BEAS OF BURDEN

Michael Beasley is being double-teamed by USC, and I'll tell you why. He's pretty good. And on K-State's last possession The Beez was being double-teamed, so an alley oop was tossed to teammate Bill Walker...who missed.

Bill Walker, as you probably know, was O.J. Mayo's high school teammate. So don't feel bad if you didn't start for that team.

Uh-oh. There's 15:45 remaining in the first half and Michael Beasley was just whistled for his second foul (shades of that Duke-U Conn semifinal back in 2004, when the refs took Emeka Okafor out of the game early). Anyway, either this was an extremely internecine version of the NBA's "Stay In School" program, aimed at The Beez, or else some referee just has no love for CBS' ratings.

I mean, if Beez has to spend the last 15:45 of the first half on the bench, think how many less people are going to watch CSI:Miami on Monday night. The second foul on Beez was an offensive foul, called as he was jockeying for a rebound under the basket. Les Moonves is so upset he's going to bring back Viva Laughlin and air it instead of the Sweet 16 games next week.

So now we're watching Washington State-Winthrop in my corner of the country. And I'm wondering how Georgia center Dave Bliss was able to shower, fly to Denver, and put on a Washington State uniform so quickly. Because if I'm not mistaken he's playing low post for the Cougars.