There are many things I like about Sport, among them the discovery of a talent I had no idea existed.

Now I don't want to exaggerate this. I don't want to go overboard. I don't want to get excessively hyperbolic. I want to frame this correctly.

So understand when I say that I have not enjoyed anything more during the first two months of the 2009 Red Sox season than watching Nick Green.

Yes, I think I know how many players on this team are better than Nick Green. That's not the point. It's just that what he's doing to help this team win ballgames is a) unexpected and b) very exciting to watch.

I understand he is what he is, a 30-year-old utility infielder who spent five years in the Atlanta system and who has banged around with Tampa Bay, Seattle, and the Yankees. Everybody in baseball knows who he is and what he has shown, so his talents can't be a secret. But after watching what he's been doing for the Red Sox, aren't you, like me, asking the following question?

How does a guy this good spend the entire 2008 season in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre?

The obvious answer is, "Because he wasn't exactly going to beat out Derek Jeter." But you know what I'm saying. A guy this good should not be spending his 29-year-old summer in Triple A.

Anyway, he's here now, and every night he's in the lineup I want 27 ground balls to short. Yes, I realize he's booted a few, but he'll catch most of them, and then the fun begins. The arm!

Omigod.

This past week he's made two sensational plays. There was the spin-o-rama against the Yankees last week and there was that play he made in the hole on Wednesday, when he knocked down the ball, jumped up and unleashed that laser, the ball reaching Kevin Youkilis at chest level.

He's been a consistently tough out all year at the plate, too.

It's just a complete feel-good story. He's got a major league job. The Red Sox are getting a major bang for their buck. And we get to enjoy the entire show.

I miss Jerry Remy. Who doesn't?

By this time he makes it sound easy. He can get technical without going all MIT on us, and he sure has a sense of humor, even mischief. He knows how serious a business the game of major league baseball is, but he also knows it beats working.

He's got it all figured out.

But he wasn't always this good, and he might not have become the RemDawg of New England lore were it not for Sean McDonough. Make no mistake: no Sean McDonough, no RemDawg. Period. I'm sure Jerry Remy would acknowledge that. Hope so, anyway.

Sean invented Jerry Remy the broadcaster. He recognized what Jerry had to offer and he knew how to get it out of him. As people should know by now, Jerry Remy is not naturally outgoing off the air. He is extremely private, and he doesn't need much in the way of people outside his family. He's not, shall we say, naturally chatty away from the mike.

RemDawg is his alter ego, and it took McDonough to unearth it.

It's still kinda spooky, by the way, to tune in, hear Don Orsillo's voice, and have to remind yourself that he isn't McDonough. He's at least a 90-percent voice-alike. He and Jerry have an excellent rapport, I must say, and at times it's almost as if Sean never left.

Almost.

Anyway, the color man's job isn't easy. Only the real good ones know how to strike the proper balance of insight, criticism, wit, etc. Remy has it, and the drop-off has been rather evident when we listen to the parade of nightly replacements.

That said, it is clear that Dennis Eckersley does indeed have the potential to be a good color man. I know he had a rocky start, and I'm not even referring to his oops moment a little while back. He's been a natural in the studio, but in-game analysis is a far different thing, and he wasn't so coherent in the beginning.

I thought, however, he made a breakthrough Tuesday night in Detroit. Maybe it just took the presence of a 20-year old pitcher to unleash him, but I thought he was sensational.

Here is where Having Been There is a priceless advantage. Dennis Eckersley is not only a Hall of Fame pitcher, but he is also a Hall of Fame pitcher who broke into baseball as a cocky 20-year-old in 1975. He could put himself into the head of 20-year-old Detroit rookie Rick Porcello as few on this planet could.

Once upon a time, he was Rick Porcello.

He started warming up when he addressed the subject of Porcello's alleged poise. I can't quote exactly -- sorry, I wasn't taking notes -- but the gist of it was this:

"Sure, he's got poise -- now. I remember when I was 20 and throwing the gas and everything was going great. Let's see how much poise he's got when he starts getting knocked around a little, and he will get knocked down a little."

Eckersley was almost laugh-out-loud funny describing Porcello's trials and tribulations attempting to get through a game when he only had one pitch working (that's not to say he was making fun of the kid, because he wasn't. He was empathizing). And he was terrific as he pulled Papelbon through that wild-and-woolly ninth, in which the ever-entertaining Papster loaded the bases before striking out the side.

Knowing The Eck's credentials and his engaging personality, he ought to be good. But the job is not easy, and he's a long way from being the RemDawg. But Jerry Remy wasn't always so good, either, and remember: He'd still be Just Another Guy (if employed as a broadcaster at all), were it not for Sean McDonough.

That's what they called him. He was an odd sight in his time. NOBODY wore glasses and lived to tell about it in MLB, back in the day. Well, almost nobody. There was Dominic DiMaggio, Specs Toporcer, Walt Masterson and Clint (Scrap Iron) Courtney, but not many others.

Dominic DiMaggio. I wish I had seen him play. The same goes for brother Joe. People talked about the way each glided around in center, and there was honest debate about who had the better glove.

The old timers all say he belongs in the Hall. The big numbers aren't there, with WWII being the primary reason. Like so many others, he lost all of '43, '44, and '45, when he was absolutely in his prime. Give him three average Dominic years and he'd have the 2,000 hits, at least.

What strikes me when I look at his record is his amazing consistency. He came in good and went out good, with no embarrassing end-of-career dropoff. His batting average range was .283 in his rookie year of 1940 to a high of .328, winding up with a career batting average of .298. His on-base range was similarly impressive, with a low of .367 and a high of .414. Career: 383. Wish Jacoby Ellsbury could do that.

