Super Nova

So now I guess we're left to root for Villanova, those of us who don't want March Madness to lapse into complete parody. And that's OK. 'Nova hasn't won a national title since Rollie Massimino, Harold Jensen 'n' them. And Jay Wright wears some sharp suits.

But always the anarchist creeps in, that bomb-throwing imp who actually wants the whole thing to go full metal farce. And for that, you'd have to root for North Carolina, Syracuse no longer being in play.

As the Blob noted just a few days ago, it would have been especially delicious had the 'Cuse won the whole loaf, because we would have been treated to the wonderful absurdity of the NCAA handing its national championship trophy to a coach it suspended for nine games not four months ago. But Jim Boeheim lost the Academic Fraud Bowl to Roy Williams and North Carolina, and so that fine moment is in the wind.

To be replaced by what could be an equally fine moment: The NCAA handing its trophy to a program it'll be sanctioning in the near future for its part in one of the most massive cases of academic fraud ever conceived.

If you've forgotten, North Carolina was the school where, a decade and more ago, an entire fake course of study was concocted. It benefited more than just the unpaid help in men's basketball and football, but it benefited them most of all. And in a totally go-big-or-go-home kind of way.

Not for North Carolina the mere mundane, which would have involved the usual tutors-writing-papers-for-athletes dodge. Oh, no. Carolina stepped it up, replacing mere fake papers with entire fake classes.

Now there's One Shining Moment for ya.

A more authentic One Shining Moment would be for Villanova to win, which is why the decent side of the Blob will be rooting for the Wildcats. They're part of the whole rotten system, too, of course, but at least they're keeping up the proper appearances. And if they put on the kind of performance they did last night -- reaching back to the ghosts of Rollie and Harold to shoot 71 percent in a jaw-dropping 44-point demolition of Oklahoma -- they'll deserve every Shining Moment they get.

So, root for Super Nova if you want to see that. Or Carolina, if you just want to be mean.

The Blob isn't in a mean mood, so Nova it is for now. But tomorrow ...