Gleefullly, The Madness of March Gives Great Game

SULLIVAN: So, Mr. Hollander this is what real basketball looks like. Having been deprived all year of the real thing, the NCAA blew gusty March winds through my cobwebbed brain to remind me what I love about basketball. The Knicks with their selfish and hateful brat, Marbury, have almost ruined the season for me. Then a bunch of enthusiastic college kids come along and we see why this is the best sporting event of the year.

I have only one team left in my Final Four brackets and I don't even care. It has been that good. My Fighting Illini-my sleeper Final Four pick-went down like Foreman hitting Frazier. Washington, a five-pick, rolled over last year's tournament runner up and sent Dee Brown and the rest of the Illinois team home. Brandon Roy-maybe the best guard in the tournament-was just too much.

But the shockers just kept on coming. George Mason beat North Carolina.

I thought George Mason was some Borsch Belt comedian. To send the Tar Heels home early is some feat.

Two good teams keep rolling along are Duke and LSU. One of them goes home when they meet in the Sweet 16. I hope it's Duke because they are just pure evil. For the ninth straight year they are in the Sweet 16 round.

Their nickname, the "Blue Devils", sure does fit. Coach K has sold his soul and his hips to the devil to keep this program going. They whine, they claw, they scratch, and unfortunately they keep winning.

LSU, led by Glen Davis-who has one of the best nicknames in the tournament, "Big Baby"-will have their hands full with Duke, but they are poised to slay the Blue Devils and send them back from whence they came.

Syracuse being knocked in the First Round proves that Gerry McNamara may just be overrated. My two Midwest Final Four picks, Iowa and Kansas, were also knocked out in the first round. Bradley incredibly beat Kansas and then Pittsburgh to move on the Sweet 16.

By the way, what kind of school has the name Bradley, anyway?

West Virginia, home to former NBA legend Jerry "Zeke from Cabin Creek" West, moves into the Sweet 16 and makes that poor state proud. I hope they do it for all the coal miners down there.

My only Final Four pick to survive into this next round is Boston College, and they are on a collision course with Villanova. So one of my East Coast teams is soon going down.

This has been a great tournament. Like Elvis Costello said, "I don't know how much more of this I can take."

HOLLANDER: Strap yourself in my friend. The best is yet to come.

I couldn't agree more that the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, otherwise known as March Madness, is this country's crown jewel of sporting events. It not only appeals to sports junkies, but it appeals to marginal sports fans and non-sports fans alike.

You don't see Fox putting American Idol up against March Madness, do you? That's because unless you harbor some deep-rooted psychological hatred of anything connected to "sports," you can't help but find these games compelling.

March Madness demonstrates a few things about basketball, and sports in general, that are worth noting by professional leagues, their sponsors and every other blood-sucking savage that makes a living off of the business of sports:

? When the game is played the right way, it is a beautiful thing to watch. Played the wrong way, it is a root canal. (Exhibit A: The Knicks. Exhibit B: 90 percent of the rest of the NBA). The NCAA is the highest level of basketball where the coaches still have control.

In the NCAA no player is above the team. You see hustle, passing, defense and personal sacrifice. People like to watch these things.

? Competition is compelling when the competitors give their all. The reason why these games-almost every one of them-go down to the wire is because both teams-down to every player on every team-refuse to lose.

The emotion, the will and the sheer desire offered by these young men for every second of every minute they compete is a joy to behold. If only we saw some of that in the pros.

? Fans like to be personally vested in their teams. I love the spirit brought by the fans. Unlike the pros, the team identities are all about the local communities, not about the individual player. There's a communal pride in these cities for their teams. Most are cites that don't have a professional team. West Virginians glory in their Mountaineers. Gainesville loves the Gators.

As I write this, John Stockton, his dad and their buddies are sitting around at their family owned bar outside of Spokane, Wash., talking Gonzaga basketball. When the team reflects character of its city, or at least carries that mantle, people get behind it. That emotion is palpable. In the NBA front offices, marketing departments try to manufacture that emotion and in NBA arenas game presentation managers use loud music to gin it up. In the NCAA it's just there.