Dominic was a table setter, scoring more than 100 runs six times in 10 full seasons, while leading the AL in runs in both 1950 and 1951. The walk-strikeout totals were typical of the times (750 of the former and 571 of the latter).

For the old-timers, he passed the smell test. He was a player who commanded respect.

But his greatest legacy was the way he led his life after baseball. He was smart and he was a good businessman with ethics off the chart. The word most associated with Dominic DiMaggio was "dignified," although "charitable" might have been a close second.

It was a good life, and he was a truly great man. The world is a lesser place today.

It seemed like a simple enough request.

"Would you mind switching that TV set to TNT? It's channel 25 in the room."

We were in the bar of the spanking new Marriott City Center Hotel in downtown Raleigh. There were a half dozen TVs, and I was fairly certain no one was watching whatever was on Fox at that moment. I wanted to keep tabs on the Cavs and Hawks.

Long story short: they couldn't do it. We were told they had a different TV contract in the bar than in the rooms. No TNT and, of course, no Versus, in case we felt like checking out the Canucks and Black Hawks.

Excuse me?

This is a Marriott. People come into Marriott bars nationwide to watch sports. And how could they have a different deal in the bar than in the rooms? What kind of total corporate idiot could sanction such a thing?

So, no Hawks-Cavs and no Canucks-Black Hawks. But if we had come back last night I'm sure we could have had a nice "American Idol." No sound, but what the hell?

Thursday night we take our business to the Oxford up the street. They have both TNT and Versus, we're told. And I'm sure it will be cheaper.

Sometimes people really amaze me.

I've actually read stuff from people questioning the greatness of this Celtics-Bulls series on the basis of Chicago's regular-season record. What difference does that make? For that matter, what difference does it make that Kevin Garnett has not played when we're discussing the historic relevance of this series? The games either did or did not unfold as we've seen them. They either were or were not superb sports entertainment. And we all know they were,

It doesn't matter of the Bulls were 21-61, 31-51, 41-41, 51-31 61-21, or whatever, What matters is how they're playing now. Once again I remind people they are putting out on the floor a No. 1 (Derrick Rose), a No. 3 (Ben Gordon), a No. 4 (Tyrus Thomas), a No. 7 (Kirk Hinrich) and a No. 9 (Joakim Noah). That's a lot of raw talent. Whatever problems they had they don't have now. And they became a much better team when they added John Salmons and Brad Miller in that Sacramento trade.

Why can't people simply sit back and enjoy the show? You can nitpick specifics all you want. But all the couldas, shouldas and wouldas are what make the enterprise worth talking about. If every team played a perfect game in every sport every time out, no one would ever lose.

This will be a tough series for someone to lose, sure, but it's pretty obvious it will be tougher on the Celtics, who, Garnett or no Garnett, were expected to win and who have blown more chances to win games that they eventually lost than the Bulls have. So much for "experience."

They should win Game 7. But if they don't, it would be nice if people would give the Bulls proper credit and move on. This series isn't solely about one team or the other. It's about two teams giving us the kind of sports experience to tell the grandchildren about. One of them happens to be a defending champion trying to make do without its true leader (Kevin Garnett) and an important auxiliary piece of its puzzle (Leon Powe). The other happens to be a relatively young team with some extraordinary talent that may have finally found itself.

What they've given us is sport at its best. Anyone who doesn't appreciate that should stick with UFC.

It's Game 5, and I say the Celtics are about 80-20 to win it.

Traditionally, when the Celtics are 2-2 coming back home you can book it. I still think they're going to win this series. But I'm not betting the kids' inheritance on it; you know what I'm sayin'?

C'mon. Admit it. The Bulls are better than you thought. And admit something else: they're fun. Some of the shots Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon make are just plain sick. And, personally I love Joakim Noah, and I'd say that even if he didn't graduate from The Lawrenceville School, my alma mater, and Armond Hill's, too (honest).

This is not much of a turnaround for a Celtics team that logged heavy minutes in that double OT thing on Sunday. The starters played 241 of the available 290 minutes. Rondo went 55. Pierce went 52, and did not have enough legs left to even get off that final shot without having it cleanly blocked by Chicago's John Salmons. The Bulls are really making them work for this.

About Rondo. Geez, I don't know, really. What is left to say, other than you just can't take your eyes off him when he's on the floor? He may be the most dangerous two-way player the Celtics have ever had. I mean, John Havlicek was a great defensive player, but he wasn't a threat to steal the ball every time the other team has it.

Rondo is.

Maybe you knew. I sure didn't.

I wasn't surprised the Celtics played well in the United Center on Thursday night. I thought there was a pretty good chance they'd play a solid game, but it never entered my mind the Bulls would come up so amazingly small.

Common sense dictated that the Bulls, having played so well in Boston, being so full of confidence, and backed by what was sure to be a boisterous home crowd in what was being billed as the biggest professional basketball game in Chicago since Game 2 of the 1998 Finals, would ride the tide and come out strong.

But this was a wire-to-wire beatdown. The Celtics played better defense, sure, but the Bulls were incredibly tentative and extremely sloppy with the basketball, and the Celtics made them pay. You can't hand the ball over to Rajon Rondo in the open floor and not expect to get burned. The Bulls did not seize the moment. They could win Game 4, but the Celtics have done what they needed to do already.

