Kansas and coach Bill Self survived Davidson (barely) last night 59-57, turning the stagecoach that brought Davidson to the Elite Eight back into a pumpkin and punching Bill Self’s first ever Final Four dance card.

All the teams in this year’s Final Four are No. 1 seeds, and some fans have a smug sense of satisfaction about it. As if we’re seeing things like they are supposed to be. Like the tournament finally “worked”. How fickle we are. Everybody loves the Cinderella team—as long as they don’t overstay their welcome.

In the early rounds of March, people love predicting upsets. They love seeing the big guy go down early, and they love predicting it. Most people I talked to after the first round pretty much said the same thing:

“Dude . . . Sienna? Are you kidding me? SIENNA?!”

The shock factor is what keeps the tournament so irresistible, but apparently our love affair with the underdog is matter of convenience rather than practicality. Seems to be the case with Davidson, anyway.

You’d be crazy not to hand it to Stephen Curry and the Davidson team. Every single tournament has its upstarts, and no matter how many dictionaries you use, you won’t find a better definition than the Wildcats.

The country loved them, too. Stephen Curry has been called the “Sophomore Sensation”, and Davidson was quickly dubbed “America’s Sweethearts”. But this morning, people have dropped Davidson with a thud sounding eerily similar to Jason Richards’ last-ditch three-point attempt to steal a win from Kansas.

Now, after all of Davidson’s talented, gritty, and honest play, people are describing them as “plucky”. Isn’t that cute?

Hindsight is 20/20, I suppose, and now that every single basketball powerhouse that started this tournament is still in it, some people think it would have been weird or even awkward if Davidson had beaten Kansas for a spot in the Final Four.

As if Davidson really wouldn’t have belonged there after all. As if Davidson’s losing were for the best.

Would North Carolina have crushed Davidson? Probably, but they managed to put the brakes on Kansas and that’s saying something.

I’m just as excited as the next guy over all four No. 1 seeds still remaining. It’s never happened before and we’re going to see some heavyweight basketball, but I don’t think it’s fair for anyone to be so dismissive of Davidson.

I don’t think it’s fair for any of us to say they don’t belong in the Final Four. They didn’t technically belong in the Elite Eight, either. Those kids can play, and they proved it.

The tournament is designed with the sole purpose of protecting No. 1 seeds as long as possible. The bracket favors them by design. So what’s more impressive here, Stephen Curry, or finally getting the Final Four we’re “supposed” to have?

If this is the way things are supposed to be every year, why bother playing a tournament?

–Joey Alfino, RED Editorial Staff.

The Writers Guild of America strike is a thing of the past, and on April 10, NBC is going to launch new episodes of their most popular sitcoms. Thank God for that, since the 2008 presidential race has officially entered its rerun phase.

Of course there are always certain developments that keep each election unique—the almost certain fissure and potential implosion of the Democratic party over polarizing issues, for example, is enough to keep any political junkie on his toes.

Yet we’ve been dealing with this Democratic superdelegate business for quite some time now, and the 71-year old John McCain is essentially napping until he’s needed again in June to run against whichever candidate emerges from the Democratic maelstrom.

So currently, here we sit in political doldrums, 20 whole days removed from Mississippi’s primary and 22 days away from Pennsylvania’s. By what I’ve witnessed, the best political analyst can dissect the most complicated talking points to pieces within a week, but 42 days in between contests? That’s a long time to go without any ammo.

And while we twiddle our thumbs, major media’s political coverage starts to sound like a broken record and look a little silly (CNN ran a story about which candidate elephants prefer). Candidates for both parties are just biding time, taking their same stump speeches to different locales and giving the same media the same sound bites over and over.

Further proof the election is going through its Déjà vu period can be seen in last week’s announcement by Democratic Florida Sen. Bill Nelson.

In a speech on the floor of the Florida state Senate, Nelson announced his legislative plans to fix our election process. We hear this every four years, and we haven’t seriously dealt with it once.

