Brick House
Posted April 6, 2011, 1:55 PM ET

The NCAA basketball tournament was terrific.....it's a shame it ended with a thud.

It was painful to sit in Reliant Stadium and watch one shot clang off the rim, followed up with another brick. I'm not sure I've seen anything like it in a championship setting.

In the end, UConn and the Big East prevailed and it allowed Jim Calhoun a chance to capture his third national title. The 68 year old coach is in esteemed company with his third title....Wooden, Rupp, Krzyzewski, Knight....and now, Calhoun, have won three or more NCAA championships.

You can say whatever you want about Jim Calhoun and the NCAA findings, but you can't deny that winning 3 or more belts is impressive.

While they celebrate in Storrs, the flip-side to the story is Butler.

The Bulldogs had another magical run to the title game, but fell short again.

I had the chance to be in the Butler locker room after the game on Monday, conducting interviews for Sirius/XM, and I came away with an even bigger appreciation for the quality and class of student-athlete that represents the Horizon League team.

You can understand their disappointment of losing the big game and playing poorly in the process, but the kids were first-class and so is their coach, Brad Stevens. I have even more respect for their program after seeing the way they handled defeat.

I can assure you that a part of me will be a fan of Stevens and Butler forever, with the way they handled themselves in Houston.

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A little closer to home, the NC State Wolfpack found their next head coach.

How about all the time wasted speculating about names like Shaka Smart, Sean Miller, Gregg Marshall and Mick Cronin?

It turns out that the man NC State needs is an ESPN back-up analyst.

Gottfried is an entertaining guy and he'll make you feel good about life in general. I even believe he'll do a really good job luring in big-time talent to the Wolfpack program. But the biggest question surrounding Gottfried is his game-day coaching, and whether he'll be up for the challenge of Tobacco Road?

Listen, there aren't many coaches in America that are on the same level as K and Roy, so a more realistic approach is if Gottfried can get the Pack to be a consistent upper-half team in the ACC?

I think given NC State's facilities, support, passion and history, it should be a no-brainer.

You gotta give the man a chance to prove his worth....and for NC State, we all know they should be patient. It's been too long since the Pack was a factor in ACC hoops.

For Mark Gottfried, he must feel like he's hit the lottery....one day on the set of ESPNU....the next day he's making $1.2 million per year as a head coach on Tobacco Road.

We should be so lucky.....I wish him the best.

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The Masters begins this week at the famed Augusta National.

Everybody has jumped on Phil Mickelson's bandwagon, since he is the defending champ and coming off an impressive win the week before in Houston.

I can understand why.

It is interesting to see and watch Tiger Woods, too.

Unlike last year's bizarre "TMZ" approach, where Woods made his 2010 debut after a much-publicized affair, or twenty.

This year he comes to Augusta as the 7th ranked player in the world and playing in the shadow of a number of Euros along with his rival Mickelson.

The last time I interviewed Jim Nantz at FNZ was way back in October, and he claimed that Tiger would be the favorite at Augusta.

I disagreed.

Nantz owes me dinner.

It doesn't mean he can't flash his brilliance and win again....the course is perfect for his game. The bigger question surrounds the condition of his game. Tiger is still tweaking his swing....he's still tweaking his life......and his confidence has been affected, as well.

Picking a winner this week is like picking a winner in March Madness. There are some natural picks for all the right reason, but something tells me that we're due for another surprise winner.

I'm not saying that a Zach Johnson-wannabe is wearing the green jacket on Sunday, but this year nobody this side of Lefty is blowing me away.

I can't wait to watch it....and I can't wait to remind Nantz that dinner is on him.

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The Major League Baseball season is underway....and the way my San Francisco Giants are starting, I'm still trying to figure out how they won the World Series last year.

My guys have been inept, but it's early.

However, it's not too early to unveil my "Packman 9".

This will be the 5th year that I have listed 9 teams that have zero chance at making the playoffs. I select at least one team in each division, and I pick the teams during the first week of the season.

In the four previous years, I have have correctly picked 34 out of 36 teams that failed to make it to the post-season.....including a perfect 9-for-9 the last two years.

To be fair, I should note that the two teams that I missed (Colorado '07 and Tampa Bay '08) both made the playoffs, and lost in the World Series.

If you would like to try it at home, be my guest....and with that said, here are my 2011 "Packman 9" teams: