Adam Glatczak writes the "Wednesday Onions" column for CollegeHoopsnet.  Bookmark the "Wednesday Onions" homepage and come back each week!

-Cannot get over how equal the teams are in this year’s tourney. One of the many examples: Kansas had a much, much tougher time defending Luke Schenscher of Georgia Tech this past weekend than Nevada did. Now, this is just one cross-section example from GT’s two games last weekend in the Midwest Regional, and it’s not meant to indict Kansas or exalt Nevada; a comparison more in the Jayhawks’ favor would be to look at how many points Marvin Lewis had against the Wolf Pack vs. what he did against KU. But in regards to Schenscher, what’s fascinating about this is that you would think an apparently bigger, stronger, more athletic and certainly more national program like Kansas would naturally be better equipped to handle a seven-footer. Much more than an unknown school like Nevada, which certainly isn’t getting the recruiting pick-of-the-litter like Kansas. It was clearly not the case, though, and that is another example of how the gap has closed between the top programs and good programs in leagues like the Western Athletic Conference.

It might be easier to understand how close the gap is between the top 100 or so teams in the country if we could see it more on TV in the regular season. National college basketball TV packages (read: ESPN, CBS & ABC) have been designed in recent years to inundate us with teams from about eight different leagues, and that’s it. TV wants no part of even the St. Josephs, Xaviers and Pacifics, teams that used to get a fair amount of at least national cable exposure a few years ago. We know the major conference teams don’t want to play them, either. You can even trace some of this to the NCAA’s two-in-four rule, which has taken away many chances for teams like a Nevada to get some neutral court games against the biggies. What we get now in November and December is a lot of made-for-TV games between the name teams, with most other games just gross mismatches. The TV showings are great for showcasing those leagues and creating the perception that these teams must be the best. They’re also misleading. Because teams like Nevada or UAB get so few chances against top teams, if any at all, the country doesn’t get a remotely clear indication of how they can perform against top teams on neutral courts, even less than they used to. If they did, we’re guessing a lot of these upsets the past few weeks would’ve been less surprising than many thought.

-It should be known, too, that as good of a game as Kansas and Georgia Tech played in that Midwest Regional, Nevada could’ve easily been there instead of GT. Their regional semifinal was close throughout, and Nevada actually controlled the first half. A lot of credit is being given to the Yellow Jackets’ second half defense, but it looked like the Wolf Pack kind of stalled themselves out, too, with Snyder going one-on-one a little too much when he wasn’t getting the calls when he was hacked. And how interesting would a Nevada-Kansas regional final have been, given that the Pack blew away the Jayhawks in a regular season meeting between the two teams?

-Now Rashad Anderson’s scoring 30+ points for Connecticut, as if they needed anyone else to. Who’s next, Jake Voskuhl? Maybe Steve Pikiell can come back and light it up. It’s pretty safe to say that if the Huskies continue playing the way they have in the tourney, they won’t lose in the Final Four. That’s a big “if”, though, especially if some team can slow down their fast break.

-Anyone still trying to sell the Atlantic 10 as a weak conference right now? Didn’t think so. Unfortunately, we’d like to think things will stay that way, but we know better. The A-10 will be back fighting for respect as soon as next November comes around.

-Have to give the Xavier program, players and coach Thad Matta serious recognition for their run at the end of this season, as well as how they hung with Duke. You watched this game and kept expecting the Blue Devils to make that one run that would take control and frustrate the Musketeers into slacking off. Even when Anthony Myles fouled out, though, Xavier hung in down the stretch, and that’s a testament to the toughness of this team. Based on how they faced up against Coach K’s bunch, you would have had zero clue this was a 7 seed from a supposedly weak conference. It also should not be forgotten that the Muskies beat a 2 seed in Mississippi State and a 3 seed and defending Final Four team in Texas just to get to the matchup with Duke.

Also, we’re not Duke apologists here by any means, but just to weigh in on the issue of the Blue Devils getting all the calls in that South regional final. On TV, I didn’t see it. It was rather strange seeing Myles get five fouls in about six minutes in the second half, and his final foul was a bogus one but wasn’t surprising given the angle of the official who called it. The play shortly after where J.J. Redick hooked Romain Sato and Sato got called for a foul was poor, too, but other than that short stretch it generally looked fair throughout. We know Mike Krzyzewski is famous for intimidating referees into seeing things his way sometimes, but the bottom line was this was an evenly matched game and Duke just made a few more plays in the final minutes. The margin was incredibly slim; if Luol Deng doesn’t make that tip-in or falls out of bounds just before getting that rebound and firing to an open Redick for a three, or if Chris Duhon wasn’t accidentally tripped by a Xavier player with four seconds on the shot clock, we may well have had a different outcome. Whether you like them or not, you have to give the Dukies credit for making the plays to win. As is frequently mentioned here, we have no problem holding officials accountable if things look a little screwy, but it has to be consistent. If the higher seed in this game would’ve been, say, Oklahoma, though, you have to wonder if officiating would’ve been a big story. And if so many national people do believe Duke gets all the calls, though, then it’s time to call for changes instead of just complaining about it or accepting it as a fact of life.

-Romain Sato and Jameer Nelson, you won’t be reading this but nevertheless, thank you. Your senior seasons excited an awful lot of fans and took your schools and even your conference to incredible heights. You both were sensational players and also represented your schools and teams with class. Among those two, David Hawkins of Temple and some seniors at Dayton just to name a few, the A-10 will have a lot of talent to replace next year.

