A No. 15 seed beating a No. 2 seed is one thing, but when that No. 2 seed is Duke, we'd be talking history. We watched the whole game and, to be clear, there weren't many moments when we thought that Duke wasn't the better team. But that's how these things go down; the right trey falls at the right time, the right turnover happens, and it all comes tumbling down. It was all set up for Belmont last night ... and then Gerald Henderson took over on one play, and he looked like he was the one grownup who understood the stakes. It was enough to make Mr. Amy Grant cry.

(By the way, Vince is looking a little rough.)

So the first day of the tournament went down without any major upsets; if the biggest surprise is a win by a team with the best freshman in the country, nothing's too shocking. A Belmont win would have stood as the signature moment of this year's tournament, and several years to come. Now watch Duke, having looked death in the eye, go and win the whole thing now.

DUKE BLUE DEVILS

1. It's Pronounced "SHY-er fah-SAY." Photos of it are center (and roommate) Brian Zoubek's desktop background. "Weird," says guard Gerald Henderson. "It's just weird." They're referring, of course, to the infamous (Jon) Scheyer Face, found on the mug of Duke's sixth man. Judging only by his expressions, Scheyer passes a basketball like Al Swearengen passes his kidney stones. Still, at least he always looks like he's trying out there. Scheyerfacing is a fond pastime of opposing ACC fans, largely because PhotoShop doesn't require basic literacy to use. Two of my personal favorites are here. In other news referencing famous pictures of Duke hoopsters, here's your annual Reggie Love update.

2. How's That Working Out For You? Are you a fan of the Idaho Stampede? By gum, you ought to be! They're having a great season, leading their division in the NBA's D-League over such luminaries as the Los Angeles D-Fenders and the Bakersfield Jam. They've got Brent "Air Georgia" Petway. Their dance team has, I have to assume, some of the hottest girls in The Gem State (this is my only point of comparison). Most important, they've provided former McDonald's All-American POTY and current stiff Josh McRoberts with more playing time than he's had on his nominal NBA team, the Portland Trail Blazers. (I found this fact listed under the "Charitable Works" portion of their webpage.) Josh got his $400K salary, the Blazers got a valuable 2 points per game (lookin' good, J-Mac!), and Duke's leaps and bounds better than it was last year, when it spent most of the season slowly collapsing, like a flan in the cupboard. (Not my joke.) I believe a true teacher, a coach, a leader who just happens to be a manager, calls that a "win-win-win."

3. Running With The... You Know. The last couple years I've avoided citing actual "basketball" "facts," partially because my knowledge of hoops theory is lacking (I think turnovers are first and foremost a tasty dessert) but mostly because most Duke teams of the Coach K Era have been struck from the same mold: saunter casually up the court, swing a couple of cursory passes, then get it in to Brand/Boozer/Williams or out to Laettner/Dunleavy/Redick. You might be surprised to hear that they're actually running this year. A lot. Over 75 possessions a game (thanks KenPom) puts them in the top 10 for tempo nationwide. Frosh Kyle Singler is effective anywhere on the court, Henderson and DeMarcus Nelson are providing blow-by speed inside, and most importantly, Greg Paulus has reduced his TOs from 3.2 a game his first two seasons to 1.7 this year. All of these numbers likely won't change your frothing hatred (especially if you're from Chapel Hill, College Park, Lexington or, uh, anywhere that's not Durham) but it's worth noting as you fill your bracket: even though Duke's a donut this year, it's one of those high-class fancy donuts. A cruller, maybe. That likes to play up-tempo. See why I don't do analysis?

EXTRA SPECIAL BONUS FACT BROUGHT TO YOU BY MIKE PATRICK: Did you know Greg Paulus was a high school quarterback? It's true! A quarterback! In high school! How wild is that? I hear he threw for like, four hundred thousand yards. Player of the decade. Crazy! Quarterback quarterback quarterback quarterback quarterback. — Matt DeTura

BELMONT BRUINS

1. Wait... The Atlantic Sun is Perhaps Not A Powerhouse Conference? Belmont has ranked in the top 10 nationally in three-point field goals per game seven of the last 10 years. The Bruins are fourth this year at 10.6 three-pointers per game. HOWEVUH, when it mattered (in their NCAA appearances the last two seasons), they shot 6-26 (.231) against Georgetown and 4-19 (.211) against UCLA. No. 2 seeds nationwide should be licking their chops for the Bruins and their good karma, as their first round competition went on to win their region the last two years. So try not to screw up all that momentum, Team That Gets Belmont This Year.

2. Dick Vitale is Shopping For A Bear Suit As We Speak. Bruins head coach Rick Byrd, associate head coach Casey Alexander, assistant coach Brian Ayers and assistant coach Roger Idstrom have been together for eight years now, which makes them tied for the longest tenured coaching staff (head coach and top three assistants) in the country. And what other tiny school are they tied with? Duke head coach Mike Kryzyzewski, associate head coach Johnny Dawkins, assistant coach Chris Collins and assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski (Wojo!) have also been together eight years as a staff.

