The information I was able to dig up is that the Championship Game was first played on a Monday night in 1973 (Bill Walton's amazing performance with 21 of 22 shooting), and that the Third Place game was last played in 1981 (Virginia beat Louisiana State 78-74).

There also used to be Regional Third Place games. The last year for those was 1975.

cbssportline.com is a good source for this type of history.

I'm happy to see King pick UCLA tonight. The conventional wisdom (as defined by the Clark Kellogs and Dick Vitales of the world) has underestimated UCLA all tournement. Memphis was supposed to be too fast, LSU was too strong in the front court. No one seems to be acknowledging that UCLA embarassed these two teams, despite their size, quickness, etc. Now everyone seems to be saying the same thing over again- Florida's front court is too good and Florida's tempo will be too quick. Hmmm. What about the possibility that UCLA's defense will shut them down, just like the last two opponents? The difference will be how UCLA shoots. If they are as cold as they were against Memphis, Florida has a good chance. But if their shooters get hot there is no reason to think Florida will fare differently than LSU. In any case, there's a good chance we're not going to see more than 120 points scored.

I think the real reason the media hasn't been high on UCLA is the star factor. How many writers met their deadline by cranking out a piece on Big Baby Davis or Joakim Noah (his Dad is a famous tennis player!). Farmar and Afflalo are good solid players, but don't really have superstar qualities. I've noticed most sites have decided the best angle is to write about UCLA's rebounding machine/boa constrictor eating forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute.

The style of officiating of women's NCAA hoops has become a major risk to player injury. Traditionally, they were slow to call almost any category of violation. The results produce games with lots of wild slapping at the ball (up to the elbows) that produce steals, flying leaps for rebounds, and piles of bodies on the floor with no calls. While a slow whistle might have been OK under the old "hald-court" rules, it needs to change.

UNC and MD this year are by far the two fastest, most physical, and roughest women's teams I have ever seen. If the refs don't initially call fouls on the rougher stuff, a game between these two quickly escalates into a slugfest and puts all the players at risk. And it goes both ways. While Latta was too aggressive at the very end, she was held and taken down near the endline with a minute or two to play. I do not think the (lacks of) calls last night favored either team, but they probably enraged fans of each team. Carolina needs it best game against MD, and they didn't last night: weak FT and 3PT shooting and rarely able to get into transition.

As a biased Tarheel fan, I believe that this MD team routinely undercuts their opponents on drives and rebounds. In the first UNC-MD game this year, there were multiple resulting injuries to UNC players. I saw that game in person and was amazed at just how out of control it was (and I have watched a lot of ACC men's basketball). That was possibly the worst-officated game I have ever seen, live or TV. The ref's were too slow to handle the transition game of either team, allowed "scrums" of 5-6 players on the floor with no call, and were just incompetent. When they did call a foul (often a "touch" one), the offending team and fans got angry about all the previous no-calls. It is harder for MD to do this against Duke because Bales is so big. Help!! I may be forced to pull for Dook in the final because I really hate how BF works the refs (and tells her team that "they never get a call")! Horrors!! :) End of my rant.

I seriously hope that the ACC and NCAA will focus on this problem before next season because each of these teams return nearly all their players and the current trend is dangerous for all of them.

In the hype before Saturday's games it seemed like UCLA was completely ignored in the George Mason cinderella run and the "obviousness" of LSU's coming victory over UCLA. It wasn't just King, but nearly every commentator seemed to just assume LSU would win. LSU was an amazing team and I don't think anyone expected the blowout that happened, but it was surprising how little attention was paid to UCLA and the possiblity they might win considering their great run this year. I don't have much of a point, but that it seems like UCLA and how good they are has flown under the national media radar, even though they were the PAC-10 tournament and regular season champs! What's the deal with that??? Ben Howland is a great coach, and he's much more the coach of the year to me than Roy William's battle back from the championship to middle of the road with his pick of the best recruits in the country.....

I also want to complain about how much I CAN NOT STAND Billy Packer. Am I the only one, or are my feelings at a frieghtening height? King is right about how GMU has proven mid-majors deserve to be there and how that has been pretty consistently proven over the years, but Packer seems destined never to learn that lesson. Does anyone remember his animosity towards St. Joe's two years ago? I know he knows much more about the history of the game, but I mean the guy is PROUD to say he doesn't read the internet. He doesn't know what's he's talking about most of the time! Most of his 'key points' before the games were proven completely wrong. During the LSU-UCLA game, even though UCLA was destroying (completely destroying) LSU, all he could keep talking about was how LSU beat Duke! That was a great win, but they can't use it to beat the team beating them now Billy!