Final Four without Duke, UConn a nice change of pace

“Evil deeds do not prosper; the slow man catches up with the swift.”

Homer’s words fit… “Evil deeds do not prosper; the slow man catches up with the swift.”

Homer’s words fit perfectly into the picturesque frame of the Final Four after a weekend of madness in its purest form. Evil has been slain and good reigns supreme – at least for the time being.

Two of college basketball’s evil empires – Duke and Connecticut – met their matches on Thursday and Sunday respectively.

Duke, led by corporate sellout and notorious whiner Mike Krzyzewski, met its match in the LSU Tigers. J.J. Redick – voted the Biggest Crybaby in the ACC in Sports Illustrated’s yearly poll of ACC players – shot a dismal 3-for-18 and his teammates did nothing to help him. The story was the same as usual – Shelden Williams offered the only support to Redick as the rest of the club did its usual “J.J. watching.”

LSU out-hustled Duke and smacked the Blue Devils in the mouth early, letting the top-seeded ACC champs know that they were in for a dog fight. Amazingly enough, phantom whistles and touchy foul calls couldn’t keep Duke in this game. So how is it the battle of Good vs. Evil?

LSU isn’t the program generating the loud, annoying vacuum noise from the South. No, that’s Duke. Duke sucks in ESPN’s coverage for every last one of its games while shoving its horrible actor/coach Krzyzewski down America’s collective throat. For once, the Final Four won’t be consumed by the media focusing on the one team that makes the final weekend every year.

LSU sports simple jerseys while playing with a hard-nosed mentality that should impress Pitt fans. The Tigers get after it, hitting the floor, chasing loose balls, cleaning the glass and playing with lots of passion.

The Tigers form a charismatic group of young men, led by sophomore forward Glen Davis – referred to as “Big Baby.” I mean, how can you dislike anyone with a nickname like Big Baby? The lovable Louisianans rim-rocked and bracket-shocked their way into the biggest weekend in college sports collecting fans and admirers along the way.

Do you see LSU head coach John Brady parading around a faux basketball court telling us why we need a Chevy pickup truck or an American Express card?

More importantly, perhaps the most evil of any basketball program – the Connecticut Huskies – was put back in their doghouse as the George Mason Patriots rebelled against the statistical odds, challenged Las Vegas’ top gamblers and created history with each dribble of the basketball.

Connecticut’s administration missed the boat entirely from the beginning of the season after Husky guards A.J. Price and Marcus Williams were caught stealing laptops from fellow students in June. Hot-headed, foul-mouthed head coach Jim Calhoun actually did the right thing – shocking as it may sound – suspending the players while leaving their fates up to school officials.

The school’s verdict?

The two student-athletes were ordered to stay off-campus while doing community service. They were also suspended academically, but were allowed to attend class through a loophole in a school regulation.

But here’s the catch – Price had to sit out the entire basketball season, but star point guard Marcus Williams returned without blinking an eye on Dec. 17.

After releasing their cowardly decision, Connecticut school officials gave us great reasons to support college athletics. The school provided a clear-cut standard that obeying the law comes before winning, money and stardom. Yeah, right.

So I am glad that George Mason put up the fight of its life Sunday, guiding the Huskies through 45 minutes of grueling basketball. It was the second game decided in overtime in three days for the Huskies. The Patriots earned their first Final Four bid while dismissing this year’s black sheep of college sports.

Good riddance, Connecticut.

So we as college basketball fans are left with LSU, George Mason, former Pitt coach Ben Howland’s UCLA and Florida.

No Duke, no Connecticut, no North Carolina and no Kentucky.

Are the reigns of college basketball supremacy changing hands right before our eyes? Probably not.

But at least we don’t have to watch corporate panderers and criminals play basketball for the final weekend of the season.

So sit back, relax and enjoy good basketball played by the good guys. After all, the good guys always win.