Beyond the Yellow Brick Road.

The last four teams have made it to Oz. These last basketball warriors have hung on to their red shoes, navigated the poppy fields, found the courage embedded in their hearts while avoiding the winged monkeys. On the last March weekend of March Madness, four teams fought through to their April finish.

The oldest basketball dynasty left in the dance is Duke. In the Yard Pool, only 5% of the Yardiots picked Duke to get past Baylor including the chief Yardiot. Duke had not won a regional since 2004 and never looked like they would win this one until their 22nd offensive rebound against Baylor. Baylor’s zone never figured out how to grab that high bouncing three point miss that turned into a two point lay up or another three. Baylor had better athletes. Duke had a better team that afternoon.

Butler is a great story and the Hoosier’s angle was picked up everywhere in America before last Saturday. We made over 7,000 tournament picks and the greater American pool, has 1.6 gazillion times PI. Not one person has Butler in the Final Four in any pool outside the Indy city limits. The Bulldogs were #8 in the first basketball pool of the season. They have not lost in 2010. It is a great story but Butler is a very good team and if we had picked them in any pool, this is a whole different blog.

Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo does not get the “genius” label that Coach K will get with another trip to the final. Izzo does get the “I can take yours and beat mine” coach vote. He does more with less in a football conference from a beleaguered region. He has been to six final fours and never has had an air of impropriety, arrogance or entitlement. He makes 50% less dough than John Calipari and returns more. Sketchy Johnny will ever understand that basketball defines him.

Izzo and the rest of the coaches in the Final Four are defined by who they are not just basketball. Every coach left in the dance, has coached with integrity that begets impunity. John Calipari got sent home before he could vacate another final four.

Trinity College aka Duke University has a proud basketball tradition built on the academic investment from the Duke family. It is a compelling story of the south, tobacco road and cigarettes. The Blue Devils are like the Yankees, loved or reviled. The Yankees have re-tooled over the years because of the economics of baseball. Duke will struggle when Coach K retires because of the economics in college basketball. 7,000 seat Cameron arena works because the school hired an assistant coach who became a hall of famer transporting their legend to a land far, far way beyond anyone’s expectations. No one will ever want that job in the post script. UCLA found that out in 1975.

West Virginia is going to win. This is their first title game since 1959 when Jerry West was their star. The Mountaineers lost that night to the Cal Bears. In our research, we were not sure which was more shocking Jerry losing or the Bears winning. Jerry was a snake bit basketball player when it came to “the game”. He was on the losing side to the Celtics more than any intestinal tract is clinically allowed. West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins is throw back coach with a sneer. He is not snarky by design. It is his DNA. If your team is going to march through the madness, there needs to be an enemy. Bob is fighting more than most. There will never be a thought from him or his team that they can lose in any game. They grind down better talent as the Kentucky Wildcats learned. The will grind down the Dukies and whoever scores last in Game 1.

CBS has hit the ratings home run this week with the NCAA tournament final on Monday and The Masters on Thursday. Tiger’s first tournament after his brief road rally career will be huge. Tiger would really prefer to get back to being on the cover of Sports Illustrated and ESPN than US, Star and Vanity Fair. It is ironic that the historically segregated Augusta National will provide Tiger safe haven from the traditional media swarms. Hootie Johnson is retired but Augusta bows to no political correctness regardless of color, gender or whoring around on the bride.

The Masters is strong arming the Tiger camp to meet with the press before the tournament begins on Monday. Of course, Monday of Master’s week will be overshadowed by the start of the baseball season and the NCAA Final. It will be news but the 24/7 news cycle will be on overload with real sports news.

Tiger had figured his domestic pathology could be effectively stonewalled into irrelevance. He is playing this like a Kennedy at a less forgiving time with an inferior skill set. Tiger has had so much expectation fulfilled that he has never apologized for anything since he was on the Mike Douglass show in 1978 at age 2. Tiger can have a personal life and it should be insular. Tiger cannot market a message of family values and have a secret life. He ran with MJ and Sir Charles and those boys are players. Michael committed all of the same sins before text messages and e-trails. Jordan was pre-TMZ and he still ended up with largest divorce settlement in US history. Charles should have gotten married because he pissed all of his money away on liquor and gambling. He would have been better off finding someone to give half rather than giving Las Vegas all of it. Tiger cannot will this away. He needs to go on Oprah, take her beat down, ask for absolution, and win a major.

“I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine, you're no Jack Kennedy.” Lloyd Bentsen