3. Too Bad D-1 Schools Don't Have Varsity Kickball Programs. Sophomore Stefan Baskin spent his freshman year as an average everyday student at the University of Tennessee. He didn't play for Bruce Pearl and the Vols though. Like most freshman he was just hanging out, doing the whole traveling motivational speaker thing. However, in his spare time he was wining the intramural 3-on-3 hoops championship at UT. Now he's a non-scholarship player at Belmont and going to the tourney. A quick reminder to all: Please remember this is not normal and to keep laughing at people who take intramurals too seriously. — Sager Bombs

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GEORGETOWN HOYAS

1. "Their offense is unstoppable." That's a direct quote from college hoops statistical stallion Ken Pomeroy via DC Sports Bog, and it's an odd one considering Georgetown was 11th in the Big East in scoring this season. However, KenPom's analysis reveals that the Hoyas are third in the nation in offensive efficiency, right behind UNC and Texas. As the man said, "People get sucked in and think they're a defensive team, but considering the number of possessions they get, their offense is incredible."

2. Twin pillars of pro potential. I wrote last year that Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert would be next off of Georgetown's NBA assembly line that has produced Ewing, 'Zo, Dikembe and AI (not to mention Jahidi, Othello and Boumtje-Boumtje!). Fast forward 12 months, a Sweet 16 appearance and a junior season of pissing excellence, and their pro stock has improved a bit. NBADraft.net has Green going eighth overall while Draft Express has him at 15th, and the former has Hibbert going 17th overall (in '08) while the latter has him at 10th. Regardless, NBADraft.net still has Greg Ostertag as Hibbert's player comparison, which is a crime to draftniks everywhere.

3. A story of fathers and sons. John Thompson Jr. and Patrick Ewing dominated college basketball from '82-85, making it to three Final Fours and winning a national championship. Now it's their kids' turn ... kind of. JT III's time at the helm has been marked by constant improvement (NIT in year one, Sweet 16 in year two and a Big East regular season championship in this, his third year), but Patrick Ewing Jr.'s time on the court has been limited since transferring from Indiana. He only averaged 13 minutes and four points/game this season, but has been getting more PT of late; scoring 22 and grabbing nine boards against 'Cuse and UConn. CBS will shine a light on this as long as Georgetown is still in the Tournament, which should be awhile. — Jamie Mottram

BELMONT BRUINS

1. Live by the Three... Belmont upset the Atlantic Sun conference's regular-season champion East Tennessee State on its home floor in the worst way possible — with a 94-67 rout underwritten by a flurry three-pointers. Belmont made 12 in the first half alone, including a desperation shot at the buzzer — the salt in the wound that made it 49-30. The team shot 48.3 percent from behind the arc (only slightly worse than the 50.0 percent it shot overall) with nearly half its field goals being threes. This should bode well for the tourney, where the only chance tiny schools like Belmont (which qualified for the second year in a row, and the second time in school history) is to get hot from 3-point territory. Schools like Belmont may not have the opportunities for such an upset much longer, however — once again, there is grumbling that the college three-point should be pushed back at least a foot, or perhaps even all the way to the NBA distance. Of course, we've heard this all before.

2. The People Behind The Music. Sure, country star Vince Gill is Belmont's most famous alum and the basketball team's biggest fan, but as a graduate of the schools's Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business, he's something of an anomaly. The CEMB is the Country (and Christian) music industry's largest incubator of future studio techs, songwriters, managers, entertainment lawyers and label execs. The school has practitioners from each of those professions on the faculty (along with professional expert witnesses, the veterans of those pesky intellectual property lawsuits). Each year, hundreds of Belmont students stock Nashville's intern programs, and other famous alumni include country singers Trisha Yearwood, Braid Paisley, and Josh Turner.

3. Mike Curb? The Belmont Bruins' home court is the Curb Event Center, which, like the CEMB, has been underwritten by Mike Curb. Who is Mike Curb, you ask? Well, he's the university benefactor who wrote the song "You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda (Go Little Honda)" while a freshman in college, which he somehow parlayed into a career as a record industry mini-mogul. His later band The Mike Curb Congregation toured with the Osmonds and sold millions of albums despite sounding more white bread than even Bread itself. That's because Curb himself has a bit of a conservative streak — he also wrote "Together, A New Beginning," the campaign song for Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, while he was the lieutenant governor of California. More often than not, his politics clouded his judgment. While running MGM Records in the 1970s, he brought aboard Roy Orbison and the Osmonds, and dumped The Velvet Underground because he didn't like the drug references. — Greg Lindsay

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2. The People Behind The Music. Sure, country star Vince Gill is Belmont's most famous alum and the basketball team's biggest fan, but as a graduate of the schools's Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business, he's something of an anomaly. The CEMB is the Country (and Christian) music industry's largest incubator of future studio techs, songwriters, managers, entertainment lawyers and label execs. The school has practitioners from each of those professions on the faculty (along with professional expert witnesses, the veterans of those pesky intellectual property lawsuits). Each year, hundreds of Belmont students stock Nashville's intern programs, and other famous alumni include country singers Trisha Yearwood, Braid Paisley, and Josh Turner.

