For the first time in college basketball history a team (men or women’s) has achieved 40-0. Baylor’s Lady Bears did it tonight behind the unstoppable Brittney Griner, winning their 2nd national title since 2005.

Baylor, becomes just the 7th team in Women’s NCAA Tournament history (the tourney began in 1982) to complete a season unscathed, and Kim Mulkey joins an elite list with her second national title.

Plus, further proof why dynasties in the women’s game are much more common than in the men’s.

What did you make of the game? Where does Griner stand amongst the best to ever play the women’s game?

College basketball’s championship trophy is headed back to the Bluegrass State. For the first time in 14 years, it’s Big Blue that can lay claim to being the final team standing in the Big Dance, as the Wildcats completed a 38 win season with an impressive win over a wily Kansas team that scratched and clawed, but ultimately fell short.

Kentucky, led by a team of freshman and sophomores, proved the critics wrong, playing with great poise, unselfishness, and chemistry rare of such a young team. And young Kentucky was, the 5th youngest in the nation.

For Anthony Davis, the Final Four M.O.P. it was another dominant performance despite just 1 basket. Kentucky played intense defense, ran the court beautifully, and hit key 3s and clutch foul shots late to salt away the 8th National title in school history (second to UCLA).

Where does this Kentucky team rank amongst college basketball’s best? How would you rate the game and what did you make of John Calipari’s post-game comments?

SI.com columnist and CBS Sports analyst Seth Davis joins us to break down the best and worst of the 2012 NCAA Tournament from the Final Four in New Orleans, the influx of 1 and dones and whether it’s good for the game, John Calipari’s success, the NBA Draft age limit, and much much more.

How would you rate this year’s NCAA Tournament?

Anthony Davis has had a special season for a special freshman, and today he added another accolade to an impressive first year campaign, Associated Press College Basketball Player of the Year.

He is just the second freshman ever (Kevin Durant) to win the prestigious award which has been given out since 1961. Unlike the NFL, which sees many Heisman winners crash and burn, players who win the AP College Basketball Player of the Year tend to hit the fast track to stardom, with an astonishing rate of them ending up in the Hall of Fame.

Davis is also the first Wildcat in history to claim this award — which is amazing in it and of itself, considering Kentucky’s unprecedented college basketball success.

Davis beat out Kansas’ Thomas Robinson and Michigan State’s Draymond Green to win the award.

Was Davis the right choice for AP POY? What kind of pro will he be? And taking out your crystal ball, do you think he will dominate the NBA to the tune of a Hall of Fame caliber career?

It takes 67 games to complete the NCAA Tournament. We now have just 3 left. The field has been whittled down from 68 to 4, and as we zero in on New Orleans, site of the 2012 Final Four, a quadrant of programs steep in tradition remain: 1. Kentucky, 2. Kansas, 2. Ohio State, and 4. Louisville.

It’s a far cry from last season, which featured the strange sight of 8. Butler vs 11. VCU in one of the two National semifinals (UConn-Kentucky was the other matchup).

While this year didn’t quite go ‘chalk’ (it rarely does, just ask 2008), it does feature a foursome of teams that were in the AP Top 15 to start the season, and top 20 to end it. Louisville is the most surprising of the bunch considering how they were playing before their impressive Big East tourney run (aka: not good), but they can beat anyone in the country. Kentucky has shown that their youth will not be their undoing (they’re playing way beyond their years), Kansas has shown a penchant for playing well when they’ve had to (12-0 run to knock out UNC in a terrific game), and Ohio State was expected to be here ‘last year’ before falling short (hence the return of Jared Sullinger).

So, we ask you, who will win it all? What game are you most looking forward to this coming weekend and how many Final Four teams did you have right in your bracket (Kansas, Kentucky)?

Austin Rivers is off to the NBA according to sources close to the shooting guard, freshman sensation from Duke. Zero people should be shocked by this announcement. The top high school recruit in the country was pretty much a lock to bolt for the NBA if he had even a decent season (He was first team All ACC so yeah, I’d say he did that).

This really isn’t about Rivers though, who is expected to be a top 15 lottery selection in the 2012 Draft. This is about the need for change, to re-establish college basketball continuity. Michigan State shot under 30% yesterday and they were a #1 seed! Louisville is a 4 seed that looked horrible halfway through this season and now they’re rolling. Kentucky has 4 upperclassmen on their entire team!