“This country cannot afford to wait that long before we fix the flaws we still see in our election system,” Nelson said. “The blessings of liberty cannot wait.”

The main purpose of Sen. Nelson’s legislation is aimed at the Democratic superdelegate system, though Nelson will also seek to award the presidency based on the popular vote instead of the Electoral College. “The goal is simple: one person, one vote,” Nelson said in his speech Thursday.

Sen. Nelson is right. The majority of every other voting process, including the one we use to pass legislation in this country, is based on a majority system. Yet the process by which we elect a president is some of the most frustrating and convoluted math ever created.

That said, history suggests it isn’t going to change anytime soon. As I mentioned before, we see this episode every four years, and if George W. Bush’s murky Florida victory over Al Gore wasn’t enough to seriously consider overhauling the Electoral College in 2000, this year doesn’t hold much promise either.

I don’t mean to cheapen or dilute the process by which we elect the leader of our nation (not too much, anyway), but there comes a point in every election where things get repetitive and outright boring. If the presidential race were a television drama, this is the episode we’ve seen before. If you’re getting bored, come back in 22 days.

New political episodes return to television on April 22.

–Joey Alfino, RED Editorial Staff.

–After 19 years of marriage, Robin Williams and his wife, Marsha Garces Williams are getting divorced. I can’t imagine how anyone could put up with Robin Williams’ ADD for more than an hour, let alone 19 years. In honor of her resolve, Marsha Garces Williams will replace Monica of Hippo as the patron saint of patience.

–Ashton Kutcher is confident that his new show “Pop Fiction” will “turn the tables” on the paparazzi by having celebs feed them fake news. So far, weekly gossip magazines aren’t falling for it. “Ashton’s not a journalist”, a source told the New York Daily News. Not a journalist? Compared to Star magazine, Ashton Kutcher looks like Wolf Blitzer.

–Paris Hilton arrived in Istanbul, Turkey last Wednesday to judge the Miss Turkey 2008 beauty contest. At first, Paris was angry about judging the Miss Turkey pageant because she’s a vegetarian, but she calmed down after her manager showed her a map.

–Dr Pepper has issued a challenge to Guns N’ Roses. The soft drink company announced they will give away a free can of Dr Pepper to “everyone in America” if Guns N’ Roses finally manages to release its decade-in-the-making album, “Chinese Democracy”. There’s about 302,200,000 people in America, so at 50 cents a can, that equals $151.1 million. I doubt the album is that good.

–Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society have announced that Barack Obama is distantly related to President George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman, Vice President Dick Cheney, British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, Civil War General Robert E. Lee, and Brad Pitt. Obama is also linked to Kevin Bacon by six degrees of separation, but then again, who isn’t?

–Japanese scientists and origami masters hope to launch a paper airplane from space and learn from its journey back to Earth. Apparently, origami planes have already been able to withstand Mach 7 speeds and broiling temperatures up to 446 degrees Fahrenheit in a hypersonic wind tunnel. If this works, expect Japan’s next manned spacecraft to look a lot like a swan.

–Japan has also named “Doraemon”, a popular cartoon robot cat, as Japan’s first ever Anime Ambassador. Doraemon will work as the as main promoter of Japan’s pop culture to the world. A welcome reception has already been planned at the Magic Kingdom. So far, Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny plan to attend, but a call to France’s Astérix le Gaulois was not immediately returned.

–The builders of the world’s biggest particle collider are being sued in federal court over fears that the experiment might create globe-gobbling black holes or never-before-seen strains of matter that would destroy the planet. One question: how in the hell can you prove this beyond reasonable doubt without destroying the Earth as evidence, and if you destroy the Earth, what good is a lawsuit?

–Madonna thinks the media should leave Britney Spears alone. “They need to step off,” she said on the radio this week. “For real . . . Let’s go save her.” Save her? Great, now Britney is a cause. On the upside, if Britney gets any worse, maybe Angelina Jolie will adopt her.

