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Dining at the Kitchen K in downtown St. Louis tonight, we thought we spotted Arizona's Lute Olson walking in wearing a red-and-blue sweat suit. He was about the right height, had the same white hair. Then he turned around -- not him.

Where there's a Final Four, there's also a coaches convention. From D-I to D-III, they're all here, except Fran McCaffery, of course. He's back in Greensboro saying so long to his UNCG players.

It hasn't exactly been a who's who of college coaching, at least not yet. In the airport, I saw coaches from such powerhouses as Samford, Fort Valley State and St. Xavier University. I did have a brief word with Terry Holland in the hotel lobby tonight. I didn't ask how well received Ricky Stokes has been as his new basketball coach at ECU. Call it tact. From what I hear, not everyone's thrilled.

Now that UNC's semifinal tipoff with Michigan State is about 44 hours away, it's time to give serious thought to who's going to win this game. I mentioned on Dave Glenn's radio show (The Buzz in Raleigh) that I'm not entirely sold on the mental toughness of Roy Williams' team, especially without Raymond Felton on the floor. Hope that doesn't anger the Heels' faithful. It's just that they don't look entirely convincing in the tight finishes.

I'd love to read some thoughtful predictions, hopes and fears, from UNC followers before Saturday's game. Basically, I'm asking you to help your neighborhood beatwriter, who is still very up in the air about this Heels-Michigan State matchup. Feel free to post here.

Oh, and, I read a great piece in the Chicago Tribune on my flight to the STL about how Urbana is the forgotten community in Illinois' great run. Everyone talks about the team from Champaign. The Illini's sports arenas are in Champaign; most of the university is in the smaller town of Urbana. That burg deserves some attention, too, the paper writes. OK, so they're running out of things to write about on Illinois.

Speaking of which, Southwest Airlines had a huge Illini fan in the cockpit today. As we flew over Champaign-Urbana/Urbana-Champaign, he told his passengers, "If you look out the left side of the plane, you might see Assembly Hall. Go, Illini, rah, rah ..."

Got a chance to watch a portion of the McDonald's All-American game on Wednesday in the company of a few rabid Duke fans. Needless to say, they were feeling very, very giddy watching future Duke point guard Greg Paulus tossing assists to future Duke big man - and Mickey D's MVP - Josh McRoberts.

But they were also feeling worried about McRoberts. He's 6-10, long, athletic, skilled, with a game that starts at the 3-point line and ends way, way above the rim. In other words, the kind of player that usually has NBA types hot on his heels this time of the year.

So far, McRoberts has given every indication that he plans to come to Duke. But bear in mind that before last year's McDonald's game no one was even talking about the possibility that UNC recruit J.R. Smith might end up NBA bound. Then he blew up in the game and the rest is history.

Maybe McRoberts will be different. You just never know until that deadline for declaring for the draft passes. But here's an interesting note to consider: Duke has recently offered a 6-6 wing player named Geoff McDermott a scholarship. He's a senior, meaning the Blue Devils could bring in six scholarship players next year. Add those to the two rising sophomores, the five rising seniors and the return of fifth-year senior Patrick Johnson, who was on scholarship last year, and you've got 14 scholarship players. That's one over the limit.

So what does that mean? Either Johnson's not getting a scholarship next season, which is certainly possible given that he's been walk-on status before, or Duke is anticipating that someone's either not coming back next year or not showing up on campus.

Of course, that's all based on the assumption that McDermott signs with Duke. Apparently Providence and BC have been pursuing him for some time and he's also got scholarships from some Big East schools in football as well. But as other coaches know, when K puts on the hard sell, recruits rarely refuse.

Again, at this point it's all merely conjecture. Better get used to that sort of stuff for the next month and a half, though.

According to this story in the Washington Post (you need to register for it, I believe, but it's painless) the new basketball coach at Virginia will be ...

Dave Odom?

The Post is reporting that UVA AD Craig Littlepage has offered the job to Odom and that Odom is likely to accept.

Look, I think Odom is a good basketball coach and he certainly has respect in the profession. He's also got strong ties to UVA, having served as Terry Holland's top assistant back in the day. But that was a long time ago, before Jeff Jones and before Pete Gillen.

Odom is in his 60s now and won't exactly provide the big PR boost folks were expecting UVA to make with its new arena on the horizon. He's done a solid job at South Carolina, but again, nothing worthy of national headlines. The same was true at Wake Forest - post Tim Duncan, of course.

