Jim Boeheim (Getty Images)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The mediator at the podium had just finished saying Jim Boeheim's news conference would begin in about 10 minutes Wednesday evening when up walked the Syracuse coach himself.

It was an odd day for Boeheim to be early given the nature of the questions that awaited him, but it fit with the defiant attitude Boeheim adopted throughout his 15-minute press conference in advance of Thursday's NCAA tournament matchup with Montana.

[Also: The top 10 NBA prospects playing in the NCAA tournament]

He cracked jokes about telling his daughter who teaches at Montana not to wear an orange sweatshirt this week. He disputed the notion his team had endured a rough patch prior to the Big East tournament. And when it was time to address the elephant in the room – a CBSSports.com report alleging that Syracuse basketball has been under NCAA investigation for years for transgressions major and wide-ranging in nature – Boeheim refused to show a hint of concern.

Asked about Wednesday's report, Boeheim quipped that it was the "same story they had last year at this time," referencing a Yahoo! Sports report last March that the NCAA was investigating if Syracuse violated its team drug policy.

Asked if he was worried the report would be a distraction for his players Thursday, Boeheim said, "I doubt seriously they know about it."

Asked if it bothered him the story was published on the eve of the NCAA tournament, Boeheim said he didn't care at all.

Sim Bhullar and 6-foot-1 guard K.C. Ross-Miller (USA Today Sports Images)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The first time Daniel Mullings went to dinner with Sim Bhullar on a road trip, the New Mexico State guard realized he was eating with a tourist attraction

Complete strangers approached the 7-foot-5, 340-pound Bhullar and asked to take a picture with the freshman because they had never seen anyone of his size before.

"It's pretty much everywhere we go,"Mullings said. "Even students on campus too. They just can't get past how big he is."

[Also: The top 10 NBA prospects playing in the NCAA tournament]

Everyone from little kids in airport terminals, to waitresses at restaurants, to students in his sociology class flock to Bhullar to take pictures with him, but he has proven he's more than just a novelty act in his first season at New Mexico State. Bhullar averaged 15 points, 12.5 rebounds and 4 blocked shots in the semifinals and finals of the WAC tournament last week, leading his team to a second straight title and earning the Aggies an opening-round NCAA tournament matchup with fourth-seeded Saint Louis on Thursday.

"He's not just big -- he's good and big," Saint Louis coach Jim Crews said. "That's a real compliment to him because we saw some tape earlier in the year and how he has progressed has been really enjoyable to watch from a coaching standpoint. That's pretty neat."

When Bhullar was gasping for air after a few possessions during offseason pick-up games and lagging well behind his teammates during early-summer conditioning, it seemed unlikely he would make more than sporadic impact as a freshman. Instead he shed 30 to 40 pounds during the summer and fall by cutting candy and junk food from his diet and ramping up his conditioning work before and after practices.

Whether it's Christian Laettner, Bryce Drew or Keith Smart, everyone knows about the guys who sank some of the NCAA tournament's most famous shots.

It's easy to forget, however, that the lives of the players at the wrong end of those buzzer beaters also were forever altered.

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Earlier today, I wrote about the impact those iconic March moments had on the guys who defended them. Below those same players share their memories of trying in vain to keep some of the NCAA tournament's most famous shots from happening:

What happened: Duke's Christian Laettner caught a three-quarters court pass at the free throw line, turned and hit the most famous turnaround jump shot in college basketball history over Kentucky's Deron Feldhaus. The shot won the 1992 East Regional title game for Duke and completed a perfect shooting night for Laettner, who had 31 points on 10 of 10 from the field and the foul line.
Where Feldhaus is now: Works at the golf course in Maysville, Ky., that he co-owns with his father and stepmother

[Related: Most hyped, underrated teams of the NCAA tournament]