Paul Pierce earned his money. That was a bravura performance by a star who played like a Star. Big Baby played another sensational game. I was happy when he accompanied Ray Allen from Seattle on that draft night deal, but I certainly didn't think he'd get this good this fast.

But the most interesting development of the evening was the play of Stephon Marbury, who really helped the cause when it was still a game. If this is the way he's going to play ...

We'll see about that.

Meanwhile, I can't tell you how much I admire Gregg Popovich. Yes, I've seen teams come back from 26 in the second half. I've even seen a Sixers team come back from 31 down to beat the Celtics -- in Boston. But Pop knew that particular game against Dallas was over, and he started coaching for Saturday. Pop is the NBA's ultimate pragmatist, and he is also the NBA's best coach, period.

We're two games into the 2009 Celtics' playoff run. Here are a few random thoughts:

• Rajon Rondo needs to be on the floor for at least 40 minutes a night, and perhaps 45, and, hey, what's wrong with 48? The Celtics can't play without him.
• Aren't we veryveryvery close to declaring Stephon Marbury as being useless? It just ain't happenin'. Either he passes up obvious shots or he clangs 'em, but he is contributing zero to the effort, except, perhaps, a little effort.
• Don't forget the Bulls are playing without Luol Deng, who is long and athletic and just plain pretty good.
• Derrick Rose looks like somebody, right? Please tell me who.
• Tyrus Thomas may be better than I thought.
• Big Baby sure isn't bashful. And I love his footwork and his left hand.
• It's one thing to get an offensive rebound, and it's quite another to do something useful with it other than pitch it back out. Kendrick Perkins does both. He is that rarity of rarities, a big man who doesn't have to dribble before going back up for his follow-up attempt. And he is totally unique in that very often he puts it up without leaving his feet. I've never seen anyone at this level do that. He just catches it and shoves it back without jumping.
• Paul Pierce is being humbled. Can't recall the last time I've seen a great player get so many shots blocked, not even Larry. And the refs aren't giving him much love when he takes it to the hoop, either. He needs to figure something out before Game 3.
• But how wonderful is Ray Allen? That was one of the all-time clutch playoff performances in Game 2. They'd be 0-2 if he hadn't gone off in the fourth quarter, capped off by a very difficult shot with a 7-footer flying at him.
• Speaking of that 7-footer, you've got to admit that Joakim Noah is both fun and efficient. He has no face-up shot, and may never have a reliable face-up shot, but he has many other attributes, starting with the fact that he is a tough-minded, and surprisingly rugged, rebounder at both ends. He and Cleveland's Anderson Varejao each have the knack of being around the ball so often that it makes up for some other things they can't do, like shoot. Noah will be with us for a long, long time.
• Wouldn't you love to have Brad Miller? I stumbled upon this undrafted gem back in 1998, when he was a member of the Team USA crew that played in the World Championships in Athens the summer of the NBA strike. He was one of those guys around whom things just always seemed to happen. He then made himself into an All-Star, and now he is a very important core member of this Bulls team that is giving the Celtics so much trouble.
• Losing Leon Powe is huge. Must amend my confident prediction the Celtics would win this series to 50-50 at best. Scal's a wonderful guy, but if he does play he's no savior. Now perhaps Mikki Moore is about to channel his big Nets' season. That would help.
• If Del Harris and Bernie Bickerstaff aren't there to remind Vinnie Del Negro to save a timeout, why are they there? Or is it possible they told him and he ignored them? Nah.
• If it gets to a Game 7, I promise you the Bulls won't wee-wee in their shorts the way Atlanta did last year.

  If.

People have this all backwards. It's not all about the Celtics. A lot of this is about the Bulls.

Could the Celtics have played better in Game 1? Well, sure. But even with Ray Allen going 1 for 12, they win that game if Paul Pierce hits the second free throw, and the discussion is totally different. It's "oh, we dodged a bullet."

That won't be the only bullet the Celtics need to dodge. These Bulls are frighteningly talented. Don't people do any homework?

The team Chicago put on the floor Saturday afternoon had six first-round draft picks. It had six top-10 picks. It had four top-four picks.. It had a No. 1 pick named Derrick Rose. There would have been yet another Top 10 if Lual Deng had not gone out with a season-ending injury.

Susan Boyle's not the only person on the planet with talent.

The Bulls finished the season on a roll. They had beaten the (Garnett-less) Celtics the last time they played them, and in that game John Salmons, the lowest of all their No. 1s (26th), had 38 points. The Celtics certainly knew this was going to be a challenging series.

The Bulls looked very much like the Hawks of a year ago, only better. That's because they can bring veterans such as Brad Miller and Kirk Hinrich off the bench.

That said, even with all that went on, the Celtics would have won with relative ease if Tyrus Thomas had not had an out-of-body experience. He is a Sky Pilot, not a jump shooter. But he hit his first jumper and never stopped. It couldn't happen, but it did.

You young'uns may not know it, but we've seen this phenomenon before, too. Back in the early '80s, the Celtics lost a home playoff game to the 76ers because Caldwell Jones hit five jump shots. Caldwell Jones was a Samuel Dalembert/Joaquin Noah type, a long, tall fellow whose game was defense, rebounding, blocking shots and all that stuff. You would, you know, never run a play for Caldwell Jones. But on this one inexplicable evening he was Larry Bird, knocking down jumpers. There's no explaining these things.

The Celtics must play better, and they will. I would expect them to eliminate those killer run-outs. I would expect them to move the ball better. And I would expect Ray Allen to make more than one 8-foot floater.

But don't make the mistake of putting it all on the Celtics. The Bulls have a lot to offer, starting with Rose. Noah and Thomas are an intimidating inside shot-blocking duo. Ben Gordon is a latter-day Microwave.

