Here's Dominion Post photographer Bob Gay's caption:

West Virginia University athletic director Ed Pastilong, left, and WVU basketball coach Bob Huggins are shown Sunday, June 7, 2009, at a fantasy camp basketball banquet in Morgantown, W.Va. Huggins kept his sense of humor as he sported two black eyes and a welt. He says he stepped into the edge of his bathroom door late one night. Pastilong's right hand was in a cast from recent surgery.

This is, shall we say, a touch less than believable. We've all had our bouts with doors, sure, but I've never punched one that actually hit back. Twice. In both eyes.

I hereby nominate the door as the defining metaphor of the 2009-2010 college basketball season.

Bob Huggins attends fundraiser dressed like Ricky Hatton [The Dagger]

It's almost as if Bob Huggins doesn't have control of his players. Even when they're at Pittsburgh Pirates-Colorado Rockies baseball games. Hey, if you can't get drunk and fight at a baseball game what kind of country do we live in? Joe Mazzula and Cameron Thoroughman face several charges. Cue the AP:

Mazzulla, a 6-foot-2 junior from Johnston, R.I., was charged with aggravated assault, hindering apprehension and underage drinking. Thoroughman, a 6-foot-7 sophomore from Portsmouth, Ohio, was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and underage drinking.

The 20-year-old players began arguing with police when they refused a request for identification, according to a criminal complaint. The officers said the two smelled of alcohol.

Has anything good ever come from refusing to provide identification to police? At least they didn't get tased. Although, to be fair, how much does it suck to be the guys who get asked for ID after they've already been drinking at the baseball game? Yep, two more West Virginia athletes go down outside the city limits Morgantown. Which lends further credence to my hypothesis, formed via Chris Henry and Pacman Jones, that Morgantown is an entirely lawless society. Like Deadwood only minus the warped justice of Swearengen.

Players face charges of underage drinking, resisting arrest [ESPN]

I live in ACC country, and people here are used to hearing six or seven familiar team names called on Selection Sunday. But this year, the conference is top-heavy, with North Carolina and Duke on a level far above challengers Clemson and Miami. With the latter team winning today, those four teams may be all the ACC gets.

The tough neighborhood this season is the Big East, where up to eight teams might make the grade. Nine different squads have held national rankings during the season, and none of the top teams should feel the least bit safe during the post-season tournament. The Quarterfinals are starting to look like Thunderdome, as lower-seeded teams are battling for better NCAA real estate by taking out the regular-season winners. Observe:

West Virginia 78, UConn 72. Consider that statement made. Bob Huggins will lead his alma mater to the NCAA tournament in his first year at the helm, after upsetting a Connecticut team that was ranked No. 15 in the nation. Mountaineer forward Joe Alexander scored a career-high of 34 points, which is just two more than his previous mark, set against this same opponent on March 1. Georgetown is next for WVU.

Pitt 76, Louisville 69 (OT). Sam Young led four Panthers in double figures, putting up 21 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. The winning margin came in overtime, as Pitt outscored the Cardinals 14-7, calmly sinking free throws while Louisville donged three-pointers.

Georgetown 82, Villanova 63. 'Nova's good feelings didn't last long after they eliminated Syracuse from the bubble. I'm sure the Wildcats would have preferred to make a better showing against the Hoyas, even in a loss. In their defense, they did put together a nice run to start the second half before succumbing to Jessie Sapp's career-high 23 point outing.

Marquette 89, Notre Dame 79. 5'8" Mo-reece Acker rolled out of the halftime break with guns blazing, scoring all eleven of his points in the second half. Luke Harangody fouled out, and the Irish were on the ropes. Jerel McNeal put in 28 to lead all scorers.

So, that's the 1, 5,6, and 7 seeds in the semis. I'd call that a balanced conference.

Other Tournament Action

It sounds like someone got a hold of the bubble wrap and is sitting there, deliberately popping the bubbles one by one. A small minority are popping because they aren't needed any more, as their occupants move onto firm bracket ground. The rest evaporate and send teams falling into the abyss. Or, as we like to call it, the NIT. I'm surprised ESPN hasn't cooked up some silly name for this collection of meaningful Quarterfinal games - something like "Clarification Thursday."

ACC Quarterfinal: Miami 63, N.C. State 50. You know what Julius Hodge would say about this N.C. State team? "If you scared, get a dog." Last season Sidney Lowe was able to ride the magic of the Hey Kool-Aid blazer to the brink of an NCAA bid, but this year, that dog don't hunt. Miami simultaneously puts the Wolfpack out of their misery, and cements their first NCAA bid since 2002, when they were a rare first-round victim of the Missouri Tigers.

Pac-10 Quarterfinal: USC 59, Arizona State 55. Reviewing the carnage in other sections of bubble-land, the Sun Devils might still feel OK about their chances. I think everyone feels safer when we can count on Trojans to mount an effective defense, right? Aside from that, O.J. Mayo is coming on strong at the right time, as he scored 23 to lead his team to victory.

C-USA Quarterfinal: Tulsa 78, UAB 68. At one point, UAB was clearly the second-best team in the sprawling Conference USA. Now they look like a punch-drunk boxer who can't find his mouthpiece. After an encouraging five-game win streak, the Blazers ended the season with a 38-point loss at Memphis. And now this disaster. This is not the Tulsa of Tubby Smith or Bill Self, so it seems unlikely that this signals the beginning of a Golden Hurricane run.

