Initial thoughts.

It seems that the NCAA loved some clever matchups this year: the two freshman phenoms, Michael Beasley of Kansas State and OJ Mayo of Southern Cal, will play in the first round. I wonder if the possible UNC-IU matchup in round 2 was at all influenced by the opportunity for some more blathering about Dan Dakich's defense against Michael Jordan during IU's 1984 upset of top-ranked UNC.

Not that I am banking on IU beating Arkansas--not in the least. The last time the committee tried to set up an IU-UNC matchup in round two was in 1997, when Dean Smith was on pace to break Adolph Rupp's record in the second round (in Winston-Salem, of course--has a highly ranked team from Duke or UNC ever had to leave the state for a first round game?). Unfortunately for CBS (I'm sure Jim Nantz had some schmaltzy catch-phrases ready for the Knight-Smith matchup), Chauncey Billups and Colorado made damn sure that IU wasn't going anywhere.

Speaking of Arkansas, this will be only the second meeting between these two tradition-rich programs. I have no idea if the committee knew that. The only previous meeting was in Bloomington on December 15, 1949. IU won 75-50.

Another little tidbit: the East region is the honorary "IU coaching search bracket." Including Dakich, five of the 16 coaches have been the subject of media speculation about the IU job: Washington State's Tony Bennett, Notre Dame's Mike Brey, Louisville's Rick Pitino, and Tennessee's Bruce Pearl.