NCAA Tournament Fanhouse Exclusive

MEMPHIS – After Roy Williams answered his last question Sunday night at the press conference following his Tar Heels' easy 72-60 win over Oklahoma to advance to next weekend's Final Four, a North Carolina sports information official barked out some trivia for the departing media: the Tar Heels won for the first time all season with forward Tyler Hansbrough, the defending player of the year, and shooting guard Wayne Ellington failing to score in double figures.

INDIANAPOLIS -- On his tippy toes, he might be 5-foot-10, very easy to lose in the enormity of a football stadium where faces look like matrix dots and crowd noise drifts to the ozone. But no one strikes a larger pose in the Midwest today than Tom Izzo, public defender of the Big Ten's battered self-esteem. If trends and hipness start on both coasts in America, college basketball in the heartland also has been taking on an irrelevant, plodding look, to the point I stopped watching.

And I live in Chicago.

MEMPHIS – The last time I came to Memphis for a heavyweight title bout it turned out to be the dud most everyone figured it would be. It was 2002 and Lennox Lewis battered and befuddled Mike Tyson for eight rounds in The Pyramid before Tyson toppled over and could not get up.

This time, Sunday afternoon in FedEx Forum, I expect to see a more competitive match: 6-foot-10, 255-pound Blake Griffin v. 6-9, 250-pound Tyler Hansbrough.

PHILADELPHIA -- Uh, oh. Jeff Adrien was posing for the cameras and woofing, enjoying this blowout a little too merrily. You could say it was a "Yo, Adrien!'' moment in Rocky Balboa's city, and while Connecticut was comfortably en route to a 92-66 rout of Texas A&M, my eyeballs instinctively shifted to his coach, Jim Calhoun, who doesn't suffer self-posturing well and needs no stress in his life.

Impressively, he handled the scene with aplomb. Calhoun looked at Adrien, lifted both hands in a stop-it gesture and simply said, "Don't.'' We can't promise he'll handle future flashpoints as calmly, knowing him as a maniacal competitor who paces the sideline, chomps gum furiously and might emasculate an official as quickly as he shouts down a political activist inquiring about his salary. "I did yell a couple things out,'' he said to laughter in the media room. "My wife will tell me about them later.''

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Oh, don't you just hate him? Tyler Hansbrough broke the Atlantic Coast Conference career scoring record Thursday, appropriately hitting a free throw after another team nearly dislodged his face. And you know what the lout did when the crowd, lathered in Carolina blue, stood as one and gave him a loud, warm, lengthy standing ovation?

He thought about the opponent, Radford, and how the Highlanders from the Big South Conference were making only their second NCAA tournament appearance. Seems Hansbrough didn't want to demean them in any way by acknowledging his accomplishment. What a complete jerk, huh? Kind of guy you wouldn't want even Cruella de Vil to marry.

'HouseCast is FanHouse's podcast. Watch out. Or you might just get what you're after.

Can you take any more March Madness inundated into your domepiece? Of course you can. It's the number one reason why you keep coming back to FanHouse's NCAA Tournament Coverage, and it's definitely the reason why you were waiting, desperately, of course, for the second half of FanHouse's NCAA Podcastactular.

In 6.2, Ryan Wilson and Will Brinson chat with FH's own Eamonn Brennan (who moonlights on the very, mucho excellente college basketball blog The Dagger) about nostalgic brackets, hating on North Carolina or Duke, sleepers, whether you should fill out a single bracket or not, and a myriad of other college basketball topics.

Hit the jump to listen to the whole thing in our embeddable player.

Burning Down the 'House is FanHouse's podcast. Watch out. Or you might just get what you're after.

FanHouse brings the podcast pain once again this week with a focus on, well, what else but the NCAA Tournament? On Tuesday's episode, Will Brinson, Michael David Smith, and Ryan Wilson are joined by ESPN's own college basketball expert and radio host, Doug Gottlieb (old-school shot of Doug in the middle, above). It's obviously one of his busiest times of the year, so we were thrilled to talk college hoops with him for nearly 30 minutes.

Hit the jump for downloadable segments, or to listen to the whole thing in our embeddable player.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Making it to the Big Dance is the moment every college player dreams about, but for members of the Cal State Northridge basketball team this achievement means so much more. This year's team had to overcome challenges on and off the court time and time again, only to remain standing tall.

In this exclusive FanHouse report, we were there with the Cal State players and coach Bobby Braswell as they get the news that they made the NCAA tournament, with top-seeded Memphis waiting in the first round. And no, they aren't backing down from this challenge either.

Check out the video after the jump.

NEW YORK – Terrence Williams curled his body into a crouch, half walking on his tiptoes, half stalking the prey. He was heading toward the Louisville bench, but on the way he made sure to jump-and-bump any Cardinals in sight, to yank on their jerseys and double slap their chests.

NEW YORK (March 13) -- What a breeze, overtime.

"We're getting used to it, yeah," Jonny Flynn, Syracuse's precocious sophomore guard was saying as he bounced off the Madison Square Garden parquet early Saturday morning, destined for another late-night dinner of fast food and an evening date in the Big East championship. His legs were rubber, his energy indefatigable, his smile glowing like a neon light. They don't know for sure, but Flynn's teammates swear he grins in his sleep. And really, who can blame him?