Am I watching the NCAA's or Love Story??

Because that's what it felt like watching the end of Gonzaga/UCLA game. The next great white hope Adam Morrison didn't even wait for the game to end before he did his Demi Moore imitation. I felt like I was watching Steel Magnolias or the Hours with a bunch of women on fertility hormones.

I can understand crying after the game. But there was still about two seconds on the clock. Anything can happen in that time. And your best player should still have his head in the game. Not crying in the middle of the court with all the world (and more importantly your teammates) to see. Way to inspire confidence in your teammates, Adam.

You think you would ever see Larry Bird, Magic or Michael crying before the game was completely out of reach? Never. It was a shameful display. As the team's best player and leader, your teammates are looking to you for inspiration and guidance in moments like that. What do you thinking was going through their minds as Adam's bawling like Amidala when Anakin finally turned to the Dark Side?

"UCLA, stop it...you're breaking my heart!"

He needs to keep his ass in school. Don't think after that incredible display of bitchitude that the boys in the NBA aren't waiting to take his lunch money and put him in touch with his feminine side.

Hopefully the scouts took note of that as well. Although I doubt it. The owners are so obsessed with finding the next Great White American Hoops Star that they'll overlook any flaws that they might see in his game or makeup.

That's what I love about the NCAA's. All the pretenders are eventually exposed and disposed of with a efficiency Darwin would obseve with marvel. As much as Vitale and company want to shove Morrison and Redick down our throats, the deficiencies in their games and their teams are displayed for all the world to see as teams with equal skill and greater athletic ability advance.

Greater athletic ability is in bold for a reason. The amazing thing about those Duke teams from the early 90's was that as skilled as they were, they also had some incredible studs in Grant Hill, Hurley and Laettner. The teams with Battier, Brand, Dunleavy, Williams and Maggette weren't exactly slouches either.

Noone says that every player on your team has to be a first round-blue chip-can't miss prospect. But when the situation warrants, they have to be able to make an athletic play that there is no defense for against a defender who is their athletic peer.

Morrison and Redick have shown flashes of that. But neither of them will make anyone forget about Bird, Mullin, Stockton, Price, Chambers, Vandeweghe, West, McHale or Barry. Much less foreign imports like Nash, Novitski and Stojakovic.

Both will be decent pros. But neither of them will be perennial all-pros or franchise players that you build a team around. I don't see the competitive-refuse to lose-determination that you saw in Bird. Redick is the closest in atttitude. But I don't think he has the athletic ability to back it up over 82 games plus playoffs. Morrison is comparable in ability. He might be a better athlete than Bird was. But he doesn't have the assassin's heart like Bird did. He had several chances to put UCLA away in the final minutes of that game and failed each time. Bird or Mullin win that game by 15 points.

The bottom line is this. For whatever reason, the nation's best white athletes are not playing basketball. They're playing football and baseball. So instead of trying to create a white hope where none exists, they should spend their time covering players who are actually going to be difference makers at the next level.

UConn has finally arrived.

Why do I say that? After they've won two national titles under Jim Calhoun, why have I declared that the Huskies have finally arrived?

Because they're getting Duke-like calls in their tournament games. They were this close to getting blown out until the refs call a technical and a personal foul on Brandon Roy. In college, a technical counts as a personal, so he went from two to four fouls on one play. Since five means buh-bye, Roy had a reservation on the bench in his future. And even with Roy out for most of the second half, it took an amazing shot by Anderson to take it to overtime. With half of Washington's team fouled out, you knew how this was going to end.

Not to take anything away from UConn, they were given an opportunity and they took advantage of it. But being given the benefit of the doubt by the officials didnt exactly hurt their chances despite 20 plus turnovers. But unlike Duke, they had the athletes who could make plays even against the best defenses. I don't know if they'll win it all, but they're going to be a tough, tough out.