Recently in College basketball Category

Three local guards have made Division III college basketball decisions. Naperville North's Jake Hasse and Austin Weiss will head to Wisconsin to play for Carthage College and Beloit College, respectively. Waubonsie Valley's Kevin VandenBerg has chosen Aurora University.

Patrick O is leading the Sun Bracket Challenge after the first weekend with 219 points, giving him an eight-point lead over Danny P.

Tom Sc. with 206, Gordon H with 200 and Thomas Su with 197 round out the top five heading into the Sweet 16.

While The Heat Index was not allowed to "officially" enter the Sun Bracket Challenge, meaning we can't win the glorious prizes or "officially" taunt the feeble readers and their silly picks, we did fill out a bracket.

By Patrick Mooney

Already you can almost hear Luther Vandross singing over top of the Belmont players who nearly shocked Duke. The reaction shots from Thursday night's 71-70 loss will almost certainly make an appearance in "One Shining Moment," and they will be remembered "as the team that almost did it."

On the way to Washington, D.C., Belmont guard Jon Rice - a Waubonsie Valley graduate redshirting his freshman season - said the two teams played a similar style of up-tempo basketball that revolved around the 3-point line. Rice seemed to think his veteran teammates, after making two-consecutive NCAA trips, would better handle the experience.

Even though one program is a former NAIA school, and the other is one of college basketball's bluebloods, the game showed how the talent gap is narrowing.

The stakes mean the intrigue will extend beyond 94 feet, to off-court distractions. While dismissing the Scott Skiles to Indiana rumor, Bob Kravitz wonders: How many Hoosiers does it take to screw up a coaching search?

Good night, and good luck: If you find Katie Couric or Billy Packer annoying, direct your complaints to Sean McManus, the president of CBS News and CBS Sports who probably can't afford to call in sick this week.

I've spent most of the morning combing over all the NCAA analysis as I attempt to fill out the East bracket, the toughest in the tournament. Most of the experts figure you've got No. 1 overall seed UNC facing No. 2 Tennessee in the fight to come out of the East. But what about some serious discussion of No. 3 Louisville? If you're still mulling over who to pick in The Sun's bracket challenge, consider the Cardinals not just a dark horse, but a serious contender, even more so than Tennessee.

At 2:30 p.m. today, Illinois will play Wisconsin for the Big Ten tournament title and the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Just think about that - an 18 loss team might get to go dancing.

But after such a horrible, disappointing season, is an appearance in the Big Ten final enough to redeem the year? Even if they lose to the top-seeded Badgers, is getting this far and finally getting the team to click and play with heart, enough to silence the Bruce Weber haters for one more season?