Marquette over Carolina? A man can dream ... that Duke showed Carolina how to lose

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If you're a Marquette fan like I am -- and really, isn't everybody? -- you have to be at least a little encouraged from the results of Thursday's games:

-- A nice victory by fellow Big East survivor UConn.

-- A superb team effort by the anti-Jimmers of Florida.

-- Butler's cool takedown of Wisconsin (leaving Marquette as the lone Cheeseheads still alive).

-- And especially, Arizona's defeat of defending champion Duke.

Wait? Did I say defeat? Arizona didn't just defeat the Dookies; the Wildcats destroyed them.

And so maybe, just maybe, another underdog can take down another ACC heavyweight.

All I know is that Marquette already is playing with house money. Many critics said The Gold shouldn't even have been invited to the tournament, and now here they are one of the final dozen still standing. So win or lose, it already has been pretty sweet.

My wife and I will be joining some fellow Charlotte-area Marquette alums area to cheer on our beloved Golden Warrior Eagles. We'll probably be outnumbered 50-to-1 at the sports bar, meaning there is potential for great public embarrassment if the Tar Heels thrash our lads from Milwaukee.

Nevertheless, this is sports. And in sports, you really do never know ... which is why it's the only reality TV worth watching.

The Dookies went down hard. Maybe next it will be Carolina's turn to fall.

I've got to admit I'd be a little more confident if Arizona would let us borrow Derrick Williams for a couple of hours.
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Jimmer's not even a nose hair on basketball's Mount Rushmore

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Of all the silly things uttered by coach-turned-yakkers during the NCAA tournament's opening weekend, the silliest had to be St. Joseph's Phil Martelli saying Jimmer Fredette might be having the greatest season ever by a college basketball player.

Talk about a man-crush.

Greatest season ever? Helllloooo! Pick any of Oscar Robertson's seasons. Or Pete Maravich's.

How about Lew Alcindor? David Thompson? Bill Russell?

You want more recent? Is anything The Jimmer doing better than what Kevin Durant did as a Texas freshman in 2006-7? Or what Adam Morrison did at Gonzaga a year earlier?

OK, maybe Martelli meant that, given the relative lack of talent at BYU, Fredette might be the most important player to his team.

If that's what Martelli meant ... he's still delusional.

I mean, Larry Bird carried -- and I mean CARRIED -- Indiana State within an eyelash of the 1979 national title. Bill Bradley was a one-man show for Princeton's 1965 Final Four team. Jerry West and Magic Johnson had some pretty fair seasons for some OK teams, too.

Oh, and all Wilt Chamberlain did in his two years at Kansas was average about 30 points and 20 rebounds ... but I guess he was no Jimmer.

And those are just off the top of my chrome dome. If I felt like doing research, I'd probably come up with a dozen or two more.

Isn't it enough to say that The Jimmer probably is this year's top player, not to mention a guy who is darn fun to watch?

Isn't The Jimmer hyped enough without Phil Martelli suggesting he belongs on some kind of college hoops Mount Rushmore?

I'd like to give Martelli a pass and call him a smart guy who simply got swept up in Jimmer Fever.

Or I could take a page from Martelli's book and say that might have been the stupidest comment in television history.
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