Selection Sunday is an annual highlight

One of the days I look forward to the most out of the entire college basketball season is here -- and it has absolutely nothing to do with any action on the court, although there will be plenty of that.

What I'm talking about is Selection Sunday, as the 65-team NCAA men's tournament bracket is announced today.

Many squads across the country are either elated or deflated depending on whether they see their school listed on the television screen.

The automatic qualifiers and highly ranked perennial powerhouses don't really have much to sweat over -- except for the seedings -- because they know they have secured spots in the Big Dance. Still, they're eager to find out who, when and where they play.

But for all the proverbial bubble teams -- there are always loads of them -- their players and coaches probably haven't gotten much sleep for the past few nights.

And, no matter which 65 teams are announced today, there is sure to be plenty of controversy as the squads who felt deserving but were not picked will be howling about the injustice of it all.

There is no way I would want to be a member of the NCAA tournament selection committee, which has one of the most thankless jobs in the world. Members of the committee are in something of a no-win situation, because no matter how fair they try to be, they're going to get jumped since they can only take a certain number of at-large selections.

But once all the complaining is behind us, we settle into the best three weeks -- in my opinion -- of the entire sports calendar.

Let the games begin.

* One of the teams that is not expected to be on the bubble is Southern Illinois, which despite losing before the Missouri Valley Conference tournament finals for the fourth straight season, is considered a lock for the Big Dance after capturing its fourth consecutive MVC regular-season title.

And the Salukis are probably in line for a fairly good seed, perhaps something in the No. 7 through No. 9 range.

* I loved watching as many of the smaller conference tournament championship games as I could on ESPN over the past week.

Those are really exciting, because in many instances only the winner makes the NCAA tournament, so the pressure is unbelievable.

* Major kudos to Southeast senior guard Derek Winans, the school's first basketball Academic All-America who earned first-team honors this year after making the second team last season.

Considering that there are more than 3,000 Division I basketball players in the country, what Winans has accomplished is some kind of feat.

* By losing in the semifinals of the OVC tournament, Southeast's men lost out on a chance to make the NCAA playoffs.

But several former Redhawks assistants under coach Gary Garner are headed to the Big Dance.

Tom Schuberth, the top assistant at Central Florida, helped lead that squad to its second straight Atlantic Sun Conference title, while first-year Chattanooga assistant Gary Abner helped direct the Mocs to the Southern Conference crown.

And Chris Lowery is the first-year head coach at SIU, which as mentioned earlier failed to win the MVC tournament but will still receive an at-large berth.

* Well, I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later.

In last Sunday's column, for the first time since Southeast changed its nickname, I slipped up and once referred to the men's basketball team as "Indians."

I'm sure that won't be the last time, but I'll definitely try to keep it to a minimum.

* Even though Notre Dame's dream of winning an improbable state basketball title ended Friday, that can't diminish the amazing run the Bulldogs made to stunningly reach the Class 4 final four.

The Bulldogs weren't even considered a threat in their own district, yet they shocked just about everybody -- except perhaps their own players -- to make it all the way to Columbia.

I know Bryce Willen's return from his knee injury had a lot to do with Notre Dame's run, but it's doubtful the Bulldogs would have gotten as far as they did without all their other players stepping up their games.

* Congratulations to former area coaching legend William Wilthong for recently being inducted into the Missouri High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Wilthong had so many great teams at Scott City during a long career, using his trademark smashmouth style of play.

I especially loved covering the Rams when "Willy" was coaching them -- and I loved talking to him over the years -- because he was just a good old, humble country boy who never seemed to get carried away with his accomplishments.

All he did was win football games.

* Jackson native Lane Lohr is off to quite a start in his second season as Lindenwood University's track and field coach.

Lohr recently led Lindenwood's men to the NAIA indoor title, as he was named the national coach of the year.

* I, like most people, was stunned when the Cardinals' Rick Ankiel announced he was giving up pitching to try and make it in the major leagues as a position player.

Even though Ankiel had his share of troubles on the mound over the last few years, he seemed to be progressing relatively well.

Now, it's certain to be a long and rugged road for Ankiel as he tries to make the extremely difficult conversion.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.