Running Diary of March Madness, Day 4:

• And that will do it for the tournament's first weekend. My bracket's destroyed, but I don't really feel all that bad about it, because, ya know, everyone else's is destroyed too. Oh well, such is the nature of March Madness. See ya next weekend!

• Prediction = correct. I think it might be safe to say that that was in Ben Hansbrough's bottom 3 moments as a basketball player today. 5/13 from the field, 4/10 from 3, and his team crashes out of the tournament in agonizing fashion to a team whose best player (Chris Singleton) didn't start and barely played since he's still recovering from a broken foot. The final was 71-57, but the game really didn't feel all that close. Mad props to FSU; they defended the hell out of Notre Dame today. Final Irish shooting percentages: FG = 31%, 3FG = 23%. Wow. Anybody have #10 Florida State against #11 VCU in their bracket?

• Prediction: Notre Dame is not coming back to win this game. This is the game that the Irish's over-reliance on the 3-point shot comes back to bite them, and an 11-point deficit against Florida State feels like 25. They don't have enough size up front to get easy baskets or create opportunities for open shooters, and won't get enough good looks from the outside to shoot their way back into the game. As analyst Bob Wenzel said just moments ago: "It feels like Notre Dame is playing against 7 guys right now."  Notre Dame's 1st half numbers: 31% from the field, 1/10 from 3; Florida State's: 40% from the field, 7/12 from 3. And the most important stat: Florida State 34, Notre Dame 23, at halftime.

• Florida State is a type of team that can give a strong offensive team like Notre Dame a lot of problems. FSU led the nation in FG% allowed (opponents shot just 36.2% against them in 2010-11), and has dominated an Irish club that was 2nd in the Big East from the 3-point line at 39.2% this season. Notre Dame has made just 1 of 7 attempts from 3 thus far, Big East POY Ben Hansbrough has just 4 points in the first 13+ minutes, and Florida State has led by as many as 11 and currently lead 25-16.

• Darius. Johnson. Odom. For. The Win. His dagger tie-breaking 3 with 25 seconds to go sends his Marquette Golden Eagles to a 66-62 win of #3 seeded Syracuse and a date in Newark next weekend against North Carolina. Quite an upset: Marquette was outshot 55% to 41% from the field, but won the game from the line (19 made free throws to 5 for Syracuse), and from forcing 17 Syracuse turnovers. Congrats to Buzz Williams and that school and program; can you say TWO 11-seeds in the Sweet 16?! THE MADNESS!!

• How about the VCU Rams?! Between them and Marquette, we could potentially have 2 #11 seeds in the Sweet 16. For VCU, its been the Joey Rodriguez-Bradford Burgess show. Rodriguez has dished 9 dimes to go with 11 points, setting up Burgess nicely (21 points, 8 boards). For Purdue, Ryne Smith has come out of nowhere to lead the team with 20 points on 6/8 shooting from behind the arc, and JaJuan Johnson has done okay (17 points, 7/14 from the field). But VCU guards have forced PG E'Twaun Moore into a 3/12 shooting night and just 8 points, easily losing the PG battle to Rodriguez. A very impressive performance by the Rams, who are just 3:33 away from a date in San Antonio for their first ever Sweet 16 (they lead 82-66).

• Arizona deserved to win that game. They dominated defensively and forced Jordan Hamilton into a ton of bad shots, which is exactly the recipe of how to beat Texas. That's how they struggled down the stretch (4-4 in their last 8 games), and that's what beat them today. Ugh. Time to root for all upsets from here on out.

• And Brown's heroics come to an end. His frenetic barreling-into-the-defense drive and shot misses badly, and Gary Johnson offensive rebound and putback attempt was too late. Final: Arizona 70, Texas 69. Up 2, with the ball, 14.5 seconds left, and Texas choked it. Unbelievable. My bracket is officially in the trash.

• From the "Spoke Too Soon" files: a brilliantly executed pick-and-roll leads to a Williams throwing up a layup, which he makes, AND-1. And Williams.... drills the free throw...

• NOOO!! 5-SECOND VIOLATION!! ARIZONA BALL!!

• AND TRISTAN THOMPSON GETS THE LAST LAUGH!! Absolutely tremendous defense on Derrick Williams, who passed on a 3 to drive to the bucket. Despite an array of spins and fakes by Williams, Thompson stayed grounded, and Williams forced an off-balance shot that was missed, and rebounded by Hamilton. Timeout Texas, with the ball, up 2, 14.5 seconds left.

• Wow, what a crazy sequence. Arizona F Solomon Hill has a spinning layup blocked by Thompson, the ball caroms out to Williams, whose 3-point attempt hits off the back rim. Another offense rebound, and Arizona uses its final timeout with 27 seconds to go. Oh boy...

• J'COVAN BROWN FOR 2! Texas by 2. 

• On the other end, Arizona PF Derrick Williams is getting anything he wants against the inside defense of Texas bigs Tristan Thompson and Gary Johnson (each with 4 fouls). Despite struggling from the field (just 3 makes in 12 attempts), Williams has taken 14 free throws and made 8. We're tied at 67 with 1:24 minutes to go.

• J'Covan Brown is trying desperate to save his team (and my bracket). Brown is penetrating against the Arizona defense at will, who have no choice but to foul him. An 84.4% FT shooter for the season, Brown has canned all 13 of his attempts. Coach Rick Barnes is smartly employing offense-defense substitutions, keeping Brown in the game on offense and lifting him for Dogus Balbay, a defensive specialist on the perimeter, defensively.

