Talking Points: Cinderella is not at this dance

1

So much for the little guys.

Instead of parlaying an historic day of upsets into a second weekend filled with small schools, the NCAA tournament now looks like a who’s-who of major college programs.

All but two of the 16 teams in the regional semifinals will be from power conferences. The lone exceptions are Xavier, which is hardly a stranger to this kind of year, and Ohio University, a big school with a small, but no longer unknown, basketball program.

According to STATS, this will be the first time since 2003 that 14 teams from the six major conferences have made the Sweet 16.

Next week’s matchups:

No. 1 Kentucky vs. No. 4 Indiana and No. 3 Baylor vs. No. 10 Xavier in the South; No. 1 Syracuse vs. No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 6 Cincinnati in the East; No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 13 Ohio and No. 2 Kansas vs. No. 11 North Carolina State in the Midwest; and No. 1 Michigan State vs. No. 4 Louisville and No. 3 Marquette vs. No. 7 Florida out West.

Those 14 power-conference teams have a combined 93 Final Four appearances and 33 national titles.

2

Charlie Wi gave new meaning to the term “going backward” Sunday in the Transitions Championship.

Three consecutive shots caromed off a tree and went behind him and onto the practice range at Innisbrook. It led to a 13 on the par-5 fifth hole, the second week in a row on the PGA Tour that someone made an octuple-bogey.

“It was pretty easy,” said Wi, still able to laugh about such a high score.

It got so bad that when he was finished with the hole, Wi had to ask the scorer what he made.

“It was hard to count,” he said.