march madness bracket update

I was happy to learn the other day that Nicky Anosike, Tennessee’s starting center in the N.C.A.A.’s women’s national title game tonight, is back in my neck of the woods. We’re old neighbors, one floor and a couple of decades apart. I first interviewed Anosike two years ago, when she was a Lady Vols’ freshman, during the tournament. I had noticed that she was listed as being from St. Peter’s High School in Staten Island, N.Y., the borough I lived in from age 10 to 20. Casually, I asked, “What part of the Island are you from?” “West Brighton,” she said. “What street,” I said. “Castleton Ave.,” she played along. Now it was really getting interesting. “What number?” I said. She gave me a suspicious look, as if to say, “What do you care?” But she cooperated. “1077,” she said. I was amazed. “1077! You live in the West Brighton Houses? That’s where I grew up. Same building.” She looked at me, white middle-aged man with graying hair, bookish glasses and a New York Times credential on my chest, and I imagined she thought, “This dude did not live in the projects.” But I persisted, saying my family had moved there from Brooklyn in 1962 when the housing project was brand new. I cited several area landmarks and even a couple of neighborhood legends she’d heard of. When I thought she was convinced that I was being straight with her, I told her I lived in apartment 2B. She said her family lived one floor below. But like many families in an area that over the years has been increasingly plagued by grinding poverty, drugs and violence, she said her family was hoping to move. When I got a chance to say hello here in Cleveland the other day during the Tennessee interview sessions, she reported Florida won its second consecutive N.C.A.A. title and equaled the successful run of Duke in 1991 and 1992, the last school to win back-to-back championships.In the unlikely event that juniors Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Taurean Green and Corey Brewer were to return to the Gators next season (along with Coach Billy Donovan, whose return is no sure thing), would Florida be able to exceed Duke’s streak and that of Cincinnati (1961, 1962), San Francisco (1955, 1956) Kentucky (1948, 1949) and Oklahoma State (1945, 1946)?And how do the Gators, for what they have accomplished right now, compare to the U.C.L.A. dynasty of 10 championships — seven in a row — from 1964 through 1975?Do Horford and Noah come close to equalling Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) or Bill Walton? Or Bill Russell from San Francisco?Donovan and his players considered some of these issues in the post-game news conference.Donovan said his team “has to go down in history as one of the greatest teams of all time, one of the best teams ever to play.'’ He remarked, with a little wistfulness, that many years ago, “they’d all be coming back and the whole thing would start: `Can you three-peat?”’Aside from the lure of the N.B.A., Donovan said it is harder to keep teams together because there are fewer scholarships and more transfers than there used to be. And, he added, “freshmen had to wait their turn'’ in the past.Brewer said:“Hopefully, we’ll be viewed as one of the best college basketball teams ever to play the game. You can argue it, but you’ve got to put us up there.'’ He smiled when he said he heard a television announcer mention that Florida did not even rank in the top five.“Numbers don’t lie,'’ Brewer said. “Back to back.'’Horford, referring to the other to repeat, said: “It feels good to be in an elite group like that.'’