DULY NOTED

Tuesday, March 28, 2006 | 6:51 a.m.

George Who?

Top 10 ways to misidentify George Mason, the team that has busted everybody's NCAA bracket. Note: ESPN analyst Digger Phelps is only responsible for the first two:

1. James Madison

2. James Mason

3. Jackie Mason

4. Mason Williams

5. The Masonic Lodge

6. Mason Reese

7. George Washington

8. Gorgeous George Mason

9. James Earl Mason

10. George Costanza

GEORGE AND PALS

The real George Mason was the "Father of the Bill of Rights," and the basketball team named in his honor has amended the way Billy Packer and the other so-called protectors of the college basketball constitution will view the Colonial Athletic Association.

Once they learn its other members, that is.

In their defense, anybody who can name the other 10 Colonists has too much time on his hands or is on a first-name basis with Alex Trebek.

But in case it comes up under Hodge Podge for $80, here are the other members of the "Did Not Receive Votes" league:

UNC Wilmington, Old Dominion, Northeastern, Drexel, Towson, Delaware, William & Mary, Georgia State, James Madison and Hofstra.

The number of ballots in an ESPN.com contest that correctly predicted this year's NCAA Final Four of George Mason, Florida, LSU and UCLA.

1979

The last time a team from a mid-major conference made it to the Final Four when two (Penn and Indiana State) did it.

3 million-plus

The number of brackets that were submitted in this year's ESPN.com Tournament Challenge.

DON'T FORGET THE FOUNTAIN OF UTES

Various news reports have trumpeted George Mason as the first member of a "non-power" conference to advance to the Final Four since 1979. But what about Utah, which lost to the Kentucky in the 1998 national championship game?

That was back in the pre-Mountain West days when the Utes - and seemingly everybody else west of the Mississippi - played in the bloated 16-team Western Athletic Conference. But anybody who thinks of the old WAC as a prime-time player has never watched San Jose State vs. SMU.

Besides, that was also the year Utah lost to UNLV in the first round of the conference tournament. It doesn't get any more mid-major than that.

Unless you count the Big West Conference. That, take note college basketball gurus, is the motley crew of bracket busters that UNLV represented when it cut down the nets in 1990.

WITH ALL DUE RESPECT

That describes the somber, reverent tone that Brent Musburger and ESPN anchors Stuart Scott and John Anderson used in reporting the death of Indy Racing League driver Paul Dana, who was killed at the Toyota 300 at Homestead, Fla., on Sunday.

Too often when one of these tragedies occurs, those reporting on the periphery adopt a "the show must go on" mentality, as if nothing happened. Or, the other extreme: They call for the abolition of a sport where danger and death can literally lurk around the next corner.

Yet Musburger, serving as host of the ABC-televised race, and Scott and Anderson, anchoring the Sunday night "SportsCenter," did neither. Not only did they show proper respect for the deceased, but their words about the passing of a rookie driver were poignant and seemed heartfelt.

The reason I don't like to go to funerals is that I never know what to say when somebody dies.

That wasn't the case with Musburger and the ESPN guys.

Rocky Mountain News sports writer Bernie Lincicome:

"Who doesn't want whatever relief a sports team may bring to a place crushed by nature and wounded by incompetence? If a basketball game can do that until the shingles arrive, let's get to it."

on LSU advancing to the Final Four.

PICK A WINNER ... OR A FIGHT

There was an episode of the old "Andy Griffith" show where Andy rigged a contest so a fellow down on his luck would win.

As I remember it, every number in the hat was the one on the sad sack's raffle ticket, so he was guaranteed to win.

Then he pulled out 6 7/8 - the hat size - instead of the winning number.

That's how Kurt Busch had to feel after winning Sunday's NASCAR race at that giant cereal bowl they call Bristol Motor Speedway. The Las Vegas native battled from a lap down to thank his sponsors on national TV, yet two more drivers - Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth, who Busch considered a friend - wanted to kick his rear exhaust afterward.

Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. Except Busch, who, no matter how hard he tries, is always the bug.