The NCAA men’s Tournament hasn’t visited Madison Square Garden since John F. Kennedy was president. Fans in the Big Apple have made do with preseason events, the Big East tourney and the NIT, on top of the home games played by the St. John’s Red Storm.

That could all change with the latest proposed monster MSG renovation. Rather than move to a new building, executives announced a $500-million plan that will spruce up the arena in time for the 2011-12 Knicks season. And it will be done on Cablevision’s tab.

MSG officials would love to include the March Madness East Regional championships as the centerpiece of their first season in the newly renovated arena. The NCAA says it’s booked solid through 2011 and isn’t thinking about 2012 yet, but their interest has already been piqued. The possibility of hosting the Final Four has also been raised. Somewhere, James Naismith is smiling.

Davidson came close to being a Cinderella story in 2008.

Things are pretty quiet out there on the college hoops front. Which means it’s the perfect time to go shopping. If you want value, it’s boots in the summer, swimwear in the winter, and the college futures market in the offseason.

There are teams out there on the market who are going to improve on their 2007-08 campaigns. Their odds will shorten as the victories pile up, so now is the time to buy. For example, Arizona (19-15 SU, 16-15-1 ATS last year) is coming off a season where coach Lute Olson took a leave of absence and Kevin O’Neill handled things. Olson’s style is more offensive-minded and suitable for his players.

The Wildcats (45-1 to win the title) were also No. 25 in the efficiency rankings last year; that hints at better things on the horizon. Ohio State (22-1) will also contend after finishing at No. 29 in efficiency minus the talents of Greg Oden and Mike Conley.

The dog days of the sports betting calendar are nearly upon us. The NBA and NHL playoffs will be over in a matter of days, leaving a big hole in the ground for the gambling industry.

Comprehensive handicappers will continue to build their sharp bankrolls on baseball, NASCAR, tennis, golf and other summer fare. Others will shut down until the start of the NFL season. Either way, the summer is a golden opportunity for college basketball bettors to get a leg up on the competition.

With 341 teams populating Division I last year, it’s very important for hoops handicappers to keep things organized. The Web as we know it today (Web 2.0) is a powerful tool for structuring and filtering information. You can access websites, glean their statistics, and even put the data into your own spreadsheets for some advanced analysis. This is where the top handicappers make their money - taking it from the pockets of the less diligent.

Jack Nicholson with Michael Jordan

The most famous fan of the Los Angeles Lakers has also been spotted cheering the UCLA Bruins to victory. Maybe he’s doing some scouting.

If Jack Nicholson decides that the acting life is no longer for him, he’d make one hell of a college basketball coach. Really. He developed his appreciation for the game while growing up in the 1950s, playing pick-up ball on the Jersey Shore. He played guard for one year at high school before he was kicked out of sports after taking a baseball bat to an opponent’s locker room.

You won’t find many college kids willing to question Jack’s authority. Nicholson is highly intelligent, and his alpha male persona is ideally suited for coaching at the college level. But it’s the 30-plus years he’s spent sitting three seats away from the visiting bench at Lakers games that has given Nicholson the experience he needs to be successful.

The 2007-08 Kansas Jayhawks are the NCAA Division I men’s basketball champions. Their storybook 75-68 overtime win over the Memphis Tigers (-1.5) was the stuff of legends; Mario Chalmers is now a household name after sinking the game-tying 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds remaining in regulation.

Chalmers is one of seven Kansas players who may hear their names in June at the NBA Draft. The best prospect is Darrell Arthur, the 6-foot-10 power forward who stepped up in his sophomore year with 12.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. Arthur elevated the Jayhawks from an Elite Eight team in 2007 to national champions today. He could be a late lottery pick.

The upset win over Memphis leaves Kansas at 37-3 SU and 23-15 ATS on the season. The Jayhawks also finished first in efficiency, with the best defense in Division I and the No. 2 offense. Coach Bill Self has finally fulfilled his destiny in Lawrence.

