A bit more postgame analysis

And by postgame analysis, I mean that literally. Because for the second year in a row, Penn was not represented in that longtime CBS tradition, the "One Shining Moment" montage. Texas was a couple times, and I'm pretty sure the shot of the Longhorns human-sized mascot (as opposed to the real steer, Bevo, who comes to football games) was taken in Dallas.

You may recall that Penn's 23-22 halftime lead over the Longhorns prompted ESPN.com to put David Whitehurst diving for a loose ball in its lead photo during the game. But none of the Quakers' three-pointers were memorable at the end of the NCAA Tournament. I suppose that's to be expected of a team whose motion offense rarely results in the flashy dunks that higlight reel makers crave. Still, Albany made it into "One Shining Moment," and the Danes ended up losing to Connecticut by 13 points. Penn ended up losing by eight.

Yet for all my sour grapes, there was a link to Penn basketball on television tonight, as former Penn player, coach and athletic director Craig Littlepage made the trophy presentation to Florida coach Billy Donovan. You can thank Littlepage and the rest of the selection committee for putting Penn and Texas together in the first round, as well as the other 31 first-round matchups (32 if you count the play-in game, which they call the Opening Round).

So as I often do when the NCAA Tournament comes to an end, I thought for a minute about what could have been. Those of you who remember Penn's game against Oklahoma State in the 2003 Tournament, and especially those of you who made the trip to Boston, will recall that eventual national champion Syracuse played its first-round game against Manhattan to start the afternoon doubleheader at what was then the FleetCenter. The then-Orangemen (another name change for you, and the DP has a long history of not recognizing name changes) got a real scare from the Jaspers, and Jim Boeheim's tradition 2-3 zone led to a lot of three-point attempts by Manhattan.

In the second game, Oklahoma State's perimeter defense suffocated Penn's backcourt trio of Andy Toole, Jeff Schiffner and Tim Begley, and Penn stayed in the game mainly because of a career high 30 points by Ugonna Onyekwe in his final game as a Quaker (ah, those were the days...). When the game was over and Penn had lost, 77-63, I couldn't help thinking that Penn might just have beaten that Syracuse team, beacuse it would have had a considerable number of three-point opportunities.

Quite a few people told me at the time that I was crazy for thinking that. But I bring it up again now because the Penn-Oklahoma State and Penn-Texas games have something else in common besides Big 12 opponents: Penn's fate was determined as much by the style of the team it was drawn against as its own strengths and weaknesses. What if this year's Quakers had been drawn against one of the other No. 2 seeds -- Tennessee, Ohio State or UCLA?

The Volunteers -- who had no business being seeded that high in my opinion -- and the Buckeyes both struggled mightily in the first round. Tennessee needed a Chris Lofton three-pointer with 2.9 seconds to go to beat Winthrop, while Ohio State trailed Davidson by four points at the half. Perhaps coincidentally, OSU won the game by eight points, and was also playing in its home state.

As with Syracuse three years ago, UCLA made it to the title game, but as we all know, the Bruins did not come out on top. And one of the biggest reasons why UCLA lost plays right into one of the biggest strengths of this year's Penn team -- Florida's outstanding perimeter defense.

So call me crazy again, but tonight I wonder what might have been if Penn and UCLA had faced off in the first round. I suppose, though, that such thoughts are always more likely to come up if your team hasn't played in three weeks, and won't play again for another seven-plus months.