E.K. NATION

Armando Benitez, who had a 1.29 ERA and 47 saves with Florida last year, has signed a three-year, $21-million deal with the Giants. Good enough! He's been a gas can of sorts recently but last year he was in pretty fine form. Better than Matt Herges, that's for sure.

...that Jeff Montgomery is on the Hall of Fame ballot.

E.K. Nation's 2nd Annual NCAA Tournament Roll Call! Here are the 64 teams that will play in this year's March Madness:

Alabama, Alabama-Birmingham, Arizona, Boston College, Bucknell, Charlotte, Connecticut, Duke, East Tennessee State, Eastern Kentucky, Florida, George Washington, George Mason, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Gonzaga, Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana-Lafayette, LSU, Louisville, Manhattan, Maryland, Memphis, Michigan, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Monmouth, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, NC-Asheville, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Pittsburgh, Princeton, Purdue, Seton Hall, South Carolina State, Southern, Southern Illinois, Stanford, Syracuse, Texas, Texas-Arlington, Texas Tech, Toledo, UNLV, Utah, Utah State, UTEP, Valparaiso, Vanderbilt, Vermont, Virginia, Wake Forest, Washington, Wisconsin, Wisc.-Milwaukee, and Xavier.

THE FINAL FOUR:

THE FINAL:

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By the way, that's the Washington Huskies, not the Connecticut Huskies, in that Final Four Group.

"All right, here we go with the kick-off.

"Harmon will probably try to squib it and he does. The ball comes loose and the Bears have to get out of bounds. Rogers along the sideline, another one...they're still in deep trouble at midfield, they tried to do a couple of...

"The ball is still loose! As they get it to Rogers! They get it back to the 30, they're down to the 20...

"Ohh, THE BAND IS OUT ON THE FIELD!!

"He's gonna go into the end zone!!

"Will it count? The Bears have scored, but the bands are out on the field!

"There were flags all over the place. Wait and see what happens, we don't know who won the game! There are flags on the field. We have to see whether or not the flags are against Stanford or Cal. The Bears may have made some illegal laterals. It could be that it won't count. The Bears, believe it or not, took it all the way into the endzone. If the penalty is against Stanford, California would win the game. If it is not, the game is over and Stanford has won. We've heard no decision yet. Everybody is milling around on the field...

"AND THE BEARS!!! THE BEARS HAVE WON!!! THE BEARS HAVE WON!!!

"Oh my God, the most amazing, sensational, traumatic, heart rending, exciting thrilling finish in the history of college football!! California has won...the Big Game...over Stanford. Oh excuse me for my voice, but I have never, never seen anything like it in the history of I have ever seen any game in my life! The Bears have won it!"

CALIFORNIA 25, STANFORD 20

November 20, 1982

Barry Bonds has won his fourth straight National League Most Valuable Player award and seventh overall. And this is no surprise here in our camp. Talk Beltre or Pujols or Edmonds or Rolen all you want, but there is nobody more valuable in the history of the game than Barry Bonds.

And of course, people still hate him. But Jayson Stark gives more than a few reasons why he's the greatest, by far.

• Bonds' win makes it five consecutive MVP awards won by Giants. Jeff Kent, last seen cavorting with Tigers officials in his free agent time, won the award in 2000. Barry's taken every one since.

• Anahaeim's Vladimir Guerrero won the A.L. award. And interesting trivia pops up: Over the last nine seasons, every single American League MVP and seven National League MVPs have come from the leagues' West Divisions, meaning of course that only two players have won the MVP award while playing in divisions other than either West Division. Who are they? Answer below...

• Oh by the way, the Giants signed Omar Vizquel to a three-year deal. Meaning that this past season's surprise success, Deivi Cruz, will have to share action if they both want to play shortstop. Strange, but I wasn't thinking shortstop was one of our highest priorities.

• This week's Monday Night Football intro, which featured Desperate Housewives star Nicolette Sheridan dropping a towel and molesting Terrell Owens in the locker room has ABC getting flooded with complaints. Hey folks: Lighten up. ABC, stop apologizing. You did nothing wrong. Same stuff happens on your network on different shows. Big deal.

• Trivia answer: Chipper Jones of the Braves in 1999 and Sammy Sosa of the Cubs in 1998. (Larry Walker of Colorado in 1997 and Ken Caminiti of San Diego in 1996 were the other N.L. West MVPs.)

Somebody please find out who got called for goaltending at the buzzer last night in the Miami Heat-Cleveland Cavaliers game. Cleveland's Lebron James fired up a three-pointer at the buzzer, and it counted due to, of all things, goaltending. Those three points brought the Heat margin of victory from nine to six. The spread was eight.

Anyone else think point-shaving is in the works?

Last year we chose the Dallas Mavericks to reign supreme in the Association, with a defeat of the Detroit Pistons in the Finals. Shows how much WE know! Do not take this information to Las Vegas. VARSITY:

THE DIVISION CHAMPIONS:

THE PLAYOFF TEAMS:

VARSITY FINALS:

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JUNIOR VARSITY:

THE DIVISION CHAMPIONS:

THE PLAYOFF TEAMS:

JUNIOR VARSITY FINALS:

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2005 NBA FINALS:

over