"NCAA tournament Day 4 diary"

Almost two weeks ago during Championship Week, CBS color analyst Billy Packer was paraphrased in a "USA Today" article as saying that the NCAA tournament had been infected by And1, the shoe sponsor that holds tournaments in which "wannabes" dunk with their toenails, juke dudes out of their sneakers, and perform just about every other trick in the bag.

Packer complained that the tournament was becoming too "And1" and that the new rule forcing high school stars to attend college for a year was only feeding the problem.

If Packer watched either of the games in front of him Sunday, however, he would know that the college game is far from being contaminated by players just looking to get on SportsCenter. The two games in Chicago were UNLV vs. Wisconsin in the Midwest region and Kansas vs. Kentucky in the West region.

Both games, Packer must admit, were won by teams, not individuals. Sure, individual players stepped up, making big shots when their teams needed them, but everyone contributed for UNLV in its upset of the Badgers, and Kansas' great depth overwhelmed Kentucky in the nightcap.

It is absolutely ridiculous to think that what Packer saw in Chicago was anything but solid team basketball. Consider the scoring balance for the two winning teams. Four players scored at least nine points in UNLV's 74-68 win as well as in Kansas' 88-76 victory, in which three of those players scored between 16 and 21 points. Consider the passing displays by both teams. The Runnin' Rebels assisted on 12 of 24 field goals while the Jayhawks assisted on 19 of 30 field goals. Not exactly 1-on-1 basketball.

And Packer's two games weren't the only ones in which teamwork was essential Sunday. What's great about college basketball, especially during March, is that guys we've never heard of come out of the shadows to make huge shots or huge defensive plays to help their team move on to the next round. In the NBA, we know all the players. We know Miami will post up Shaq. We know Steve Nash will dish out 15 assists. But the college game is more unpredictable. It's hardly ever 1-on-1 isolation. It's about ball movement, screening, and fast-breaking. That's what makes it great. It's not nearly as stagnant as the NBA game is.

And Sunday was a perfect example of what makes the game fun to watch. During any possession, Kansas would have five scorers on the floor, and the ball would be passed 10 to 15 times before an open shot was attempted.

It wasn't the stars who won on Sunday. In fact, the two Naismith Award finalists who played (Kevin Durant of Texas and Alando Tucker of Wisconsin) lost. Tucker scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Durant scored 30 points and snared nine boards. Not a bad afternoon for either player. But neither effort was enough. Their teammates didn't do enough. Both are great players, but the results of their games reinforced the point that this time of the year only the complete teams are victorious.

You want a complete team? How about Memphis? Entering the tournament, I wasn't familiar at all with the Conference USA squad and I knew it had played a super-weak schedule, so I picked the Tigers to lose to Nevada - and possible lottery pick Nick Fazekas - in the second round.

The Tigers threw a 'lil - no, a lot - BALANCE in my face. Six players scored between eight and 16 points to lead them to a 78-62 victory over Nevada. Even when their leading scorer, Chris Douglas-Roberts, left the game more than midway through the second half with an injury - and Nevada cut Memphis' lead to two -the Tigers responded, getting baskets and free throws from five different players during a 14-0 run to finish off the game.

And did I mention defense? The Tigers played stellar man-to-man defense to hold Nevada scoreless the final 6:17 of regulation.

As we approach Memphis' game against Texas A&M Thursday in the South regional semifinals, the big question will be whether Douglas-Roberts can play. That's a legitimate question, of course. He is, after all, the Tigers' leading scorer. But if he doesn't play, I wouldn't relax if I was Texas A&M.

What Sunday proved is that a group of good individuals working together will almost always beat one great individual.

Especially this time of year in college hoops.