It's also true that high-profile guys like Tubby Smith, Mike Brey and Rick Barnes had already given the Cavs the cold shoulder. So maybe Littlepage felt it was time to follow a safer course and hire a proven ACC coach who would be likely to say yes if asked.

Still, I've got to imagine the UVA fan base is less than overwhelmed buy the choice.

This truly is one of the great days on the sports calendar, with the cozy juxtaposition of baseball's Opening Day with the NCAA basketball final.

For the first time in my life, baseball season has snuck up on me. When the Red Sox and Yanks played an actual, meaningful game last night -- well, not as meaningful as last October's games -- I did a double-take. Is it really here?

Guess I've been distracted by the Tar Heels' tournament run, which has kept me fairly busy.

But between a visit to the Gateway Arch and to The Ed, as they call the dome here, I did watch some baseball, and it was great. Even a few innings of Royals v. Tigers.

As a Phillies fan, I wasn't too thrilled about the signing of Kenny Lofton, who's 10 years past his prime. But glad to see the Phils' tiny park has even turned him into a home-run hitter. A big day for Pat Burrell, too.

Now, I'm guessing Lofton is a UNC fan tonight, seeing as how Illinois bumped off Arizona, a team for which he once played, after the Illini had trailed by 15 with four minutes left.

I haven't checked my work voicemail lately, but I appreciate the lack of hate mail I've received so far for picking against the Heels. It really almost came down to a coin flip. If Felton stays on the floor and May feasts, I think the Heels will probably win. But the Brown-Williams-Head triumvirate is so solid, and I don't expect them to shrink in the big game.

My biggest fear is that a game being billed as one for the ages turns into a blowout. That's a fear that a run of Super Bowl routs put into me.

We'll know in a couple of hours. Then we turn our attention to the NBA Draft watch and baseball -- a lot of baseball.

In case you're wondering, it's a personal goal of mine to start as many blog entries as possible with Neil Diamond lyrics. Not sure how I'll get Cracklin' Rosie in there, but by gosh, I'll try.

But I digress. I titled this blog entry that way, because of this article by Doug Doughty, at our sister paper, the Roanoke Times.

Basically the piece points out all the historical parallels between UVA's current coaching search and the one the Hoos conducted after Terry Holland retired in 1990. Pretty amazing stuff.

And yes, Dave Odom was involved back then, as well. What happened to him this time? No one seems to have a very clear picture. But both sides are backing away from each other so fast, you'd think each one had an airborne virus or something. Odom's reported response to his South Carolina players - when asked if he was taking the UVA job - was essentially, as of right now, no. Kind of a strange comment. But then he released a statement saying he'd only talked in general terms to UVA AD Craig Littlepage, a long-time friend, about the job opening, and had not bee offered the position. In other words, he was more of an outside consultant, not an official candidate.

Apparently DePaul head coach Dave Leitao is emerging as a top candidate. But at this point, take everything with a large grain of salt.

Leitao would be a solid, if unspectacular hire, for the Cavs. He did a good job at getting DePaul turned around quickly after Pat Kennedy left it in a bit of a mess on his way out the door to Montana.

Whatever they do, they'd better do it soon. The longer this goes, the worse it makes the athletics department there look.

In answer to a question posted on the UVA coaching search blog, it looks like UNCG is wrapping their own coaching search up quickly, by kicking it old school.

That's right. According to an article by our own Bill Hass, former UNCG coach Mike Dement is back for another turn.

It seems like a good fit for both sides. Things didn't work out for Dement at SMU, so he's got to be happy to get another shot at D-I head coaching job. Meanwhile, UNCG gets a guy they know can win in Fleming, because hey, the guy's done it before. Dement took over when the G moved to D-I and in four short years had them up to 23 wins.

I'm curious to see what Steve Huntley and the other vocal UNCG fans have to say about this hire. Feel free to chime in guys.

First, off, today I checked the messages left on my voicemail while I was in St. Louis. Four of them were UNC-related, two jabbing me for picking Illinois in the final. I thought there might have been more of these -- I think it's the first time I've picked against the Heels in print (we don't predict scores in the regular season) since I had Texas beating them in the second round last year. So I figured I might catch some grief.

