Of all the coaching hires made so far this spring, Steve Lavin to St. John's is one of the most perplexing.

First, I'm surprised St. John's would hire a California native who hasn't coached in seven years and has no recruiting ties to the East Coast. Second, I'm even more shocked that the reaction in the New York media has been mostly positive so far.

Although Lavin will generate buzz for the program because he's such an incredible people person and he's brilliant with the media, the national perception of him as a coach is more favorable than he probably deserves.

Yes, he took UCLA to the Sweet 16 five out of seven years, but it wasn't sky-high fan expecations that brought his tenure to an end. The Bruins went 10-19 his final season at UCLA in 2002-03 and 14-16 in Ben Howland's first season after replacing him, a dry spell caused as much by Lavin's questionable talent evaluation and inability to instill discipline among his players as anything.

Even in Lavin's best years, when UCLA

Gus Johnson provided his usual assortment of "rise and fires," "bams" and other familiar catchphrases during Saturday's Butler-Kansas State game, but there was one delightful new expression that needs to become a permanent part of his repertoire.

When Butler's Gordon Hayward made an athletic move to score a lay-up and draw a foul the possession after Kansas State took its first lead of the second half, Gus punctuated his call by shouting, "Don't let the smooth taste fool ya!"

For those who aren't aficionados of 40-ounce malt liquors with the flavor of tap water and an aftertaste like cat urine, "Don't let the smooth taste fool ya!" is a reference to a slogan for Anheuser-Busch's King Cobra. Thanks to an alert friend of mine for passing on the video proof above.

Is there another announcer besides Gus who could get away with referencing an obscure malt liquor jingle in his final call of the year? I'll be watching next season to see if he manages to work in the old Colt 45 slogan, "It

A mere four nights after the Xavier men's basketball team lost a Sweet 16 thriller in double overtime to Kansas State, the school's women's basketball team set a new standard for heartbreak.

Xavier senior Dee Dee Jernigan missed not one, but two wide-open uncontested layups in the final 16 seconds of a tie game against top-seeded Stanford, either one of which would have put the Musketeers in position to advance to their first Final Four. Instead Stanford's Jeanette Pohlen made Xavier pay, driving the length of the floor in 4.4 seconds for the game-winning layup to give the Cardinal a 55-53 victory in the Sacramento Regional final for a third straight trip to the Final Four.

If Darius Washington's blown free throws that cost Memphis an NCAA tournament berth evoked our sympathy after the 2005 Conference USA title game, this was the women's basketball equivalent, only worse. Never before had Xavier been closer to joining women's basketball's upper crust, having rallied from a pair of

THE TWO-TONED MOUTHPIECE

A two-toned blue and white mouthpiece is already a daring look, but Saint Mary's guard Matthew Dellavedova made it so much worse because he could not seem to keep it inside his mouth.

Each time TV cameras showed a closeup of Dellavedova during the Gaels' surprising Sweet 16 run, the mouthpiece was so conspicuous that CBS analyst Bill Raftery couldn't resist chiming in.

Said Raftery with a wry chuckle, "That's a man who has a lot of confidence."

FEAR THE BEARD

When Kansas State guard Jacob Pullen began growing a beard last August, he never envisioned it would quickly become a cherished symbol of the Wildcats' basketball revival.

Students wore T-shirts bearing the slogan "Fear the Beard" and school officials handed out fake beards to fans when the Wildcats hosted Texas in January.

Pullen wanted to shave the beard several times during the season, but his teammates wouldn't let him out of fear of messing up their good mojo.

BIG CUZ'S URKEL GLASSES

My favorite

If there's any doubt why Kentucky basketball fans have the reputation for being some of the most passionate in all of sports, one glance at this video should provide all the persuasion you need.

Kentucky resident Andrew Sommer has mounted a fiberglass replica of John Wall's arm dunking a ball on the back windshield wiper of his van in hopes of drawing attention to the small business he runs making hand-painted fiberglass signs and decorations. Sommer said he drew plenty of honks and stares as he drove through Lexington last week with the wiper blade going back and forth, the windows down and the "John Wall Song" blaring from his speakers.

"We just wanted to deck our car out to advertise our company and support UK," Sommer said. "We wanted to draw attention to ourselves, and it worked pretty well. We've had a lot of people recording video of it."

Whether it's a fiberglass axe chopping a hand at Halloween time or some other Holiday-themed novelty decoration, Sommer always puts an

The Dagger previews both of the Final Four matchups. Here's our look at Butler-Michigan State:

No. 5 Butler (30-4) vs. No. 5 Michigan State (28-8)

Saturday, 6:07 p.m. EDT, Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis)

How they got here:

Butler: d. No. 12 UTEP, 77-59; d. No. 13 Murray State 54-52, d. No. 1 Syracuse 63-59, d. No. 2 Kansas State 63-56

Michigan State: d. No. 12 New Mexico State, 70-67; d. No. 4 Maryland, 85-83, d. No. 9 Northern Iowa, 59-52, d. No. 6 Tennessee, 70-69

Last Final Four appearances:

Butler: N/A

Michigan State: 2009 (Lost to North Carolina in national title game)

Match-up to watch: Michigan State G Durrell Summers vs. Butler G Shelvin Mack

There was absolutely no sign Durrell Summers would emerge as Michigan State's top scoring guard in the NCAA tournament entering play two weeks ago. The 6-foot-4 shooting guard scored in double figures just once in his final eight regular season games, but he's averaged 22.5 points in the tournament, helping fill the scoring void left by

March Madness lived up to its nickname this spring, delivering an upset-filled first two weeks and a Final Four hardly any of us could have predicted when we were filling out our brackets.

Hometown favorite Butler and Big Ten power Michigan State will meet in one national semifinal next Saturday in Indianapolis, and surging West Virginia will square off with lone remaining No. 1 seed Duke in the other.

If the Final Four will miss the star power and instant name recognition of ousted No. 1 seeds Kansas, Syracuse and Kentucky, at least this field is not lacking for compelling story lines.

Fifth-seeded Butler upended Syracuse and second-seeded Kansas State to earn its first trip to the Final Four and the opportunity to play a mere five miles from its campus.

Fellow No. 5 seed Michigan State overcame year-long chemistry issues and a season-ending injury to star Kalin Lucas in the second round to make the most improbable of coach Tom Izzo's six Final Four runs.

West Virginia also survived

As Tennessee's coaches attempted to concoct a play to save the Vols' season during the final timeout of Sunday's Midwest Regional Final, forward J.P. Prince's mind was still on the previous sequence.

He approached media members seated courtside to ask if referees made a good call when they whistled him for a foul with 1.8 seconds to go, sending Michigan State's Raymar Morgan to the foul line for the game-winning free throws.

When Tennessee's Scotty Hopson missed the potential go-ahead free throw with 12 seconds left in a tie game, the Vols were inexplicably slow to get back on defense and Prince had to attempt to block Morgan's game-winning layup. Slow-motion TV replays show that Prince avoided body contact and got mostly ball with his elbow, though Tennessee big man Brian Williams may have made contact with Morgan's body from behind.

"For it to end like that with one second, that's just one of the most painful things," Prince said after Michigan State's 70-69 victory. "I saw Raymar