The 2008 NCAA Tournament final will be remembered as one of the best final games in recent memory. The Kansas Jayhawks came back from the dead in the final minutes after falling behind by nine points with 2:12 remaining. Mario Chalmers delivered a clutch three-pointer with two seconds left on the clock to send the game into overtime. In OT, the Jayhawks dominated and posted a 75-68 win as a 2-point underdog.

Chalmers finished the game with 18 points and four steals to cap off the tournament with the Most Outstanding Player Award. Darrell Arthur netted a team-high 20 points for Kansas, while Brandon Rush added 12 points and is likely now thankful for a knee injury that kept him out of last year’s NBA Draft.

The Tigers looked like they had the game in hand, but had to settle for runner-up laurels. Chris Douglas-Roberts dropped in 22 points for Memphis, while Derrick Rose had 18 points on a disappointing 7-of-17 shooting. The Tigers’ Achilles heel in the loss was free throws, as they shot only 63 percent from the charity stripe.

This has been a particularly satisfying bout of March Madness for me. I want to see the best teams playing the best teams, and that’s exactly what has happened – all four No. 1 seeds advancing to the Final Four. Unless someone pulls a particularly shameful act of bad sportsmanship in San Antonio, whoever wins the Tournament will have well earned it.

If I were making fresh predictions, of course I’d be going with the North Carolina Tar Heels. They’ve swept into the semifinals at 4-0 ATS, pulverizing opponents all the way through the early rounds. We’ve seen increased effort, and thus performance, from Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green and Marcus Ginyard in their junior seasons. In college, experience still counts.

But my original prediction of UCLA stands. Memphis didn’t show the same verve as UNC until the Elite Eight, and I see Kevin Love in the same light as Greg Oden – a game changer. If only Oden had these teammates.

That No. 1 spot in the college rankings is proving to be just as slippery for basketball players as it was for their football counterparts. Tennessee beats Memphis (-6.5), then loses to Vanderbilt (+2)? Inconceivable.

Actually, this is what you get when there are so many outstanding basketball programs at the top of the Division I food chain. Sorting out which teams to support and fade during March Madness is going to be a little more difficult this year. Time to get to work.

If you haven’t done so already, parcel some time out of your schedule to get up to speed on the 2007-08 season. Arrange your workspace efficiently in order to pack in as much study as possible; the Internet is, quite frankly, a godsend for research of any kind. But you still have to use it properly. Consider investing in some of those pay services like ESPN Insider; you’re very much in their demographic.

Bobby Knight has moved on. So have six other Division I men’s basketball coaches this season. Kelvin Sampson may be next; at press time, Indiana was reportedly on the verge of purging Sampson over allegations of improper recruiting.

Then you have Tim Welsh. Chances are Welsh will be looking for a new employer soon; his Providence Friars are near the bottom of the Big East standings at 4-10 (13-13 overall, 10-14 ATS), and everyone from the local papers to Athletic Director Bob Driscoll is preparing a pink slip for Welsh after a decade at PC.

Welsh first head coaching gig was at Iona, where he took over for his father, Jerry. That was a successful transition; the same cannot be said in Stillwater, where Sean Sutton’s OSU Cowboys are 13-12 (7-10 ATS) and going nowhere since the living legend Eddie Sutton “retired” two years ago. Let’s hope things work out better for Pat Knight at Texas Tech.

Sure, football is over for another season. But this isn’t the handicapping abyss by any means. The segue between the Super Bowl and March Madness is hardly a chore when there are so many great conference rivalries on the schedule.

Few things burn with more intensity than the ACC’s Battle of Tobacco Road between UNC and Duke. The Blue Devils (+4.5) marched on Chapel Hill last week and beat the Heels by 11 points; how crazy will Cameron Indoor Stadium be when the rematch goes down in the season finale?

Meanwhile, this week’s Big Ten gauntlet sees the Indiana Hoosiers host Wisconsin, Michigan State and Purdue – all ranked teams. The Boilers are Indiana’s traditional rivals dating back to 1901; Purdue leads the all-time series 107-83, although Indiana has been far more successful in modern times. The Hoosiers are always guaranteed a sea of red at Assembly Hall, so ESPN will be there for both Indiana-MSU and Indiana-Purdue.