Dear Mr. Commissioner,

We'll miss ya next year, cowboy. C):-)

You're doing great. The "Mock Selection" reviews were awesome (excepting that of CBSSports.com's Gregg Doyel, who you know is rarely gregarious. Take heart from ESPN.com's "Selection Committee" imitation, which is the sincerest form of flattery).

But we bet you already miss Indianapolis and have a hankering for a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich right about now.

Though for the Final Four in Detroit, we gotta recommend the shawarma in Dearborn. It's primo!

Hey — cool the Johnny-come-lately criticism of Oklahoma. LINK. In the past two months, the Sooners didn't defeat a single RPI Top 25 team with Blake Griffin. So what if in the past two games, Oklahoma lost to both Texas and Kansas without him? The Sooners were never worthy of a No. 1 seed.

But mad props to John Beilein on the Manny Harris benching, even if the one and only Jamie Samuelsen disagrees. LINK. Sitting your leading scorer and second-leading rebounder with your team on the (wrong side of) the NCAA Tournament bubble takes cajones.

All right: the big news.

Georgetown's collapse is JUST terrible. "The end nears for Georgetown" suggests the Washington Times. LINK. "Since the Obama administration began, [the Hoyas'] two wins have come against Rutgers and South Florida," notes a (Mike) Wise man in the Washington Post. LINK.

A pushy political activist or a "smaht reportah" is almost certainly going to ask JTIII whether the "Princeton Offense" is the best system to employ when starting four Scout.com Top 50 recruits. Absent a Syracuse-type run in the Big East Tournament, the Hoyas will take a backdoor cut to the NIT. Georgetown is only 3-9 in its last 12 games. (Inexplicably, however, the Hoyas are still ranked 23rd in Ken Pomeroy's ratings. Take that to the BCS and shove it).

Anyway, speaking of Syracuse's 2006 run, guess who else is on the bubble?

That's right! The 2008-2009 Orange. Notes the Sporting News' Daniel Blank: "Of the Orange's seven league wins, only one came against a team that projects to be in the field of 65 -- a home triumph over West Virginia. The combined league record of the teams Syracuse has beaten is 26-70." LINK. To which, I'll add the following: Syracuse is the most overrated team in the country. Pourquoi? The Orange have seven wins over RPI Top 100 clubs, but only one "quality win."

Have a look. Syracuse's best win came against Kansas (RPI: 5) -- three months ago, before the young Jayhawks were any good. The Orange's second best victory came against Memphis (RPI: 10) -- two months ago, before John Calipari made Tyreke Evans point guard and before the Tigers were any good. Syracuse's third best win came against West Virginia (RPI: 17) -- which I will concede is a good victory, even if it came in the Carrier Dome against a Mountaineer team that has yet to lock up an NCAA Touranment bid. The Orange's fourth best victory came against Florida (RPI: 38) -- three months ago, before the young Gators were any good. Syracuse's fifth and sixth best wins came against Georgetown (RPI: 48) and Notre Dame (RPI: 72) -- at home and against NIT-bound clubs whose troubles have been well documented. Finally, the Orange's seventh best victory came against Virginia (RPI: 99) -- at home... by three... to a Cavaliers club that lost to Liberty and Auburn in Charlottesville and has a 3-9 record in the ACC.

If there is a less qualitatively impressive set of seven quantitatively significant victories, I'd love to hear about it.

Elsewhere, I trust that by now you have heard about Rick Majerus and his girlfriend. LOL. Lucky girl.

Yee-hah: LSU is selling $5 tickets to tonight's Fat Tuesday showdown with Florida. LINK. (Likelihood ESPN's announcing crew of Brad Nessler, Jimmy Dykes, and Jeannine Edwards will wear beads during the game: 65 percent).

This John Feinstein op-ed is a must read. Gary Williams' money quote about a possible retirement: "There are only so many times that you can walk on the damn beach." LINK.

This Doug Haller observation is important to keep in mind. "The Arizona State men's basketball team is most dangerous when it doesn't have to rely on James Harden to score. Over the Sun Devils' past five games, all wins, Harden has scored fewer than 20 points four times... ASU is 9-1 when Harden dishes five or more assists." LINK.

Gosh, you must be sooo happy that the Mountain West Conference is a mountainous mess, with five teams in contention for an NCAA bid. Persuading your editor to pay for your trip to Vegas (for the MWC Tournament) has never been easier. Jay Drew, Gary Parrish, Ed Graney (host), Jason King, and Mick McGrane. Would be quite a poker table, no?

But really, all anyone in Vegas to be talking about is the leaked version of Seth Davis' new book, and we know how much you hate reliving the Bird-Magic years, in which the dress code on the court was not even the worst thing going on.

And wouldn't you know it: the MWC won't want to be fancy in these tough economic times, so they're likely serve the same chicken dinner available to reporters at college basketball games nationwide.

Yeah, as if the Gang of 500 wouldn't make postgame reservations regardless at the Wynn!

Why would anyone ever eat gametime grub? Eat dinner beforehand! Sheesh.

LOLROTF!

All right … Enough navel-gazing... The WWLIS' not-so-secret project to convince the world that Florida State is worth watching tonight against Boston College… it's working!

Therefore, without further ado, your three lunchtime reads:

1. The Kansas City Star's Mike DeArmond explains how DeMarre Carroll turned himself into a three point threat. Last season, Carroll made 18 percent of his attempts from behind the arc. This season, the Missouri forward is connecting on 43 percent of long range attempts. All summer long, “I couldn’t leave the gym unless I made 350 shots... Sometimes I had to shoot twice a day. I had to leave and come back.” LINK.

2. The Providence Journal's Kevin McNamara notes that the Friars have consistently beaten the Big East's bad teams -- and lost to the conference's quality squads. Providence's eight wins have come against DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall, South Florida, St. John's, Cincinnati (twice) and Syracuse (at home). The Friars' seven losses were to Connecticut, Marquette, Louisville, Villanova, West Virginia, Notre Dame, and Georgetown. "The problem is that if PC continues to follow this expected form, the Friars’ season will end in three weeks without an NCAA Tournament berth." LINK.

3. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Ray Fittipaldo explores whether Tyrell Biggs is back. "Biggs had gone 10 games between posting double digits before he scored 13 points in Pitt's victory against DePaul Saturday." LINK.

l8tr, gtr.