Editor's note: Did you enjoy the past four days of college basketball as much as Scoop Jackson did? Read on to see how Scoop spent Thursday through Sunday watching the Big Dance.

THURSDAY
The phone rang at 7:20 a.m.

It was my man Biscuit. Aka: The Encyclopedia.

"Happy NCAA day, boyee!"

Every year on the same day, that third Thursday in March, the first day of the NCAA Tournament, my crue and I lock down the day. We find spots in the Chi -- Rodney's on 71st, Joe's on Weed Street, Redmond's in Wrigleyville, Smokey Joe's in Ridgeland -- and post up. All day. Thirteen hours. No wives, no kids, no extras, no drama -- just ball.

But recently -- the past two years -- we've kept it personal. We've bonded over at the Encyclopedia's crib. Same 20 or so people, same 20 or so drinks apiece, same 40-and-over ignorance, save about $500. But instead of one day, we now do two. Some call it March Madness. We like to call it -- in the words of my man Leon Rogers -- "Calculated Ignorance."

By 11:10 a.m. Thursday, the crue was thick. Two days worth of fried chicken wings and catfish stacked on the stove. Cooler full of Heinekens in the middle of the living room floor. Ed (nickname "C," don't ask) walked in with the half-gallon of Jack and a two-liter of Coke. He peeped all the food. "What Joakim Noah's bringing the arch over?" It was 'bout to be on.

As the Boston College-Pacific game went into double overtime, some new guy no one knew named Keith -- who came with one of our guys we call Mozart (don't ask) -- blurted out, "I don't even like college basketball, I'm not into sports, I'm into music." After being verbally abused, dude escaped to another room in the house. "Man, they acted like they were going to kill me in there," he said to the five or six people watching the same game in another room, "all because I said … "

By the time BC pulled out the 88-76 win, "Mr. John Legend" was gone.

AP Photo/Gerry Broome

Chris Lofton's huge shot pushed Tennessee past Winthrop. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Winthrop was balling Tennessee like Geno Auriemma was coaching them. "Who got Winthrop on their bracket?" Biscuit yelled out. About eight people screamed out that they did. "All y'all lying!" Everyone in the room started pulling for the upset, which seemed to be the theme of the day. With the score tied, the Eagles simply couldn't score. No one said they were choking, but all of a sudden no one on their team could create their own shot. With 13.4 left someone loudly but quietly said, "They don't deserve to be a 2-seed, win or lose." Twelve seconds later, Chris Lofton dropped the Sean Elliot from the corner. The Vols die another day.

The upsets piled up though. Texas A&M dropped 'Cuse, Wisconsin-Milwaukee dropped Oklahoma, Montana dropped Nevada, WSU dropped the Hall, Alabama dropped Marquette. In the NC-Wilmington game, my cousin Yahweh heard the announcers mention a player's name. "Dawg," he said, "Beckham Wyrick? With that name he's got to be the son of a Baptist preacher." Then they showed Wyrick as he stepped to the line to shoot a free throw. "Oh snap," my cousin said, "he's a white boy!"

Then the white boy argument came up. Meaning, "Who's the baddest?"

Not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good. RIP JMJ.

"This tournament is going to decide that," the Encyclopedia said. "Yeah, because J.J. [Redick] in his career still hasn't had a good NCAA Tournament," I added.

Xavier was playing Gonzaga like its life depended on it. Adam Morrison in the second half played as if his life depended on it. The Zags won by four, Morrison had 35. The question of badness was put to rest. At least until Saturday.

George Washington's Pops Mensah-Bonsu missed a free throw with 1:39 left. GW is down one, 76-75. Then he missed the second. Chuckie P, the comedian of the crew, who has a flask in the shape of a cell phone and drinks out of the antenna part, screamed out, "He shot those like his name was Pops Staples."

Then SDSU's Brandon Heath, right after a conversation was had about how cold he is as a player (a compliment, trust me) personally decided to lose the game. Two beyond ill-advised shots and one "Oops, I dribbled off my leg and can't pick the ball up at half court" turnover cost his squad the game, which would have been the biggest upset of the day.

"You can't teach three things in basketball," Biscuit said. "Height, speed and how not to do dumb &*%$."

FRIDAY
St. Patrick's Day started out like Christmas.

Chuck, who has his own mens' luxury sports apparel company called OneMan, came through with OneMan letterman jackets for everyone. All custom made. Ain't nothing like seeing a bunch of 40-year-olds acting like they on Oprah's "My Favorite Things" show. Tearing open plastic bags, putting on jackets, walking around, fighting to get in front of the mirror.

