"No mas" for Michigan

As in the whole state, regarding the NCAA men's hoops tourney. The Univ of Mich and Detroit Mercy politely did their curtsies and exited stage left last week.

Michigan State was their last hope. Then they played Louisville.  Though it had nothing to do with sexual orientation or closets, the Spartans got "outed" in a large way. They were out-shot, out-boarded, out-ran, out-hustled, out-toughed, out-coached and, in the end, just plain OUT. This wasn't just a defeat. It was a BEATDOWN.

Conversely, for a while there, Michigan's arch-rival state of Ohio still had 4 teams in the tournament. Cincy, Ohio U, Ohio State, and Xavier. OSU beat Cincy later on, and it's unlikely Ohio U will get past mighty North Carolina, or Xavier beat Baylor, but for now, there can be no question which state has bragging rights when it comes to men's college hoops.

Perhaps Michiganders shouldn't take it too hard. After all, the Cheesers just got nulled and voided too. Wisconsin went down in a thriller to Syracuse, and the Florida Gators snapped their jaws shut on Marquette.

Sports Illustrated's legendary jinx held yet again. They had picked Michigan State to win it all (so did I, maybe even a worse jinx) in a close championship game with North Carolina. But the Tar Heels' point guard broke a bone in his wrist last week, which required surgery. That doesn't sound good.

Syracuse is really deep with talent, but without arguably their best player, Fab Melo, who got kicked to the curb for the tournament due to some sort of eligibility issues. Don't get me wrong. I like their head coach Jim Boeheim, and hope he does well, but the Orange has somewhat of a waxy tournament history. The more the heat goes up, the softer they get.

Kentucky is still alive and well. Some might say when it comes to recruits, they're Blue Chip U, but then there's that perception of head coach John Calipari running a "one and done" program to feed players to the NBA. Regardless, those guys are really good.

So who's going to win it?

Beats me. I'm still hoping Slippery Rock makes a comeback. Whatever happened to them anyway?