The Laettner shot in Feldhaus' words: "We had an idea it was coming to Laettner. We should have been more aggressive trying to steal the pass. Everyone wants to talk about whether Coach Pitino should have put someone on the ball, but I would never second-guess Coach Pitino at all. He's one of the best coaches ever. I think what he regrets more than anything is telling everyone not to foul. That's probably the biggest reason we played a little bit timid and we weren't as aggressive as we should have been. We didn't want to put him on the line because you knew he was going to make them. ... We could've easily come out on the other side. Somebody had to lose, but it wasn't lack of effort so I can live with myself. It was a great game to be part of. I have nothing to be ashamed of being part of that game, that's for sure. ... To this day, I still have a lot of people come up and say you guys were my favorite Kentucky team. We had three guys who grew up in Kentucky and knew what Kentucky basketball was all about. I'm not saying it meant more to us, but we knew the tradition of Kentucky basketball and we did lay it on the line.

Kentucky's Deron Feldhaus tries in vain to defend Christian Laettner's famous 1992 turn-around jumper (AP)Fifteen years after Valparaiso's Bryce Drew sank one of the most iconic buzzer beaters in NCAA tournament history at his expense, former Ole Miss guard Jason Flanigan has discovered an unexpected benefit of the most painful moment of his playing days.

It has made him better at his job.

Flanigan, head coach at Holmes Community College in Goodman, Miss., often tells his players about the mistake he made that gave Drew the space he needed for a clean look at the rim. Since only 1.5 seconds remained in the game when Bill Jenkins caught a baseball pass at the top of the key, Flanigan assumed the big man only had time to turn and shoot and couldn't recover quickly enough when Jenkins made a touch pass to Drew streaking down the sideline instead.

Sometimes Flanigan, will bring up that sequence to remind his players not to let their focus drift when they have a late lead because a lot can change in a few seconds. Other times, Flanigan will harp on the importance of the late-game out-of-bounds plays he has his team practice several times a week so it is as prepared in that situation as Valparaiso was that day in 1998.

"They had worked on that play in practice many times, so as a coach, I've made sure I've done the same thing," Flanigan said. "We work on last-second plays all the time. That way going into a timeout, instead of drawing up something the guys haven't run and don't know how to execute, they're already familiar with it."

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Everyone remembers Drew's 3-pointer, Christian Laettner's turnaround jumper or Tyus Edney's coast-to-coast dash, but it's easy to forget about the guys like Flanigan who were responsible for defending those extraordinary NCAA tournament shots. Those former players cringe every year when the calendar turns from February to March because they know they're about to be inundated with replays of their worst basketball moment and calls asking them to relive it.

Robert Morris fans stormed the floor after beating Kentucky 59-57

At the conclusion of an embarrassing first-round NIT loss at Robert Morris that mercifully ended this humbling season, Kentucky guard Archie Goodwin insisted this is not how he wants his college career to end.

Asked if he'll be back for his sophomore season or consider entering this June's NBA draft, Goodwin told reporters after the game, "If any of us were saying we think we should leave, then we’d all be delusional."

Alex Poythress and Willie Cauley-Stein weren't quite so definitive about their intentions, but both said they were leaning toward coming back too. Of course, they could all change their minds once they take a week or two to cool off, assess their draft stock and consider the talent arriving at their position in next year's recruiting class, but for right now it's an intriguing possibility to consider.

[Related: Robert Morris knocks swagger out of Kentucky | Photos]

If every member of Kentucky's freshman class besides Nerlens Noel returns, Kyle Wiltjer and Ryan Harrow also come back and the six members of next year's recruiting class all arrive as scheduled, John Calipari will have more depth than he has had in Lexington. Throw in the possibility of adding another Class of 2013 prospect or two, and Kentucky could have as many as 11 or 12 former five-star recruits on its roster.

On one hand, that could lead to chemistry issues and playing time complaints since not all of those guys will be able to play 25-to-30 minutes per game. On the other hand, it would certainly guarantee the fierce competition for playing time that would allow Calipari to penalize poor decisions and lack of effort the way he couldn't on this year's thin team.

"The best thing that is going to happen to us next year is that we're going to have unbelievable competition at every spot," Calipari told reporters Tuesday. "So there's no one promised, saying 'OK, I played 30 minutes a game.' You may play five. The stuff I had to accept this year, the program almost got hijacked."

