College Basketball’s Best Week Is Here

This is the week the hardcore college basketball fan waits for more than any other.

ESPN has named it “Championship Week.” Its subtitle could be “the chance to see most of the bubble teams while getting a look at the possible first-round upset winners in the NCAA tournament.”

ESPN and its properties will televise 80 men’s games during “Championship Week,” which runs through March 12. Included in that figure are 25 conference championship games, all of which decide an automatic berth to the NCAA’s field of 65.

Fifty of the games will be broadcast over the final four days, with the last three -- Atlantic Coast Conference and Big 12 on ESPN and Southland Conference on ESPN2 -- on Selection Sunday.

The first of the games with a bid at stake were this weekend and all were scheduled for ESPN2: the Big South, the Atlantic Sun and the Ohio Valley.

The entire Big East and Big 12 tournaments are part of the week, while eight of the ACC tournament games and five from the Big Ten are included.

The five conference tournament championships not on ESPN are: Big Ten, Conference USA, Missouri Valley, Pac-10 and Southeastern. The Ivy League is the only one of the 31 conferences that doesn’t have a tournament.

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Keydren Clark of St. Peter’s entered the season with a chance at putting his name with two of the sport’s immortals.

The 5-foot-10 guard led Division I in scoring the last two seasons. If he had done it again in 2005-06, he would have joined Oscar Robertson and Pete Maravich as the only players to do it three straight seasons.

He gave it quite a run.

The only players ahead of Clark’s 26.6 average as of Thursday were Adam Morrison of Gonzaga (28.8) and J.J. Redick of Duke (28.1), the runaway choices for player of the year honors.

Clark entered the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament with 2,963 points, eighth on the career scoring list. He just passed Danny Manning (2,951), and next on the list is Robertson (2,973).

Clark could become the seventh Division I player to reach 3,000 points, joining Pete Maravich, LSU (3,667), Freeman Williams, Portland State (3,249), Lionel Simmons, La Salle (3,217), Alphonso Ford, Mississippi Valley State (3,165), Harry Kelly, Texas Southern (3,066) and Hersey Hawkins, Bradley (3,008).

Paul Millsap is really close to coming up with the first three-season run as the country’s leading rebounder.

The 6-8 forward from Louisiana Tech grabbed 18 rebounds Tuesday night against Idaho to improve his average to 13.3, just ahead of the 13.1 of Kenny Adeleke, a 6-9 senior forward from Hartford.

They are the only two players averaging more than 12 rebounds per game in Division I.

Millsap led the country the last two seasons with averages of 12.5 and 12.4, the fifth player to repeat.

None of the others -- Leroy Wright of Pacific, Jerry Lucas of Ohio State, Artis Gilmore of Jacksonville and Kermit Washington of American University -- led the country a third straight season.

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Although there won’t be much free time for college basketball fans over the next month, John Feinstein’s latest book, “Last Dance” (Little, Brown & Co.) can be a guide to the Final Four as it approaches.

Feinstein, who has covered 26 Final Fours, gives a look at the sport’s last weekend through various eyes, from coaches and players to officials and members of the media. Feinstein lets you hear from those in at the start of the tournament to the people who have helped make it one of television’s can’t-miss events. Parts of the Final Four rarely seen by the public, like the off-day news conferences, are given the once-over.

There are plenty of stories, including some of the standards, from the likes of John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Valvano, and there is a pretty good inside look at last year’s Final Four in St. Louis when North Carolina beat Illinois for the title.

And it’s not only the NCAA tournament that has a new book about it.

“The National Invitation Tournament” (Arcadia Publishing) gives a decade-by-decade history of the older postseason tournament. Ray Floriani’s book about the NIT is full of pictures, many of which haven’t been seen in quite a while.

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Max Falkenstein received an honor previously reserved for such Kansas stars as Wilt Chamberlain, Danny Manning and Jo Jo White.

During halftime of Wednesday night’s 75-54 victory over Colorado, a blue banner bearing Falkenstein’s name and the number 60 -- representing his years in broadcasting -- was unfurled in the south end of Allen Fieldhouse.

Falkenstein is the only nonplayer to be so honored in the history of the 51-year-old fieldhouse, where he has been behind the microphone for every men’s home game since the building opened. His first broadcast was in 1946, when he was still a student at Kansas.

“As my good friend, coach Larry Brown taught me to say, ‘Gosh, this really is special,’ ” Falkenstein said. “I guess I thought this day would never come -- but since it has, I’m glad I was here to enjoy it.”

Bob Davis, Falkenstein’s broadcast partner for 22 years, hosted the ceremony.

“You know what makes it really fun? When you sit with your pal at a ballgame,” Davis said. “I’ve done it every game for 22 years, sitting beside the same guy -- and he’d already been doing it for 38 years before that.”

Falkenstein, surrounded by family members and former Kansas players, was given a bronze Jayhawk. The video board showed highlights of his award-winning career before the ceremony, and the pep band serenaded him afterward with “Thanks for the Memories.”

After thanking his family and colleagues and reminiscing about the players and coaches he has known over the years, Falkenstein turned his thoughts to the fans.

“There are no fans anywhere like you guys in Allen Fieldhouse,” he said. “You’re absolutely the best. It’s been a joy to have worked with you and for you for 60 years.”