NCAA Basketball georgia Bulldogs

March started days ago. The Madness started Wednesday night.

On an evening where bubble teams could've punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament and boosters could've started humming bars of "One Shining Moment," teams turned down invitations like they were to a wedding without an open bar or the People's Choice Awards.

A memo, fellows. This isn't an invitation to a candlelight dinner with Randy Johnson. "Big Dance" doesn't mean you're cutting a rug with Mark Madsen or waltzing cheek-to-cheek with Mike Tyson.

You actually want to go to this thing.

As far as gimme games go for a bubble team, this was the absolute definition of one for Kentucky. They were playing Georgia in Rupp Arena -- a Georgia team that had already fired their coach and only had two conference wins. The Bulldogs were absolutely the best team to get at this point, as their season is circling the drain.

Kentucky absolutely needed the game. It was at home. It was the final home game (and possibly the last night at Rupp for junior Jodie Meeks). It was a must-win, can not lose. Yet, somehow the Wildcats managed to do just that.

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After firing Dennis Felton, Georgia has taken the next step in the modern day coaching search. They have hired a "search consultant" to help find their next head coach. In this case, it is Dan Parker of Parker Executive Search in Atlanta for $75,000.

The reality is that any search consultant is not there to help find a qualified coach. Any quality athletic director will have a basic list of potential candidates in mind. The point of a search consultant is to allow everyone to maintain their plausible deniability while the search consultant finds out which people on the list will are interested in the job.

There was a hefty dose of speculation yesterday that Bob Knight had interest in the now vacant head coaching position at the University of Georgia.

And today, on ESPN radio, Knight spoke with Mike Tirico and Scott Van Pelt, presumably to dismiss those rumors; instead, Knight indicated exactly why they have legs. He later followed that up by mentioning his interest in returning to coaching during the Tennessee-Oklahoma women's game.