Sonny Smith, the former head basketball coach at East Tennessee, Auburn and VCU once told me that if they were going to have a parade for him, he wanted to be the one leading it.  So it goes for Tubby Smith and Steve Alford who are headed to Minnesota and New Mexico respectively.  Both coaches sensed that changes in the leadership in their athletic departments plus alumni dissatisfaction were too much to overcome and bolted out the door for inferior jobs before they were asked to leave. 

It is perfectly understandable for Chris Lowery or Gregg Marshall to want to move up to a school with better resources and the opportunity to win more money.  But Smith, an established big time coach, isn't going sideways, he's going backwards.  Minnesota has never fully recovered from the Clem Haskins era scandal,  even though Dan Monson cleaned the program up and had a winning record with the Gophers.  If the knock on Smith is that he couldn't attract top recruits to one of the premiere college basketball programs in the country, then how will he pitch kids at Minnesota? 

If Tubby was really wanting to land in the Big Ten, Michigan or Iowa would have been much safer landing pads.

Alford's decision is a real head scratcher. New Mexico is a real pit (pun intentional) when you consider that Norm Ellenberger and Dave Bliss, two of the most crooked coaches in history once coached there and that Fran Fraschilla fell flat on his face there. Richie McKay had a winning record in his five seasons, but when you play in the Mountain West, you either need to win the tournament or have an incredible year to not wind up in the NIT.  It's going to be tough to overtake conference powers UNLV and BYU right away, although UNLV  coach Lon Kruger has got to be in the mix for one of the open Big Ten jobs.

Is the alternative so painful?  Take the bullet, take the buyout and do a year on TV for ESPN while you wait for your next gig.  Some coaches enjoy that so much, they never return to coaching.  Smith at 55, has a national championship and could walk away right now as a respected member of the coaching fraternity for a much less intense career as a broadcaster.  Instead, he's headed for the frozen prairie where he may just be too cold to lead the next parade.

Lightning Round:

• Texas A&M is going to cost me as they are my first final four team to go down.
  
• SIU hung in tough against Kansas.   A combination of poor shot selection down the stretch and the officiating team of Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Helen Keller did the Salukis in.
• That big orange spot is Tennessee hitting the wall at the end of their game against Ohio State.  How can you not take out the Buckeyes when Greg Oden is on the bench in foul trouble.  Bruce Pearl is going to have nightmares all summer.
• UCLA is as good as advertised.
• I like Carolina, Georgetown, Oregon and Florida tonight.  UNLV could potentially upset the Ducks and USC may give Carolina some trouble.  Florida and Georgetown should roll.
• It appears Charlie Haegar has pitched his way out of the White Sox fifth starter competition.  John Danks goes today for the Sox, who still can't seem to consistently get anything going in Arizona.
• Looks like Jerry Angelo's attempts to stay under the radar have failed.  I agree, the Bears have had a pathetic off season. 
  
• More on baseball rejecting the offer of the cable companies, proving the fix was in from the start. I guess you get an award for screwing over 200,000 baseball fans.
• This article is interesting because it tries to start a Tony Dungy backlash for his comments about gay marriage.  No one seems to be biting.
• Peyton Manning hosts SNL tomorrow night.  He probably will look as good as Rex Grossman did in the Super Bowl.  I just hope Peyton doesn't try to sing.
• This story about the Pakistani cricket coach Bob Woolmer gets more interesting by the minute.  Woolmer died less than 24 hours after Pakistan was upset by Ireland in world cricket competition.  At first, it was thought Woolmer had a heart attack, but now the Jamaican version of Quincy is crying murder by strangulation.  This would be akin to North Carolina losing to Eastern Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA tournament and Roy Williams turning up dead the next day.  Oh yeah, gamblers may be involved. 
  
• Wolfgang Puck will only put healthy food in his oven.  I'll be crossing "eat foie gras at Spago" off the list of things I want to do in my life.
• Sorry, Ted Turner, that's an Asian-American fire drill now. Boy, they sure take this PC crap seriously in California, don't they?
  
• The University of Nebraska is suing the RIAA for wasting it's time.  Perhaps a class action suit is in order on behalf of the entire planet for the same thing.
• Pick up on aisle 1,234,567.  Pick up on aisle 1,234,567.