Also screwed:
Baylor - lost to Colorado in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament.
Houston - lost to UTEP in C-USA Quarters.
Florida - lost to Alabama in the SEC's first night of tourney play.
Oregon - Got Cougared (and not in the good way) at the Staples Center.
UMass - Good Charlotte makes Minutemen feel Emo in the A-10.
Maryland - Joins Syracuse in the NIT waiting room after choking vs. Boston College.
Ole Miss - Dropped by a Georgia team that managed only four wins in the SEC.
Arizona - Stanford was too much for the Wildcats in the end.
New Mexico - Utah does away with the Pit Monsters in a red-eye special featuring OT.

In with Auto-Bids: Cornell (Ivy), Winthrop (Big South), Belmont (Atlantic Sun), Austin Peay (Ohio Valley), Drake (Missouri Valley), George Mason (CAA), Siena (MAAC), San Diego (WCC), Butler (Horizon), Davidson (SoCon), Oral Roberts (Summit), Western Kentucky (Sun Belt), Mount St. Mary's (NEC), Portland State (Big Sky)

Linkage: If you'd like to discuss Selection Sunday as it happens, the good folks at Bizarro Joe Lunardi will be hosting a live-blog of the televised portion of the show. [Bizarro Joe Lunardi]

The Closer will return this evening with a recap of some of the early action from today, and a preview of tonight's big conference tournament games.

Eric Angevine writes about College Hoops at Storming the Floor and CAAZone. He can be reached at stormingthefloor@gmail.com.

If you've watched much college basketball this season, you may have noticed that some... creative sartorial choices are being made by collegiate coaches. We know about Sidney Lowe's red blazer, which seems to have been superseded by Bruce Pearl's orange one. We've seen Rick Pitino wear a white "76 Trombones" suit for one half, only to ditch it and return in the regular dark and sexy look. And let us not forget Bob Huggins, living up to his "Huggy Bear" nickname, by sporting the gold tones all the way down to his loafers.

In all honestly, this phenomenon is one of the things I really dig about college hoops. I'll be keeping an eye on the conference tournaments, where some of the really excellent clothes often appear. We'll have to do without Dick Davey's sweaters from now on, but I've got ten bucks that says some enterprising coach in the MEAC is right now plotting an eye-catching rig just in case his squad makes the big dance.

One note to that coach, however. Make sure your look has style. Don't go out like Wofford coach Mike Young, who dressed in an all-tan ensemble for his fifteen minutes of fame garnered by upsetting Purdue. The Bill Belichick look only flies if you're a genius, coach.

Michael Beasley Can't Find Good Help These Days. Texas 74-Kansas State 65. Talk about streaky (and no, that's not a towel-peeing joke, but it could be). Bill Walker went from scoring 31 with 11 rebounds on Saturday, to 1 and 6 on Monday, on 0-14 shooting. Consistency might be the hobgoblin of little minds, but it also helps you win big basketball games. Conversely, Conor Atchley scored 14 points in as many minutes to help the Longhorns solidify their grip on the Big 12 and a possible #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Beasley himself had another double-double of the 30/15 variety.

Some People Call Him Mo-reece! Marquette 85-Villanova 75. Marquette got double figure scoring out of their usual suspects, including Dominic James' 25 points and 6 steals. But sophomore guard Maurice "Space Cowboy" Acker had a season-high 12 off the bench as well - his first double-figure scoring night since he managed 10 against Sacramento State on December 15. Nova's at-large hopes are now officially circling the drain.

Bet He's Never Heard a Tron Joke Before... St. Mary's 61-San Diego 54. This was the last home game for the SMC seniors, and it seemed as if Tron Smith was trapped inside a video game in a glowing blue suit. But he definitely had the cheat codes, as he scored 15 off the bench (off the bench, on senior night?) to help the Gaels stay strong in anticipation of their winner-take-top-seed rematch with Gonzaga set for this weekend.

Tonight's Big Game

Tennessee (25-2) at Vanderbilt (23-4). Man, things sure are hoppin' in Tennessee. The Vols take their triumphant No. 1 ranking from Memphis to Nashville tonight, where they'll take on the up-and-down Commodores. History suggests that this will be a close game, and that the Volunteers might have a tough time of things. They've lost three out of the four times they played in Memorial Gym.

Eric Angevine writes about college basketball at Storming the Floor and CAAZone. He can be reached at stormingthefloor@gmail.com, as can the anonymous eccentric billionaire who runs STF.

One of our favorite innovations on this here Internets is the ability to track flights online using their flight or tail number. We've never been on a flight that has Web access, but if we ever do, we're gonna track ourselves, because if the flight crashes, we'll want to be the first ones on the plane to know.

Anyway, a little trend has popped up among fan message boards of teams who are interviewing new coaches (or in fear of losing their own): They're tracking flights they think might be shuttling candidates for interviews. This one supposedly took Bob Huggins from Little Manhattan to West Virginia to talk about the West Virginia opening. We're not sure this is true — Morgantown has an airport, right? — but we love the concept. And, you know, reports are saying he's hired anyway. With the Houston Nutt business and now this, we are officially that much closer to being able to follow our coaches' movements 365 days a year. It's fun!

Flight N36579 [Flightaware]