March Madness usually evokes thoughts of amateur sports jubilation, particularly college basketball splendor. This past weekend, fans of the NCAA game gladly assumed the role of couch potato, as Championship Week inundated us with its standard dose of thrilling hardwood action. History was made on Wednesday, as the University of Connecticut women's basketball team, ranked first in the nation, had its record 70-game winning streak snapped in the Big East conference championship game by Villanova University.

That stunning upset was a tasty appetizer for the main course that followed. Conference tournaments exposed more than a few flaws in teams perceived as NCAA Tournament threats. Top-ranked University of Arizona fell first, as Lute Olsen's Wildcats were shocked by a futile UCLA Bruin squad scrambling to salvage lame-duck coach Steve Lavin's faltering reputation.

Wisconsin and Marquette, the top seeds in the Big Ten and Conference USA Tournaments, respectively, were each first-round victims. Their losses probably cost each school a coveted number two seed in the eyes of the omniscient NCAA selection committee.

There were mixed results for local Division I schools. Boston University, favored to capture their second straight America East Conference championship Saturday at a raucous Case Gym, fell 56-55 to the University of Vermont. The visiting Catamounts toppled the Terriers, earning their first trip to the "Big Dance" in the institution's 103-year history.

Friday in Worcester, Holy Cross won their 26th game and captured the Patriot League title with a 72-64 triumph over a talented American University squad. The Crusaders, whose fans sported purple shirts that read, "God's On Our Side," have held their own against perennial powers the University of Kansas and University of Kentucky in their past two NCAA Tournament appearances.

Boston College, which fell to Holy Cross early in the season, split two games during their stay at Madison Square Garden for the Big East tourney. The Eagles survived an overtime thriller over a streaking St. John's University squad before falling to eventual champion Pittsburgh by 13 in the semifinals. At 18-11, Al Skinner's BC squad was left out of the Big Dance by the powers that be.

Much of the recent hoopla surrounding NCAA basketball, however, has centered on some unsavory characters whose schools face damaging sanctions.

Last week, the Atlantic 10 Conference forced St. Bonaventure University to forfeit six regular season games when it was revealed that Bonnie Jamil Terrell was admitted into the school without qualifying Junior College grades. University President Robert Wickenheiser, who resigned his post on Wednesday, reportedly approved Terrell's transfer despite the fact that the athlete's welding certificate from Coastal Georgia Community College was far from acceptance material.

"The fiasco at St. Bonaventure," said Washington Times sports writer Tom Knott, "is deep stuff even by the subterranean standards of Division I basketball. A laugh track probably accompanied Terrell's transcripts."

On Monday, University of Georgia athletic director Vince Dooley suspended Jim Harrick, the school's head basketball coach, indefinitely. Harrick, who was dismissed by UCLA in 1996 for falsifying an expense report, is currently under NCAA investigation, as charges of academic fraud and other misdeeds mount.

Former Bulldogs guard Tony Cole alleges that he and current players Chris Daniels and Rashad Wright (who have been ruled academically ineligible and charged with unethical conduct) aced a course called "Coaching Principles and Strategies in Basketball" taught by assistant coach Jim Harrick Jr. even though the three teams members never attended the mockery of a course.

While Harrick Jr. has already been fired, his father's future appears ominous at best.

In a March 17 Sports Illustrated article titled, "March Sadness," George Dohrmann details some of Harrick's other notable transgressions. "Harrick tried to save his job by calling Cole 'a vindictive young man' and making dubious claims about his coaching past -- in an ESPN interview Harrick said he had graduated eight of eight players at Rhode Island, when in fact only one of the nine players he recruited has graduated and (current Los Angeles Clipper) Lamar Odom bolted for the NBA."

"Harrick," continued Dohrmann, "also said he had never heard about a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Rhode Island last April by Christine King, Harrick's former secretary at Rhode Island, a claim Rams athletic director Ron Petro later disputed."

Despite the circus-like quality to the past few weeks, it's a good bet that come Thursday, as favorites and potential Cinderella stories step onto the court Thursday, fans will quickly forget about the dark side of the NCAA game and immerse themselves in all its alleged purity.

Americans love the underdog, which is why we'll be pulling for the likes of Wagner College, Troy State and Vermont.

In other news, impending war in Iraq has forced CBS, which is in the first year of a $6 billion 11-year deal with the NCAA to broadcast 63 tournament games, is contemplating a number of scenarios in which the network would switch games to ESPN or Viacom (its parent company) partners MTV, BET, TNN and VH1.

If MTV lands a few games, one can only hope that their featured broadcast crew isn't a teaming of the Real World San Francisco's Puck and MTV News veteran Kurt Loder.