Philly's not too bad, either. They're going to make Orlando play.

It's called the playoffs. Calm down and enjoy the show.

DETROIT -- I think we can safely say that Jim Bartolotta was the only player in the Hershey's College All-Star Game with a double major in Management Science and Physics, with a minor in Economics.

MIT, you know.

Thanks to the largesse of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), both the Division 2 Player of the Year, Josh Bostic of undefeated Division 2 champion Findlay (Ohio) and the Division 3 Player of the Year, our friend Jimmy Bartolotta, were invited to participate in the annual college All-Star game, which was played this year on Friday afternoon at Ford Field, and which was televised nationally by CBS College Sports.

Bartolotta didn't know anything about any of this until he returned home from a spring break trip to Mexico with his MIT basketball teammates. It had been a no cell phone, news blackout, get-away-from-it-all holiday on the beach. Upon arrival back in the states, he phoned his parents in Littleton, Colorado to let them know their boy Jimmy was back in one piece and he was told he'd be going to Detroit, both to play in this game and to receive the Division 3 Player of the Year award at the annual Guardians of the Game gala at the Max M. Fisher Music Theater on Sunday afternoon.

"I was really excited," he says, "but there was one problem. I'd been away from the game for a few weeks. I needed to get ready. So I called Coach (Larry) Anderson and said, 'I need a workout.'" So that's why you may have seen the light on at the MIT gym around 1 a.m. a week ago Friday. That was Jimmy B., hoisting jumpers and the like.

Bartolotta averaged 27.6 ppg this season as he led the Engineers to both their first NEWMAC Conference championship and the first Division 3 NCAA tourney bid in the school's history. MIT defeated Rhode Island Collge in its first game (73-68 in OT) before losing a 67-61 decision to Farmingdale State in the second round.

Bartolotta's "Hershey's" team was defeated by the "Reese's" squad, 105-100. His coach was ex-Arkansas mentor Nolan Richardson, who was accompanied by his long-time lieutenant, Missouri coach Mike Anderson. Predictably, his eight minutes of playing time were the fewest of anyone, but he didn't mind.

He had one basket, a nice lefty put-back in the lane. He had an artful lefty scoop shot spin out. and he rushed an open straightaway three-pointer he can ordinarily make in his sleep. Like just about everyone else involved, he was startled that sly old fox Richardson, in violation of every unwritten rule ever laid down in any All-Star Game, ordered his team into a dead-serious, major full-court press with about 10 minutes left and his team trailing by eight or so,

That press definitely rattled the opponents, and indeed the Reese's squad would take the lead before the Hershey team asserted itself behind BC's Tyrese Rice to secure the W.

I just had to ask Nolan if he realized that he had broken every rule known to man by putting on a press in an All-Star Game.

"Had to get back in the game, baby," he shrugged.

Tyrese had a game-high 24, to go along with three official assists (I promise you the stat guy robbed him of one assist and that three or four of his excellent passes were mishandled by not-too-alert big men). He was named the Hershey teams's Most Outstanding Player.

"I call this "Grind Time,'" he said of this period between the end of the season and the NBA draft. "Just working hard and getting ready."

He plans on being in the famed Portsmouth Tournament. What he needs is a chance to get into a more up-tempo style than he was allowed to by BC coach Al Skinner, who favors a more controlled half-court offense known as the "flex." It is well-known that Tyrese often chafed under that system.

As for Jimmy B., he, too has plans to play professional basketball. He is in the process of selecting an agent. He's already heard from Denmark, and he might also get involved in Australia.

He thoroughly enjoyed his experience, which, frankly, was unique in that this was an All-Star Game with some structure. People actually passed the ball, for example.

"I was sitting there with Josh Carter of Texas A&M," he says, "And we were agreeing it was nice to be in an All-Star Game that wasn't just a launchfest."

Now about those majors. I kidded him about being a Business major, since those people are now society's pariahs. "You think that's bad," he replied. "My Economics minor is actually in finance. Those people aren't too popular these days, either."

If all goes well, that stuff will go on the back burner for a while. "I'd like to play ball in Europe or Australia for a few years, and then see what happens," he said.

They told me this was a blog topic, but I didn't believe it. Now that I know it's true, I guess it's time to set the record straight.

I appeared on ESPN's "The Sports Reporters" on Sunday, March 8, as well as on "Around The Horn" on Monday, March 9, and in each case I looked like hell.

My face was red and cracked and,just plain yucky. I have been made aware that theories to account for this ranged from plastic surgery to an auto accident. Relax. It was nothing quite that drastic.

In the summer of 2007 I decided to have a dermatologist take a look at a couple of . . . let's call them "things" on my face and forehead. I mean, who wants skin cancer? The doctor was able to eliminate these particular "things" easily by zapping me with that freeze stuff, but she did say that, while those "things" were not cancerous, I was a candidate for skin cancer if I didn't remain careful.

She strongly recommended a procedure called "ALA," a laser deal. This is a preventive strike against skin cancer.

I had it, and you never knew it. The procedure took place on a Tuesday. It left my face red and sore and within a few days it began to peel. The peeling process was completed by Saturday night and I did a "Sports Reporters" five days after the procedure. No one said a word about my face.

On Tuesday, March 3, I had another one, a second preemptive strike. This time it also included spending five minutes in a thing called the "Blue Light," which was very unpleasant.

