Gary Parrish

NEW YORK -- So Samhan and Farokhmanesh are the names of the NCAA tournament.

Yeah, I figured it would go this way.

Let's do the Day 3 Look Back ...

Best game from Saturday: Kansas entered as the favorite to win the NCAA tournament, Northern Iowa as the team that was supposed to lose to Kansas in the second round (provided the Panthers were lucky enough to make the second round). Both had predetermined roles that are typically followed, which is why Northern Iowa's 69-67 win over Kansas was so unique and special and fun to watch for everybody except KU fans. The Panthers jumped to a nice lead, maintained it, had it cut to a point in the final minute, then watched as -- go ahead and start practicing your pronunciation of the name now -- Ali Farokhmanesh buried a classic why-did-he-shoot-that/holy-cow-he-j
ust-made-that 3-pointer with 34 seconds remaining. Consequently, the Panthers are in the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history and headed to St. Louis, a city where they annually play the Missouri Valley Conference tournament and have won six straight games.

Worst game from Saturday: Darius Miller nearly tripled his scoring average in the same first half Al-Farouq Aminu got three fouls, and that's probably all you need to know to know the Kentucky-Wake Forest outcome. It was lopsided and ugly, and the only thing interesting in the final 10 minutes of the 90-60 blowout was Chas McFarland's karate chop across the head of DeMarcus Cousins that could've caused an incident but didn't. Credit Cousins for walking away, Daniel Orton for having his back (and taking a technical in exchange for shoving McFarland).

Player who deserves improper benefits: Remember how I said I couldn't wait to watch Jimmer Fredette? What I really meant was that I couldn't wait to watch Jacob Pullen end Jimmer Fredette's season. I got confused. So I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize for both the mistake and to Pullen, who had 32 points in Kansas State's 84-72 victory over BYU.

Player who does not deserve improper benefits: Scottie Reynolds hit the shot of his life in last year's NCAA tournament, and barely made a shot at all in this NCAA tournament. The Villanova senior was 2-of-11 in the 75-68 loss to Saint Mary's, this after going 2-of-15 from the field in the first-round win over Robert Morris. Add it up, and Reynolds was 4-of-26 from the field in the 2010 NCAA tournament, which is at least partly why Villanova is no longer in the 2010 NCAA tournament. The other part is Omar Samhan, Saint Mary's big man who got 32 points and seven rebounds against the Wildcats (not to mention about a million new admirers, some of whom just might work for NBA teams).

Why I'm smarter than you think: I told you Washington would advance to the Sweet 16 despite being the 11 seed in the East Regional, and now Washington is in the Sweet 16 despite being the 11 seed in the East Regional. The Huskies opened with a win over six seed Marquette, then cruised to an 82-64 win over three seed New Mexico that solidified my place among the great minds of basketball (provided you ignore how I also told you UTEP, Georgetown and Villanova would make the Sweet 16).

Why I'm dumber than I think: I passed on ranking Northern Iowa all season because the Panthers didn't record what I considered to be a quality win until the middle of February and, well, what's the point in explaining it now? I had my reasons for doing what I did, went over them in great detail, and if you want me to admit that I focused too much on what wasn't there instead of what was there, absolutely, I have no problem admitting that. In fairness, I always acknowledged Northern Iowa was a good team, just not a team with a body of work worthy of a Top 25 (and one) ranking. Again, there was a lack of quality wins. But I want all UNI fans to know I've thought about it for a while here, and I'm going to call the Kansas win a quality win. Thus, the Panthers will make the final Top 25 (and one). Better late than never, right?

Three things you should know before you go

1. Butler advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 54-52 win over Murray State in which A) Gordon Hayward missed nine of the 13 shots he took, B) Matt Howard missed four of the five shots he took, and C) the Racers shot 64.3 percent from 3-point range and outrebounded Butler by a 39-22 margin. How'd the Bulldogs win despite all that stuff happening, you ask? Honestly, I'm not sure. But somehow, they did it. And now they're just two wins away from the Final Four in Indianapolis, which would be an incredible story on lots of levels.

2. Tennessee's 83-68 win over Ohio advanced Bruce Pearl to the Sweet 16 for the third time in his five seasons at the school, for the fourth time in his past six seasons as a coach. The first Sweet 16 came in 2005 while Pearl was still coaching at Milwaukee.

3. Baylor's 76-68 win over Old Dominion marked the first time the Bears have won two games in the NCAA tournament since 1948. Not bad for a program that endured one of the biggest scandals in history seven years ago, not bad for a program that wasn't even allowed to play non-league games four years ago.

Final thought: Can we stop asking each other how our brackets are doing?

I mean, don't we already know the answer?

My bracket looks like poop just like your bracket looks like poop, and Kansas losing in the second round doesn't make me stupid any more than it makes everybody who had Kansas advancing to the Final Four stupid. The Jayhawks were (and still are) one of the nation's most talented and best teams. We spent four months watching basketball. Everything we saw in those four months suggested Kansas was the safest Final Four pick, and so more people picked Kansas to make the Final Four than they did any other school. Makes perfect sense. But then the NCAA tournament started, Saturday came, UNI played incredibly, Kansas played poorly, and now the Jayhawks' season is over two weeks before most thought it would conclude.

That's the nature of this tournament.

The best teams don't always make the Final Four.

Sometimes they don't even make the freaking Sweet 16.

Either way, the point is that it's silly for people to now act like they knew Kansas wasn't this or that or on its way to Indianapolis, because you couldn't find more than a handful of people (outside of Kentucky and Kansas State fans) who thought that way a week ago. Truth is, if you restarted this tournament tomorrow most would again pick Kansas to make the Final Four. But there's no reset button in real life, unfortunately. So we'll begin Sunday with four Big 12 schools still playing for the national title, and the Big 12 champions will be reduced to sitting at home watching games and wondering exactly what went wrong.