Minneapolis notebook: No time for tired

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Regular-season highlights: Villanova | Boston College | Florida | Georgetown

MINNEAPOLIS – The hottest teams in this regional are Florida, which won the SEC tournament title, and Boston College, which lost to Duke in the ACC tournament championship game.

But the better-rested teams are Villanova and Georgetown, which will be playing their fifth games in 16 days on Friday. Both were eliminated during the Big East Conference semifinals on March 10, the same day that Florida and B.C. were beginning three-game conference-tournament runs.

That's six games in 15 days for both the Gators, who open against Villanova, and the Eagles, who open against Georgetown.

"There has been no other stretch of our season like that," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "One of my biggest concerns is our team's conditioning, making sure there is that balance where they are staying conditioned but not getting worn down."

Recent history gives the edge to the hottest teams entering the Sweet 16. Over the past five seasons, teams that played in conference-tournament championship games butting up to Selection Sunday went 16-18 in Sweet 16 contests. Teams that were done playing by the Friday before Selection Sunday went 10-16.

HOME VS. ROAD

Villanova coach Jay Wright agrees that it was a huge advantage for the Wildcats to open the NCAA Tournament at the Wachovia Center, a home-away-from-home just a few miles from campus.

But hitting the road can be good, too. "We really seem to get closer on the road," Wright said.

The road also helps remove players from fans who have lost their sense of reality, fans who have already started planning for the Final Four in Indianapolis – before their team has gotten out of the Minneapolis regional.

"I mean, last week, people were talking about making plans for Minneapolis right in front of our players, and not even realizing what they were doing," Wright said. "But that's the challenge at this time of year. The challenge is getting your team ready to play. It's not executing your offense. At this point, we've all got that down. The challenge is going to be our mindset, to just focus on BC.

"It's tough with young kids. Us old farts, we know these chances only come around so often. You take Kyle Lowry, he's played in college two years and been to the Sweet 16 in both of them. He thinks this is just the way it's supposed to happen every year."

SAVING THE SEASON

Boston College didn't feel much like a Sweet 16 team back on Jan. 10, following the 78-60 loss to N.C. State that got the Eagles off to an 0-3 start in their debut ACC season. Then again, they didn't believe they were as bad as 0-3, either.

Captains Craig Smith and Louis Hinnant called a team meeting to help clear the air. Coach Al Skinner, who knew nothing about the players' meeting, then called a team meeting of his own.

"It was good to get that perspective from both ends of the spectrum," Hinnant said. "We were able to put that together and climb out of the hole."

The Eagles then won ACC games against Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech and North Carolina. They finished third during the regular season, at 11-5.

"We had a tough Florida State team coming in and could have easily been 0-4," Hinnant said. "But we took it one game at a time. I know that's a clich, but we definitely took it one game at a time.

"Our main goal was to get to .500. North Carolina and Duke were pretty much the only other teams that were consistently playing well, so once we got to 3-3, we were pretty much in the middle of the pack."

John Akers, the editor of Basketball Times, is covering the Minneapolis regional exclusively for Yahoo! Sports.