My almost but not 100% (thanks to cramming) uninformed NCAA tourney impressions:

• My Final Four is Oklahoma State beating UConn 79-76 in the championship, with Gonzaga and Duke as the other two.
• Using admirable restraint, I only put my Panthers in the Elite Eight.
• That said, I'm amazed at how little respect Washington is getting as a a #1 seed; none of the brackets I've seen yet have them in the Final Four, few in the Elite Eight.
• That said, if I'm a Husky fan, I'm not thrilled about playing the Pitt-Pacific winner in round 2.
• I didn't have the guts to take Bucknell over Kansas, but Kansas often has a lousy first round, and Bucknell is much better than the normal America East rep.
• Oakland is a great story; if they're lucky, they won't lose by 45.
• Everybody's talking about how cool it would be to see Roy Williams and UNC have to play Kansas and meltdown in the Elite Eight; equally cool would be if Illinois and Southern Illinois do the same in their bracket. Cooler actually, because we'd get to say "Salukis" for a week and a half.
• The two people I know who followed college basketball the closest this year have Utah State knocking off Arizona, for what that's worth.
• If Duke and UNC play in one national semifinal, I may well be cheering for some sort of structure fire.
• I have no idea why I'm falling for Gonzaga again; the less said about that, the better.
• It just doesn't seem like a tourney without: Murray State, Princeton, Austin Peay (Let's Go Peay!), Weber State, Valparaiso, Indiana.
• When Notre Dame and Holy Cross played in the NIT last night, who did God root for?
• I can't wait to see what this year's Century City or Baby Bob is; maybe it'll be a show about futuristic babies who can talk and have J.D.s.
• The selection show made me think of what my favorite tourney upset ever was. I haven't decided, but I can still picture the final sequence of Princeton-UCLA pretty precisely, and I remember exactly when and where I watched it, so that's telling.
• I can't decide whether I want Ben Howland and UCLA to do well or poorly. Like most of these things, I probably won't know until I'm watching the game and have a visceral reaction one way or the other.
• Come on Panthers, suck it up.