Thursday Morning Dump

Today is the day we have all been waiting for.

Carpe Diem.

Wait, AND its St. Patrick's Day. #drinksup

- If you are in last minute need of bracket advice, here are our regional breakdowns, including a Kyrie Irving update

- Pat Forde provides one of the March Madness no-questions-asked-must-read: Dream and nightmare scenarios for every tournament team

- Luke Winn details how power programs adjust to the constant carousel of players and personnel

- Eamonn Brennan speaks the truth about the "First Four". (Did you guys see the UAB/Clemson game? That's exactly why we don't want 96 teams in the tournament)

- Greg Couch believes that the "First Four" screws with the rhythm of opening weekend of March Madness

- ESPN's Doug Gottleib is known for being, umm, just a bit outspoken. This time he's gained the ire of Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo

- Mike Miller wonders if it's Marcus, not Markeiff that's the key to Kansas' tournament survival. Miller also compiled a list of Final Four picks from around the internet (Ummm....Mike, you forgot to ask me. Georgetown, Wisconsin, Ohio State, SDSU)

- Ryan Greene has a list of ten teams that can win it all

- Joe Sheehan provides a glimpse at the not-too-distant-future, where four mid-majors make the Final Four

- Adam Zagoria reports that New Jersey is being heavily represented by back-court members of NCAA tournament teams

- David Steele wonders if anybody will be able to upstage Kemba Walker

- Mark Schlabach provides a solid-read on Florida big-man Vernon Macklin. The former McDonald's All-American spent two years at Georgetown before transferring to Florida where he was able to get a fresh start

- Richard Deitsch offers up a handful of burning questions heading in to the first day of tournament action

- There are already a handful of head coaching jobs availible in the power-six conferences. But Arizona head coach Sean Miller has no interest in applying for any of them

- North Carolina State parted ways with Sidney Lowe earlier in the week. The school should take the advice other programs have used and not hire a superstar coach

- Texas Tech has officially interviewed Billy Gillespie for their head coach opening

- Dick Vitale's management team sent a cease-and-desist letter to a website which depicts him as a cartoon

- Tennessee Athletic Director Mike Hamilton has awful timing. Two days before the Volunteers first round tournament game, he made comments regarding Bruce Pearl's
bump violation". But word on the street is that Bruce Pearl is already done as head coach

- A breakdown of how the elite coaches in the country have performed in March Madness

- Remember when Kansas State's Jacob Pullen said he wasn't going to play in the N.I.T? Well he was right. Now he has a chance in the NCAA Tournament to prove all the doubters wrong

- Former-Duke superstar Grant Hill responded to the remarks made by Jalen Rose during the "Fab-5" documentary

- Enes Kanter hasn't played a second of regular season basketball, but that hasnt stopped the scouts from keeping an eye out for him

- LeBron James thinks Duke will take their talents to back-to-back National Championships

- We mentioned yesterday that a portion of the original court of UCLA's Pauley Pavillion was being auctioned away. Well, the Athletic Director is not too pleased that the hardwood is being sold to the highest bidder

- A solid top-10 list of the biggest/most damaging pre-tournament injuries in the last 20 years

- A tournament bracket based on academic performance

- A Hater's Guide to March Madness

- For anybody wanting to get into sports journalism, you might want to take a gander at the next three links. First, read this. Then read this (the response), finally, read this (The apology). This is some quality back-and-forth between a young buck with loads of talent and an established writer known for his talent. If you have the time, this is must-read stuff

- A twitter tournament bracket of tweetz

- Jimmer Fredette's brother is an up-and-comming hip-hop star (or so we're told), and he just released (uploaded) a song about the NCAA Tournament. (I myself prefer this tournament song