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• CONFERENCE SUPREMECY: Which conference can make the claim as the best by putting the most teams in the tournament. The Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference both have a good shot to get seven or eight teams in the field. The Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 also have a good chance to get multiple teams in. While everyone expects the BCS conferences to get many bids, don't be surprised if the Atlantic-10 has multiple bids announced Monday.
• NEWCOMERS: South Dakota, North Dakota, Akron and Winthrop will all be making their first appearances in the NCAA tournament. The Coyotes ended rival South Dakota State's five-year run atop the Summit League in the semifinals before bouncing Denver in the championship game. North Dakota won both the Big Sky regular season and tournament titles for the first time in school history. Akron was playing third fiddle in the MAC to Bowling Green and Central Michigan, yet the Zips were the ones who walked away with the conference tournament championship. Winthrop knocked off High Point to win its first Big South title.
• SUB .500: While UConn and Notre Dame didn't lose this season, Prairie View A&M will become the ninth team to enter the NCAAs with a losing record. The 14-17 Panthers lost their first 11 games this season before making their normal run in March and earning a fourth straight NCAA bid. They will try and become the first under .500 team to win a game in the tournament.
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'Vehicle bills' in SD Capitol bother some
NORA HERTEL, Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- They're called "vehicle bills": pieces of legislation with little more than a title. They are created by lawmakers to give themselves an option to revive or introduce new legislation beyond the normal deadline for bills to make it out of whichever chamber they start in.
• Some advocates of open government say they mean less scrutiny for lawmaking.
• "Those bills, while sometimes necessary, overall you see more of them," said David Bordewyk, general manager of the South Dakota Newspaper Association. "It frustrates the public in terms of understanding what's happening."
• One top lawmaker defended vehicle bills as a handy tool in a short session where policy may not come together until late.
• "You don't know what you don't know until the end of session," said Senate Majority Leader Tim Rave.
• Rave, a Republican from Baltic, offered such a bill in late January. The intentionally vague bill read: "In case a title affecting medical services or the ordinary operating expenses of South Dakota is needed to accommodate the legislative process, (Continued on page 15)
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