You can view it here. And though I haven’t looked into next year’s rosters, and really have no clue who’s going to be good and who isn’t, I find it odd that they put UNC as the No. 3 team under the assumption that Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson return. If that’s the case, Danny Green and Tyler Hansboro will be the only players gone, Marcus Ginyard will be back, and Ed Davis will take over for Tyler Hansboro, and he showed in this tournament that he can definitely handle the load.

Anyway, enjoy the preseason, way too early top 25. It is what I thought it was.

[Rivals]

Arizona found its coach, and now Xavier will be looking for one (just stay away from Bruce Pearl, please). Sean Miller, who coached at Xavier for five years and led them to the Elite 8 last year and Sweet 16 this year, has agreed to terms to coach the Wildcats in lieu of Lute Olson retiring.

It was reported earlier in the day that Miller wasn’t going to take the new gig, but hours later a report broke that he had indeed agreed to coach the Wildcats. This hire came just four days after Tim Floyd, coach of the USC Trojans, turned down an offer from Arizona. Miller had a 120-47 record in five seasons as the head coach at Xavier. He took over for Thad Matta, who currently coaches at Ohio State.

[ESPN]

If you went through the bracket when they were first given, and you said, “You know what, I think I’m going to have the top 16 teams in the Sweet 16,” then you’re probably doing pretty well right now, given that Arizona and Wisconsin (both 12 seeds) are the only two “surprise” teams in there, if you can call them that.

The best game waiting in the flats? Mizzou and Memphis sure looks tasty, and I think watching guards play guards in Duke and Villanova will be fun. My original Final Four was Villanova, Mizzou, Louisville and UNC. If I had to go back and change it, I’d swap Mizzou out and insert Uconn, who’s been beating teams like they’re a high school Texas all girls team (it’s a hundred point reference, people).

The rest should be entertaining. The tournament resumes this Thursday.

…. everyone called in sick to work, even a mouse (yeah, couldn’t think of anything better than rhymed with house).

Tomorrow marks the madness, and it begins at 12:20, sharp, with Butler and LSU, then five minutes later kicks off the beating that will be Memphis and CS Northridge, and then five minutes after that we’ve got BYU and Texas A&M.

At 2:30 Purdue and Northern Iowa tip off, which should prove to be a very good game; UCLA and Virginia Commonwealth, thought to be another good one in the hopper, isn’t until after 9:00 p.m., same with Illinois and Western Kentucky, which might very well finish with an upset (if you can call W. Kentucky winning an upset).

All in all, it’ll be a good day. Call in sick to work, sit back, drink some beers (the doctor’s told me it’s a good way to cure the flu), and enjoy the first couple days of March Madness, which are surely two of the best days of sports. My Final Four: Missouri, Villanova, Louisville, UNC, with UNC beating Louisville in the title game. Enjoy the madness, everybody.

Okay, so it’s a cheap shot at Haynes-y. Whatever. When you think of a face getting stomped on, it’s the first thing that comes to mind. If only it got spit on, too, there’d be some real good Romanowski ones out there.

USC 80, Arizona 75: Nick Young and Lodrick Stewart both scored 26 points for USC, which pretty much sums up that they won. Some teams go without scoring 52 points in a college basketball game. This was Arizona’s fourth loss at home this year, and I can thankfully say I won’t be putting any of my eggs in their basket when it comes time to pick my Final Four. . . unlike every other year that Lute Olson deceives me with all the raw talent he has that never really pans out in March.

UCLA 67, Arizona State 61: It was on the road, which is no sure thing in college basketball, but UCLA should be winning by more than six points against a team that’s won as many games. Arron Affalo scored 24 points, and while UCLA is a sure thing to play defense every game, it’s not so certain they’ll have the offense every night.

Oregon 61, Cal 63: Looking at the scores today, you’d think it was Pac-10 night in college basketball. Cal upset the 17th ranked Ducks thanks to Ryan Anderson’s three point play (layup and a foul). Cal snapped a six game losing streak, and Oregon lost its second in a row.

Indiana 68, Purdue 81: David Teague scored 31 points for Purdue, who turned it on in the second half and beat the Hoosiers. Purdue is now 17-9, with some quality wins, which is a good thing for me: Georgia Tech, after all, beat them.

It’s nice to know that Georgia Tech isn’t the only team in the nation to get their asses handed to them by UNC. The Tar Heels smacked Arizona Saturday night, 92-64, ending the Wildcats’ 29 game winning streak at home. It was the worst loss at Arizona since Lute Olson has been coaching, which is a really, really long time. UNC was without second leading scorer and rebounder, Brandan Wright, but it didn’t prove to be much of a problem.

“I think it is a big statement about how deep our team is, that we have guys on the bench who can start and we can still win a game like this,” said forward Deon Thompson, who replaced Wright and scored 14 points.

I think the bigger statement is how poorly Arizona played. They shot 33% from the field, and went 1-22 from beyond the arch, which, if you don’t have a calculator handy, is 4%. Most games that you chuck up 22 three-pointers, it’s a bad sign, anyway. But when you make only one of them, it’s especially telling.

“I just told the guys, ‘This is a nightmare. Forget it,” Olson said. “We’re not even going to look at the tapes.”

That, my friends, is probably the best decision ol’ Lute’s had in his last 24 years of coaching.

Sorry. Happen to hold a vendetta against the guy. Every year — every year! — he completely messes up my Final Four picks, because I get faith in a guy like Jason Terry or Salim Stoudamire, and ride this team all the way to my bracket’s destruction. And it screws me, without fail, every March.