It's AWESOME BABY!!!

Wow, what an excellent weekend of college basketball. This year in general has been a lot more fun than the past few years, and this weekend did nothing but upgrade that cause.

The rally by Louisville (down 20 in the 1st half, 13 at the half) to beat West Virgina in OT was a blast. Rick Pitino leads his 3rd different team to the final four (Prov, UK, and now Lou. He also did it with future NBAer Fransico Garcia out late with his 5th foul.

The rally by Illinois from 15 down against a good Arizona club, including making up 9 points in a stretch of about 60 seconds starting with a minute and half to go in the game. Lute Olsen made the big tactical error of forgetting Channing Frye who owned the Illini inside, but credit the incredible gutsy effort of the All America guards of Illinois for creating tons of turnovers late. Once again the weekend couldn't be complete without and a last second chance, but Illinois survived to go to the final four

Wisconson played North Carolina well, but in the end did not have an answer for future lottery pick Sean May. May just abused Wilkenson and anyone else that Bo Ryan threw at him. This was the only regional final not to go to OT (3 OTs is a record) and it was still exciting on its own merits, as Wisconson narrowly missed giving the Big 10 3 teams in St Louis.

Finally the closeness of the Michigan St Kentucky game was best demonstrated by the closeness of the Patrick Sparks 3 pointer that sent it to the first OT. Even after extreme magification there was no clear way to tell if Sparks toe was on the line or not. This was an incredibly well played, and even better coached game. Tom Izzo and Tubby Smith looked like two chessmasters out there, countering move after move. Finally MSU outlasted the Wildcats to make their 6th final four in 8 years.

If St Louis is half as much fun as this weekend, it will be one for the ages.