CHAPEL HILL, N.C. North Carolina saved the last dance for Danny Green. The Carolina blue-clad crowd prodded him, and “Jump Around” blared from the speakers in his honor. So, just as he did before four seasons’ worth of tip-offs at the Smith Center, the senior wiggled his hips, jiggled his arms and cut loose one last time. And why not? He and the Tar Heels had delivered another NCAA championship trophy to Tobacco Road.

The president was so interested he took time out from saving the country from economic ruin to fill out his bracket. Television ratings have been up even though Billy Packer is working this NCAA tournament from a Las Vegas sports book, and, thanks to Villanova, we don’t have to see Mike Krzyzewski’s smiling face for another year. Overlook the thousands of empty seats that are a natural byproduct of a rotten economy, and it’s hard to find much wrong with this year’s tournament. The games have been decent, if not historic, and enough favorites have won to keep the interest of the millions across the country who have a few bucks riding on the outcome.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.—Tyler Evans’ long 3-pointer at the overtime buzzer gave the undefeated Findlay Oilers a 56-53 win over the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos in the men’s Division II national championship game this afternoon. Evans came through with his dramatic shot as Findlay (Ohio) completed a perfect 36-0 season. The senior reserve guard hit from 26 feet for his only field goal of the game.

LSU’s Chris Johnson faces UNC in a second-round game. Big man isn’t big enough LSU’s Johnson eats 5,000 calories a day, can’t keep them on The purple practice jersey, size triple-extra large, drooped off Chris Johnson’s shoulders as he sat in Louisiana State’s locker room yesterday at the Greensboro Coliseum. His shorts exposed legs so spindly that you could see every ridge of his knee bones. On the floor between his feet sat a can of vanilla protein shake.

Rams all wrapped up in team chemistry PISCATAWAY, N.J. - D’Andra Moss won’t be making a fashion statement when she wears a fabric wreath around her neck and the remnants of a VCU jersey across her back in tomorrow’s NCAA tournament opener against Rutgers. She will, however, be making a statement about the chemistry and cohesion of this VCU women’s team, the first in school history to make the NCAA playoffs.

Both state entries in the NCAA tournament will tip off Thursday. No. 11 seed VCU (24-9) will meet UCLA (25-8) in Philadelphia in the East Region, and No. 16 Radford (21-11) takes on No. 1 seed North Carolina (28-4) in Greensboro in the South. Other No. 1 seeds are Pittsburgh (East), Louisville (Midwest) and Connecticut (West).

NEW YORK—Syracuse went five more minutes instead of five more overtimes. The 18th-ranked Orange—less than 24 hours after winning the second-longest Division I game ever—played just one extra period in a 74-69 victory over West Virginia on Friday night in the semifinals of the Big East tournament. Instead of people running for the history books to compare its win as it did after beating Connecticut 127-117 in six overtimes in quarterfinals, Syracuse had a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden shaking its heads when regulation ended in a tie.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Florida State has been put on four years’ probation by the NCAA and will lose scholarships in football and forfeit games because of an academic cheating scandal. The NCAA infractions committee says Friday the case was “extremely serious” because of the large number of student-athletes involved in various sports. Academic fraud is considered among the most egregious of NCAA rules violations.

NORMAN, Okla.—Tyshawn Taylor scored a career-high 26 points and Sherron Collins added 22 of his 26 points in the second half as No. 15 Kansas took over first place in the Big 12 with an 87-78 victory Monday night against third-ranked Oklahoma. Cole Aldrich was able to dominate inside with the Sooners’ missing their leading scorer and rebounder, Blake Griffin, because of a concussion suffered in the previous game. Aldrich had 15 points and a career-high 20 rebounds as the Jayhawks (23-5, 12-1 Big 12) took control in the race for their fifth straight conference title.

The end of the college-athletics world does not seem far away. Last week, the NCAA passed emergency legislation declaring seventhand eighth-grade boys basketball players as “prospects.“ The intent is to prohibit underhanded recruiters from gaining an upper hand by working with these youths at “elite” basketball camps. That’s a good idea. But solving that problem creates other problems.

It’s a long way from Orem to Newark. Just ask the Wolverines of Utah Valley University. Utah Valley is a member of the Great West Conference, one of those geograghy-gone-nuts NCAA Division I leagues with two California schools at one end and the New Jersey Institute of Technology at the other. Every road conference game for Utah Valley Athletic Director Mike Jacobsen’s teams involves a long plane flight, and this year his travel costs are up 10 to 12 percent due of the twists of turns of the slumping economy.

When Robert Marve decided to leave the University of Miami to play quarterback for another college, his coach said go, good luck. But . . . Hurricanes coach Randy Shannon said Marve could not play for another ACC school, any SEC college or any program in Florida.

To get from Birmingham, Ala., to College Park, Md., as quickly as possible is not difficult. That’s why airplanes exist. If you are a college athlete, things are not quite so simple.