-The Oklahoma State-St. Joseph’s game was likely an overtime or two away from going down as one of the best NCAA Tournament games of all-time. If Jameer Nelson hits that shot to tie the game-incidentally, the same shot he took to beat California this year-that final minute would’ve been etched in everyone’s minds forever. As it is, it was simply the best game of this year’s tourney so far and a great finish because it wasn’t interrupted by timeouts every 10 seconds. Thank you to Phil Martelli for letting your team play without calling timeouts, and to Eddie Sutton for spending all your TOs earlier in the game.

Now that they’ve played their last game, we can also give St. Joe’s its proper due: the Hawks’ backcourt this year should go down as one of the greatest in NCAA history. Not so much on individual talent, although Nelson was the best guard in the country this year, Delonte West is an All-American, Pat Carroll is one of the top three-point snipers in the land and Tyrone Barley has to have been the best defensive guard anywhere. They deserve this recognition, though, because of what they did as a group. They were dominant, and more importantly they did it when everyone knew the entire game would be in their hands. St. Joseph’s frontcourt of Dwayne Jones, John Bryant and Dave Mallon contributed very little on offense for the Hawks. It sometimes looked like it was by design and maybe they could’ve done more if asked to, but the Hawks lived off their guards. That they were able to do so and be so good is amazing because every SJU opponent knew every game who it had to stop, yet they couldn’t do it! St. Joe’s proved in the NCAAs that it was one of the top five teams in the country this year, and the unique manner in which they became so good hasn’t been seen often before. Almost all teams in the past that have tried to play like St. Joseph’s did had at least one solid scorer inside to help balance them out.

-Wake Forest’s game against St. Joe’s also exposed the fact that Chris Paul still has a little ways to go with his game. Paul seemed passive against the Hawks, perhaps reacting to the warnings all week that he shouldn’t get into a one-on-one battle with Nelson. Justin Gray stepped up for him nicely in that game, though, so it can’t be said that Paul’s slight decline from his play in the first two rounds was the reason for Wake’s loss. In fact, the Demon Deacons’ inside game wasn’t nearly as superior to St. Joe’s as was being sold before the matchup. Eric Williams seriously needs to work on controlling his emotions and staying out of foul trouble.

-Oklahoma State is interesting because it has won games in such a simple way this year: they just shoot the ball so darn well. The Cowboys play excellent defense, but shooting is what has elevated them so high this season and what carried them to the Final Four. Contested, uncontested or otherwise, OSU was money from inside the three-point line against Pitt and St. Joe’s-even with hands in their mugs, Tony Allen and John Lucas made some incredibly tough shots. They didn’t shoot well on threes against the Hawks, but that’s not their game.

-Amazing how ordinary Pittsburgh looked against Okie State when the Panthers were forced to shoot outside shots. Expect a lot of teams to use tape of that game in the future as they game plan Pitt, although letting them shoot and miss is one thing, getting rebounds is another. The Panthers still might have reached the regional final if OSU hadn’t shot an incredible 64% in the second half of that game.

-Georgia Tech has to be one of the least impressive Final Four teams in recent memory. The Yellow Jackets easily could’ve been knocked out of the tourney by Northern Iowa. Or Boston College. Or Nevada. Or Kansas. GT was a hot pick to go to the Final Four, but it’s doubtful many expected them to look this way in doing it. Tech hasn’t cranked up its running game, but don’t expect any apologies from them for winning ugly. If anything, it’s rather impressive that GT is winning slower-paced games in March. That experience they’ve gained in some grinders should come in as a handy reference against Oklahoma State.

-Some history fun. Was asked to research exactly how many times in history a 1 seed has won the national championship, and here’s an answer. In the 25 NCAA Tournaments since 1979, the first year the NCAA began seeding teams, only 13 times has one of the four teams seeded first in a regional won the title. That history might indicate Duke’s chances this weekend aren’t all that great; however, this might make the Blue Devils feel better: 1 seeds have won the title in nine of the past 12 tourneys.

For the record, 2 seeds have won the title five times, 3 seeds three times, 4 seeds once (Arizona in 1997), 6 seeds twice, and one 8 seed (Villanova in 1985) won it all. Interestingly, while the 1979 Michigan State-Indiana State title game between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird is frequently depicted as having been that season’s dream matchup, the Spartans were actually only a 2 seed in the Mideast Regional that year. Indiana State was a 1 seed in the Midwest, though.

-Not really a Stanford fan, but kind of disappointed the Cardinal and Nicole Powell are out of the women’s tourney. She was one terrific player, one of the best seen this year, male or female.

-Really enjoyed the NIT semifinal between Rutgers and Iowa State Tuesday night. Both teams should be more than set in the backcourt for a long time, with freshmen Quincy Douby (Rutgers) and Curtis Stinson and Will Blalock (ISU) dominating on both teams. Also, Ron Franklin, Bill Raftery and Jimmy Dykes make an excellent broadcast team and just by themselves seriously upped the entertainment level of the NIT semi telecasts.

-Congratulations to Kennesaw State, as the Owls were winners of the NCAA Division 2 men’s title convincingly over Southern Indiana. If Kennesaw State doesn’t sound familiar, don’t be surprised; even with Division I schools scheduling more non-Division I opponents, they’re still smart enough to avoid the best ones.

Feel free to email Adam with any questions or comments: arfboy37@yahoo.com