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Here's a name you haven't thought of in a while: Larry Brown.

Well, this year's Final Four has quite a connection to Brown, who has coached pretty much everywhere. Including three of the teams in San Antonio.

Brown was an All-American at North Carolina (his jersey hangs in the rafters of the Dean Smith Center). He would later be an assistant coach under Smith. As a head coach, Brown led Kansas to their last National Championship in 1988 and led UCLA to the 1980 NCAA title game. While at Kansas, current Memphis coach John Calipari was an assistant under Brown.

Brown also gave current Kansas coach Bill Self his first coaching gig ... and helped induct UNC coach Roy Williams into the Basketball Hall of Fame this past summer.

Oh, and the site of the Final Four is San Antonio ... where Brown coached the NBA's Spurs in the early 1990s.

So who is Brown rooting for in the Final Four?

"When one team wins, then three teams that mean a lot to me will be pretty upset," Brown said yesterday before beginning his trek to San Antonio.

"I've got to really be careful about this," Brown said. "I'm just proud of all the programs."

"I think I've got a spot on each corner," he said.

One of the underlying stories this week at the Final Four will be Roy Williams facing off against his old team, Kansas.

Since Williams left five years ago, many Jayhawk fans have labeled him a traitor. In 2000, Williams was offered the UNC job but elected to stay ... even saying that he wanted to be at KU forever. Forever ended three years later.

"Hopefully, it will die down,'' Williams said Monday as he fielded several questions about his link to Lawrence, Kan., during a news conference. "There were things said and done that hurt at first, but time has a way of healing things. I gave 15 years of my heart, body and soul [to Kansas]. It's my second favorite school. Six years ago it was my favorite school."

North Carolina and Kansas have a weird history when it comes to coaching. Dean Smith played at Kansas and was on their 1952 National Championship team. Smith, of course, went on the North Carolina to coach for 36 years ... piling up 879 victories.

Kansas' only other title was in 1988, when Larry Brown ... who played at North Carolina ... was their head coach. He left and Roy Williams, an assistant under Smith at UNC, took over.

A report released Monday found 86 percent of Tar Heels men's players earned diplomas during a six-year period. The other top seeds were far worse: 45 percent at Kansas and 40 percent at UCLA and Memphis.

The study was conducted by Richard Lapchick, head of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. It evaluated four different freshman classes for a period beginning in 1997-98 and ending with 2000-01. Though the players evaluated are no longer on campus, the report intends to provide a snapshot of academic trends.

It doesn't stop there. Of the #2 seeds, Texas and Tennessee only graduated 33%. Duke is up to 67%. Georgetown graduated 82%.

Mind you, of the eight teams listed, only Memphis' John Calipari, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Texas' Rick Barnes have been with his program for most of the period tested. Kansas' rate was gained during Roy Williams' tenure there (he's now at UNC whose numbers are reflected from Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge's time).

If we had a Final Four of the top programs at graduating players, it would be Butler, Notre Dame, Purdue and Davidson (all are at the 91% mark).

North Carolina and Duke will battle for the ACC Championship on Saturday night. The last time the ACC regular season title came down to a final game between the two hopefuls was way back in 1991. Again, it was North Carolina and Duke.

Duke won the game and the conference that year. That was the ol' Laettner-Hurley-Hill Duke team beating the Fox-Rice-Chilcutt Tar Heels' squad.

A week later, North Carolina tore into the Blue Devils, 96-74, to win the ACC Tournament in Charlotte. That win gave the Tar Heels the top seed in the East Region ... which was played in East Rutherford. Dean Smith was joined by Jim Boeheim, Rollie Massimino, John Chaney, Eddie Sutton, Gene Keady, Pete Carril and ... gulp ... Dave Bliss.

Duke was the #2 in the Midwest Region (Pontiac, MI) that featured these coaches: Lou Carnesecca, Tom Penders, Dale Brown, Tom Davis, Bobby Cremins, Jim Calhoun and Pete Gillen.

Both teams would win their regions. UNC breezed through due to upsets elsewhere in the bracket (they faced a 16, 12, 10 and 9 seed on the way to the Final Four) while Duke crushed everyone in their path.

Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith is recovering after complications from knee replacement surgery. Smith, the all-time winning-est coach for a single program, suffered cardiological and neurological complications after the surgery last month.

Linnea Smith said her husband's knee is "great," but that he had "cardiological and neurological complications" after the Dec. 3 operation. He was discharged, readmitted for rehabilitation, then discharged again Jan. 11.

Linnea Smith, a psychiatrist, would not give details about the cardiological and neurological issues. She said her husband doesn't want his medical matters publicized, nor does he want people to make a big deal of his recovery.

"He's working on physical therapy; he's better, and he's looking forward to playing golf again," she said, adding that it would be spring before Smith could tee it up again.