If one of your friends claims to have picked a perfect bracket this year, it's same to assume he or she probably lying.

DePaul mathematics professor Jeff Bergen calculated the odds of selecting all 63 games on a bracket correctly. Based on his math, the phrase "long shot" is a major understatement.

• Odds of someone randomly predicting a perfect bracket: 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808

• Odds of someone predicting a perfect bracket if he or she knew basketball: 1-in-128 Billion

• Odds of anyone in the U.S. predicting a perfect bracket if everyone knew basketball and everyone filled out a bracket: 1 in 400

So, yeah, if you miss a game or two in the first round this week, don't feel bad.

What I'm curious about is if Bergen has a way of calculating when DePaul will next make the NCAA tournament. The Blue Demons' last bid was nine years ago, and the way things are going, we may see a perfect bracket before we see Oliver Purnell's team make its return to the field of 68.

Matthew Dellavedova (Getty Images)

The First Four tips off Tuesday night in Dayton with a double-header featuring Saint Mary's-Middle Tennessee and North Carolina A&T-Liberty and continues Wednesday with LIU Brooklyn-James Madison and Boise State-La Salle.

[See bracket, play Tourney Pick'em]

To help you decide whether any of those four games is worth scouring all 1,400 cable to hunt down TruTV, here's a closer look at each of the matchups:

No. 16 North Carolina A&T (19-16) vs. No. 16 Liberty (15-20)
Tipoff time: Tuesday, 6:40 p.m. ET (TruTV)
Players to watch: Davon Marshall G, Liberty; Adrian Powell, F, North Carolina A&T
Why it's worth watching: Forget South Dakota State or Florida Gulf Coast. The ultimate Cinderella in this NCAA tournament is Liberty. The Flames became only the second 20-loss team ever to make the NCAA tournament when they won four games in four days to capture the Big South tournament title. They'll try to continue that unlikely run against a North Carolina A&T squad that also wasn't supposed to be here but made it through the carnage in the MEAC tournament to grab a bid.
Why you should skip it: One of these teams lost 10 games in the Big South. The other lost eight in the MEAC. If they're within five of top-seeded Louisville at the first TV timeout in the round of 64, they should probably snap a photo of the scoreboard just to savor the moment a bit.
Key to the game: How will Liberty deal with North Carolina A&T's scrambling, physical defense? Cy Alexander's team is adept at choking off the passing lanes, deflecting passes and diving after loose balls, forcing 7.1 steals and 16.1 turnovers per game.
Projected winner: Liberty

Oregon's Bobby Anet accepts a trophy after the 1939 national title game (University of Oregon Libraries)

One of the nation's most successful sporting events began as a financial flop.

Hastily planned and poorly promoted, the inaugural NCAA tournament in 1939 was such an afterthought that many teams that received invitations passed to avoid missing class time or to compete in the more prestigious NIT. Empty seats outnumbered paying customers during the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, and even the title game between Oregon and Ohio State drew 5,500 fans to Northwestern's Patten Gym only because organizers let most of them in for free.

Unwilling to raise membership dues to cover the costs of running the tournament they founded, the National Association of Basketball Coaches instead accepted an offer from the NCAA to become financially responsible for future tournaments. In return, the NCAA only had to cover the $2,531 the initial tournament lost and grant free tickets to NABC coaches at future title games, a staggeringly low price for an event that has since become the centerpiece of American sports in March.

"It's easy for us to look back and say, 'How dumb could you be?'" former NABC executive director Bill Wall said. "Hindsight is great. Yeah, it was a dumb move, but how could anyone know at that time what the tournament would become?"

[Memorable Moments: Miracle dash launches team toward NCAA title]

The deal struck between the NCAA and NABC is one of history's great bargains. The NCAA tournament has grown from humble roots to an event that locks American sports fans in a three-week trance each spring, bringing office productivity to a standstill during the opening round, filling domed stadiums with fans for the Final Four and generating hundreds of millions of dollars each year in TV revenue.