Off we go

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.