Next Year's NCAA Final Four Will Be Held In Lithuania

The NCAA would have you dismiss all Dumb Jock stereotypes, but the ribbon board tonight announced a far more important notice: next year's Final Four will take place in "Alanta."

Where is Alanta, you might ask? It's a small town in Lithuania due north of the capital Vilnius. It's not unprecedented, really—sure, the NCAA Tournament's always been held inside the United States, but clearly the suits were impressed with the basketball fanaticism displayed when Lithuania hosted the Eurobasket championships last year. We don't know yet where the games will be held, as Alanta only has about 500 residents. They have a year to sort that out. Most excited about the shift in venue? The seven (by my count) Lithuanian-born players currently in Division I. (Bad timing for Gilvydas Biruta, the best of them, who's transferring from Rutgers and thus won't be eligible to play—like Rutgers was going to make the Final Four anyway, ever.)