But it's not like I called for an Illinois blowout. I thought it would be 85-82 or something very close. Just gave the edge to a team that had won 37 of 38 games, whereas I wasn't totally sold the Heels would make all the right decisions and big plays down the stretch.

I stand corrected, but I don't think there's any need to apologize for my pick.

Now, to a question Heels fans are pondering: Are they better off without Rashad next year? While the media might be better off without him -- he cultivated an enigmatic image as soon as he arrived in Chapel Hill and, this year, only talked to reporters right after games -- I don't agree that the team would be better with him in the NBA. The N&O's Caulton Tudor slams that theory today.

Well, probably not. Although if Wes Unseld was still the GM in D.C. it might have been possible.

But seriously folks, have you taken a look at the mock drafts floating around the net? There are some wild, wild variances out there. One had Shelden Williams as the No. 7 pick in the draft. Another had him going somewhere in the 30's. A few had Rashad McCants in the top 10 and another had McCants going to the Trail Blazers with the No. 35 pick. Another had Sean May, who's claimed all along he's coming back to UNC, going No. 4 in the draft. Huh?

The lesson here? Nobody really knows what's going to happen with the draft until we know everyone that's going to declare for it. But the tricky part is that it's hard to figure out whether people will declare when you don't have any idea where they might go in the draft.

Sean May and Shelden Williams seem to personify this confusion. Both dominant big men by college standards, it's very hard to project what they'll do in the NBA, where apparently it's very, very important to be 6-9, instead of 6-8, for some reason. More tangibly, May and Williams will need to show more of a face-up game in the pros, something they haven't needed to display in college. Can they do that? It's certainly possible. But it's also possible they might not. The difference between can/can't on this is the difference between lottery and mid-second round.

So until we have more answers, we watch and wait ... and wait.

But the joy of blogging is that we can still speculate - even wildly, if necessary.

I have this feeling that Shelden Williams will get enough mixed reviews from scouts and enough persuasion from Coach K and the Duke staff that he'll stay in Durham next season.

As for the UNC situation, I'll leave that to Carlton. As Jerry once said to George - "Good luck, with all that."

As far as I know, neither team's fans has ever conked an opposing player in the head with a flare. And neither the Dean Dome nor Cameron has ever been set on fire after a disputed call.

But in Milan, where Inter and AC Milan carry out a blood feud in soccer? That's another story.

These are the sort of incidents I use as ammo whenever I run across Europeans who try to tell me how uncivilized Americans are.

I'm still looking for the link to an earlier incident involving irate Inter Milan fans. I'll post it when I come across it, but here's a sneak preview - it involves hooligans, a motor scooter, fire, and the second deck of the stadium.

No Rick Barnes. No Tubby Smith. Thus, no proverbial home run for Virginia AD Craig Littlepage. What he might have ended up with in the hiring of DePaul's Dave Leitao, according to this espn.com report, is something between a solid single and ground-rule double. Leitao could be a rising star in college coaching -- it's usually hard to tell until they've won at the highest level -- but in terms of name recognition and fundraising potential, he might rate as a yawn.

As blogger The Monk points out, a) Virginia isn't the program you might remember from 1981-84, the Sampson Era plus one bonus Final Four trip the year after he departed, and b) Leitao isn't destined for greatness simply because he fell from the Jim Calhoun tree. Many fine examples of spoiled fruit from the limbs of Coach K and Roy.

Former UConn assistant Karl Hobbs is off to a solid start at GW, and I've heard Leitao is the more formidable of the two. But we'll see. He'll have a new arena (in '06) to recruit to. But until there are coaching changes at UNC and Duke -- could maybe throw Maryland, Ga Tech and Wake into this mix -- the Cavaliers won't be contending for ACC titles.

What a sweet, sweet irony it is that John Rocker is trying to revive his baseball career with the indy-league Long Island Ducks, who play a relatively short train ride away from Shea Stadium, where he six years ago compared riding the 7 train in New York to traveling through Beirut. And worse.

Now 30, the xenohomophobe says he's matured and hopes New Yorkers have matured enough to forgive him, according to this New York Post account. He'd even be willing to pitch for the Mets.

