• Mount St. Mary's won the opening-round game of the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship last night, defeating Coppin State, 69-60. The Mountaineers advance to Friday's first-round game against North Carolina, where they hope to become the first No. 16 seed to dump a No. 1 in the men's tournament.

• Last fall, the Division I Board of Directors voted to award a unit of revenue distribution to the winner of the opening-round game. Therefore, if Mount St. Mary's were to go the distance, it would receive one more unit of distribution than any other team in the field would. While this is unlikely, the Board's decision does have an impact for the opening-round winner. Teams receive a unit of distribution for playing in a tournament game, which means that Mount St. Mary's will earn at least two units. It seems to me that being in the opening-round game is much more beneficial than being a regular No. 16 seed, since the winner really gets to double its share of revenue distribution.

• I'm not sure exactly why C. Vivian Stringer is upset that her Rutgers team is in the same region as top-seeded Connecticut. While the Scarlet Knights may be the top No. 2 team in the draw, that doesn't mean that they have to be placed in a different region than their Big East foe. Last summer, women's basketball stakeholders voted to change a rule that prevented the top three teams from a conference being placed in the same region. The rationale was to make more exciting games for the fans, and if Connecticut and Rutgers advance to the regional final, it certainly will be a dandy.

• When I pulled into the NCAA parking garage this morning, I got the No. 7 spot, which is comparable to the No. 5 and No. 6 spots, but just a couple feet further from the stairwell door. Why did I get such a great spot you ask? Well, a lot of folks are out of the office. Popular media is spending a lot of time discussing the upcoming Division I basketball tournaments, but the truth is that there are a lot of other marquee events happening in intercollegiate athletics right now. The men's basketball tourney does start tomorrow, but so does the Division I Wrestling Championship and the Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships. You can catch wrestling action on ESPNU beginning Friday. The semifinal games in the National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Championship are tomorrow and the championship game will be televised on CBS College Sports Network on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The Division III Men's and Women's Ice Hockey Championships will also be played this weekend.

• The Yankees won their exhibition game yesterday, 11-0, but nobody cared about the outcome. The game was played in Blacksburg, Virginia, where the Yankees visited the Virginia Tech campus in an effort to help the community recover from last April's tragedy. Prior to the game, the Yankees first stop on campus was to the memorial honoring the 32 victims. "People ask, 'How does a visit like this help?'" Derek Jeter said. "I really don't know, but if people are smiling and enjoying themselves for the few hours we're here, then it's worthwhile."

• While we're on it, how about an interesting note from the Virginia Tech baseball roster? Andrew Wells started yesterday's game for the Hokies and is gearing up for his sixth year with the program. Division I has a five-year clock for student-athlete eligibility, but Wells was able to receive a medical hardship waiver after missing most of two seasons with injuries. Student-athletes are sometimes able to receive waivers for a sixth season when two of their opportunities within the five-year window have been lost or denied.

• The regional finals were played in the Division II men's basketball tournament last night and the Elite Eight is now set. Unlike Division I and Division III, the final site for the Division III tournaments includes eight teams, not four. Grand Valley State improved to 36-0 with last night's win over Findlay and will take on Winona State (35-1) in the national quarterfinals. Bentley (33-0) also advanced to the Elite Eight and could face Grand Valley State in the semifinals. The tournament will resume March 26 in Springfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of roundball.

• Folks are partying out in Anchorage, as both the men's and women's teams from Alaska-Anchorage advanced to the Division II Elite Eight. The women's squad knocked off previously unbeaten Seattle Pacific on Monday to advance to its first-ever Elite Eight. The men's team beat BYU-Hawaii last night to advance to Springfield.