As North Carolina's Antawn Jamison left the floor following his team's 65-59 loss to Utah in the NCAA Tournament semifinals, he stopped to kneel down and kiss the court at the Alamodome.
Jamison is the winner of the Oscar Robertson Trophy as college basketball's player of the year and is considered a possible early entrant to the NBA Draft, but he said this should not be taken as a sign he'd made up his mind.
Sure looked that way, though.
''I may never have the opportunity to get back to the Final Four,'' Jamison said. ''I don't think it was a sign of this being my last or best ballgame. Just to make it to the Final Four two years in a row is almost impossible. I am grateful that I got this opportunity.''
Just being Makhtar?
North Carolina center Makhtar Ndiaye refused to comment on a statement by Utah freshman forward Britton Johnsen that Ndiaye spit in his face during the game.
Ndiaye certainly had an eventful evening. He fouled out with 17:50 left in the game, hacking Utah center Michael Doleac even though he had four personals at the time and had no chance to make a play.
''I've done that a lot of times during the year. A lot of times it worked,'' said coach Bill Guthridge. ''I did have a substitute up there when he made his fifth foul. I was going to give him a little rest there.''
Carolina went into overtime or lost the last four games in which Ndiaye fouled out.
What's in a name?
Conference USA has been on a campaign for two years to get the media to properly refer to the names of its members, several of which have changed since the league was formed.
C-USA might want to work on its parent organization, the NCAA, first.
In the Alamodome, the facade above the first level of seats is covered by a banner that lists each of the 64 teams that were entered in the NCAA Tournament in order of its seeding. Included are these two C-USA schools: St. Louis (which prefers Saint Louis) and North Carolina Charlotte (which prefers UNC Charlotte, but at least wasn't stuck with the hyphen it detests).
Good thing Alabama-Birmingham (which wants to be known as UAB) didn't make it.
Being there
When North Carolina freshman Brendan Haywood entered the game against Utah, he became the 108th player to compete in the Final Four for the Tar Heels, the most of any school.
Jeff Sheppard, Michael Bradley, Saul Smith and Heshimu Evans all were in their first Final Fours for Kentucky despite the fact the Wildcats were in the last two championship games. They gave Kentucky 104 Final Four veterans, the second-most for any school. UCLA is third at 96.
Senior shooting guard Shammond Williams is the sixth UNC player to appear in three Final Fours.
Saturday night fever?
A team that gets to the Final Four a lot of times is likely as not to lose a lot of times once there. North Carolina has had such a problem. The Tar Heels have dropped out of the tournament in the national semifinals seven times in 13 tries.
Today's NCAA coverage
Utah-Kentucky unlikely final
Kentucky 86, Stanford 85
All Stanford was missing was Sheppard Paul Daugherty column
Sheppard saves day for UK
Turner happy to get the win
UK victory thrills fans
UK Notes
Utah 65, North Carolina 59
Miller stops Heels in tracks
Final Four jinx gets Williams
Utah/UNC Notes
NCAA coverage from Associated Press