Through all Rocker's turmoil, I'll always best remember him for threatening to beat me up in the Danville Braves' clubhouse in 1994, when I covered the rookie-ball team for the Register & Bee. I'm not the most confrontational guy in the world and certainly wouldn't write the rip job he claimed I'd written in a game story. OK, I might have written that he was shelled. But he was. Anyway, Rocker, who could have pulverized me, didn't. So it turned out OK.

And his career looked promising for a few years. It all seemed to fall apart, though, after an unpleasant train ride through the city. After the Braves' bullpen meltdowns the last few days, maybe Rocker should put a call in to John Schuerholz and stock up on MARTA tokens.

It's only spring, but already Chuck Amato is already taking steps to defuse the hype surrounding his much praised defensive line. On Saturday, after the Red/White scrimmage, Amato barred any of his D-linemen from talking to the press, presumably to lessen the number of positive press clippings they could read about themselves.

But earlier in the week, Amato couldn't help but gush a little bit about the newest addition to his fearsome front four - Greensboro's own DeMario Pressley. Pressley got some playing time his freshman season, but based on his progress during the spring it looks like big No. 92 will be a regular on the field in the fall.

"He comes off the ball as quick as anybody on our defensive line," Amato said on Thursday. "That includes (Manny)Lawson and Mario (Williams). Right now DeMario is running on first team."

On Saturday that first team defensive line spent most of the afternoon in the offensive backfield, patting the black jerseys worn by quarterbacks Jay Davis and Marcus Stone (QBs weren't allowed to be tackled). Pressley was right in the middle of things, collecting three tackles for a loss, including two sacks.

Another area standout, Ragsdale running back Toney Baker, was in attendance, although he was only watching. He'll join Pressley on the Pack roster this summer when the team starts prepping for the regular season. By the way, his arms are as big as my torso, I think.

In case you haven't seen it, it appears that Matt Doherty has finally found another place to coach. And it's at ... Florida Atlantic?

Wow.

This is a school that, according the AP, played seven home games last season in which less than 500 fans showed up. Florida Atlantic has spent 12 seasons at the Division I level, compiling a record of 102-234.

Not exactly Chapel Hill is it?

There are two probable conclusions you can draw from this.

1) Doherty probably played his cards wrong and overestimated his value the past two years. Remember, he looked like a lock for the James Madison job last season, before pulling his name out. Allegedly, he thought he could get the St. John's job, which eventually went to Kansas assistant Norm Roberts instead. Doherty's saying all the right things about being psyched about the Florida Atlantic job, but I've got to imagine he'd rather be in the CAA than the Atlantic Sun conference.

2) Based on how far down the ladder Doherty had to go before he finally landed another job, it appears that ADs at various schools with openings were hearing a different story than the one being put out by national basketball correspondents and talking heads who were almost universal in their praise of Doherty and who expressed dismay when he was let go by UNC. We may never know exactly what happened to make things go wrong during Doherty's three years in Chapel Hill, but the fact that his former players went on to win a national title with a different coach and that Doherty is now coaching in a basketball backwater in Boca Raton leads you to the conclusion that at least a few people aside from Dick Baddour and the Tar Heels players thought Doherty was to blame for the mess.

Unrelated to any sports subject in particular, I was wondering if anyone else out there has noticed that the temperature reading atop the JP building in downtown Greensboro seems a tad off in recent weeks.

I couldn't help doing a double-take when I saw a couple of days ago that it was 101 degrees, according to our local insurance company. It felt more like 80. Today feels quite summerlike, but 98??? I don't think so. Jefferson Pilot has apparently moved its official thermometer to Venus.

By now, any half-alert Atlanta Braves fan has noticed his team has a huge problem: The Braves can't hit. This isn't a total surprise, of course. The new low-budget Braves could afford either pitching or hitting in the offseason, not both. They went with the arms.

Hard to criticize them there: For the first time during their run of division-title dominance (I'll forget '94, when they trailed the Expos at the time of the strike, as everyone else seems to do conveniently), the Braves have the pitching at the top of their rotation to win in the postseason. And, no, I don't think Maddux and Glavine were very formidable in October, nevermind the '95 Series.

But, now, getting to October is the problem. After Andruw Jones in the 4-spot, there's a major dropoff in the batting order. Estrada, LaRoche/Franco, Brian Jordan, Mondesi. They have their moments, but they're not scaring anybody. And Jones is hitless in his last 27 at-bats.

