March Madness Links, 3.0

Steve Serby on Davidson: "This is a basket ball team for anyone and everyone who holds dear to his or her heart the memory of the late Jim Valvano dancing in Albuquerque the night North Carolina State beat the Phi Slama Jama; of a frumpled Rollie Massimino embracing anyone and everyone inside Rupp Arena 23 springs ago; of Hickory High in the movie "Hoosiers." The Davidson Wildcats didn't win a national championship last night. It only seemed that way."

Davidson v. Wisconsin: "Baby-faced assassin Stephen Curry, the singular star of March Madness, with 70 points in two games, aims his slingshot at No. 3 seed Wisconsin tonight, and if center Thomas Sander can be treated to a standing ovation while pumping gas back on campus in Davidson, N.C., imagine what will be in store for him should the 10th-seeded Wildcats continue to write the kind of Cinderella story George Mason wrote two years ago."

Paul Schwartz: "[Roy]Williams maintains playing in his home state is not the massive home-court advantage everyone is making it out to be, going as far as to say "I don't believe in that [garbage]" and insisting "If my team plays well we have a chance to win in Siberia. If my team plays poorly, we have a chance to lose in Chapel Hill, which we did twice this year."

Roger Rubin: "This wasn't the way David Padgett envisioned it coming out of high school. Sure he foresaw big games in the NCAA Tournament and formidable opponents like North Carolina. But he was supposed to be playing for coach Roy Williams, not against him."

Hoops Weiss: "Now that Jeff Capel has spurned an overture from South Carolina and signed a six-year extension to stay at Oklahoma, we could see that SEC school make a run at Travis Ford of UMass, who has his team in the NIT Final Four."

Mark Blaudschun: "And while the 6-foot-11-inch Padgett is not the sole reason Louisville is still playing, he is a prime reason. Pitino says that in 30 years of coaching, only two other players, Mark Jackson of the Knicks and former Providence star Billy Donovan, have had a similar combination of competitive skills, leadership qualities, and unselfishness."

Jeff Goodman on Louisville: "Derrick Caracter is well, Derrick Caracter. Pitino has finally accepted that the over-hyped big man isn't going to change his ways and will always be tagged with the 'potential' label, but may never live up to the hype he got before high school. 'They are a different breed,' Pitino said of the Northeast sophomore trio of Caracter, [Edgar] Sosa and [Earl] Clark. 'They aren't normal kids.'"