Evening Roundup: Print Pundits

A mixed bag, from the nation's smaller and larger news sources

-- The San Francisco Gate's Jim Litke has a wonderful and uplifting piece on the Vermont Catamounts and their star, Taylor Coppenrath. In the America East Tournament Final, Coppenrath, still nursing a broken bone in his left wrist, scored 43 points as Vermont surprised Maine 72-53.

Now Coppenrath gets to go up against Emeka Okafor. "And isn't that just our luck?" Vermont's coach Tom Brennan asks. "One guy in the country can guard Taylor, and we drew the guy."

-- In case you hadn't noticed (CBS' repeated references to their corporate sponsors), the NCAA Tournament makes a little money. The Associated Press' Tim Martin has a segment on what the Big Ten's poor showing might mean for member schools. Ahhh, the business of basketball.

--The Elizabeth Star, "the most visited site in Carter County," captures the local flavor, quoting members of the underdog East Tennessee State Buccaneers ahead of the team's match-up with Cincinnati.

-- Mike DeCourcy runs down the names of four players whose time has come. Chalk this one up as useless pre-tournament banter (from a usually rock-solid columnist).

-- More reasons to count on Illinois: discipline issues over at Murray State. Live from Louisville TV.

-- MSNBC's Ray Glier gives no-nonsense advice for your office pool. The highlights:

Hope
Arizona is the other low seed to look out for because Channing Frye might actually start to see the ball in the postseason. Think about the possibilities of Frye getting some touches inside and getting a couple of early fouls on Duke’s Shelden Williams.

Fear
Eleventh-seed Utah over Boston College seems like a logical pick, but that’s part of the BC lull. The Eagles don’t look very good, they just win.

Truth
There are some others to keep an eye on. Twelfth-seed Pacific could get through to the weekend because Providence has not played well for two weeks.