Random thoughts and second thoughts about things that happened before, on and may occur in the wake of Selection Sunday in NCAA basketball:
• Am I reading correctly that Kentucky, Duke and Indiana did not have their names called? Looks like I don't have any teams not to cheer for ... wait, there's Kansas.
• Will Arkansas make the Sweet 16 for the first time since an Arkansan lived in the White House?
• Wouldn't you like to be around a coffeetable in Kentucky when someone notes that Rick Pitino has a team in the tournament and that the 'Cats and the Cards, as the locals call two of his former schools, do not?
• Love that headline on the back page (sports front) of Monday's New York Daily News. Noting that teams coached by Pitino (Iona) and Patrick Ewing (Georgetown) are still playing, it read "Golden oldies still dancing."
• So, has basketball become the trending sport at the University of Texas?. Hope Longhorn football gets as lucky with Steve Sarkisian as basketball with Shaka Smart.
• Hysteria over Arkansas' women beating Baylor and Connecticut in the same season subsided quickly, didn't it? That's the upshot of losing to Ole Miss in the SEC tournament,
• Let's see, was Nancy Lieberman playing when Geno Auriemma (UConn) last won the national title?
• Remind me not to watch the women's final if Dawn Staley (South Carolina) and Kim Mulkey (Baylor) are the coaches.
• High school insert: Did I see that Lake Hamilton's girls lost to a team (West Memphis) that, with the quarterfinal victory Saturday, improved to 10-14?
• High school add: Lake Hamilton's boys' comeback from 26 down against Vilonia in the state tournament was the highlight of the Garland County season. Zac Pennington wearing a jersey with his girlfriend's number and making the shot that forced overtime is for the time capsule.
• High school parting shot: The 2000 Lakeside Rams have become the '72 Lakers of Garland County basketball. Never thought county would go this long between state boys champions.
• I can't imagine how many times Lexington-based Jerry Tipton, the dean of SEC basketball writers, bit his tongue when covering the Wildcats this season,
• Razorback basketball coverage in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is spot-on. Bob Holt and Tom Murphy (Paul Boyd on the women's side), take a bow.
• Little miffed here that Nate Oats (Alabama) is SEC coach of the year and not Eric Musselman (Arkansas). Does an SEC title make basketball the second sport of choice at Alabama or is that still spring football?
• Best things Hunter Yurachek has done as Arkansas' athletic director are break down the iron curtain between in-state schools and award Canaan Sandy a lifetime pass to Razorback events.
• Say this for Arkansas State basketball: The Red Wolves won't be anyone's little brother. (What was that brushfire about, anyway?)
• Has the search party found Darrell Walker's Little Rock Trojans?
• Anyone else think this might be it for Coach Cal at Kentucky, Ol' Roy at North Carolina and Coach K at Duke?
• Sorry, I don't trust Baylor men in the NCAA tournament. Bears went out too passively against Kansas and Oklahoma State in late season to earn my trust.
• Somehow, I don't see Jalen Howard asking his former Michigan teammate Chris Webber to sit on the bench and keep track of timeouts.
• He was the second-greatest college player of my lifetime, behind only Lew Alcindor, but no college-basketball announcer I find more annoying than Bill Walton. (People, I say here, are wrong about Dick Vitale. I've met him, and you might just like him.)
• I can't name a single player on Houston's team. These Cougars don't stick in the memory like even some lesser members of Phi Slama Jama. Wonder whatever happened to Reid Gettys and Bennie Anders?
• One game I would watch is Arkansas vs. Texas A&M women. Mike Neighbors' artists formerly known as Lady Razorbacks played Gary Blair's Aggies down to the wire in Fayetteville and College Station.
• Mike Anderson still hasn't had a losing season in college coaching. Born on the same day (Dec. 12) as Frank Sinatra, Mike does it his way. No matter how it ended at Arkansas, people still like Mike.
• Most memorable exchange I ever had with a high-school basketball coach came after a Lake Hamilton boys' home victory over Hot Springs. "We played like (barnyard expletive), Bob. Put that in the paper," Trojan coach Alvin Corder said walking away. To that, I said, "Coach, even if you're right, give me something I can put in the paper."