One and ... done

So now we have our national championship matchup, and how 'bout them Loyola Ramblers? Playin' for a national title tomorrow night! Woo-hoo!

(OK ... so they're not. Michigan stepped on Cinderella's foot, spilled punch on her dress and booted her from the tournament. But hey. It is April 1, remember?)

(And so goodbye, Sister Jean. The maddest thing about the Madness was it made a 98-year-old nun a national celebrity. They actually held a press conference for her in the runup to last night's games, and half the media creatures in America showed up for it. She said the Michigans were chumps and Loyola was going to beat them like a dozen eggs. Also she was starting a rock band, Takin' It To The Tin On Y'all.)

(OK, so that's not true, either. April fool's again.)

(Although she did leave early last night, which suggests -- gasp! -- Sister Jean is a fair weather fan. I hope that's an April fool's joke.)

Anyway ... where were we?

Oh, yeah. Our national championship matchup.

It's Villanova vs. Michigan, and what's significant about that was pointed out by a longtime sportswriting acquaintance of mine, Rick Bozich from Louisville. Bozich tweeted that between the two national title contenders, there is a single McDonald's All-American: 'Nova's Jalen Brunson.

And there is your irony for this morning. All this hand-wringing over the one-and-dones (and the Blob cops to doing some of it), and they're all sitting at home for the big night. One McDonald's All-American means one kid everyone in the country was salivating over coming out of high school. Which suggests One-And-Done U. (Kentucky) and One-And-Done U. 2.0 (Duke) may not be following the golden path after all.

Not that they won't try. While two rosters virtually devoid of the Gotta Have 'Ems battle it out tomorrow night, someone has already tweeted out a photo of Duke's 2018-19 crop of one-and-dones, a quartet of hyper-blue chippers led by dunker extraordinaire Zion Williamson.

Duke's next candidates to be sitting home on the last weekend of March. Write it down now.