3. Mike Curb? The Belmont Bruins' home court is the Curb Event Center, which, like the CEMB, has been underwritten by Mike Curb. Who is Mike Curb, you ask? Well, he's the university benefactor who wrote the song "You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda (Go Little Honda)" while a freshman in college, which he somehow parlayed into a career as a record industry mini-mogul. His later band The Mike Curb Congregation toured with the Osmonds and sold millions of albums despite sounding more white bread than even Bread itself. That's because Curb himself has a bit of a conservative streak — he also wrote "Together, A New Beginning," the campaign song for Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, while he was the lieutenant governor of California. More often than not, his politics clouded his judgment. While running MGM Records in the 1970s, he brought aboard Roy Orbison and the Osmonds, and dumped The Velvet Underground because he didn't like the drug references. — Greg Lindsay

UCLA

1. Beware Of The S and H. Against teams with an S and an H in their school name (Memphis, Washington, Washington St., Southern California), UCLA is 3-4. Against everyone else, UCLA is 21-2. Don t say I didn t warn you.

2. These Guys Know Their History. Of the four seniors (Cedric Bozeman, Ryan Hollins, Michael Fey, Janou Rubin), three of them are history majors (Rubin is a Sociology Major), which tells us, well, nothing. But it s still interesting.

3. They re Finally Back On Top Of The Pac-10. At 14-4 in conference, they captured their first Pac-10 title in nine years. The best part? Their rotation includes only two seniors and no juniors, so the best should be yet to come — if Farmar and Afflalo stay in school. — Jon Reed

BELMONT

1. But What About The Stickiest? Belmont sports information director Greg Sage was on such an, um, high after the Bruins' win over archrival Lipscomb in the Atlantic Sun Tournament championship game, he described it this way: The Bruins used courageous defense and the determined scoring of an unflappable sophomore to claim the tastiest pot in school history. I know Greg, took him to lunch once and consider him a good guy. But maybe I should have suspected something when he ordered the nachos with extra cheeeeeeeese, dude.

2. My Cousin Vinny. The Lakers have Jack Nicholson. Kentucky has Ashley Judd. Belmont has ... Vince Gill? That's right, the self-proclaimed Ambassador of Country Music is a season-ticket holder at Belmont's Curb Event Center and avid supporter of everything Bruin. Gill, a 14-time (!) Grammy winner, is a close friend of head coach Rick Byrd, who is in his 25th year at Belmont. Gill is also a scratch golfer, with a low round of 62, and hosts his own celebrity charity tournament named The Vinny. Oh, and he s married to the milf-y Amy Grant. You would trade lives with him in a heartbeat.

3. Six Degrees To Fred Smoot. Belmont post player Boomer Herndon is in his first season of eligibility after transferring from Tennessee. His coach with the Vols was Buzz Peterson, who roomed with Michael Jordan while both attended North Carolina. Jordan's company, Jumpman23, includes Randy Moss in its stable of athletes. Moss played six seasons in Minnesota with Daunte Culpepper, who was getting a lapdance while Fred Smoot operated the infamous double-header. — Dom Bonvissuto

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2. My Cousin Vinny. The Lakers have Jack Nicholson. Kentucky has Ashley Judd. Belmont has ... Vince Gill? That's right, the self-proclaimed Ambassador of Country Music is a season-ticket holder at Belmont's Curb Event Center and avid supporter of everything Bruin. Gill, a 14-time (!) Grammy winner, is a close friend of head coach Rick Byrd, who is in his 25th year at Belmont. Gill is also a scratch golfer, with a low round of 62, and hosts his own celebrity charity tournament named The Vinny. Oh, and he s married to the milf-y Amy Grant. You would trade lives with him in a heartbeat.

3. Six Degrees To Fred Smoot. Belmont post player Boomer Herndon is in his first season of eligibility after transferring from Tennessee. His coach with the Vols was Buzz Peterson, who roomed with Michael Jordan while both attended North Carolina. Jordan's company, Jumpman23, includes Randy Moss in its stable of athletes. Moss played six seasons in Minnesota with Daunte Culpepper, who was getting a lapdance while Fred Smoot operated the infamous double-header. — Dom Bonvissuto