No one has perfect bracket

So, how's your bracket this morning?

ESPN, which is staging its 14th annual NCAA Tournament contest and drew more than 5 million entries this year, had no one alive with a perfect bracket heading into Thursday's regional semifinals. However, eight brackets had correctly picked 46 of the first 48 games.

Of the entries, nearly 85 percent predicted the four No. 1 seeds -- Louisville, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Connecticut -- would make it to the Sweet 16, and, of those, 10 percent had the four No. 1s advancing to the Final Four.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, six entries had Arizona, Gonzaga, Purdue and Xavier advancing to the Final Four.

• NEW BLACK HOLE -- During Wednesday's ESPN2 telecast of the National Invitation Tournament quarterfinal game between Saint Mary's and San Diego State at Cox Arena, the cameras frequently panned to the Aztecs' student section behind the visiting team's basket. And when the Gaels' Patty Mills, an 86 percent free-throw shooter, missed a critical foul shot late in the game, ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla said it was like being at an Oakland Raiders game with all the noise being made from the colorful characters in the stands.

When the Aztecs won 70-66, the students stormed the court to celebrate while the players held aloft apples to signify their upcoming trip to New York next week to face Baylor in the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden.

Had the same situation taken place in Oakland, the denizens of the infamous "Black Hole" wouldn't have stormed the field in celebration. However, they might have taken the apples and thrown them at the other team as it left the field.

• CALM CALHOUN -- Veteran Jim Calhoun watchers were paying close attention Wednesday during the Connecticut basketball coach's news conference at the NCAA Tournament West Regional in Glendale, Ariz., to see if he would erupt like an Alaskan volcano in the wake of a Yahoo! Sports report about one-time UConn recruit Nate Miles.

Yahoo pointed out possible extra benefits, illegal contact and a relationship with a sports agent at the heart of the story. Instead of using the podium as his bully pulpit the way he normally does, Calhoun calmly said the school was looking into it and it wouldn't distract from his team's preparation for Thursday's Sweet 16 game with Purdue.

Calhoun never passes up a shot at the media. In his attempt to diminish the Yahoo piece, Calhoun said he didn't read the story, at first calling it a newspaper article and then amending it to a blog entry, claiming it was something he couldn't get hold of.

This is the same Calhoun who last month lambasted a person who asked him a question about him being the highest-paid employee in the state of Connecticut at $1.6 million a year. That ticked off Calhoun more than a lengthy investigative report that could put his program in hot water with the NCAA.

However, by not going off on Yahoo, Calhoun might have given the story even more credibility.

COMPILED BY STEVE CARP LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL