Now that we long-suffering GMU Patriots alums are able to say our boys made the Final Four I only have one or two comments:

• I hope this is only the beginning of non-elite schools making big noise in the tourney.  Conferences like the CAA and the Missouri Valley are putting out some quality teams and have been for years.  I think the selection committee has recognized this for at least the last five years and it’s about time the college hoops cognoscenti also get a clue.  Billy Packer is starting to look like he’s not only a misogynist, but he’s a misogynist who’s also an ACC/SEC/Big-10/Pac-10 (i.e. corporate) hack. He’s been sniffing ACC jocks since his days at Wake and I think it’s caused him to think he’s a lot smarter than he really is.
• Coack K’s comment about wondering how it works that the ACC grew in size this year and yet got fewer bids has caused me to re-consider how smart I think he is.  Did he not watch the games at the ACC tourney this year?  That was some pretty bad basketball that highlighted a lot of athleticism and poor fundamentals.  Even the ACC is going to have down years and this was one of them, but once teams like UNC get some experience under their belts and can mix basketball smarts with raw talent they’ll be back at the top.  Just being the ACC doesn’t give them the right to six or seven bids every year.
• A lot of people thought Hofstra should have gotten in instead of Mason because they beat Mason twice in the last two weeks of the season.  What I hope people learned from this is that mid-major conferences like the CAA need to be considered for more than one at-large in addition to the conference tourney champ if the teams are worthy.  Hofstra and Mason had very similar records and they battled with UNC-Wilmington and ODU in the CAA all year.  I think they probably would have been a better selection than some of the last selections from the majors.  I’m not saying that the CAA will deserve three shots on any given year, but when you have four teams that stack up well with other conferences and have the RPI to support it they should be considered for a third overall bid.

All that said I’m gonna enjoy this next week because it will probably be a while before it happens again.  Lots of upperclassmen on this year’s Mason team, but with a Final Four run you’ve gotta believe that recruiting is going to get easier/better.  Let’s just hope that Larranaga sticks around to do it.