Shortly after the Kansas Jayhawks won the Men’s Division I NCAA Basketball Tournament, coach Bill Self was getting bombarded by job offers from colleges like Oklahoma State. Well, today Self announced he has no intention of leaving Kansas and he’s not sure why anybody thought he’d leave in the first place.

“I don’t know what the big deal is, to be honest,” Self said at a news conference earlier today. “These last three weeks, four weeks, have been an absolute whirlwind. I don’t know if a guy deserves to have as much fun as I’ve had.”

Although the oddsmakers favored the Memphis Tigers to win the national title, it was the Kansas Jayhawks who dug down deep to rally from a nine-point deficit late in the second half to defeat Memphis 75-68 in overtime. This was the first NCAA title win for former Illinois coach Bill Self, who left the Illini job five years ago to take the head coaching position at Kansas.

The Memphis Tigers are 2.5-point favorites at press time to beat the Kansas Jayhawks Monday night. The free market has spoken.

People recognize talent, and the most talented team on the floor of the Alamadome is the Memphis Tigers. The combination of point guard Derrick Rose (14.8 points, 4.6 assists, 4.5 rebounds per game) and Chris Douglas-Roberts (18 points, .413 from behind the arc) is pure quality. Both have elevated their games during the Tournament, with Rose playing his way into a possible No. 1 overall spot at the NBA Draft.

People also recognize experience. This is the third trip to the Elite Eight for coach John Calipari’s team, finally reaching the finals Saturday against the UCLA Bruins. The players are motivated to improve on those performances and win the title; as many outstanding freshmen as there have been this year, a player like Rose only comes by once in a while.

History has been made at the NCAA men’s basketball Tournament. All four No. 1 seeds are in the Final Four.

This year’s top seeds happen to be four outstanding basketball teams. But their perilous journey to get here explains why this has never been done before. In the Elite Eight round, Kansas (-9.5) held off the plucky No. 10 Davidson Wildcats 59-57. After earlier scares for UCLA and Memphis, that leaves the North Carolina Tar Heels as the only team taking a 4-0 ATS record into the Final Four.

North Carolina has shown no mercy during March Madness. Their 83-73 win over the very strong Louisville Cardinals (-5.5) wasn’t without its rough patches, as the Cards erased a 12-point halftime deficit to tie the score. This time, though, the Tar Heels stood firm and pulled away at the end. Last year’s loss to Georgetown must have inspired them – or perhaps it was the fans in Raleigh and Charlotte.

We knew Davidson was good. But to beat Georgetown as a 4.5-point puppy? That was the highlight of the men’s college basketball Tournament’s second round – at least from a basketball betting standpoint. The Wildcats were 17-10 ATS during the regular season, and are rolling into the Sweet 16 at 4-1 ATS in tourney action.

From a fan standpoint, the too-early elimination of the Duke Blue Devils for the second year in a row will be cause for celebration in many parts. Duke was bounced by underappreciated West Virginia (+4) after barely squeezing by Belmont (+20) in the first round.

The carnage nearly spread from Duke to fellow top-tier programs Memphis, UCLA, Texas and Tennessee, but all four clawed their way into the Sweet 16. Stanford and Marquette went toe-to-toe before the Cardinal (-2.5) escaped by a single point in overtime. And the Tar Heels? 108-77 over Arkansas (-9.5). Perhaps Indiana saw this coming and pulled the cord in the first round.

Selection Sunday has come and gone. No surprises with the top four seeds: UCLA, Kansas, North Carolina and Memphis. Ah, but nothing will come easy for any of those four.

My inclination on a per-game basis is to fade North Carolina and support Kansas. The Tar Heels are ranked No. 1 in the polls and the Jayhawks are fifth, but they swap positions in the Pomeroy efficiency rankings. Wisconsin got hosed with a No. 3 seed despite ranking fourth in efficiency and winning the Big Ten. And what about Kansas State (No. 15 Pomeroy) with an 11-seed?

Otherwise, the low-major spoilers are always worth our betting attention. Davidson drew a tough assignment against Gonzaga (+1.5), though, so I’m looking at St. Mary’s over Miami (-2).

