B-town blues, with a "but"

 And now the women, too?

Never figured God for a South Beach guy, rocking the green and orange of The U. Never figured he had a mad-on for Eye-U, either.

What, he hates world-class musicians? Ernie freakin' Pyle? Doctors, lawyers and Kelly School of Business grads?

Maybe it's all those four-way stops in Bloomington. Maybe he prefers roundabouts instead.

In any case, this was a hell of a one-two punch Indiana got, and  both of 'em were delivered by Miami. First the Hurricane men ran Trayce Jackson-Davis 'n' them off the floor the round of 32; last night, in Assembly Hall, the 9-seed Hurricane woman stunned the 1-seed Hoosiers on a layup just ahead of the horn.

Miami 70, Indiana 68. In the Hall, no less.

This simply doesn't happen on the women's side, and certainly not to  Indiana's women, who have been so impeccable this winter. Nearly everyone who saw them knew he or she was looking at a Final Four team, and a lot of people saw them. By the end of the season, the women were selling out the Hall, same as the men.

But then ...

But then came last night. Which in an odd way was an affirming one for women's buckets, even if it was another stanza of the B-town blues.

Indiana, see, was the second 1-seed to go down on the first weekend of Da Tournament. Ole  Miss, an 8-seed, knocked out Stanford on Sunday. No 1-seed had ever failed to reach the Sweet Sixteen in the history of the women's tournament; within 24 hours, two had failed to do so.

What this says is the women, like the men, have more players than ever, and they are everywhere. Women's buckets used to be Tennessee and UConn and an occasional Notre Dame, Baylor or Stanford. Now they are those five schools, and also South Carolina and Indiana and LSU and a pile of others. A tournament that was once immune to Madness is now rife with it.

OK. So at least kinda rife with it. 

And how is that not a good thing?