The doctor thought I might need a week to recover, but I figured, "Hey, it only took four days last time," and so I decided to keep my commitments to do "Sports Reporters" on Sunday and "Around The Horn" on Monday. As a bonus, I decided to keep a long-term commitment to moderate a panel at a Sports Symposium at MIT on Saturday.

Big mistake.

The doctor knew best. I should have listened to her. I wasn't much better by Saturday. The first person I ran into on my way into the building where the event was held was Mark Cuban. I'm surprised he didn't jump into a cab and head back to Dalllas on the spot.

So I did the panel and I did "Sports Reporters" and I did "Around The Horn," in part because I love doing the shows, in part to keep a commitment, and in part due to greed (got to be honest about that).

If I had to do it all over again, I never would have done those shows. It was unfair to the producers in question, as well as to the audience.

Now I must report to you that the procedure was a big success. My face is in better shape than it's been in years. And I would like to urge all you people out there who may have spent more time in the sun over the years than you realize to go get checked out. You, too, might benefit from an ALA. It's well worth a few days of moderate discomfort, during which, I can attest, you may look as if you've either had plastic surgery or been in an automobile accident.

But I promise you -- it beats the alternative.

I confess to a guilty pleasure: I love "Dancing with the Stars."

Don't mean to alarm anyone, but I like dance. I was quite the 10-year-old tap dancer, if I do say so myself. I am a huge fan of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, especially Astaire.

I'll watch any Astaire-Rogers movie (I mean, she was flat-out gorgeous, which is a nice bonus), and Kelly's acrobatic style is amazing, but I am here to say that the single greatest dance number in the history of Hollywood was the Astaire-Eleanor Powell "Begin the Beguine" collaboration in "Broadway Melody of 1940." This premise is completely non-negotiable.

So what does any of this have to do with sports? Simple. My initial interest in this particular program was Jerry Rice. I was curious, and he delivered the goods, finishing second. This made dancing chic, and so we have had the succession of athletes, from Emmitt Smith, who won the whole thing; to Clyde Drexler, who was horrible; to Appolo Ohno (another winnah); to Gille Villeneuve (yet another winnah); to Kristi Yamaguchi (yup,still another winner); and now to Lawrence Taylor, who is a middle-of-the packer.

This year we are, I think, four weeks in, and I am here to tell you it is over. For in this year's competition we have the single greatest dancer in the history of the show. His name is French actor Gilles Marini, and he is astonishingly good.

On Monday night he danced an Argentine Tango. Omigod. I thought Carrie Ann Inaba was going to leap over the table and rip off his clothes (she's pretty hot herself). I mean, she needed to get hosed down. Bruno Tonioni is naturally exuberant, but this performance taxed even his enormous powers of verbal approbation I'm telling you; Gilles Marini is both disgustingly good-looking and even more disgustingly talented.

The judges gave him three 10s. It's hard to get a 10 out of salty Brit Len Goodman, who twice gave scores two rungs below each of his colleagues last night. Three 10s is rare.

The public may not agree, but my advice to the people who run this show is do whatever you have to in order to make this "competition" come out right. It would be a collosal embarrassment, as well as a laughable miscarriage of justice, if this man does not win. I really don't see any reason to continue. Gilles Marini is the best dancer DWTS has ever had.

About halfway through his number, I said to my daughter, Jessica, "This guy is so good I don't think you could tell which was the professional and which was the amateur." Keep in mind that his partner is two-time winner Cheryl Burke.

And what does Carrie Ann Inaba say? "You can't tell who is the professional and who is the amateur!" Swear to God.

Case closed.

With all due respect to our fine colleagues in the newsroom, there is a reason why sports is in a separate section.

It's our world; not yours.

We ran a front page story last week whose premise was that nobody cared, or even knew about, the NCAA Regional that was taking place at the TD Banknorth Garden. The writer found 12 people who drew complete blanks. Mayor Tom Menino was even queried, and it turned out he didn't know who the four competing teams were.

Fine. Great. Exactly what does this prove, other than, as bad as professional surveys are, amateur surveys are even more useless?

The only thing that matters is that the arena was sold out twice, and on Saturday evening 18,871 people were treated to a Villanova-Pittsburgh game that will rank as one of the great sporting experiences of their lives.

But that front page story still bothers me, so let me ask the folks out front something.

There is a highly-publicized exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. I mean, in the art and museum world, this is a big deal. When an exhibit runs from March 15 through August 16, that's a significant statement.

So I propose that the news folk send a reporter out on the street, posing the following question: "Are you aware that the MFA currently has a big exhibit entitled 'Titian, Tintoretto. Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice' "

I bet they'll find a lot more than 12 people saying, "Duh." I'll be they'll find a lot more than 12 people saying, "The Museum of What Did You Say?"

I look forward to reading that story.

Not only was I there, but I could practically touch Jud Heathcote. Had he wanted any advice during that championship game 30 years ago tonight, I could have offered some.

But Michigan State didn't need any help. The Spartans won their first NCAA championship, rather easily defeating Indiana State, 75-64. Truth be told, it was a rather pedestrian game.

Larry Bird gives a helping hand to a fallen Earvin Magic Johnson (AP)

What? That's not what you've been told? Wasn't this the highest-rated basketball game ever, college, pro, or YMCA? Yes, that's true. Wasn't it the game that put college basketball on the map and set the forces in motion to create the juggernaut that is college hoops today?

It certainly was the highest-rated basketball game, before or since. Can't deny that. But as for the rest of it, myth has overtaken reality in a rather big way.

The game was important, no question. But please understand that it was the anticipation, the hype, and the simple fact that it took place that matters. The game itself was one-sided and dull. Michigan State was better, much better.