Oh, and the UCLA Bruins to win it all. Not a good value at 7-2, but this is a prediction, not a pick. For value, I like the aforementioned Badgers at 25-1.

If you ask a few people which teams are likely to pay out in your March Madness betting pool you’ll probably be bombarded by the same answers over and over: North Carolina, UCLA, Kansas, Tennessee and Memphis will likely come up in every conversation around the water-cooler.

Anybody can tell you that you should be on the Top 5 schools in the nation. The hard part is picking the teams that could pull off the upset. A team you’ll want to remember come tourney time is Drake. The Bulldogs earned their tourney spot over the weekend by rolling through the Missouri Valley tourney over the weekend. That included destroying Illinois State 79-49 in the tourney final.

Bulldogs’ guard Adam Emmenecker was named the MVC Player of the Year, but he’s not the only player opposing teams have to worry about when they face Drake. John Young, Leonard Houston and Jonathan Cox can all score as well and could lead the Bulldogs deep into the tournament.

Tiger Woods showed up for the 2008 golf “season” with a questionable goatee and the shine of being a new father. How’s that working out for him? He’s participated in just two events thus far, but Woods won both of them and leads the PGA Tour Money list with nearly $2.3 million.

It’s becoming harder and harder not to call Woods the greatest golfer of all-time. All he has to do to become the consensus G.O.A.T. is break Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors on the PGA Tour – Woods has 13 heading into the 2008 season, at the ripe old age of 32. When Woods is on his game, there’s nothing for handicappers to do but hit the easy button and bet on Tiger.

But calling golf itself the greatest game? Equipment is expensive, keeping the courses a lush green pollutes the environment, and there are still clubhouses that don’t take kindly to people like Woods. Not so great then is it?

NBA commish David Stern is determined to see over 40 years of basketball tradition go south – literally. Stern told reporters during the All-Star festivities that the Seattle SuperSonics would inevitably pack up and leave, either at the end of this season or in 2010, when the Sonics lease at KeyArena expires. “There is no miracle here,” in Stern’s estimation.

Slade Gorton isn’t exactly coming to the rescue on a white horse, but the former U.S. Senator, now a lawyer for K&L Gates, is representing the city of Seattle in their lawsuit against the Sonics and owner Clay Bennett. Gorton told the Seattle Times that his aim is to force Bennett to sell to local interests, rather than move the Sonics to Oklahoma City.

Meanwhile, the Sonics have dumped salary and sit at 3000-1 on the NBA championship futures market. Sharp analysts have praised Seattle for doing a full rebuild around Kevin Durant. But what city will reap the rewards?

Atlantic City is not sitting idly by as the nation goes through this gambling boom. The state of New Jersey has approved legislation that would ask New Jersey voters to back a referendum to allow betting on professional sports in Atlantic City casinos. If this ban is successfully lifted, it could attract enough new action to the resort to change the direction the city will be taking in the future.

This comes on the heels of the MGM Mirage announcing plans for a $5B resort with over 3,000 rooms called CityCenter East. Other Vegas-like expansions include:

• Revel Entertainment is proposing an oceanfront resort with two hotel towers of 1,900 rooms each.
• Pinnacle Gaming will be building on the old Sands Atlantic City site.

“The future of Atlantic City is its evolution into a Las Vegas-style multi-entertainment destination resort,” said Harvey Perkins, an analyst with Spectrum Gaming Group.

It’s a relatively short week in the NBA as the league prepares for Sunday’s All-Star Game. But the big-item trades that have just gone down are generating quite the buzz.

Tuesday has the Denver Nuggets facing the Miami Heat on NBA-TV. The new-look Heat of Dwyane Wade and Shawn Marion had their moments Sunday against the Lakers (-7) before losing 104-94; although the Heat are 1-22 since Christmas, better times are ahead. Denver is 6-3 SU and 7-2 ATS in its last nine contests.

Marion’s former team is featured on ESPN Wednesday when the Phoenix Suns visit the Golden State Warriors. Shaquille O’Neal isn’t expected to make his Suns debut until Thursday at the earliest, so this could be the last chance for handicappers to bet or fade this vulnerable Phoenix crew: 2-2 SU and 0-3-1 ATS in its last four outings at press time. The Warriors have dropped the cash in two games with Chris Webber at center.