Last night, Zach Day and the Nationals shut them out. The Braves are so obviously punchless, you have to figure they're going to go after a big bat or two well before the trade deadline. I've seen that they're showing interest in Reds 1B Sean Casey, a great pure hitter out of U-Richmond who becomes a free agent after the season. OF Adam Dunn started his first game at 1B for the Reds last night. Looks like they're bracing for Casey's exit.

If the Braves do still have money to spend, they'll get Casey or somebody who will put runs on the board. And, assuming closer Dan Kolb gets his act together, they'll make the playoffs. They always do, don't they?

Need further proof? Check out this article in today's Indianapolis Star.

Here's the background. Duke recruit Josh McRoberts has recently turned down two invites to play in local all-star games, including the annual matchup between Indiana and Kentucky blue-chippers. The theory that began floating around for why he had pulled out? That McRoberts, widely viewed as the No. 1 recruit in the nation, was ticked about finishing just third in the balloting for Indiana's Mr. Basketball honor.

Thus comes this article, in which Jennifer McRoberts is forced to publicly declare that it's a hurt body, not hurt feelings that is behind her son's decision.

Quick, think back to the last five Mr. Basketball winners in North Carolina? Can't think of them? That's because being Mr. Basketball in this state, while nice, just isn't treated as that big of a deal. And that's the difference between the Tar Heel State - where its college hoops that drive everyone insane - and Indiana, where the hoops craziness clearly starts earlier.

In the flurry of winners/losers, grades, reaches and sleepers that are doled out after the draft, leave it to SI's Peter King to point out one of the most intriguing stories of the draft, the curious case of Luis Castillo.

Here's the short version, Castillo admitted using a banned substance - andro - before the scouting combine in a frantic attempt to rehab an injury faster. He came clean with it and is by all accounts a good kid who made a horrific mistake. But by drafting him in the first round, are the Chargers rewarding cheating? What sort of message does this send?

An interesting read that raises important questions. Yet another reason why I'm a big Peter King fan.

N.C. A&T broke new ground last year by playing Wake Forest, a I-A football program. It was a lopsided loss but a nice payout for the Aggies.

With a rule change passed by the NCAA Thursday, I-A wins over I-AA schools will count toward bowl eligibility every year -- not just once every four years -- so there's no penalty for playing down for what is generally an easy W. That means A&T, Elon et al. should be seeing a lot more opportunities to play bigger programs for the kind of guaranteed money its athletics department so badly needs to pay the bills.

Of course, I-AA coaches don't want to get their players beat up playing top-25 I-A programs. Bill Hayes balked at going to Nebraska when he coached the Aggies. But those schools will be calling. The question at A&T is: Will an AD be there to answer?

I've been away from Blogland for a few days to take in a pair of games between my childhood team (Phillies) and my hometown team (Nationals) at RFK Stadium in D.C.

Habit and instincts took over as far as rooting interests, but it really was great to see MLB back in Washington for the first time since '71. There's nothing special about RFK, which was a great football venue but is pretty boring for baseball (too darn round and symmetrical). We'll see what they come up with for a new ballpark in 2008, assuming D.C. politics don't doom or severely delay that project.

One thing's for sure, RFK is cavernous and the ball wasn't carrying at all. It'll probably fly out of there during the peak heat and humidity of summer, but not on chilly April nights. That said, Brad Wilkerson did crank one into the upper deck, the first of the new era. Wilkerson, by the way, is the oddest choice for leadoff hitter since Jeremy Giambi with the A's. Has power, no speed.

I'd like to give advice to those who want to take in a Nats game and would like to know the best way to get to the ballpark: Metrorail or Car? But I'm undecided. Took the Metro on Monday from Arlington, Va. It took about an hour to get there and an hour back. Major throngs on the subway but only $4 round trip. Drove over the next night. Ample parking, $10. Crowd thinned pretty quickly after the game. Traffic going in for a night game is rough b/c of rush hour but not unbearable.

As for the Phillies, it was same old, same old. I got to see firsthand this ill-conceived assemblage of talent that should have had GM Ed Wade fired years ago. The lineup looks good on paper, but they can't hit with two outs, can't hit with runners in scoring position, collectively strike out way too much. And still no ace starting pitcher. If you're spending $95 mil, you'd think you'd fill some of the glaring holes.

But I'm done with that rant. I'll let ESPN.com's Jayson Stark take it from here.