MARCH MADNESS: DUKE FLOPS

There's the definitive moment of the Duke Blue Devils' first-round exit against Virginia Commonwealth: Greg Paulus commits probably the poorest excuse for trying to take a charge in living memory; he couldn't even nut up and actually take the hit. The Big Lead has this play in slow motion. Who did Paulus expect the ref to whistle a charge on -- the stiff breeze caused by VCU's Eric Maynor blowing by him?

I can hear my former high school coach Tom Turnbull now: "That's pathetic. My Grade 8 girls team does it better than that." There was no word in T's vocabulary more damning than pathetic.

Even better was Coach K's equivocation afterward, pointing out that his players were all "in grade school" in 1996, the last time Duke went out in the first round. Fine, Coach K, but you can't have it both ways: If there is no past, then quit pointing to the Final Four banners to impress recruits. Quit talking about a winning tradition. Oh, and getting a 6 seed on reputation when you lost your last three games? That's probably out too now. What a maroon.

(Mr. Sager's two favourite NCAA basketball teams are both out of the tournament -- the Syracuse Orange and whoever is playing Duke.)