NCAA bracket buzz: Buzz Williams heading to Virginia Tech

The biggest non-game buzz of the day occurred at a tournament site, but it had nothing to do with the big dance.

Buzz Williams is leaving Marquette for Virginia Tech. Hokies athletic director Whit Babcock, a former Missouri assistant administrator, made the splash hire.

“Buzz is a proven winner who has earned his way up through the ranks with a strong track record of success,” Babcock said. “I am confident he will energize our fan base and help make Virginia Tech basketball competitive in the Atlantic Coast Conference. I know he will recruit at the highest level.”

Williams went to NCAA Tournaments in five of his six years at Marquette in Milwaukee, where an NCAA regional is taking place. Marquette didn’t reach the postseason this year, and neither did Virginia Tech, which finished 2-16 in the ACC.

Nebraska football coach Bo Pelini was swept up in the Cornhuskers’ dissatisfaction with the officiating in the 74-60 loss to Baylor.

Pelini, who has been known to boil over on the sideline, sent out this message on his account @BoPelini: “Can I get fined if I comment about basketball officiating?”

By early Friday evening, the comment had been retweeted nearly 6,000 times and was favored some 5,300 times.

The day couldn’t have been much worse for Nebraska coach Tim Miles. His team was mostly non-competitive against Baylor in the program’s first NCAA appearance since 1998, and he received a technical foul for jawing with the officials. A few moments later, it got worse.

Miles came on the floor to yell at the officials about the shot clock not working. Official Karl Hess handed out another technical, which meant an ejection from the game.

Miles opened his postgame news conference by apologizing.

“First of all, I’m disappointed and I apologize for getting ejected, although the circumstances were odd at best,” he said.

Favorites must cringe when they see they are the day’s opening fare.

Each of the first two days saw a better-seeded team crashing. Duke was the latest heavyweight to fall, 78-71 to No. 14 Mercer in Raleigh, N.C.

That came a day after 11th-seeded Dayton took down No. 6 Ohio State in the day’s opener.

Who’s batting leadoff today? Florida, the tournament’s overall No. 1 seed, against ninth-seeded Pittsburgh at 11:15 a.m.

CBS play-by-play announcer Andrew Catalon went all Archie Bunker when referring to a foul by Oklahoma State against Gonzaga center Przemek Karnowski as a “Hack-a-Polack” strategy.

Catalon took to Twitter to issue his apology.

“I am truly sorry and I have personally spoken and apologized to Przemek Karnowski, who was very gracious in accepting my apology.”

Crushing as Duke’s loss to Mercer was, Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski worked his way to the Bears’ locker room to offer a verbal pat on the back.

“You guys have a hell of basketball team,” Krzyzewski said. “I love the game, and you guys play the game really, really well. And your coach coaches it well. If we had to be beaten, I glad we were beaten by a hell of a basketball team. So good luck to you.”

As coaching gestures go, that one is tough to top.

“I know they’ve got two Canadians.”

This story was originally published March 21, 2014 at 9:08 PM with the headline "NCAA bracket buzz: Buzz Williams heading to Virginia Tech."