Larry Bird shot 7 for 21. He did have a game-high 13 rebounds, but he only had two assists, and this would probably be ranked as one of his five worst games of the season. Magic Johnson had 24 points on 8-for-15 shooting. That, combined with his 9-for-10 performance against Penn in the semifinal game, made him an easy choice as the tourney MVP.

So what happened? Number one, as I said, State was simply better. They won this game, and, in fact, got through an NCAA tournament in which they had successive victory margins of 31, 16, 18, 34, and 11 with minimal help from their second-best player, frontcourt swingman Jay Vincent, who would go on to have a viable NBA career.. A skinny forward from the Caribbean named Ron Charles filled in nicely. We'd have said he had "stepped up," except that phrase was unknown at the time. So we just said that he filled in nicely.

What must be understood is that Larry Bird was nowhere near 100 percent in that game. He had injured his left thumb earlier in the tournament. Ambidexterity being a Bird staple, not having full use of his left hand was a significant matter, and never mind the fact that no one is a one-hand shooter. The off-hand is a necessary support.

There didn't appear to be much wrong with him when he shot 16 for 19 from the floor as Indiana State nipped the Ray Meyer/Mark Aguirre DePaul squad on a Bob Heaton shot at the buzzer in the semis, but I believe he re-injured his thumb early in the championship game. I distinctly recall him wincing as he received a pass, and he was very much a one-arm player that night, several times rebounding with a one-hand scoop, rather than with his customary, highly orthodox, two-hand method.

But the thumb wasn't Larry's only problem. The Spartans had a masterful 2-3 zone, and, save for one second half 15-4 run, they never solved it. They also shot 10-for-22 from the free throw line. Even Larry missed three.

The buzz for this game had begun the instant the Saturday afternoon semifinal doubleheader was over and Michigan State and Indiana State were definitely going to be in the championship game. That Sunday and that Monday were two longest days I've ever encountered at an NCAA tournament, and I've been going to them since 1971.

What may account for the fuzzy memories of the game itself is the possibility that many people also watched the Saturday afternoon semifinal game in which Larry dropped 35 on the Ray Meyer/Mark Aguirre DePaul team, and they have blended in that remembrance with their recollection of the championship game. Even our Hoopster-in-Chief, who says he watched the game as a high school senior in Hawaii, says it was a great game.

Mr. President, I hate to contradict you, but it was a very ordinary game that just happened to be deciding the national championship.

But it set the table for the decade to follow. This was the first time Larry and Magic had met on the court, and though the game itself did not live up to the hype the very fact they had finally been matched up was exciting. These would engage in many memorable confrontations in the NBA, but the truth will always be that Magic Johnson and the Michigan State Spartans kicked the butt of Larry Bird and the Indiana State Sycamores on the night of March 26, 1979 at the Special Events Center on the campus of the University of Utah.

Big hype, so-so game. Don't let anyone tell you anything to the contrary.

DAYTON --- I'm kind of embarrassed. I didn't pay to get in.

But I cannot imagine anyone who did pay to see these first- and second-round games at the University of Dayton Arena complaining. This had to be the best site.

Our six games included a pair of No. 1 seeds being seriously threatened three times and marginally threatened once and two wonderful 8-9 games, one of which was capped by matching displays of individual brilliance by Tennessee's Tyler Smith and Oklahoma State's Byron Eaton, and the other going double OT while featuring both game-tying and game-winning threes by the same player, Siena's Ronald Moore. All six games had something very good to offer.

Pitt and Louisville had huge scares. The Panthers were extraordinarily fortunate not to have gone down to No. 16 seed East Tennessee State Friday. And they needed huge crunch-time performances by their trio of stars -- Sam Young, Levance Fields, and DeJuan Blair -- in order to get by No. 8 seed Oklahoma State, 84-76, Sunday.

Louisville wasn't exactly enjoying itself with 7:20 remaining in its game Sunday against No. 9 seed Siena. The No. 1 overall seed was trailing, 63-59, after the Saints finished off a 23-7 run, culminating in three consecutive steals from the Cardinals.

It was at this point that Terrence Williams reminded one and all just who is Louisville's best player. He converted a follow-up, stuck a right-corner three, and scored on a nice finishing scoop in transition to provide 7 of the 9 points in a 9-0 run that restored order and enabled the Cardinals to play somewhat comfortably the rest of the way in a 79-72 win.

A lot of this was the result of some ferocious defense, as Louisville answered what was a very serious challenge from a very serious team. In so doing, the Cardinals made a believer out of their own coach.

"They showed me for the first time what they were really made of, because I wasn't sure," said Rick Pitino."I had to see it with my own eyes. And I saw it with my own eyes. I knew we were a good basketball team. But we never really had to come back hard with everything going against us and make that run we made at the end of the game.
"I'm asking, 'Are we the No. 1-ranked team?' Well, we did it in the toughest league in basketball. We won the regular season in the Big East, but I still had seeds of doubt."
Pitino then paid homage to the Big East, saying that the only reason his team was able to contend with the particular style favored by Siena was that Villanova and Marquette play like the Saints. Forget this business about Villanova and Marquette being in the Big East and Siena in the MAAC. Siena, he said, is very legit, period.

"My respect level for Siena went way up," he said, "and it was already high. I'd like to take them all out to dinner when I go to Saratoga this summer. I don't know if that's legal, but I'd love to do it."

