If Jim Larranaga of George Mason brought the sizzle, Jim Calhoun brought the steak. Writers who felt well-fed by Larranaga as the feisty underdog, gorged on Calhoun as the beleaguered favorite, lamenting the inconsistent, sometimes uninspired play of his second-ranked, top-seeded team. He was asked about an earlier comment by Washington's Brandon Roy - "We just hope that they do have that lapse during the game where they are a little unfocused'' - and he ran with it.

UConn, Calhoun said, not only has had lapses, it has "probably had five complete games all year.'' It's his team's nature, he said, to not be consistent - and, he added later, "Forget the chronological ages of the players, this by nature has not been quite as mature a team as I would like.'' UConn, he said, "needs to ... have a bust-out game.''

At least he's not ranting at the media for manufacturing a perception that the team is struggling, the way certain ACC coaches with multiple championships and multiple commercials airing during the tournament have done from time to time. If anyone wondered where the idea started that UConn was underachieving, he or she could point right to the head coach - which actually is a good thing.

Meanwhile, question of the day came from a radio reporter who asked Lorenzo Romar if there was an advantage for the University of Washington (the state) to play in Washington (the district). "Is this a trick question?'' Romar replied.

Reason why you might not want to lay the mortgage on Wichita State: the first words out of coach Mark Turgeon's mouth at his press conference were, "We're just happy to be here.''

Tipoff for Game 1, George Mason-Wichita State, is 7:27 tomorrow night; UConn-Washington is roughly 10 p.m. Calhoun understandably wasn't crazy about the start time, but not only understood it, but understood that his players probably aren't stressed about it. He recalled one of his players telling him, "I went to bed early, I was in bed by 1:15.'' Oh, those zany kids.