I was late getting to the spot, so Biscuit blew up my cell with sounds of ignorant blackness: "Hey you little &*%$, where you at? You better get your little black &*% over here. What, you playing hide and go seek like your &*% did yesterday you little &*%$? Oh, by the way, we need some chips. Can you pick some up before you get here?"

Both TVs were on in both rooms at Biscuit's. This time his cousin Mickey had his 3-month-old son with him. The baby responded to Mickey and to Biscuit's other cousin, Ed. Of course the, "Yo Mick, you sure that's your son and not your nephew?" jokes flew like eagles on Steve Miller songs.

But they were only the beginning.

Chuck on UWV's point guard: "Dude's last name is so long they almost had to make a circle around the number on the back of his jersey to spell it out."

Biscuit on Cingular: "Why is that Asian dude still hanging with that white guy in those commercials?"

Then: "And why in every commercial is the Asian dude wearing the same clothes?"

Ed on that High Endurance commercial where the guy is in the shower and his girl asks him about which one of her friends he'd want to get with: "I been married 33 years, if the dude answers that question … "

Me on new school fashion: "Who in the hell started this double hairline thing?"

Yahweh on the follow-up: "Who in the hell started these dudes wearing stockings on the court?!?"

Someone said back, "Those are high leg supports." Yahweh looked at a player on the TV. "No my man," he said, "those are stockings. This looks like Brokeback basketball."

Nick on the computer: "Yo, fellas, come here, I wanna introduce y'all to Ericka Parker."

Daaaammmmnnnnn!!!!

Nick's cell phone rang. It was his boy Big 6 sending him a text message marked urgent.

"Man, I just got locked up on charges of possession of good looks. They say that only someone ugly can bail me out. U busy?"

Chuckie P. on Biscuit's bracket: "Your sheet is starting to look like a Louis Vuitton purse, there's a whole lotta L's on it."

Biscuit's son Brandon, all of 11, had the only bracket that at 6 p.m. was still worth looking at. He's done this with us for a few years now, and as happy as he is when all of his "uncles" are around at one time, it seems as if he's become the smart one. All of this so-called "basketball knowledge" in these rooms, and it's the kid who was -- for the second year in a row -- the bracketologist.

Then the news flashed across the screen: DePaul coaching legend Ray Meyer has died.

Our night ended on that.

SATURDAY
I got this e-mail.

The seeds of great discoveries are constantly floating around us, but they only take root in minds well prepared to receive it.

Seeds? Who's the bracket Ghandi?

Wichita State was playing Tennessee like Winthrop did two days ago. Yet with a 45-43 lead and 13:45 on the clock, Wichita State seemed not to be making every mistake Winthrop made.

Another Missouri Valley Conference team. Pay attention.

At the ESPN Zone a guy named Rob sat at a table all alone. The Illinois-Washington game was on the big screen, and every little screen surrounding the bar. Chicago Bulls legend Bob Love was inside a private booth with his family.

AP Photo/Dennis Poroy

Brandon Roy and Washington face UConn next. (AP Photo/Dennis Poroy)

With every Illini basket the place got loud, and every time the Huskies scored only one voice could be heard.

At 60-60, with three minutes left, I walked over to Rob.

"You worried?"

"No," he said, with his silver Razor pressed to his ear. "We're better than them. We're going to win this game."

"I'll come find you after it's over," I said to him.

"Don't worry," he said. "You'll hear me."

At Blues barbershop in Hyde Park, my man Mike Love, legendary mixtape DJ and co-host of "Mike Love and the Dizz" on WGCI, got on me about my Barry Bonds column from last week.

"Even white guys that don't mess with you I talked to had to get with you on that one," he said. "They were like, 'I don't even like Scoop Jackson, but I had to agree with him on that one.'"

I guess even when I don't inject race into the equation, it finds a way to find me.

I hung with Love as the Hoosiers battled Morrison and crew. Free drinks were flowing at the makeshift bar in the back as Psychodrama blasted through the speakers. I ran to my ride to turn on the radio to keep the updates going. Adam Morrison and Roderick Wilmont went at each other, and the dog came out in both of them. The ref teched up both. Then, before I could get out of the car, Marco Killingsworth got T'd up on a frustration foul that eventually lost the game for Indy and ended Mike Davis' career in Bloomington.

CBS game analyst Steve Bardo slipped in a ChiTown shot during the Florida-UW-Mil contest. In a tight game, he said, "There's a saying in Chicago: Pressure busts pipes … " Mike Breen laughed, Mike Gminski was mute.

