WOW!  Is your heart still beating after this ultimate thrill ride?  If you did, consider yourselves lucky.

Go ahead and breathe out a slow exhale, ladies and gentlemen.

If you read in my blog, the second semifinal game was going to be 10,000 times bigger than any Duke/North Carolina game, or pick your favorite sports rivalry--the two trump cards UNC will have forever in Chapel Hill will beating Coach K in his final game on the bench at Cameron Indoor Stadium and this all-time thriller by a final score of 81-77.

Still, proper context is needed here:

What Mike Krzyzewski did for 42 years in guiding Duke since 1980 will never be duplicated or surpassed again.

1,202 wins will stand forever, F-O-R-E-V-E-R!!!!  13 Final Four appearances, where some including myself thought John Wooden's record of 12 between 1964 to 1975 would never be broken--but that's what they say, right?

For 2 hours and 22 minutes on Saturday night, the second of April, in the year Two Thousand and Twenty Two at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana--it will be the day nobody will NEVER forget.  For the Tar Heels to do what they did required every ounce of strength, durability (even when double-double machine Armando Bacot injuring himself late in the game before ultimately fouling out), and all out determination and guts to pull this off.

I will have the blog in my show notes as soon as I can.  Breathe slowly, people and come back down to Earth.  

Seeing all of those lead changes and ties definitely felt like the first time when Muhammad Ali met Joe Frazier...that type of electric atmosphere.  Above all, this night will be remembered like I said earlier in the week:

Wasn't that fun, ladies and gentlemen?  It sure was.

When the brackets came out, there was little chance that the nastiest rivals ever to play college basketball were going to meet.

That is, until the regional finals when Duke beat up Arkansas at the West Regional in San Francisco.  The following day, North Carolina squashed the Cinderella dreams of the first Number 15 seed to reach the Elite Eight in tiny St. Peter's at the East Regional in Philadelphia.

And so, the 258th all-time meeting between the state school and the private, elitist school separated by only eight miles will clash on college basketball's biggest stage.

Think of the other huge rivalries in sports:  New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants vs. Los Angeles Dodgers; Chicago Cubs vs. St . Louis Cardinals; Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers, along with Boston Celtics vs. Los Angeles Lakers.  If you are talking college football, you have Ohio State vs. Michigan, USC vs. Notre Dame, Auburn vs. Alabama, and in recent years with Alabama vs. Georgia.

Of course, there is that other vicious rivalry featuring pure animosity every December when Kentucky battles Louisville.  Most of that is usually one sided, and when they collided at the 2012 Final Four--the fans liquored up a storm on Bourbon Street, and more of the same was expected this week way down yonder in New Orleans.

Saturday night, April 2, 2022 is going to be ten thousand times bigger than that.  All week, it has been 24/7/365 chatter on sports talk radio, ESPN, Twitter, and YouTube.  Although my podcast sets up as a short primer, please tap on your phone or click on the link below for those who have either a desktop or a laptop to read my comprehensive Final Four preview.

And yes, I did touch on a bit of the first semifinal between Kansas and Villanova, but there isn't too much to talk about there.

Enjoy, and please leave some comments before the approximate 8:50 p.m. Eastern time tip-off Saturday night on TBS:

https://fortyminutesofhoopsfun.wordpress.com/2022/04/01/2022-final-four-preview-too-many-blueblood-storylines-to-count/

Welcome to Part One of my Selection Sunday Special Edition of Big Z College Hoops Central. 

These were my initial reactions to the draw as it was revealed live on CBS.  If the audio was barely audible, my phone was a few feet away from the speakers, so you might have to turn the volume up just in case.  Overall, the Selection Committee did a great job and boy did the Mountain West and West Coast Conferences impress with 7 teams total making it in. Say what you want about the Big Ten leading the way with 9 schools, but along with the Big 12 had the strongest metrics all season.  A deeper drive into the brackets will be provided later on Sunday night.  

Comments are always welcome.  Again, thanks so much for listening and please share my podcast and blog with your friends.

Welcome to Bracketology 101.  Topics covered include what AQ’s and at-large teams are, what is a bid thief, and how the seeding and finally the brackets are in their final form that we see the second Sunday in March, aka “Selection Sunday” on CBS. 

My objective is for all fans, new and old to gain a deep appreciation of how men's college basketball has taken a life of its own since 1979.  Also, please beware of the bubbles, they might burst when you least expect them--usually in a period of 12 days. Above all, March is to have fun and share in the excitement that being the true definition of what is simply called Madness.

After the break was a brief recap of some of the conference tournament games from the Big South, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, and the Southern Conferences.  

Catch all updates at my blog:  https://fortyminutesofhoopsfun.wordpress.com/

In normal times, I would be welcoming all of the bandwagon fans the day after the Super Bowl.  However, with the Winter Olympics taking place at the same time followed by the punch heard around the world after Wisconsin beat Michigan by double figures, there are major lessons to learn after what Juwan Howard did during the handshake line.  I offered my thoughts in my blogs on Sunday and Monday.  Hopefully, we can all turn the page and start getting ready for the really fun times in March.

As I mentioned, here are the two links with general information on how the 68 teams are discussed, selected, and then finally seeded and settled into the brackets on Selection Sunday.  I look forward to your comments anytime:

https://fortyminutesofhoopsfun.wordpress.com/2021/03/12/book-review-bracketology/