There are dozens of cool stories in this NCAA Tournament, but perhaps none are more compelling than Morgan State and coach Todd Bozeman.

You may recall that the NCAA slapped an eight-year coaching ban on Bozeman after he was busted for paying a player to play at California.

While away from the college game for 10 years, he coached AAU teams, worked overseas clinics and did some NBA scouting. Rather than give up on his career, Bozeman made an unlikely comeback at Morgan State – a once-proud athletic juggernaut that fell on very hard times.

He took the job in 2006, after Morgan State finished 4-26.

Now Bozeman has Morgan State in the NCAA Tournament. His Bears, 23-11, won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tourney title. They earned a No. 15 seed and a first-round match-up against Oklahoma.

“Personally, it’s been a long, long road back for me,” Bozeman told the Baltimore Sun.

“It means everything,” Todd’s wife, TeLethea Bozeman, told the newspaper. “He has talked about the possibility of this moment, and if it were to happen, the only thing missing is the fact his father was not here to be with him.”

ELSEWHERE ON THE BRACKET

Several things caught the eye of experts:

Pat Forde, ESPN.com: “Who else could dream up this oddball plot? It began with North Carolina touted as invincible and the Big East considered unrivaled. It ended with the Tar Heels losing four times in their own league and the Big East getting no more NCAA bids than the Big Ten or ACC.”

Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports: “New Jersey has nearly 9 million residents, yet not a single state school made the tournament. North Dakota has 640,000 residents, most of whom will be rooting on North Dakota State. Even better, NDSU made the tourney in its first attempt (it was previously a D-II powerhouse). In contrast, Northwestern has been trying to no avail for the last 71 seasons.”

Andy Staples, SI.com: “We knew the SEC was bad, but it wasn’t clear whether the committee would punish the league for mediocre play and abysmal out-of-conference scheduling. It did. Regular-season champ LSU is a No. 8 seed. Eastern division champ Tennessee is a No. 9 seed. Mississippi State, the big-conference bracket buster, is a 13.”

Gary Parrish, CBSSports.com: “The argument people are making for Arizona is that it ‘beat some people.’ Well, yeah. It’s Arizona, a national brand and member of the Pac-10, which allows it to schedule in a way where there are plenty of opportunities to beat some people. So the Wildcats beat some people — like Kansas, Washington, Gonzaga and UCLA. But they nearly lost twice as many top 50 games as they won, and they are 5-9 against other teams in this NCAA tournament field. Meantime, Creighton was .500 against the top 50, 2-1 against other teams in this field. So it appears the only thing that hurt Creighton is that it didn’t have as many opportunities as Arizona to beat some people, and if that’s what kept Creighton out of the field then something is wrong with the process, because that’s a little too BCS-ish for my tastes.”

WHEN MASCOTS FIGHT

March Madness can get the best of anybody in college athletics, including the mascots. The Associated Press fills us in:

RENO, Nev. — The mascots for Utah State and New Mexico State got physical with each other down the stretch of the teams’ Western Athletic Conference tournament semifinal Friday night.

During a timeout with 7 seconds left and New Mexico State leading 70-69, Utah State’s mascot, “Big Blue” the bull, confronted New Mexico State’s “Pistol Pete” cowboy mascot and ripped off his fake mustache.

The cowboy then chased the bull to halfcourt, jumped on his back and tried unsuccessfully to pull him to the floor.

“Pistol Pete” then started to try to choke his rival before retreating to his end of the court.

Here is another mascot fight, from last year.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering if Keenan Burton and Donnie Avery are ready to become primary NFL receivers:

• Can Mizzou Nation show Mike Anderson enough belated love to keep him happy in Boone County?
• Will the Blues ever beat the Red Wings again? Or will their suffering continue season after season after season?
• Are Rams fans feeling better about their team’s decision to pass on Jay Cutler? Shouldn’t a kid from Vanderbilt be smarter than this?
• Isn’t the World Baseball Classic’s mercy rule there to protect lesser baseball countries like Italy and the Netherlands? Did anybody expect Team USA to need that rule to minimize embarrassment?
• And will Puerto Rico’s stunning WBC success validate Jose Oquendo’s decision to stiff Joel Pineiro?

ROCKING OUT WITH THE CHICK

Bill Belichick, Charlie Weis and Jon Bon Jovi. It’s musical magic!

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “Brian McNamee claims he played Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Roger in the Yankees’ hot-tub area. Memo to McNamee and (Roger) Clemens: Get a room! Imagine the embarrassment had Alex Rodriguez walked in on them. Awkward!”

Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel: “Call me unpatriotic if you want, but the only way I’m watching the World Baseball Classic is if Tiger is playing in it.”

Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “In Doral’s first round, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson stripped down to his form-hugging underwear – no shoes, no pants, no shirt, no problem — for a shot from the water. Look for it in the upcoming DVD, Golfers Gone Wild.”

Dan Daly, Washington Times: “Can you believe the marathon game between Syracuse and Connecticut in the Big East tournament? Guess we know now why UConn coach Jim Calhoun - whose hefty salary was in the news a while back - makes the big bucks. Just look at how much overtime the man puts in.”

Dwight Perry, Seattle Times: “Even more amazing than Thursday’s Big East tournament game between Syracuse and UConn going six overtimes? No postgame interviewer asked Huskies coach Jim Calhoun if he gets paid time-and-a-half for that one.”

MEGAPHONE

“I’m not a crazy, crazy pro football guy. I mean, I like the Pats. I followed the Pats this year without (Tom) Brady, yeah. My father made a lot of money, he ran a little book, and in the end he just learned to bet heavy against New England when I was a kid. So Steve Grogan and his bad knees bought us our first VCR and first washer-dryer before my mother threw him out. So that taught us from a young age to view pro football with disdain and was just an opportunity to view Patriots fans as fans who would bet with consistently broken hearts, no matter what.”

Actor Ben Affleck, to Esquire.