March Madness is not only the best basketball you'll see all year, but it's probably the best competition, period. The best part is that we've still got two more weekends to go.

If you'll join me, C.J., I'd like to propose that they add one more game round and expand the field to 128 next year. But first, what's all this about with Mike Krysksiefksi hips?

SULLIVAN: Coach K was out a few seasons back with hip replacement surgery. In the ER he promised his hips and his soul to the Devil to continue his reign of terror in college basketball. So far the Devil has come through. Yes, Mr. Hollander, for once we are in agreement. Only a person with deep hatred of all things sports would mock this tournament. This is the real deal. Reality TV at its finest. No weeping about getting thrown off a show or an island. This is balls-to-the-wall team sports with no one leaving anything on the court. American Idol and that fey Simon can kiss my NCAAss. This is what TV was made for. This next round offers some intriguing match-ups. That Florida-Georgetown game promises weirdness with famed progeny. Can Georgetown Coach John Thompson III best his father's legacy? Will Florida star Joakim Noah make his father, former tennis pro and all around cool cat Yannick, proud and bring home a trophy that eluded the elder?

Then we have UCLA "Here We Go Again" trying to make like it's 1995 all over again and get by Gonzaga led by the monster reincarnation of Pete Maravich, Adam Morrison. That West Coast duel will be riveting basketball, and I don't care how late it is on.

You have to root for Bradley to knock of John Calipari's Memphis Boyz. Bradley... how sweet that would be if they got into the Final Four. Peoria would go wild if they can knock off Memphis.

Hopefully the upsets will continue. If not, we will get a Great Eight with the usual suspects of Duke and UConn. But we will still have some sleepers like either Wichita State or the funky bunch from D.C., George Mason. Villanova or BC will be a nice Big East addition (I still consider BC to be part of the Big East and I always will) to the last Eight as well as West Virginia or Texas.

No matter how it plays out, this has been one hell of an NCAA tournament and these young mean have put their team efforts in the spotlight of a game, while the pros are becoming more selfish.

HOLLANDER: You know, for the first time in years I did not participate in any March Madness pools. I thought I'd enjoy the games more if I didn't have any rooting interests. Because every year some impossible-not-to-love underdog comes along and shatters my bracket, and I can't enjoy the fact that I just saw a game for the ages. Getting so many picks wrong ruins the whole experience for me.

What's worse is somebody's wife wins the pot every year by using the Jackson Pollock method of choosing teams. What's the use?

It seems this year at least the tournament selection committee got it right. They can now justifiably tell their critics to suck it.

The committee got a lot of flack for selecting so many so-called "mid-majors." But Brad-ley, George Mason and Wichita State proved their point.

Perhaps the committee has observed that all of the big programs are losing many key players who leave early for the NBA. The mid-majors keep their guys for four years. They develop continuity, experience and leadership; valuable qualities in the tournament.

NCAA basketball has changed. There are less and less perennially dominant programs. Picking the tourney was never easy, but now it's near impossible. I believe there are likely another 25 teams not in the tournament that could've just as easily made it to the Sweet 16. That's a good thing. The truth is that college basketball is riveting all year long from the Great Alaskan Shootout in November to March Madness, which ends in April. I can't get enough of it.

So here goes nothing, C.J. Here's my Final Four: Villanova's four-guard offense creates too much confusion for anybody. With Allan Ray healthy they will win over Minneapolis.

George Mason has been a delight and Wichita State has truly been shocking, but mighty Connecticut, which will have trouble with Washington in Washington on Friday night, will win its bracket. Their all-Big east semifinal against Villanova will be a rock fight.

I take Gonzaga in Oakland. Everybody, every year loves to say how overrated Gonzaga is. And everybody is usually right.

Not this year. Watch that freak Adam Morrison. Watch him closely. Plus, nothing would please me more than seeing the evil John Calipari go down. I can't stand him!

In Atlanta, here's my Gomer Pyle surprise, surprise, surprise. LSU, baby! Their super-sized front line will manhandle Duke and their Katrina back story trumps the West Virginia mine tragedies.

Great. Now I can't enjoy the tournament anymore.