the offers and discussing with his wife and family. Friday more negotiations, culminating late in the evening with reaching an agreement with Pitt — surprising ASU. Then Saturday. I’d be exhausted.

Pitt AD Jeff Long can continue to claim complete and supreme confidence.

Long said he was never concerned about Dixon taking another job.

“That was much more dramatic in the newspapers and on the airwaves than it was in real life,” Long said. “Was I concerned? That’s hard to say a yes or no answer to. I am human and you hear things from different places. But at no time did I ever feel like he was going to coach someplace else.”
…
Long admitted that it is more difficult dealing with agents, but he said it’s a sign of the times in college athletics.

“I think agents can create difficult situations,” he said. “I think if you ask any athletic director in the country, it’s their preference to deal with a coach one-on-one. However, that has changed. There are more people representing coaches now. I did not have a difficult time with Jamie’s representation. And that was evidenced by how quickly we got this done. Let’s put it this way. We never felt leveraged. What we did was what we felt was fair.”

It was fair. But it was also leveraged.

AD Long also addressed a fan fear.

“Fans worried about this program serving as a steppingstone for coaches need not think that any more,” Long said. “This proves it’s different than it used to be. I don’t think it’s a steppingstone anymore.”

Neither Dixon, a Los Angeles native, nor Long said they were concerned about widespread reports last week that Dixon was seriously considering taking the Arizona State job. The Sun Devils are seeking a replacement for Rob Evans, who was fired March 10.

“It’s not beneficial to anybody to talk about that now,” Dixon said, flashing his trademark grin. “There is no place else I would rather be, and I made that fact clear, both to Chancellor (Mark) Nordenberg and our athletic director (Long),” Dixon said. “During the course of the season, Jeff and I discussed the future of our program, and he reinforced Pitt’s desire for me to be the head coach at Pitt for a long time.”

The Pitt players, somewhat forgotten during the week, are naturally happy that Coach Dixon will remain.

“Obviously, it was a big concern,” Gray said Saturday, shortly after coach Jamie Dixon signed a four-year contract extension through the 2012-13 season. “For the juniors, the people who only have one year left, it’s sometimes hard to get a new coach and have a new system.”

Dixon called Gray yesterday afternoon to inform him of the extension.

“He let me know we’re stuck with him,” Gray said, laughing. “It’s great, because he’s a guy who’s been here for everyone’s college career, and we’ve had a lot of success.”

Players appreciate Dixon’s coaching style. He’s a purveyor of positive reinforcement, rather than a screamer.

“Sometimes, he’s too nice,” Kendall said. “He could afford to get in guys’ faces a little more, but that’s really not his style. He does use positive reinforcement, and most guys respond to that.”

“He’s very laid-back,” added freshman guard Levance Fields, who was concerned with the rumors. “He points out certain things and feels you’re smart enough to get it done.”

The next goal is to try and get Tyler Smith to fill that final spot.

Joe Starkey, along with every other Pittsburgh columnist, was remarkably quiet in print about the whole thing all week. Now he takes aim at all those who got emotional during the week.

Good thing Pitt’s powerbrokers don’t listen to the message-board fanatics and reckless opinion-makers. Dixon’s contract extension, announced Saturday, proves, once again, this administration is willing to step up and reward a winner.

Remember, Pitt did everything it could to keep Ben Howland, but Howland had his mind set on UCLA and went there for less money.

His replacement and former lead assistant, Dixon, proceeded to extend the school’s streak of consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from two to five. Dixon also has the highest in-conference winning percentage in Big East history, two appearances in the conference title game and a 3-3 record in the NCAA Tournament.

The latter figure doesn’t exactly put him in John Wooden territory, but it’s not all bad when you consider Pitt won just three NCAA Tournament games in 15 years before Howland/Dixon.

Hey, fans are supposed to be emotional. It’s not our job to separate our feelings from reality. I may not have been freaking out on this site, but I understood. In fact, the AD should want that to some degree. He should want the fans fired up about the situation. Agitating for news and resolution. The last thing AD Long wants is a return to the apathy that greeted the hirings of Walt Harris and Ben Howland.

Otherwise it isn’t a bad piece and points out the growth and progression of the basketball program and the talent it attracts.

Pitt’s new facilities have been in place for only four years. The program has been winning regularly for only five. Pitt is starting to beat the big dogs to recruits, even if the players don’t always live up to their billing.

North Carolina wanted Chris Taft. Maryland wanted Sam Young. Gonzaga and Oklahoma wanted John DeGroat. Duke and UConn were interested in Tyrell Biggs. Villanova had Keith Benjamin before he de-committed. Maryland and West Virginia made offers to 6-foot-6 forward Gilbert Brown, who committed to Pitt and will join the team next season.

Even as we speak, Pitt is in the hunt for its most talented recruit in years — 6-7 forward Tyler Smith, whose finalists reportedly are Memphis, Pitt, Kentucky and Iowa.

Personally, I think the best is yet to come for Pitt.