–Reuters recently reported that, for a mere $10,000, the Celestis, Inc. company will be more than happy to blast a portion of your cremated remains to the moon, which is one of the sillier things I’ve heard in awhile. I’m not from the moon, so why would I be buried on the moon? That’s like Jim Morrison getting buried in Paris. It makes no sense. Jim’s from Florida.

–Joey Alfino, RED Editorial Staff.

Baseball season has already technically started, but I don’t think the Boston vs. Oakland game in Japan should count. The only reason why commissioner Bud Selig booked that game in the first place is because that’s where the money trail led him.

Any baseball elitist will tell you that officially beginning America’s Game in a foreign country is fundamentally wrong, but what’s done is done. As far as I’m concerned, baseball season starts on May 31; that means it’s preview time. Everybody can pretty much bank on Boston’s dominance this year, but don’t be surprised if the Tribe makes a run for October.

In the AL Central, Cleveland is definitely a team to keep an eye on. The best thing you can say about the Indians is that they don’t rely too heavily on one guy, even though they could if they wanted to.

The Indians might lean heavily on leadoff hitter Grady Sizemore from time to time, but if you’ve got to pin your hopes on a player, he’s the guy to pin them on. Sizemore ranked second among full-time leadoff hitters in the AL last season, and that was an off year.

Second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera batting second is also a solid move. After Cabrera got moved to the No. 2 spot last season, Cleveland went 23-6 and averaged slightly over five runs per game. That’s a heck of an improvement over the Indians’ average of 73-60 without him.

All in all, the Tribe has a more solid offense this year in comparison to the sometimes-squirrelly one they had last season, but even with unpredictable offense they still managed to win 96 games.

The only wildcard in that lineup is DH Travis Hafner, who was in a hitting slump for the majority of 2007. He turned in a .266 batting average last season, mainly as a result of his nasty habit of check swinging.

I haven’t heard if he managed to work through that issue during spring training or not, but the Tribe is going to need more than .266 out of him this year if they still want to be around in the fall.

Of course, you can’t spell Cleveland without C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia is the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, he’s coming off an amazing season, he’s still improving, and if he keeps down the road he’s on he might be the best pitcher in the majors this year.

But the biggest positive for the Indians is still their balance. 162 games from now, a huge part of the post season rests on how well a team sticks together, and not necessarily on big name star power. If you want proof, just look at Colorado.

They ended up in the World Series, and the Rockies have a collective payroll lower than the Kansas City Royals.

–Joey Alfino, RED Editorial Staff.

It was a typical museum scene: a bunch of male teens on a field trip were laughing and shoving each other around, barely paying attention to the exhibits. But as the boisterous group entered the final display in Memphis’ National Civil Rights Museum, the boys quickly fell silent. Finally one student said softly, “Holy crap, this is awesome.”

The teens were looking at the actual motel rooms in the Lorraine Motel where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. spent his final hours before being gunned down by an assassin 40 years ago this April 4. But rather than being a static exhibit, it was eerily alive.

An air conditioner puffed a cool stream of air, ruffling the pages of a newspaper tossed carelessly onto one bed; you could literally feel King’s presence on the other side of the motel room door, where he stood on the concrete balcony, casually chatting with friends, moments before he was shot. An adjacent window looks onto the balcony and faces the flophouse window where King’s assassin, James Early Ray, crouched.

As strains of Mahalia Jackson’s rich contralto singing “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” — King’s favorite spiritual — softly filled the background, one of the students slowly walked to the window, pointed to the wreath marking the spot where King was shot, and whispered somberly, “Here was right there.” The students silently inspected every item in the exhibit until one young man finally turned away, saying, “This is too depressing.”

Opened in 1991, the National Civil Rights Museum features numerous exhibits chronicling African-American history from the origin of the slave trade in the English colonies to the Civil War, Reconstruction, segregation and the start of the Civil Rights Movement. Some of the early exhibits are text-heavy, but they pick up steam with large, gripping displays on events like the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began after African-American Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger.

