A Jersey Guy: Where have all the blue bloods gone?
North Carolina didn't receive an invitation. Arizona and Virginia didn't get past the first game. Kansas, Purdue, Kentucky and Duke didn't get past the first weekend.
Welcome to the Madness of the NCAA men's basketball tournament in March (and early April).
Considering the wildness of the regular season where bracketologists predicted as many as a dozen teams could win the national championship
Make that 16 possible champions, including No. 15 seeded Princeton, which will take on No. 6 seeded Creighton in a South Regional semifinal in Louisville.
The Tigers have stunned the world by knocking over No. 2 seed Arizona and 7 seeded Missouri in workman like fashion.
Right now, anything seems possible, which until the last few minutes on Sunday night even included No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson reaching the Sweet 16 in the East.
But another Cinderella No. 8 Florida Atlantic ended that dream, while preserving its own.
Not happy this morning was defending national champion Kansas, which lost to Arkansas in a second round West Regional game, Duke, regarded as a team peaking and Kentucky.
The Blue Devils got out muscled by Tennessee and Kentucky couldn't solve the mystery of Kansas State's in-your-face basketball.
If you want to keep score of conferences, the Big Ten, with 8 invitations only has Michigan State, a No. 7 seed remaining.
The Big East with three (of five) teams left: UConn, Xavier and Creighton and the Southeastern Conference with three (of eight teams: Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas are still playing.
Who emerges?
It's Jump Ball.
Coaching Carousel chatter
As expected Iona coach Rick Pitino should be introduced as the new coach at St. John's by Wednesday and Providence coach Ed Cooley looks like he will be at a Wednesday press conference introducing him as Georgetown's new coach.
It is the first time in Big East men's basketball history that one Big East team poached a coach from another Big East school.
Providence search for a replacement for Cooley could go in a number of directions, including Boston College's Earl Grant, who might listen.
But several sources have said the leading contender is George Mason coach Kim English. A deal could be done by the end of the week.
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Penn State could be open if Notre Dame entices Micah Shrewsberry away from the Nittany Lions. Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft hired Grant at BC and could call again, but if Grant leaves, going to Providence seems more likely...Notre Dame is also sniffing hard at Creighton coach Greg McDermott
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As Texas continues to win, it becomes more perplexing why the Longhorn administration does not take the interim tag off coach Rodney Terry, who has done a marvelous job taking over for Chris Beard.
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Wonder how things are in Lexington, Ky. for Kentucky Coach John Calipari after the Wildcats were bounced by Kansas State. It is the second consecutive year Kentucky failed to get past the first weekend of tournament games.
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One of the hottest assistant coaches around is Princeton associate head coach Brett Macconnell who could field offers from New Hampshire and Manhattan College as well as potential offers from Iona and FDU, once their situations become clearer.