It felt so good today to get a blowout win. That was awesome. I’m celebrating for 3 reasons. One – it’s just good to get to the Final Four any year, let alone 3 years in a row. Second, after a couple of nail biters that have challenged my blood pressure level, it’s nice to have some breathing room and some confidence going to the Final Four against either Memphis or Texas.

Third, I was secretly hoping UCLA would put a big monster beat down on Xavier to avenge tragic circumstances preventing UCLA from the Final Four about 10 years ago. UCLA beat Xavier in the sweet 16 round, but some Xavier scrub executed a cheap shot/ninja move, giving an intentional elbow to Jelani McCoy who was swatting everything in site that tournament and playing his best ball of his UCLA career and on track to be a regional MOP (most outstanding player). UCLA, without the services of a healthy Jelani McCoy, lost to Minnesota or Wisconsin (one of those cold states – they had Bobby Jackson on their team). It’s part of the game when you lose a natural injury, but when somebody seeks to harm your player and succeeds in doing so – that’s tragic. UCLA would have moved on, no doubt.

The only bright side from that whole deal – if they had made the Final Four that year, maybe Steve Lavin would still be the coach of the Bruins. So maybe when it was all said and done, that Xavier scrub did Bruindom a big favor. Regardless, I welcome them getting the big tourney smackdown by Kevin Love and company.

Colin has been so excited by the tournament, that during UCLA’s victory over Western Kentucky he rolled over for the first time. Today he was just rolling into a better position to watch the game.

Speaking of Bruin-haters…what’s up with Bob Knight? Check out the preview from before the UCLA-Xavier match up below. Knight’s been hating on the Bruins forever and all tourney long. It’s like he has John Wooden envy. I guess what else can you expect from a dude who sports pink sweaters. Dicky V. was money this time around – good to see him telling it like it is.

—the video doesn’t work on the espn site anymore so I removed it. you’ll have to take my word for my thoughts above