In 2002, an $11 million expansion opened across the street in the former Main Street Rooming House where Ray fired the shot that killed King. Nearly as powerful as the original, you can view recreations of Room 5B, where Ray stayed, and the bathroom where he fired at King through a window later found partially open. Although you can’t walk up to the exact window, which is protected, you can look through another a few yards over that also faces the Lorraine, giving you a chilling idea of what Ray’s view was like. Other displays chronicle what happened after King died, including crime scene shots and sketches, and note some people, including the King family, believe Ray was innocent and King’s murder was a conspiracy.

–Melanie Radzicki McManus, RED Travel Writer

John Calipari and his Memphis Tigers will play their Sweet Sixteen game against Michigan State tomorrow, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Calipari turns down every interview request between now and tip-off.

He’s tired of telling the media that free throws don’t matter. Or maybe he’s just fed up with no one believing him.

You’ve got to admire Calipari’s cavalier attitude when it comes to the topic of foul shooting. He handles denial like a pro. Whenever he’s asked about it, he dismisses it.

Maybe Calipari is trying to stay positive. That’s understandable. What coach in his right mind would go on national television and tell the country how bad his team is at foul shooting? But Calipari is optimistic to a fault. Just because Calipari doesn’t want to acknowledge the problem doesn’t mean it’s not there.

The Memphis Tigers are a great basketball team. They deserve their No. 1 seed, they’ve got a fast offense, a great defense . . . and I think Michigan State is going to beat them tomorrow night.

The simple fact is, at some point in the NCAA Tournament a team has to shoot well from the line if they want to keep winning, and from the line, Memphis just plain stinks.

The Tigers have a 59 percent free throw average. That’s the second-worst in Division I basketball, and the absolute worst of the 16 teams left in the tourney. Calipari is a great coach, but if he thinks foul shooting isn’t an issue I’d like to buy some real estate on that cloud he’s living on.

Last Sunday, Memphis got a scare when they beat Mississippi State by only three points. I understand a win is a win, which is what Calipari would point to, but Memphis shot 15-32 from the foul line for that game. That’s 46 percent. Yikes.

Just to quote some numbers, only one team since 1985 has shot less than 65 percent and still won the national title, Connecticut in 2004. Outside of that, only two other teams in history have won a title shooting less than 60 percent from the line, City College of New York in 1950 and Oklahoma State in 1945.

Luckily for Memphis, their team often plays so well that free throws hardly matter. With an average victory margin of roughly18 points, who cares about free throws? In that context, nobody would.

Not until now, anyway.

Michigan State shoots 73.9 percent from the line and is one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the nation. Unless the refs give Memphis the UCLA treatment tomorrow night, the Spartans are going to get a lot of free looks from the stripe.

It also means that if Memphis finds themselves in a must foul situation late in the game, they’re probably cooked. Not only that, but if Memphis is up by two, three, or even four late in the game and gets sent to the foul line, they might not hang on to their lead.

Earlier in the week, Calipari expressed his frustration with the media when he said, “But everybody, all they want to talk about is our free-throw shooting, I don’t know why.”

If Memphis loses, he’ll know exactly why.

–Joey Alfino, RED Editorial Staff.

There are a lot of players on the world stage who aren’t happy with China right now, both politically and environmentally. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has threatened to boycott the opening ceremony in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics to protest China’s human rights situation in Tibet.

There’s also speculation that air pollution levels in Beijing could be five times higher than what the World Health Organization considers safe. Now, not only do China’s attempts to clean up the air by August 8 seem dashed, they actually plan on putting more chemicals in the air specifically for the games.

The main Olympic stadium in Beijing is called the Bird’s Nest, and it’s where all the major track and field competitions will be held. The venue is state of the art, and it reportedly cost around $423 million to build.

From what I hear, it’s pretty nice. There’s only one problem: no roof, and the Olympics are smack dab in the middle of China’s rainy season. So, how can China ensure none of the track and field events are rained out?