Meanwhile, Pitino has a right to crow about the Big East all he wants. That league has a phenomenal five schools in the Sweet 16, with a very real possibility of a Pitt-Villanova match-up Saturday night in Boston for the right to go to Detroit. The rival Atlantic Coast Conference has just North Carolina and Duke left, with Wake Forest flaming out in extraordinary fashion at the hands of Cleveland State, which then went out rather meekly to Arizona.

The Big 12 still has Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri but the Big 10, which was once dreaming of eight or nine spots in the field of 65, is down to two teams, Michigan State and Purdue. The Pac-10 is left with Arizona.

The other BCS leagues must all shut up for the time being. The Big East reigns supreme right now.

League founder Dave Gavitt has had a rough go of it with his health this past year or two. Presumably, he's feeling just a wee bit better right now. And what a farewell this is for commissioner Mike Tranghese, himself a basketball junkie of the highest order.

I'm getting hammered.

I'm 22-10 after the first round of the NCAA tournament and five of my predicted Sweet 16s are gone before we even get to the second round. So long, Wake Forest, West Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth, Butler and Temple.

I could have done just as well simply sticking exclusively with higher seeds. Had you done that, you'd be 22-10, too.

It turns out Dayton was a very good place to be Friday. Both 8-9 games were played out the way 8-9 games should be. No. 8 Oklahoma State and No. 9 Tennessee went through 18 lead changes and 12 ties, exchanging the lead dramatically with matching baskets by Tennessee's Tyler Smith and Oklahoma State's Byron Eaton in the final 24 seconds. The biggest spread in this entertaining game was 7, a 32-25 Tennessee first-half advantage.

Siena-Ohio State was another excellent game. The Saints from Loudonville, N.Y. managed to win this in double OT (game ending at 12:22, EDT) despite shooting an abysmal 33 percent (24-72). Of course, it does help if you get 23 offensive rebounds against your Big 10 foe.

About halfway through the second half I decided I was rooting for Siena, simply because I wanted to see them play again on Sunday rather than the Buckeyes. But I must say that Ohio State's 6-foot-7-inch sophomore Evan Turner was the best player on the floor (25-9-8), and I would have a hard time imagining there being a better player in the Big 10.

I was also rooting for Siena via the David-Goliath method. I was much more drawn to the band led by a student than I was to a band twice as large being led by a maestro with a baton. These are factors one never encounters in the NBA, and I say that with all due respect.

I was rewarded for my new allegiance to the Saints when guard Ronald Moore, one of those kids who force all big men to pay attention at all times if they don't want a broken nose or something, first hit a transition three with 3.9 seconds left to force a second OT and then hit another three with 3.5 seconds remaining in the second OT to win it.

Ohio State coach Thad Matta was screaming for someone to foul the kid before he tied the game up the first time, but I'd like to see this again on tape because I'm not sure anyone could even catch up to him, let alone foul him.

The two 1-16s also had interest. Let this be well understood: No. 16 East Tennessee should be feeling absolutely awful today, because THEY SHOULD HAVE WON THE GAME. All they had to do was make one or two of the 117 lay-ups they missed. Pitt was ready to go down. Levance Fields has no explosion at the present time.

Louisville was in trouble at the half against No. 16 Morehead State because Morehead was having an out-of-body experience (leading, 35-33) . Nature took its proper course in the second half.

But let the record show that Morehead State center Kenneth Faried is a legit player I could easily project into the next level. And that's why I love this tournament. How else would I get to see a kid like Kenneth Faried play?

There was a great roar with 6:35 left in the first half of the game between No. 1 seed Louisville and No. 16 seed Morehead State as Morehead's Steve Peterson tipped one in to give the Eagles a 24-22 lead.

People were still buzzing at halftime, since Louisville's lead was just 2 at 35-33.

Unlike East Tennessee, Morehead was in the game because of its offense, rather than despite it. The Eagles were actually making shots.

But reason and order have been restored. Louisville is in the midst of a 17-4 run to open the second half. The perfect records of 1s vs. the 16s will remain intact. There will be no history made here at the University of Dayton Arena.

It could have happened. I'm tempted to say it should have happened.

No. 1 seed Pitt coulda/shoulda gone down. Those kids from East Tennessee will have to live with the knowledge that they could have been the first 16 seed to knock off a number one if only they had simply made a couple of layups or a few more free throws. It's amazing how close they came to beating Pitt on a day when they were so abominable on offense.

East Tennessee simply out-fought and out-scrapped Pitt, which enabled the Buccaneers to stay in the game for more than 38 minutes while shooting 30 percent (23-75) from the floor. including 24 percent (9-37) in the first half. East Tennessee's three best players, Courtney Pigram, Kevin Tiggs and Mike Smith, shot a combined 27 percent (16-58). But here they were, down by just 2 at 57-55 and in possession of the basketball with 4:20 remaining.

Kevin Tiggs is 6 feet 4 inches worth of spunk and gristle. He's got a back story that will either break your heart or inspire you to chuck it all and go work for a humanitarian society.
But he also reckless and foolhardy, which is apparently what promoted him, on what had to be the most important possession of the game at that point, to set off an a foolish mission to the basket that resulted in a totally unanswered prayer that never came close to hitting the rim.

You knew what would happen next. Dejuan Blair powered in for a 3-point play at the other end. Now it was a 5-point deficit, and things would never be the same again, although the Bucs were still alive on the scoreboard with a minute and a half remaining. We had the predictable foul-a-rama ending..

So why were they in the game? Try 18 Pitt turnovers (13 in the first half) and an astonishing 20 offensive rebounds, leading to 25 second-chance points. (Imagine East Tennessee's percentage of first shot attempts). Nobody gets 20 offensive rebounds on Pitt. But East Tennessee, champs of the Atlantc Sun, did. They led to a whopping 75-55 shots attempted differential.

