Yesterday’s Final Four games started out very interesting, and then ended with a dull thud. Here’s a collection of thoughts:

1. I know that Bill Self won coach of the year, and I can’t really begrudge that, but Tom Izzo is unquestionably the coach of the tournament. Twice in a row his team has had to play heavily favored Big East behemoths, and twice he has masterfully dissected them. In neither case was it just a question of coming out a head in a close one, either. The Spartans have dictated the style of play, effectively shut down the key players, and looked totally in command for the second half. Michigan State has the fewest potential pros of the Final Four teams, but Izzo has been more than able to overcome that. Incredibly impressive.

2. I get the real feeling that we just saw Jim Calhoun coach his last game at UConn.

3. That second game wasn’t even remotely close. Villanova got down from the start, only made one run – and not a serious one at that – and then rolled over and begged for mercy. Along with everyone else in the country I knew that the Wildcats were outclassed, but I expected them to be far scrappier and hungrier than they were. It was as if they knew that they had gotten farther than they were expected to, and that their time had come. They weren’t terrible, they just clearly weren’t good enough, and they didn’t play like they wanted to prove otherwise.

4. I was very surprised when I looked at the scoresheet after the game and saw that Hansbrough only went for 18 and 11. He seemed to be everywhere, and he was clearly in the head of each and every Villanova player. His presence keyed so much of the other stuff that North Carolina had to do. I have been hard on Hansbrough this year, but for the first time this season I was fully and truly impressed.

5. In another article elsewhere I predicted that the Big East was going to win it all Oops. I’d take that back if I could.

6. You may know that I am an unapologetic Big Ten fan, so take this with a grain of salt if you want, but I think that Michigan State’s presence in the final game is a bg statement for the conference. The Big Ten doesn’t get a lot of respect nationally because of the style of play and the lack of flashy players, but it is a gritty, tough, thoroughly enjoyable, and wildly competitive league that deserved every one of the tournament bids it got. In fact, I argued then and I would argue even stronger now that it deserved an eighth – Penn State had to settle for the NIT, and it went right through to the end and won it.

7. What a compelling final – the almost-home-town sweethearts in an underdog roll playing in the same building against the same team that gave them their biggest and most humiliating loss of the season. I can’t wait.

8. For better or worse, I’ll stick with my conference here.