The answer is a military strike against meteorology. They’re going to shoot a bunch of artillery and chemicals into the sky.

At the risk of sounding harsh, China has made a name for itself when it comes to chemically laden air, so in a way, this makes perfect sense.

The Weather Modification Office in Beijing, a subsidiary of the China Meteorological Administration, has hatched a plan employing an IBM p575 supercomputer, two airplanes, and an array of 20 artillery and rocket launch sites to impregnate menacing storm clouds with a mixture of silver iodide and dry ice.

This mixture should (in theory) prematurely flush all the rain out of any cloud headed towards the Bird’s Nest. As for any menacing rain clouds already near the Bird’s Nest, those will be seeded with a chemical to shrink rain droplets temporarily, essentially constipating clouds until they’ve passed over the stadium.

Zhang Qian, head of Beijing’s Weather Modification Office, told the Associated Press, “We use a coolant made from liquid nitrogen to increase the number of droplets while decreasing their average size. As a result, the smaller droplets are less likely to fall, and precipitation can be reduced.”

According to Qian, “the results with light rain have been satisfactory.” But so far, no one is really sure how effective the procedure will be in August when chances of precipitation over Beijing will hover around 50 percent daily.

Chinese officials are optimistic; even still, there’s no guarantee that China’s propensity for messing with the environment is going to pay off. Amidst all the other issues China is dealing with these days, it’s enough to make a person wonder why they’ve chosen such a complicated and expensive approach.

If it fails, roughly 90,000 Olympic spectators are going to end up soaking wet, looking up at the sky, asking themselves one question:

What, no roof?

–Joey Alfino, RED Editorial Staff.

The NHL’s regular season has less than two weeks before it keels over, and when it does, it’s sure to take the jobs of a handful of coaches with it.

In Atlanta, GM/head coach Don Waddell’s job should be on thin ice; the Thrashers are headed for their eighth season without winning a single playoff game. We’ll just have to see if common sense catches on for the Thrashers, but Atlanta’s bench shouldn’t be the only one missing a suit in the coming weeks.

First, there’s the Los Angeles Kings—or rather last, since that’s what place they’re in. GM Dean Lombardi would be wise to take a long look at coach Marc Crawford. Then he should take a look at L.A.’s 30-40 record, and look at Crawford again. That should be enough to convince anyone in the Kings’ organization that change is needed.

If Lombardi does end up shopping for a coach, he should have plenty of options. Generally speaking, the Kings aren’t hopeless. They’re just young. Ex-Boston coach Mike Sullivan, now an assistant in Tampa, could not only be a good move but also a good investment in the future.

Sullivan didn’t wow anyone during his brief coaching tenure for the Bruins, but I can’t imagine he hasn’t picked up a pointer or two as John Tortorella’s assistant in Tampa Bay. Tortorella still has that 2004 Stanley Cup as well as the most wins in Tampa’s franchise history.

The Ottawa Senators will probably look into a change as well, especially if they get bounced from the playoffs early. Sens GM Bryan Murray made a good move in late February by showing coach John Paddock the door and taking over the reigns himself, but Ottawa still has problems.

The Sens aren’t terrible, but they aren’t terribly consistent either. I’m not sure if Murray is enjoying his reprisal as Ottawa’s coach, but it’s a safe assumption that he’ll look to turn the coaching job over next season. Right now, Murray might be wearing too many hats.

A good candidate to replace Murray in Ottawa could be Bob Hartley, whose NHL résumé is fairly thick. Seven years have passed since his Stanley Cup win with Colorado, and he had a rough time of it in Atlanta, but I don’t think it’s fair to pin Atlanta’s problems squarely on Hartley. The Thrashers have more to worry about than the Maple Leafs.

After the regular season, we’ll see if anyone in Atlanta can figure that out.

–Joey Alfino, RED Editorial Staff.

If you travel solo for business, chances are you hate the dinner hour. Eating alone in public can feel uncomfortable and, you imagine, leave others wondering at your lack of friends.

