CBS Corp

No college graduating only 8 percent of its men's basketball players should be playing in the NCAA Tournament. Yet Maryland did just that, filling the No. 4 seed in the Midwest Regional. Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education, thinks schools graduating less than 40 percent of their players shouldn't be allowed in the Big Dance, either.  

The subject always accompanies Syracuse, about like snow attaches itself to upstate New York. Somehow, if Gonzaga is to upset the top-seeded Orange in Sunday's second-round NCAA game, it has to find a way to attack the 2-3 'Cuse zone defense. Saturday, Zags assistant Ray Giacoletti described it as long, suffocating and, often a factor late in March, difficult to prepare for on only one day's notice. "I'm impressed at how active and how extended they are," Giacoletti said.

I'm impressed at how active and how extended they are   -Ray Giacoletti

 

Well, according to a recent survey by Challenger Gray & Christmas , the NCAA basketball tourney alone could cost employers as much as $1.8 billion in unproductive wages. And, with CBS now streaming every game live, the tourney is also hogging corporate bandwidth. Integra Telecom said it recorded a 15 percent spike in Internet business traffic yesterday, an increase it tied directly to the basketball tourney.

The timing and pattern of this Internet traffic spike is most likely related to employees of Integra’s customers streaming online video of the NCAA basketball tournament   -Integra Telecom

 

Late word from Washington tonight about just how ugly the crowds gathered outside the Longworth office building have become. We learned that as Congressman Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri was leaving his office someone in the crowd spit on him. There are also reports of racial and homophobic slurs, one targeting Congressman John Lewis, the famous civil rights champion, and the other involving Congressman Barney Frank.

Kill the bill! Kill the bill!   -Barney Frank

 

First things first. We're coo coo for Cornell, loving the Gael-force howling out of St. Mary's, ready to go full Dick Vitale with one more buzzer beater. In other words, we are not Satan.  

It's hard to recall now the excitement generated by David Lynch 's Twin Peaks when it first aired on British television back in 1990. But it managed to make staying in seem urgent and exhilarating. There were Twin Peaks evenings, at which fans gathered in each other's houses to watch this revolutionary entertainment, a sort of surreal soap-cum-murder-mystery.  

Morry Gash, Associated Press Dallas Lauderdale (left) and Jon Diebler (right), two of the stars for Ohio State in the Buckeyes' 68-51 win over UC-Santa Barbara on Friday night. WOIO/Channel 19 has announced its NCAA men's tournament telecast schedule for Sunday. Games assigned from the CBS network to WOIO are:  

They've floated the trial balloons and watched as they were punctured one by one. The games of the last few days alone should convince any rational sports fan that expanding the NCAA basketball tournament is the kind of madness no one needs in March. But they won't give up easy, because there's something bigger at stake here.

I don't think it's broken. It is what it is. It's a staple. It's branded   -Marvin Menzies

 

Goodyear, Ariz. » Indians third-base coach Steve Smith never imagined any experience topping the joy of winning a World Series. Racing around the world with his daughter changed his mind. The bootful of beer wasn't bad, either.

She doesn't want me to say that   -Steve Smith

 

In its second appearance in the NCAA "Big Dance," the Bearkats led by as many as seven points, were up by one at half and were tied 55-55 with 3:48 with a squad many media experts picked as a possible Final Four participant. Bearkat players were featured in articles in the Washington Post, New York Times, Sports Illustrated and other major publication and on television networks including ESPN, ESPN2, CBS and NBC. Sam Houston loses four seniors including three starters, but leading scorer Gilberto Clav