Best player: Really? Is this even necessary? I’ll just throw out some numbers here: A No. 10 seed beats a No. 7 seed, No. 2 seed, No. 3 seed and then almost topples a No. 1 seed — led by one guy. He scored 40, 30, 33 and 25 points respectively. Stephen Curry single-handedly gave the Davidson Wildcats the proverbial Cinderella slipper while giving every college basketball fan someone to root for. He also gave announcer Gus Johnson a reason to scream, something we had been impatiently waiting for.

Worst coach: Mike Krzyzewski. Sure, Duke was probably the weakest No. 2 seed, but c’mon Coach K — you have the most tournament wins out of anyone! You beat North Carolina — granted, without Ty Lawson — during the season. You had one of the best freshmen in the country in Kyle Singler, a great point guard in Greg Paulus and a senior leader in DeMarcus Nelson. Guess that just wasn’t enough, as your team almost lost to Belmont and then forgot how to make a basket in the second half en route to an early exit at the hands of West Virginia.

Best freshman: Freshmen have dominated this season, and this tournament. Michael Beasley, Kevin Love, O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon and Jerryd Bayless will all be first-round NBA draft picks, if not lottery selections, if they decide to go pro. But the best freshman in the tournament whose stock is rising is Derrick Rose. Going into the championship game, Rose is averaging more than 21 points a game in the tournament. He had 25 points, nine rebounds and was 11-12 from the charity stripe against UCLA (okay, John Calipari, you told us so).

Worst use of a seven-foot, two-inch frame: Georgetown’s Roy Hibbert. Hibbert had 6 points and 5 fouls in the Hoyas’ second-round upset loss to Davidson. Just for some perspective, the Wildcats’ tallest player stands six feet, nine inches tall, but most of the game Hibbert was guarded by a six-foot, eight-inch forward, yet he only managed six points before fouling out. Can anyone say his draft stock just went down?

Best game: Marquette vs. Stanford, second round. I know there were some great first-round finishes and upsets, but this was the best game considering the teams involved. Stanford won 82-81 in overtime on this Brook Lopez shot. Marquette, despite a monstrous height advantage, got 30 points from Jerel McNeal and had a couple chances to put the game away, but the Disney-loving Lopez twins were too much.

Worst luck: Gonna have to go with Gus Johnson. Gus has become a cult icon over the past few years thanks to calls like this in the NCAA Tournament. CBS did the smart thing by putting Gus on the call through the second weekend, and he even had games such as Pittsburgh-Michigan St. and Notre Dame-Washington St. that people thought would be scream-inducing games. Instead, here are the margins of victory in every game Gus called: 11, 19, 18, 31, 11, 20, 17 and 15. Luckily, his tournament ended with a two-point victory for Kansas over Davidson, but wouldn’t you have just loved to have Gus Johnson on the call for those first-round upsets in Tampa?

Best player you’ve never heard of: Western Kentucky point guard Tyrone Brazelton. The senior guard from Chicago looked like the fastest guy in the entire tournament. He dropped 33 points in the Hilltoppers’ upset win over Drake. He had 15 points and five assists in the second-round win over San Diego, and then concluded his tourney with a 31-point output against the No. 1-seeded UCLA Bruins.

Worst idea: The bright minds in Detroit at Ford Field decided to put the basketball court at the 50-yard-line to increase ticket revenue and attempt to fit 72,000 in the dome. They did this to prove to the NCAA that they are going to be a worthy host of the Final Four in 2009. However, this was a horrible idea for college basketball. Trust me, I was there. I’ve never seen a weirder atmosphere at a basketball game. Because the dome is so big, there wasn’t a crowd effect. The elevated court even had ushers around it to keep players from falling off if they went for a loose ball. I sat in the risers that were built to, again, increase attendance. I ended up pretty close to the court by moving down 25 rows, but the view was still strange. Even when Stephen Curry put Davidson on his back in the first game and everyone that wasn’t from Wisconsin was cheering, it didn’t seem loud. I’m glad the NCAA and Ford Field raked in the dough, but the pageantry that makes college basketball what it is was completely lost in the dome.

Best shot: There are two winners here: one actually happened, one was just in practice. Senior Ty Rogers, who only averaged 6.4 points on the year, sent Western Kentucky into the second round and gave us our first ‘shining moment’ with this shot.

Kevin Love, in practice for the Final Four, showed his ridiculous range. While this wasn’t in a game, it’s worth putting in this category.

National championship prediction:

Unfortunately, all of my brackets are done, considering UCLA was my champion. Kansas and Memphis were probably the most surprising match-up for the finals. Both teams like to play up-tempo and have great depth. Also, both teams have annoying coaches who have finally shut up their critics by making it all the way here. So it’s a lose-lose scenario considering either Bill Self or John Calipari will be able to say, “I told you I could coach in the postseason,” if his team wins. The individual match-up worth watching is Brandon Rush vs. Chris Douglas-Roberts. They are both swingmen who can dominate in the paint or from the perimeter, not to mention they are upperclassmen with leadership qualities. Even though North Carolina got knocked out, I feel Jim Nantz and Billy Packer will find a way to credit Tyler Hansbrough for working hard. That aside, I like teams with good point guards, and Derrick Rose is the best in the country. Memphis 82, Kansas 78.