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.