Lessons learned from an NCAA tournament chalkier than Bart Simpson’s least favorite blackboard …

● Cinderella is not well.

Is this shaping up as one of the best men’s basketball tournaments? Or one of the worst?

You can make either case.

If you’re a fan of Goliath dunking on the little guys and the big brands from the big conferences rising to the top, this is the March for you.

The Elite Eight featured almost straight chalk — third-seeded Texas Tech was the scrappy outlier — and now the Final Four are all top seeds: Auburn, Duke, Houston, and Florida.

As much as we love the underdogs in the early rounds, the truth is America prefers the heavyweight battles in the late ones, and it doesn’t get heavier than this.

Some high-level drama — and even higher-level talent, beginning with Duke freshman superstar Cooper Flagg — awaits in San Antonio.

But there is a happy medium.

If you’re a fan of the magic that lends this month its charm — of the Oaklands and George Masons and Sister Jeans and buzzer-beating upsets — it’s OK to admit the tourney has disappointed.

Actually, it’s kind of stunk.

Have you enjoyed this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament? #MarchMadness

— Blade Sports (@toledosports) March 31, 2025

March so far has been as mad as … Mr. Rogers, as predictable as a metronome.

For the first time since the tourney expanded to 32 teams in 1975, no mid-majors made the Sweet 16.

RIP, Cinderella.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the NIL collective of your nearest Mid-American Conference program.

Now, what does it all mean?

Is Cinderella really dead?

Too soon to tell.

It was just last March that Oakland stunned Kentucky, Yale took down Auburn, and Duquesne, Grand Canyon, and James Madison pulled off first-round upsets.

But as the free agency era continues to turn leagues like the MAC into a farm system for the highest-spending programs, it’s not hard to see the writing on the hardwood.

Just look at all the former mid-major stars who a few years ago might have been tourney darlings, but cashed in at bigger schools. (More power to them, by the way.)

Seven of the 15 players who earned AP All-American honors this season began their careers at mid-majors. So did the biggest names from the powerhouse SEC — Auburn’s Johni Broome (Morehead State), Florida’s Walter Clayton, Jr. (Iona), and Alabama’s Mark Sears (Ohio) — and 38 percent of the starters on the teams in the Sweet 16.

“I don’t think Cinderella is dead,” said Michigan coach Dusty May, who led Florida Atlantic to the Final Four in 2023. “I think she’s probably not going to be making visits as frequently as she did before.”

That reality is not wrong.

But it is too bad.

And a lot less fun.

● Please, do NOT expand the tournament.

Sorry, but give us one piece of evidence from this tourney that suggests the party should be bigger.

Is it that more power-conference flotsam — like Texas and Oklahoma, with their matching 6-12 conference records — deserve the opportunity to get immediately bounced from the tournament, too?

Is it that, again, there were almost no upsets on the first weekend and none on the second? (The favorites went 12-0 in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight.)

While an eventual expansion from 68 to 76 teams is widely seen as inevitable — everything is never enough for the Big Ten and SEC — here’s a final plea for sanity to prevail.

There’s a first time for everything.

● Toledo isn’t the only women’s basketball team it takes an all-time performance to beat in March.

Paige Bueckers poured in a career-high 40 points to lead Connecticut to a Sweet 16 rout of Oklahoma on Saturday, breaking the Huskies’ single-game tournament scoring mark.

The previous record holder? Kerry Bascom, who had 39 points against none other than the Rockets in a second-round classic in 1991.

As longtime local hoops fans might recall, the day proved momentous not just for Bascom — the Huskies' first All-American — but for the greatest sports dynasty of our time.

UConn’s thrilling — and disputed — 81-80 win over Toledo was its maiden tourney win, and the Huskies kept going all the way to the Final Four.

“That night here against Toledo changed Connecticut basketball forever,” coach Geno Auriemma said years later.

First Published March 31, 2025, 12:03 a.m.