NEW ORLEANS Why not us? Blaine Taylor posed that question the day before, regaling the media as he likes to do. Why not his Old Dominion team to do what the national darling George Mason did four years ago and reach the Final Four of the NCAA tournament?

NEW ORLEANS There's no fact or theme Old Dominion's Blaine Taylor can't torture into a yuk for the sake of a live microphone. So Thursday, in the afterglow of Taylor's first NCAA tournament victory in 16 years as a head basketball coach - ODU's first since 1995 - Taylor proclaimed a new unofficial holiday.

NEW ORLEANS The scene: Dec. 20, 2009, Notre Dame's basketball practice. Coach Mike Brey, who the night before sat and watched on television as Old Dominion "beat up" the Irish's Big East rival, Georgetown, 61-57 on the road, enters. Brey speaks. "I have a good feel for Georgetown," Brey told his players. " And I'm glad Old Dominion's not in our league. "

GREENSBORO, N.C. Duke scraped. Duke scrapped. And Duke scuffled, often mightily. The top-seeded Blue Devils, traveling a road of least resistance at the ACC basketball tournament - a No. 9 seed, a 12 and Sunday, No. 7 Georgia Tech - still had to pretty much scratch every minute of every game to reach their triumphant end.

GREENSBORO, N.C. The other night, after Clemson played another lousy game in another ACC tournament, coach Oliver Purnell revealed an unalterable athletic truth.

GREENSBORO, N.C. Virginia's representatives in the ACC tournament took 116 swipes at putting ball through yonder hoop Friday afternoon at the Greensboro Coliseum. They succeeded a mighty 41 times, not including a couple dozen free throws, give or take, on a scattershot day defined.

GREENSBORO, N.C. Rarely seen at the ACC tournament - acres of green seats in the upper reaches of the Greensboro Coliseum for a North Carolina game. Never, positively ever seen - the Tar Heels seeded 10th in this little get-together.

LAKELAND, Fla. Jim Leyland pulled a glass ash tray across the scarred surface of his desk inside Joker Marchant Stadium. He plucked a Marlboro from a half-empty box, flicked a lighter and inhaled, his thoughts forming as his smoke dissipated.

LAKELAND, Fla. All in all, a nice day of work and progress for Scott Sizemore, himself a work in progress. The kind of Saturday that makes you think the 25-year-old from Chesapeake's Hickory High will be all right. That makes you think his surgically repaired left ankle will hold up, and his much-scrutinized glove work will be solid and his routinely productive bat will be potent.

LAKELAND, Fla. To become the Detroit Tigers' rookie second baseman, Scott Sizemore must be himself. "That's the big thing," said Chesapeake's Sizemore. "Relax, and play the game like I always have."