ATLANTA – They sat in a semicircle of despondence, ties loosened, heads down, in a tiny coaches locker room in the bowels of the Georgia Dome filled with what happeneds and what-ifs.

"Tie game," Xavier's associate coach Sean Miller said softly. "Three minutes left."

Then he shook his head.

Oh, didn't Xavier almost have it all? Didn't the Musketeers almost have the upset damn near the entire nation wanted? The scrappy little Jesuit school from Victory Parkway in Cincy, unranked and disrespected, almost vanquished Duke from the tournament the Blue Devils seem to think is their own.

But this is what it is to play Duke. This is the recurring theme.

Xavier's game plan worked. The kids believed. The obstacles were cleared. Tie game, ball game, anyone's game and then: boom. A defensive lapse here, a ridiculous tip-in there, a referee's whistle again and it's all over but the head shaking.

"The plays didn't go our way," Xavier guard Lionel Chalmers said. "It went their way. And it went 66-63."

ATLANTA - Byron Larkin appreciated the sales job, even if, all things considered, it was a bit ridiculous. But back in 1984 Larkin was a top high school prospect when he gave hometown Xavier a recruiting visit, even though the school had enjoyed just four winning seasons in two decades.

Xavier's then coach, Bob Staak, was a big dreamer who wouldn't stop telling Larkin about how great the school's new home gym, the Cincinnati Gardens, was.

By most standards, the Gardens was a humble, overused municipal facility. But Xavier had been playing its games in the loveable, but thoroughly smalltime, Schmidt Fieldhouse, a glorified high school gym that said everything about the Musketeers' place in college basketball.

The Gardens (capacity 9,000) was going to be great, Staak assured. Although when the two drove over for a tour they discovered the circus was in town. That means animals. And animal smells.

"It smelled like a multi-purpose facility," laughed Larkin Saturday as he recalled the

ATLANTA – At one point this season, Xavier was 10-9 and faced archrival Cincinnati.

"Do or die," said coach Thad Matta.

Xavier did, outlasting UC 71-69.

At another point this season the Musketeers needed a win just to get into the NCAA tournament. Their opponent was merely top-ranked Saint Joseph's, which happened to be 27-0. Xavier jumped to a 37-point lead and blasted the Hawks by 20.

Since then the Musketeers have won the Atlantic-10 tournament, stormed back on Louisville and manhandled Mississippi State to roar into a Sweet 16 match-up with mighty Texas.

And still people figured Xavier would take one look at all those tall Longhorns and crumble.

Sorry folks. Xavier 79, Texas 71.

The Musketeers, who once looked 40 minutes from the wrong side of the NIT are now 40 minutes from the Final Four. Winners of 16 of its last 17, Xavier isn't just the hottest team in the NCAA tournament, it may be the best.

Don't believe it? You figure that this team has used up their "One Shining Moment?"

ATLANTA – Earlier this week, in the midst of the NCAA tournament, a report came out claiming 12 of the schools in the Sweet Sixteen failed to graduate half of their recent student-athletes. Seven schools didn't even graduate a third of their players.

The story made a big splash. It was the perfect example of corrupt coaches who recruit idiots, milk their athletic ability and then wash their hands when they flunk out, right?

Columnists ripped. Editors played it big. Publicity-eager talking heads lined up to be quoted.

"When we bring kids to our campuses and fail to educate them in the numbers we're seeing here, all we're doing is using them up," Richard Lapchick, of the University of Central Florida, told the Associated Press.

Oh please.

I wonder where all of these critics were educated, because if you fall for the NCAA graduation figure scam you should ask for your money back. The formula used to calculate these graduation rates is so horribly flawed and preposterously figured that it

Nothing elicits passion like the NCAA tournament, and passion has come pouring through in this week's feedback. People sent in expressions of joy, pain, frustration, death threats – and those were just the comments about CBS.

Now on to The People's Voice. My comments, as always, appear in italics. ...

AMERICA'S TOURNAMENT (March 17: "Truly America's tourney")

You are right Mr. Wetzel when you say this is America's tournament. I loved your column and it actually brought chills to my spine.

I can tell you where I was for the upset Valpo laid down in '98 (in Chicago eating pizza at Unos, cheering with people whom I had never met and will probably never see again), when Indiana lost a heartbreaker in '92 to Duke (annoying my sister in law while my brother and I were screaming after every basket) and then for redemption for IU in '02 when they upset Duke in the Sweet Sixteen when no one gave IU a Seabiscuit's chance in Hoopshysteriaville.

You said it best when you said this is America's

CHICAGO – Larry Bird was perched up in the balcony. Danny Ainge was seated along one sideline. And in every other nook and cranny of the Moody Bible Institute gymnasium here Monday were scores of front-office personnel – scouts, general managers, even an owner – from throughout the NBA.

It used to be if you were looking for lottery picks in March, you hit the NCAA tournament.

These days, in the post-LeBron era, you come to the practices leading up to Wednesday's 40th annual EA Sports Roundball Classic (or next week's McDonald's All American game) to watch the nation's top high school players.

NBA executives expect that a record haul of as many as 10 high school players will be selected in the first round of June's draft. Perhaps seven of them are here.

"The times," said one of those seven, guard Shaun Livingston of Peoria, Ill., "are changing."

While the NCAA tournament continues to churn out drama, it does so largely without superstar talent. Early defections by college players and

Yahoo! Sports national columnist Dan Wetzel is following Thursday's games live from Detroit. Send him an email and join the conversation.

6:32 p.m.: Valued Reader Email of the day:

In Mexico ... beaches and bikinis ... awesome ... but no freakin' TVs. What is the deal with Wake?

Ollie and J Co
Playa del Carmen, Mexico

They advanced. It's all that matters.

For Thursday night, this column is heading home. I couldn't convince my boss to pay the full tab; seven hours is plenty.

Besides, you don't want to hear what I think after 12 hours in a bar.

6:28 p.m.: Parity. In the middle of this tournament – from the three-seeds to the 14s – there is almost no difference in talent level. It is all about execution.

Today's upsets and near-upsets don't deserve the title upset. It doesn't give credit to the ability of the players on the weak seeds. I can't imagine any high-seed team being upset that they had to squeak one out.

Maryland outlasted a great UTEP team. Syracuse outlasted a great BYU team.

Way out in the foothills of southwest New Mexico, where U.S. Route 26 meets U.S. Route 27, there is a town called Nutt.

Nutt, N.M. Only it isn't officially a town anymore. It hasn't even had a post office since 1939. It has just three buildings (two of which are on wheels). You can take a census with one hand.

If you happen upon Nutt there is a good chance you are lost, but not all is actually lost. One building houses the aptly named Middle of Nowhere Cafe and Bar, which serves beer, conversation and Merle Haggard songs on the jukebox. It is where some ranchers and occasional passersby hang out and shoot pool. Most days, not much happens.

Thursday is not most days.

An old TV will be brought out and rabbit ears wiggled around to pick up the CBS feed out of El Paso. The crowd might be small but the excitement level will surge and the shouting will begin if, say, Southern Illinois gets up on Alabama.

Everyone will be praying, absolutely praying, for just one more Southern Illinois