Nail-biters... and bonehead plays

The first four days of the NCAA men's basketball tournament was great television.

Close finishes, lots of drama, high stakes.

Unfortunately also there were stupid mistakes.

Washington gave North Carolina a very hard time Sunday and had a few seconds left to win the game when Venoy Overton made what the AP story called a "stunning half-court half-pass, half-shot, all-senseless heave." The Tar Heels' John Henson inexplicably failed to let the ball sail out of bounds (which would have given them the ball more than half the court away), touching it and giving Washington an in-bounds pass under its basket with half a second left.

Henson nearly goofed again when he almost goal-tended Isaiah Thomas's desperate final shot.

Texas messed up twice against Arizona: first after Jordan Hamilton grabbed a key rebound he for some reason called a time-out with his team ahead by two (with 14 seconds left), which set up an inbounds situation that led to a turnover via a five-second call, giving Arizona the chance to win. Which it did, on a basket-and-one by Derrick Williams.

Syracuse made a costly turnover on an in-bounds play, too, when with 51.6 seconds left Scoop Jardine didn't see how close he was to the midcourt line until he caught the ball, forcing him to tightrope to try to avoid over-and-back. He was unsuccessful, and on the ensuing possession Marquette broke the tie with a three-pointer and went on to win by four.

Michigan State had a longshot (no pun intended) chance to cap a rally from 23 points down against UCLA when the Bruins missed a free throw with 4.4 seconds left, but Kalin Lucas -- understandably in a really big hurry -- took a little too big a step and traveled.

And I can't even remember who it was now who -- trailing by three with a few seconds left -- fouled before the ball was in-bounded, taking away its best shot at tying the game via a steal and three-pointer.

Morehead State's Kenneth Faried got away with one. After teammate Demonte Harper made a three with 4.2 seconds left to put them ahead, Faried blocked a three-point attempt from the corner by Louisville's Mike Marra.

Don't foul the jump shooter, especially from beyond the three-point arc, and especially when you're 6-foot-8, the shooter is 6-foot-4 and he has to hurry his shot. Just give him something to shoot over.

The biggest of all, though, was what AP described as "A dizzying flurry in the final 2.5 seconds (that) saw Butler seemingly win the game on a layup by Andrew Smith, appear to lose it because of a foolish foul by (Shevlin) Mack, and then actually win because of a foul 90 feet from the basket by Pitt's Nasir Robinson."

So why was Mack close enough to foul Pitt's Gilbert Brown on a l-o-o-n-g pass (with 2.5 seconds left)? And for heaven's sake, why did Robinson bump and hack Butler's Matt Howard when it was immediately evident he couldn't tip in Brown's missed free throw (which with 1.4 seconds on the clock should have been his only thought, other than, umm, not fouling).

I wish I could blame this bonanza of boneheadedness on teams with key players who are disproportionately young and inexperienced, because so many elite players turn pro before they are seasoned (and presumably cooler-headed and less-mistake-prone) seniors.

But almost all of the mistake-makers mentioned here are juniors or seniors. Heck, Mack played in the national championship game last year.

Why the bundle of blunders?

I have no idea.

-- Craig Swalboski