• Really starting to worry about Texas, my pick to reach the championship game. Tristan Thompson and Gary Johnson are facing long and strong defenders in the post along Arizona's front-line, and Arizona is playing with a great deal of confidence in taking a 34-21 lead with 2 minutes to go in the 1st half. Texas is forcing shots down low, and when they take outside shots, they're not falling (0/5 from 3). Contrast that with confident shooting of Arizona (6/11 from 3), and its not hard to see the difference between the teams thus far.

• David Lighty, are you SERIOUS?! 9/10 from the field, including an incredible 7/7 from behind the 3-point line, for a team-best 25 points. Lighty, William Buford, Aaron Craft, Jon Diebler, they can all stroke it. And the presence of Jared Sullinger up front assures that none of them will ever be doubled and will have plenty of open shots from the perimeter. Against Mason, THE Ohio State University is shooting 61.7% from the floor and 65% (13/20) from 3. Coincidence that they're leading 77-46 with 9 minutes to go? Uh, no.

• Major props to the Maize and Blue of Michigan for their valiant effort against #1 Duke, losing 73-71. The Wolverines trailed 68-56 with about 5 minutes to play, before the tandem of Darius Morris and Tim Hardaway Jr. led a crazy comeback. Also fueling the rally was the implementation of an extended 1-3-1 zone that stagnated Duke's offense. I wasn't a fan of the defensive look at first, because Duke was moving the ball crisply for easy layups and open 3's. But when the game tightened up, Duke's ball movement had changed to dribbling through double teams, turnovers, and contested shots late in the shot clock. It was such a shame to see Hardaway's running 8 footer carom off the back rim with 1 second left. That upset would be have been sweet.

• What a terrible ending to an otherwise fantastic game; we certainly got the crazy ending we were waiting for. First, G Venoy Overton takes a horrendous 3-point prayer from half-court with at least 3 seconds still remaining on the clock. It makes you wonder what exactly Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar was telling his players in that timeout. But that's not the end of the story. Carolina F John Henson gift-raps a second chance for Washington, as Overton's heave went through his hands. Out of bounds to UW underneath the basket with half a second left. Overton inbounds it to Thomas, who fires up a jumper in the corner that was short, but was interfered with by Henson! Goal-tending should have been called, which would have tied the game! Right? Wait, no. Because Thomas' shot was a 2-pointer anyway. Oh, and the ref DIDN'T review the play after Overton's prayer in which the ball CLEARLY landed out of bounds with 1.1 seconds left, not 0.5. That's a HUGE difference. AND the refs didn't award UW the points on Henson's goal-tending. Shades of the Rutgers-St. John's gaff in the Big East tournament. What. A. Disaster. Good grief.

• From the "OH NO!" files: John Henson, he of a 7-foot-5 inch wingspan (at least) tips the UW inbounds pass, which is intercepted by Strickland. 2 made free throws later, and it's 86-83 Heels with 5.4 seconds to go, timeout...

• Holy COW! An outstanding defensive possession forcing Barnes into a tough missed shot leads to Thomas creating an open 3 for G Scott Suggs. Buries it. 84-83 Carolina with 15 seconds to go, Kendall Marshall headed to the line for a 1-and-1.

• And just as I say that, UW has tightened up. A pair of turnovers led to a foul and 2 Zeller free throws, and a run-out lay-up by G Dexter Strickland. 84-78 Heels, just under 2 minutes to play. 

• And now the anxious moments begin to set in. How Washington responds to the increased pressure down the stretch from Carolina and the decidedly pro-Carolina crowd will be telling. Can the Huskies continue execute their offense to get good shots and to hit 3's (9/18 so far)? Can their bigs get big rebounds following Carolina missed shots? Can't wait for this crazy finish to come in Charlotte.

• I am extremely impressed with the consistently elevated level play of play from Washington to match the run-and-gun Tar Heels stride for stride, and it all starts with focus. Led by PG Isaiah Thomas, UW has consistently gotten great looks at the basket, both inside and out. The Huskies have shot 48% from the floor thanks to the stellar inside play by F Matthew Bryan-Amaning, and the Husky bench has provided 7 of the 8 3's UW has made in the game. Also impressive is the rebounding inside by Bryan-Amaning and C Aziz N'Diaye. UW can absolutely steal this game from the favored Heels in Charlotte, provided they continue to limit Carolina's 2nd chances, and run back on defense to set up their 2-3 zone and prevent Carolina's fast-break opportunities.

• Wow, is PG Kendall Marshall an impressive freshman for North Carolina. Harrison Barnes gets most of the publicity, and deservedly so, but one cannot ignore the imprint Marshall has left on this team, especially after the previous PG Larry Drew quit the team. And it's not so much the numbers he puts up, but the overall impact he makes on his teammates (though his 14 assists so far today doesn't hurt). Particularly impressive are his outlet and entry passes to PF Tyler Zeller in the post. Thanks to Marshall, Zeller always catches the ball in the exact right place, giving the Tar Heels the best chance to score each time, whether its running the floor like a gazelle and slamming it down between 2 defenders, or going off his left shoulder to shoot his patented righty hook.

• This Washington-North Carolina game has truly been a joy to watch. It's been fast-paced, up-and-down, run-and-gun, and every other adjective than can be used to describe this open floor, shoot-before-the-shot-clock-hits-25 kind of game.

• Day 4! And..... go.