There is a solution beyond room service. Learning to dine alone on the road can become one of the greatest gifts you ever give yourself. Dining locally is, after all, one of the most pleasurable ways to get to know a city and to meet its residents. And with practice, you can get used to eating solo. You can even learn to enjoy it.

1. Bring a notepad to the restaurant. Use the dinner hour to catch up on business, take notes, organize expenses and plan the next day’s schedule. Finish these tasks over dinner and you’re free to relax when you return to the hotel.

2. Take a book or magazine along. If the book is engrossing you’ll scarcely notice the others around you.

3. Begin your meal with a glass of wine. Wait staff are notorious for neglecting lone diners, believing their tips will be too low to warrant decent service. Ordering a glass of wine, and maybe an appetizer, lets the staff know you plan to eat a serious meal. But just in case, get the waiter’s name so you can engage him in conversation and hold his attention.

4. Visit a restaurant that caters to the business crowd. Hotel restaurants are good bets since they tend to attract other business travelers.

5. Avoid romantic spots. Even the most self-confident diner feels like a loner when surrounded by couples in love.

6. Ask the hostess for a table with a good view, and spend some time people-watching.

7. Eat at the bar. You won’t be the only one dining alone and you may find other singles eager for conversation. If not, engage the bartender in conversation and learn about the community you’re visiting.

8. Dine at a sports bar. You can enjoy your dinner while you catch the game.

9. Visit a local food market and create your own dinner. A meal eaten in your hotel room becomes healthier and more interesting when you select locally prepared foods, baked goods and produce. Pair your meal with a local beer, wine, or specialty soft drink.

10. Relax. If you take a look around, you’ll notice that most restaurant patrons are too wrapped up in their own conversations to take notice of other tables.

–Amy S. Eckert, RED Travel Writer

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama took their kid gloves off long ago, and no matter whom you support in this election, you’ve got to admit the Democratic picture is getting very ugly very quickly. Now Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, a man who represents the Democratic Party’s ship as a whole, is getting negative attention.

The potential fallout caused by Howard Dean’s handling of Florida’s Democratic Primary mess is eerily similar to a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. All you have to do is substitute the ancient mariner’s character with Howard Dean, and the albatross he shoots with Florida.

Next thing you know, the Democratic ship could end up as desolate as the one in Coleridge’s story.

As you would imagine, Dean is receiving most of his criticism from Democratic voters in Florida and Michigan whose frustrations are boiling over at the loss of their delegates in the Democratic primary—especially in Florida.

Registered Florida Democrats are becoming so disenfranchised that, according to a poll published at Time.com, “almost a quarter of Florida Democrats say they’ll be ‘less likely to support’ the party’s nominee if their state’s delegates aren’t seated at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.”

There are a little over 4 million registered Democratic voters in Florida, and in a race that’s already proven to be rife with close calls, the Democrats might not be able to afford that kind of a hit in the general election.

The notion of a revote in either state is off the table at this point, and any kind of workable comprise has failed to appease the Democratic top brass. So if you look at where this story has been to extrapolate where it is headed, disaster is a fairly logical conclusion.

Howard Dean, the embodiment of the Democratic Party if you will, can stick to his guns, point his finger, and appear uncannily principled by saying rules are rules; but in the general election, Dean’s conviction could be the Democrats’ undoing.

Dean might honestly believe that he doesn’t have the option to deviate from his party’s rules, but nowhere is it written that Democratic voters in either Florida or Michigan can’t vote Republican in the fall out of spite—if they even vote at all.

For now, any sort of resolution is nonexistent, and the Michigan and Florida Democrats have lost a privilege this country was founded on. Between Florida, Michigan, Dean, Obama, Clinton, Ferraro and Wright, the Democrats are dealing with a mess by any measure.

If the Democrats aren’t careful, they’ll end up with an albatross around their necks big enough to make the ghost of Coleridge chuckle.

–Joey Alfino, RED Editorial Staff.