The 2010 tournament is in the books. It’ll probably be known one day as the last to feature 65 teams and the last to feature CBS because everyone I talked and listened to believes this is going to 96 teams and on a different network next year. Prepare thyself for Vitals screaming the Final Four while Jim Nantz eats a delicious meal in Augusta.

I try to avoid the instant classic reaction and let things marinate in my mind before I reach a conclusion, but that’s the best tournament I’ve witnessed and probably the best one in 10, 12, 15 or so years, I’d guess. Fantastic final, too.

And to think, we thought this was to be the weakest at-large field maybe ever and perhaps an argument against parity because the top teams seemed so much better than a supposedly incapable field. Whoops.

Great games, great drama, great stories all the way through and I was actually left startled that Gordon Hayward’s two late shots didn’t go in last night. The fadeaway on the baseline was right in front of me, but I thought it was in. Then the runner at the buzzer? I said something I can’t print. It looked dead on … and it was. You were that close from an immortal moment and a bonehead memorial for Kyle Singler short-arming an easy jumper and Brian Zoubek intentionally missing a free throw with waaaaay to much time remaining.

Oh well.

The disappointment — and maybe the only one, for me — was One Shining Moment. I mean, the highlights are good and all, but Jennifer Hudson’s rendition doesn’t do it for me. I don’t know why the Lew Vandross version was put on the shelf. Probably the last time we see this feature, too. That’s CBS’s baby and I doubt custody goes to ESPN or whoever gets the tournament next.

That’ll be all for me today. Traveling back to Morgantown and then spring practice.