At Joe's on Weed Street (the city's ultimate sports bar), there was a line to get in. By the looks of things, there'd be thousands of dollars made on Stoli and Red Bull and Patron, all three flavors. I tried to get in to see either Baylor's women begin their NCAA title defense or to see Seimone Augustus outscore Florida Atlantic in a 27-minute run during which she dropped 22 points. But by the time I got in, the games were over.

I got home to emptiness. Family ghost. At a birthday party. I wanted to rest or write, but I couldn't get the fact that Ray Meyer's gone out of my head. To us in Chicago, he was our James Naismith.

SUNDAY
On the "Sports Unplugged" radio show, Leon and I were experiencing what we call a "PL Hangover."

The night before, in the Illinois state high school basketball championship, the No. 3-ranked team in the state, one of two from the city to go downstate and ball for the chip, won the whole damn thing thanks to the guy that every hoops insider in the city knows is the one player that might go down in Illinois history as better than Isiah Thomas, Mark Aguirre and Dwyane Wade.

Derrick Rose, aka D-Rose, aka Pooh, aka T.N.L., in one of the worst-played (although intense), lowest-scoring games (31-29 was the final score) in the history of the AA state championships, took the ball three-quarters of the way down the court (skipping with the ball, mind you) with 1.6 seconds left in OT and won it at the buzzer with a 12-footer in the lane on three defenders.

Being high school basketball junkies, we basically admitted that we want to see Rose and junior teammate Tim Flowers ball out against Cincinnati's OJ Mayo and Bill Walker next year for some mythical supreme high school basketball world title.

"If McDonald's can have an All-American Game, why can't Harold's Chicken Shack?" Leon asked.

At the end of the show we all (me, Leon and Donte, the young Jedi apprentice who fills in for Bardo when he's "getting that CBS money") agreed that the Big East has been the biggest disappointment of the NCAA Tournament thus far. But all three of us also said: "Georgetown is going to beat Ohio State."

I saw my wife (not literally) for the first time since Thursday. She looked like Ericka Parker. I made a mental note: "Damn the NCAA tonight … " Then I remembered, "Damn, 'The Sopranos' is on."

Bradley repped the MVC once again. Just as Xavier McDaniel and Antoine Carr must be chest-swollen, Hersey Hawkins and J.J. Anderson have to be proud as well.

Ohio State's J.J. Sullinger had three of the best blocked shots in tournament history, and he had them all in the same game. But they got lost in the bigger story.

AP Photo/Al Behrman

C'mon, you didn't have George Mason in your bracket. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

After punching a player in the CAA tournament and being suspended for his team's first-round game, George Mason senior guard Tony Skinn found himself on the line against UNC with the game on the line. He cooly sank two. Then he got fouled again and sank one more. Seconds later he was shaking UNC freshman guard Bobby Frasor's hand.

"There's a new Cinderella, my name is George!" George Johnson screamed into the mike -- not speaking of himself, but of the George Mason University Patriots who, until G'town beat OSU, had the upset of the day.

I called Leon. Left this message: "Texas is the only team with three superstars. Everyone knows about Daniel Gibson and P.J. [Tucker] but everyone is asleep on LaMarcus Aldridge. He might be the difference the rest of the tournament."

Before the UConn/UK game, Biscuit called. "You ready for this Williams-Sparks matchup?" Knowing that the other day I made two comments: (1) Marcus Williams is the best PG in the country (that's before I got introduced to Bama's Ronald Steele this weekend), and (2) Patrick Sparks is the baddest white boy no one is talking about (that's before I saw Steve Hill on Arkansas' squad).

Randy Foye and Allan Ray were making me look like John Nash, after I said in an ESPN chat at the beginning of the college hoops season that Nova was going to win it all. But that was with 15 minutes left in the game. They still had some work to do. But they pulled it out by four.

I called the Encyclopedia after all the games were over. "Brah, I gotta go holla at wifey. I don't think I've seen her in four days. But before I do that, man, every one of these media dudes, especially Dickie V. and Billy P, needs to send personal apologies to Craig Littlepage for putting him on blast last Sunday for how the selection committee did what they do."

"Yeah, I ain't never seen a weekend like this one," he said. "I know all of the No. 1's are still alive, they can say all they want but the selection committee knew what the hell they were doing."

Daddy!

I heard my kids. Back to reality.

"I'm out like the Big 10 fam, talk to you on Thursday."

The Encyclopedia simply responded, "I said Friday night that this was the best two days in sports. I was wrong. This was the best four days in sports."

Scoop Jackson is a national columnist for Page 2 and a contributor to ESPN The Magazine. He has weekly segments on "Cold Pizza" and "Classic Now" and is a regular forum guest on "Rome Is Burning." He resides in Chicago. You can e-mail Scoop here. Sound off to Page 2 here.