As for Duke, this used to be the program of stability. Players NEVER left until there junior seasons and even then that was rare. But since Luol Deng in 2004, Duke and Coach K have slowly lost their iron fist on their youngsters. With Kyrie Irving going #1 this past year and Rivers a good bet to go high as well, Duke is dealing with a new Era of flashy 1 and outs.

College hoops is suffering for it. Either take these guys out of high school NBA, or make em go to college for at least 2-3 years (like MLB does). There’s a reason dominating teams are a thing of the past in college hoops: it’s because players haven’t been on the same team for 3-4 years.

What do you think: is continuity in college hoops ancient history? Would you like to see the NBA change their draft eligibility rules?

52 games down, 15 to go. It’s been a wild NCAA Tournament, but the Curse of Gus lingers — there has yet to be an overtime or buzzer beater (which is quite simply astounding). Still, with just 16 teams left — including 4 from Ohio (a record), 4 from the Big 10, and 4 from the Big East — and a critical Tar Heels injury threatening to derail North Carolina’s run, there is still much to be determined in this year’s version of March Madness.

Here’s a visual explanation of where we stand:

By Region:

By Conference (Ohio teams in red):

By State (no, this isn’t a Republican primary map):

Original graphics: Scott Jacobs

What a strange, double-personality this 2012 NCAA Tournament has taken on. On odd days it’s status quo, business as usual for the top seeds with a hiccup here and there, and on even days, it’s pure, unadulterated chaos!

We watched two 2 seeds and a 4 seed fall on Friday, and on Saturday the expectation was, that despite having a lot of chalk matchups, that some lower seeds would prevail as well.

Not to be!

In spite of a number of spirited finishes and some games much closer than their final score would indicate, there was no upsets on day 3. By seed that is.

Call Wisconsin beating Vandy a mild upset if you wish, but the Badgers are going back to the Sweet 16 for the 5th time in 11 years. Gonzaga nearly got Ohio State but ran out of gas.

Indiana won the game of the day over a determined VCU team on a Will Sheehey shot with just under 13 seconds to play, capping an impressive turnaround, but even if VCU had won, it wouldn’t have been a complete shock, given their Final Four run last season.

Kentucky and Syracuse disposed of their opponents, moving on to the Sweet 16 comfortably with double digit wins over Iowa State and Kansas State respectively. Colorado hung with Baylor for 3/4 of the game, and then the wheels came off, as the Bears roared to a 26-9 close to end Colorado’s nice little story. And speaking of good stories, Murray State’s program identifying season came to an end courteous of Marquette, just the Racers 2nd loss of the season.

Finally, New Mexico gave Louisville a scare, but the Big East tourney champs survived a furious finish as Peyton Siva and friends advanced to the Sweet 16.

Player of the day: this one is easy, Brady Heslip. His 9 threes carried the Bears and broke open a close game. What a night for him.

Winners: How about college basketball fans! We got an array of terrific games and I’m salivating at that Kentucky-Indiana rematch from earlier in the year. That was one of the great games of the year and the Hoosiers won. Should be fantastic.

SCOTT JACOBS

Shockers! I’m sure someone will do the research on this, but I can’t recall another tournament in recent memory boasting 9 double digit seeds surviving the second (**cough cough**) first round:

A breakdown by seed (note: the only seeds unscathed through 2 so called rounds: 14 and 16, though we could technically be obnoxious and state that 14. BYU beat 14. Iona and 16. Western Kentucky beat 16. Mississippi Valley St. and 16. LIU Brooklyn beat… o whatever).

This is going off the second round (seeds that won):

09: 1-3 (St. Louis)
10: 2-2 (Xavier, Purdue)
11: 2-2 (NC State, Colorado)
12: 2-2 VCU, USF)
13: 1-3 (Ohio)
14: 0-4
15: 2-2 (Norfolk State, Lehigh) — It had been over 4000 days since a 15 beat a 12. In hours, 2 did it. First time ever. 5th, and 6th all time.
16: 0-4

Only two of those came from yesterday and in all honesty was VCU beating Wichita State that shocking (see what I did there) or Colorado dethroning UNLV?