Many of those turnovers came via a press. If Pitt really is that susceptible to a press, some awfully long evenings or afternoons lie ahead for the Panthers.

"We're very disappointed, because we felt we could win," said coach Murry Bartow. "We just couldn't get over the hump, you know?"

Yeah, we know.

Blair finished with 27 points ad 16 rebounds, but what else is new? He is the best post player in America, If he had brought anything less than his usual A-game, Pitt would have made history. Bad history.

DAYTON, Ohio -- It's my favorite time of year. The only thing I dislike about the NCAA
Tournament is that I can only be in one place at a time, and that place right now is the University of Dayton Arena, which I last visited 30 years ago for a Holy Cross-Dayton NIT game.

For the third time since the Pod system was established, two No. 1 seeds are in the same place at the same time. This could not have happened in the old days, but now we're in the "Pod" era, and thus we have Pittsburgh here with the hopes of heading to Boston and Louisville with the hopes of heading to Indianapolis. I doubt if they'll be socializing in their off hours

Louisville, the No. 1 overall seed, drew an absolute no-hoper in Morehead State, which has been hanging around town for awhile since they participated in the play-in game Tuesday night. Speaking of which, I can understand why Dayton is the permanent site of that despicable exercise, since they drew 11,346 to see the Eagles dispatch Alabama State (and thus send everyone's favorite player, Chief Kickingstallionsims, home). It was estimated that 3,000 of those folks were from Morehead, which is about three hours from here, but still . . .

Now as soon as I just got through trashing Morehead, my friend Rick Bozich of the Louisville Courier-Journal informed me that the Eagles were the de facto state champs of Kentucky, since they beat Murray State. who beat Western Kentucky, who beat Louisville, who beat Kentucky. But they aren't beating Louisville here. I don't care if they bring 80,000 people up I-75, or wherever.

But Pitt will be playing a legitimate team. You say, well, what's the difference between a 16 and a play-in/16? (How do you like my Hubie Brown imitation?) The difference in this case is that East Tennessee has something of a pedigree.

East Tennessee is a little gem of a program. ESPN.com raised a few eyebrows last summer when it ranked the top 300 college basketball programs, in order, based on everything from achievement to interest and the crew from Johnson City came up 82d, which put them in the top 27 percent, ahead of the likes of Tennessee, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Georgia , Auburn, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, DePaul, Bradley, Clemson, California, and Florida State.

The Buccaneers are in the tournament for the eighth time, and they have proven to be a very tough out. Sixteenth-seeded East Tennessee lost to a No. 1 seed, Oklahoma, by one point in 1989, and along the way low-seeded East Tennessee teams have lost to Iowa (1991), Wake Forest (2003), and Cincinnati (2004) by three points each.

And when they actually had a decent (relatively speaking) placement -- a 14th seed -- Buccaneers squad took out mighty Arizona, a No. 3, in 1992.

OK, that was then.This particular team is built around three seniors who can play this game. Courtney Pigram, Mike Smith and Kevin Tiggs are each 1,000-point scorers. "We know where their shots are going to come from," surmises Pitt coach Jamie Dixon.

It's a fearless group. "I really like this bunch," says coach Murray Bartow. "I've got some very confident kids, some tough kids who will compete very hard."

Q- How will they handle the very formidable DeJuan Blair inside?

A- Probably no better or worse than anyone else.

I'm not calling an upset. I'm just saying stranger things have happened than East Tennessee State giving Pitt a game.

ATLANTA -- "Gary! Gary! Gary!"

That was the chant coming out of the Maryland section with about 25 seconds to go, the Maryland fans realizing the conquest was complete. Mighty Wake Forest was going down, and the Terps would be playing Saturday afternoon in the ACC tournament semifinals.

"Gary" is, of course, Gary Williams, the former American University, Boston College, and Ohio State mentor who is wrapping up his 20th season coaching at his alma mater and who was himself savoring one of the sweetest triumphs he's had in a long while, a 75-64 victory over a Wake team that has more talent, but, at the present time, far less heart than than the Maryland Terps.

You'd have to think this victory would ensure an NCAA bid for the Terps, who are now 20-12 and on the upswing. It's no lock, but it does look good.

Boy, these seasons seem long. When Wake Forest took care of BC by a 83-63 score back on Jan. 14, the Deacons looked like Final Four material. They seemed to have every base covered. Now they look somehow disoriented, starting with guard Jeff Teague, who was playing as well as any lead guard in America back then and who tonight was never a factor, not crashing into the scoring column until the game was 29 minutes old and his team was down by 13 (52-39).

The Terps have had a long, strange trip themselves. They bested potential Final Four finalist Michigan State early on, but they also somehow managed to lose at home to Morgan State. They lost by 41 at Duke.

Gary got himself embroiled in a battle with his own AD's office and there were cries for his scalp as people pointed out that since winning the national title the Terps have sputtered.

There may be some quibbles with Gary's recruiting of late, but never doubt that the man can coach. This is the time you want to be at your best, and right now his Terps are a committed, spunky, ball-moving, defending all-for-one-and-one-for-all basketball team, led by a wonderful all-around 6-foot-5 guard from Caracas named Greivis Vasquez.

Vasquez continued his brilliant play with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists against Wake Forest. Three teammates joined him in double figures as Maryland never surrendered the lead after gaining a 28-26 advantage late in the half.

Fear the Turtle.