Column: Good story lines and some good NCAA picks

SYRACUSE — Bernie Fine won't be on the bench for this Final Four run, and for a while it looked like Jim Boeheim might not be either. But Boeheim survived the child sex-abuse scandal surrounding his longtime assistant and his team won 31 games to get the No. 1 seed in the East. Assuming yet another scandal — players on previous teams not being suspended for positive drug tests — doesn't derail the Orangemen, they have a legitimate shot of making the title game for the fourth time in Boeheim's 36 years in charge.

MICHIGAN STATE — My personal favorite in the tournament, if only because I love the way Tom Izzo coaches. He schedules tough teams and isn't afraid to take a few hits doing it, something that happened this year in opening losses to Duke and North Carolina. His teams play hard night after night, which makes them especially difficult in tournaments, one reason Izzo has led the Spartans to six Final Four appearances in 16 years. Michigan State also has Draymond Green and one of the easier paths in the West region to make another run.

So many good stories. Almost as many good teams.

No need to manufacture controversy. And no need to whine about what might have been.

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Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg(at)ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg