March Madness special edition

By Ron Kantowski

Saturday, March 21, 2009 | 2 a.m.

A special March Madness edition of who’s going to the penthouse and who’s getting the shaft.

GOING UP

Old basketball barns: Yes, UNLV deserved a home game in the Little Dance. But if you don’t think getting sent to Kentucky to play the McDonald’s All-Americans in Adolph Rupp’s nostalgic fieldhouse didn’t make the Rebels’ NIT experience more interesting, your shot clock probably doesn’t go all the way to 35. All that was missing were high-top Cons, short shorts and a black-and-white TV signal.

Second-rate tournaments: Remember when the NIT used to be as big as, if not bigger than, the NCAA Tournament? Well, your grandpa probably does. But the first-round games at Kentucky, New Mexico and Baylor that I watched on TV had way more atmosphere and passion than any of the NCAA games I watched live in Chicago, St. Louis and Omaha, Neb., the past two years — with the exception of the ones involving Kansas.

Dickie V: As in volatile. ESPN’s selection show was less than five minutes old when Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas starting yelling at each other. Dickie V was complaining that the mid-major teams got snubbed; Bilas was upset that his beloved Duke didn’t receive a bye to the Final Four.

Korean baseball: I am convinced that if the South Korean baseball team had taken Morehead State’s place in the bracket, it would have beaten Louisville by moving the runners along, pitching ahead in the count and never, ever missing the cutoff man. Watching the Koreans play baseball is like watching Princeton run backdoor cuts against UCLA.

GOING DOWN

Fighting Cummards: BYU was getting hammered so badly by Texas A&M in the very first game of the NCAA Tournament that CBS switched to the Memphis-Cal State Northridge game with 11 minutes to go in the first half. Meanwhile, Lorrenzo Wade and San Diego State were down at Mission Beach still waiting for their No. 12 seed.

CBI: I’m not quite sure what the CBI is but then neither is ESPN. It kept flashing scores like “VER 76, GB 72” under the generic head of “NCAAM” on the ticker the other night. I think VER is Vermont and GB is Wisconsin-Green Bay and CBI is either a third-rate college basketball tournament or another crime scene TV show on CBS.