INDIANAPOLIS – Don't weep for Northwestern. The Wildcats are undeserving of the pity.

Thursday night in the Big Ten tournament, the most underachieving basketball program in America did what comes naturally – it gagged away a bid to the NCAA tournament with a ghastly 75-68 overtime loss to Minnesota.

Coach Bill Carmody said he told his team this week that a victory over the Gophers would not solidify a bid and a loss would not cost a bid, but he was only half-right. This was a game Northwestern could not lose, and it lost.

And thus the school that never has been to the Big Dance will spend one more March on the outside looking in. The Wildcats couldn't make it when the field was eight, back in the dark ages (the first championship was held in Evanston, ironically). Or when it went through the various expansions, now all the way up to 68. Seems that no matter how many teams they let in, Northwestern always will be left out.

This season's final verdict won't be official until Sunday,

INDIANAPOLIS – Bruce Weber is done at Illinois. You know it, I know it and certainly he knows it.

He almost acknowledged that grim reality Thursday afternoon in the Illini locker room as this miserable season officially reached the point of no return with a 64-61 loss to Iowa in the Big Ten tournament.

"It's very hard," Weber said, his voice barely a whisper. "I'd be lying to you. I'm not sure why or what, but I'll talk when it's all … when it all settles down."

He was on the verge of saying "when it's all over." And that will be soon. There may be an NIT appearance for Illinois, and if there is, Weber said he'd like to coach the team. But even that is not guaranteed.

The only guarantee is that a coach who took Illinois to the 2005 national championship game – farther than the Illini ever have been – is on the way out. When Weber ran out of Bill Self's players, the results weren't the same. After Deron Williams, Luther Head and Dee Brown left Champaign, Illinois became a mediocre Big

LOS ANGELES – On a gorgeous Wednesday afternoon outside the Morgan Center, a pair of UCLA athletic department interns were engaged in the ironic task of bolstering the Bruins' famous basketball program at the precise time it was melting down inside the building.

While school administrators were conducting a teleconference in reaction to a Sports Illustrated story that made coach Ben Howland look terrible, the interns were handing out blue-and-gold T-shirts to students in advance of UCLA's Thursday game against Washington State. They also were distributing team photos, which were taken before the season.

The seventh player from the left in the photo, wearing a smirk and a long-sleeved T-shirt that covered his voluminous tattoos, was Reeves Nelson. The forward was portrayed as an incorrigible bully, malcontent and chemistry killer in the SI story that was published Wednesday morning. He is no longer with the team, but the fact that his alleged actions were tolerated for as long as they

Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college basketball (Buzz Williams (1) audition tape for "Dancing With the Stars" sold separately):

Five final February questions

Kentucky's Anthony Davis
(Getty Images)

Hot topics to cuss and discuss as we end the regular season and get into the best month of the year:

Syracuse (2) or Kentucky (3) for the overall No. 1 seed?

The correct answer is Kentucky, but it's not by a wide margin. The RPI prefers the Orange, though Jeff Sagarin and Ken Pomeroy do not. Even in a slightly down season, the Big East is tougher than the SEC, which has failed to live up to preseason billing. Florida, Vanderbilt and Alabama are not quite as good as advertised, and Mississippi State is a rapidly unraveling NIT team. Total bids for the SEC, as of now: four. Total bids for the Big East, as of now: at least eight.

The Orange and the Wildcats have two common power opponents, Louisville and Florida. Kentucky handled both more easily, but also played both

ITTA BENA, Miss. – The team huddles are broken the same way here as they were 20 years ago:

"One-two-three, hard work!"

Back then, the setting was Rupp Arena, a basketball cathedral filled with 24,000 fans. Today, the setting is the Harrison HPER Complex, a 4,500-seat gym bereft of banners in the rafters, signs on the walls or character of any kind.

The squat, brick building is on the campus of Mississippi Valley State, a tiny school struggling to survive amid the cotton fields along U.S. Highway 82. The coach of the Delta Devils is the man who took the "hard work" huddle slogan – and accompanying program ethos – from the elite level of college basketball to the Southwestern Athletic Conference, the lowest rung of Division I.

"These guys don't understand what tree they come from," Sean Woods said, gesturing at his players after a recent practice.

The Rick Pitino coaching tree has sprouted a lot of strong branches in a lot of places; former assistants Billy Donovan and Tubby Smith have

Pat Knight is either the most honest man in college basketball or the craziest.

Perhaps both.

He is also now 1-0 after blowing up his Lamar team, the Buckley Amendment and the Enabler Coaching Handbook last Wednesday night when a low-profile postgame press conference went viral. The son of The General earned himself a battlefield promotion to at least Captain with a risky rant that shocked those who don't know what's going on at Lamar. (Which is to say, almost everyone. Lamar doesn't normally get much attention.)

After a loss to Southland Conference rival Stephen F. Austin, Bob Knight's kid ripped his seniors for 8 minutes and 48 seconds. The first-year coach of the Cardinals questioned their character, said he had players using drugs and called them "a bunch of tin men. We've got no heart."

Because his last name is Knight and his words were caustic, the video from that press conference got a lot of attention. It was discussed on ESPN and all over the Internet, most often in a critical

If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.
– "The Promises," Alcoholics Anonymous

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Larry Eustachy is amazed.

The burr-headed, barrel-chested coach is slumped in a chair at courtside in an empty Reed Green Coliseum. He is exhausted but exuberant. Ninety minutes earlier, his Southern Miss basketball team had Tulsa beaten, then blew the game, then somehow tied it at the buzzer and ultimately won 77-69 in overtime.

It is another improbable step toward the school's first NCAA tournament appearance in 21 years, another step toward a Conference USA championship, another in Eustachy's 12 steps away from the liquid Hell he almost drowned in.

"I can't believe we won that game," he says to his wife, Lana, over and over.

Lana is amazed, too. Not by the victory as much as by the man sitting next to her. She hears him weave stories of his past together with discussion of this game and this miraculous season at

Florida's depth took a major hit Tuesday night when key reserve Will Yeguete broke his foot in the Gators' 63-47 victory over Auburn.

Yeguete, a sophomore forward who is the team's co-leading rebounder at 6.3 per game, will be evaluated further. But Florida coach Billy Donovan told Gatorzone.com, "It's a six-week break. He's done."

Yeguete broke the fifth metatarsal in his left foot.

Florida's place in the 68-team NCAA tournament field is secure, but the injury is a problem for two reasons: The guard-oriented Gators already are thin in the frontcourt and the team now must be evaluated by the NCAA selection committee for seeding purposes with Yeguete likely out of the mix.

Yeguete has been a high-energy source who has greatly improved his production from freshman to sophomore season. In addition to rebounding and interior defense, he is averaging 4.5 points, 1.2 steals and 1.1 assists.

[Forde Minutes: Teams rising, falling as March nears]

With Kentucky coming to Gainesville to close the