If you live in or near Washington, you have a tendency to think the basketball world begins and ends with the ACC. President Barack Obama is not immune to the feeling.

But when Wake Forest, Florida State and Boston College all lost to lower-seeded teams Friday night, the president did not hesitate when a reporter asked him: "Is the ACC overrated?" He replied: "Apparently so."

The Big East/ACC debate is over for this season. Only North Carolina and Duke remain from the ACC. And they had "home" games in Greensboro where neither team was dominant in the second round.

The Big East has Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Louisville, Villanova and Syracuse still playing, a real testament to the depth of talent in the top half of the league.

THE CONFERENCE STORY

The Big East is 11-2. The Big 12 was 6-0 in the first round and is now 9-3. The Big Ten is 8-5. The Pac-10 went 5-1 in the first round, 1-4 in the second. The ACC is 5-5. The SEC (1-3) went out meekly.

THE PHILLY SCENE

Big East dominance was on full display Saturday at the Wachovia Center. Villanova led UCLA 28-11 on the way to a 20-point win. Connecticut led Texas A&M 27-9 on the way to a 26-point win.

Villanova played both ends with intelligence and passion against the Bruins. The effort stats told the story inside the story. 'Nova had eight more offensive rebounds and nine fewer turnovers. That essentially equals 17 extra possessions and is why the 'Cats got 20 more shots from the field.

Nobody played better than UConn in the first two games. The Huskies outscored their opponents by 82 points tying the record for biggest margin in the first two rounds set by Duke (1999).

THE X-MEN

I did not like the way Xavier was playing coming into the tournament. No matter. Sean Miller has them back in the Sweet 16 again, a year after they lost all those 1,000-point scorers. Xavier, one of four non-BCS at-large teams, simply has one of the best programs in the country.

BCS at-large teams Villanova, UConn, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Oklahoma, Kansas, North Carolina, Arizona and Michigan State are still alive, along with automatic qualifiers Duke, Louisville, Purdue, Memphis, Gonzaga and Missouri.

BEST OF THE PAC-10

Arizona may have been the last at-large team invited. The five other Pac-10 teams left quietly. Arizona crushed Utah and Cleveland State and plays No. 1 overall seed Louisville on Friday in Indianapolis.

THE FRESHMAN RULE

Why are there so few upsets at the top of the bracket anymore? The freshman rule.

Ohio State does not make the 2007 Final Four without Greg Oden and Mike Conley. Ditto UCLA (Kevin Love) and Memphis (Derrick Rose) last year.

By making sure-fire NBA players go to college for a year, the NBA has given the power schools an even bigger edge. NBA-caliber players are not going to the Horizon League. They are going to the power teams. And making them even more powerful.

Top three seeds are 24-0. Out of 16 teams, there are two seeded lower than four — Purdue (5), Arizona (12). Lower-seeded teams hang, but can't hang for 40 minutes with the big boys.

WORST DECISION

When, early in the second half, CBS cut away from the Siena-Louisville game in the Philadelphia market to go to USC-Michigan State, a game with zero Philadelphia-area interest that featured 57 free throws. Anybody, without an NCAA package or a computer, missed the end-to-end action and Siena's great comeback.

Whoever generally is responsible for the cut-ins apparently does not understand the flow of games. We don't need to see free throws, timeouts or finishes of games that have been decided.

BY THE NUMBERS

—North Carolina is 27-1 in NCAA games in North Carolina. It was 30 years ago that Penn beat UNC and St. John's beat Duke in Raleigh on the day they call "Black Sunday" in North Carolina.

—Since 2004, Duke is 8-0 in NCAA games in North Carolina and 3-5 in NCAA games in other states. Yes, the Villanova-Duke game is in Massachusetts.

—Binghamton shot 52.9 percent against Duke. Texas shot 50 percent against the Blue Devils. The middle of the lane has looked like an invitation, one that Villanova surely will accept on Thursday.

—UNC's Wayne Ellington (Episcopal) has scored 48 points on 20-for-32 (62.5 percent) shooting.

—Oklahoma's incredible Blake Griffin got 61 points and 30 rebounds in his two games while shooting a cool 25-for-32 (78.1 percent) from the field.

—Texas A&M started 10-for-10 against BYU and 4-for-20 against UConn. Just a slight difference in the length and athleticism between Provo and Storrs.

—Arizona's Big Three of Nic Wise, Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger has combined for 118 points.

—Arizona State star James Harden never got comfortable in two games, shooting a very uncharacteristic 3-for-18.

—The defending champs lost all those terrific players, but Kansas is still playing. Cole Aldrich had a triple double (13 points, 20 rebounds, 10 blocks) Sunday against Dayton. The Flyers shot 16-for-72 (22.2 percent).

WORST USE OF TIMEOUTS

UCLA's Ben Howland has never had any feel for this. He was over-the-top clueless Saturday. He called two first-half timeouts within seconds of a whistle that would signify a media timeout. His team trailed 9-6 when he used his first timeout at 16:01. He called his second-to-last timeout with 16:06 to go in the second half. A media timeout came 11 seconds later. Howland still has his final timeout, no doubt saving it for next season.

THE VENUE

Villanova associate head coach Patrick Chambers went out of his way to praise the staff from Saint Joseph's, which ran the Wachovia Center site seamlessly.

Old friend Mike Felici, a Penn State grad who has worked at Temple, La Salle and his alma mater, did a solid, understated job as the public address announcer. Felici now works as the general manager for Penn Sports Marketing, a division of Nelligan Sports Marketing.