Which means that of the 16 games that were played on Friday, 8 were one by the underdog. Eight!

And it could’ve been more: 3. FSU barely squeaked out a win over 14. St. Bonaventure.

This is what’s whacky:

- In the midst of all this upset madness, the East went completely chalk 1-8. Unbelievable considering how many big name teams were falling today.
- Both the South and Midwest regions lost half of their favored seeds in the second round; The West was luckier with just 2 upsets.
- The ACC, Big 12, and Big 10 had 3 clear cut top 3 teams in each conference and each one lost one of those today: 2. Duke, 2. Missouri, 4. Michigan.

So while Saturday is about big-time matchups, Sunday is about big time quirkiness:

Were you expecting either of these matchups when the brackets were unveiled:

Xavier-Lehigh, USF-Ohio (2 of those 4 teams are going to the Sweet 16… Xavier is a top caliber team with Tu Holloway, but c’mon, the other 3…)

Duke and Michigan were bounced on the same night. Missouri takes their Tigers to the SEC after bowing out in the second round. Karma perhaps? After winning the Big 12 tourney title Tigers fans were taunting “SEC, SEC”

Teams left by power conference:

SEC: 3 (Kentucky, Vandy, Florida)
ACC: 3 (UNC, FSU, NC State)
Big10: 5 (Michigan State, Ohio State, Indiana, Wisconsin, Purdue)
Big12: 4 (Kansas, Baylor, Iowa State, K-State)
Big East: 6 (Syracuse, Georgetown, Marquette, Louisville, Cincinnati, USF)
Pac12: 1 (Colorado)

Teams left from other conferences:

VCU, Xavier, Lehigh, St. Louis, New Mexico, Murray State, Norfolk State, Creighton, Gonzaga, Ohio)

How about by state:
O-H-I-O, Kentucky and the Sunshine State (basketball state, what?) have the most teams left in the dance. Let’s break it down all the way down:

4 Ohio (Ohio State, Ohio, Xavier, Cincinnati)
3 Florida (FSU, UF, USF)
3 Kentucky (Kentucky, Louisville, Murray State)
2: Virginia (VCU, Norfolk State – talk about housing bracket busters!)
2: Indiana (Indiana, Purdue)
2: Kansas (Kansas, K-State)
2: North Carolina (UNC, NC-State)
2: Wisconsin (Wisconsin, Marquette)

11 states and Washington D.C. make up the rest of the bracket.

All in all, 20 states are left and 1 District of Columbia.

Awesome possible Sweet 16 matchups (assuming this weekend is a little more normal):

Kentucky-Indiana
Xavier-Baylor
Michigan State-Louisville
Marquette-Florida
Syracuse-Vandy
FSU-Ohio State
Georgetown-Kansas

And if Creighton shocks the world and knocks out UNC, we’ll have a Sweet 16 matchup of, gasp, this:

Creighton-USF  or this: Creighton-Ohio. Madness!

That’s enough of that! Two qualms:

1) C’mon refs! Enough with the lane violations. It’s not right for you to decide the outcome of a game, nevermind possibly 2.
2) Those scoreboards: unless your HDTV is crystal clear it is hard as heck to read Double Bonus and Bonus underneath each team’s name. Clean it up.

Besides that it’s been one heck of a tournament. More madness surely to come.

Photo: Getty

Just 5 seasons ago FSU lost to the Akron Zips on their home floor in the 1st round of the NIT. Hard to believe, after FSU just defeated Duke and North Carolina in consecutive days, in a span of less than 24 hours to win the ACC Tournament title. O how far they’ve come. It’s almost incomprehensible considering that the Noles were just 9-6 earlier this season, coming off of a beat-down at lowly Clemson by 20 points, and they looked like a tourney long-shot with tough tests vs UNC and at Duke to come.

And then, FSU ignited, putting together an improbable, unbelievable 7 game win streak which included a Carolina thrashing, a Duke buzzer beater, and a victory over a tough Virginia team, and the Noles were off to the races. Once the clear cut number 3 in a conference with powerhouses, the Noles, themselves are now a team to be reckoned with. And o yeah, ACC Champs.

Just how far can they go in the NCAA Tournament?