Notes on the tattered edges of a once-promising NCAA-tournament bracket:

• The improved TV ratings for the opening weekend suggest that the new arrangement — adding several cable outlets to CBS's coverage — was a decided hit. And it was, with an overarching sense that the tournament somehow felt different after all these years. The various studio shows lent a bit of a disjointed touch, but the ability of viewers to see games in their entirety overrides everything.

• Speaking of studio shows, anybody else think it's cheesy of Louisville coach Rick Pitino to be at CBS 48 hours after his team blows a game to Morehead State? Go ahead and grieve the loss, fellas, I'm headed to New York to add thousands to my $2 million package.

• The Big East has some ‘splainin' to do. All that's left of the best league in the country is Connecticut and Marquette, the last Big East team to make it into the tournament. Here's the two-year total: 19 entries, four in the Sweet 16, eight out in their first game. Must have something to do with beating the compression shorts out of each other for two months.

• Pitt: January's team.

• I thought three double-digit seeds winning last week in Denver (Morehead State, Richmond, Gonzaga) might have set some sort of standard for upsets at one site. Not even close. Only three years ago, Tampa had the max four double-digit winners in Villanova (a 12), and Western Kentucky, Siena and San Diego (all 13s).

• You think of Brigham Young as having a considerable basketball tradition, right? But the Cougars are in their first Sweet 16 in 30 years.

• Sometimes it's a fine line between confidence and hubris. The day before Gonzaga faced BYU, center Robert Sacre said Jimmer Fredette “is a great player ... but we've seen great players.” Yeah, they saw Stephen Curry three years ago, when he knocked the Zags out of the tournament. Not a terribly smart comment.

• The same factor that seems to help the Zags sometimes in the tournament — short prep time for the opposition — likely hurt them against Jimmer, who requires a whole different set of defensive principles. What should help Florida Thursday night is several extra days, plus having played (and lost) to BYU in the NCAA last year.

• The tournament has a cruel way of undressing coaches otherwise believed stellar. Mike Brey of Notre Dame has two NCAA-tournament victories in eight seasons, and Vanderbilt's Kevin Stallings has lost three straight NCAA openers to 12 and 13 seeds.

• Stop the presses: In 2013, for just the second time in 15 years, there won't be a backyard first- and second-round site for Duke and North Carolina in Greensboro, Charlotte, Raleigh or Winston-Salem, N.C., or Greenville, S.C., all within a bus ride of those campuses.