Some intriguing themes from Hitsville NCAA

When order has been restored and all the nonmajor basketball programs are sent home from the NCAA Tournament -- or, in the case of this year's Cinderella-lacking bracket, all the below-average-to-awful Big Ten teams and Arizona -- the Final Four will be staged in Detroit.

Home to one of the more salacious mayoral scandals in history, more firearms in an 8-mile stretch than Yemen and a collection of automakers closer to bankruptcy than Binghamton is to winning the national championship.

And, of course, the simple but stimulating sounds of Motown.

The early-round story lines for this year's tournament might not be as exhilarating as when George Mason began its Final Four journey three years ago or when we learned last season that former NBA player Dell Curry has a son who can flat-out score, but there doesn't exist an NCAA field without some intrigue.

This is the 50th anniversary of Motown Records, which moved out of Detroit in 1972. But the label Berry Gordy Jr. founded always will be linked to the only U.S. city that looks south to Canada and one that might own the country's most recognized area code (313).

Here are five thoughts for the next few weeks as pretenders are dismissed and contenders eye being the last team shown in yet another "One Shining Moment" clip.

We'll let Motown help tell the story.

WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO?

It's the question that nonmajor teams have asked since the selection committee ignored them Sunday, and I've got this burning, burning, yearning feeling inside that no No. 13 seed or lower will be around when Sweet 16 pairings are set.

I suppose the one with a chance is Mississippi State, which represents a major basketball conference (Southeastern) in name only.

It has been said that Bulldogs center Jarvis Varnado has the kind of low, bass tone voice that would make Barry White jealous. UNLV players couldn't even miss that Motown layup.

If a 13 or lower advances to the second week, make it Mississippi State in the West.

THE TEARS OF A CLOWN

Mountain West Conference fans would be correct in cheering for Utah to advance, if only because I'm not sure anyone wants to risk Utes coach Jim Boylen ending his season.

By the amount of weeping Boylen did after his team's conference tournament title win Saturday, I'm guessing a first-round defeat against Arizona to conclude Utah's run might cause paramedics to be called.

Do you really want to see Boylen being wheeled from the arena, stopping only to lift the oxygen mask from his mouth and whisper this tune to reporters:

"Smiling in the crowd I try

"But in a lonely room I cry

"Because I know about our next level

"We're going to stink next year without Luke Nevill."

WHAT'S GOIN' ON?

If he was singing about the selection committee today, I'm guessing Marvin Gaye might tweak the lyrics to sound something like this:

"Father, father, everybody wants to diss

"Oh, but who are they to judge us

"Simply because our bracketing was amiss."

If the committee correctly judged teams and not conferences, Memphis (winner of 25 straight and the field's only team with fewer than four losses) would have been a No. 1 seed over a third Big East team in Connecticut (4-3 over its last seven).

But perhaps more absurd was placing a No. 3 seed in Villanova at home in Philadelphia the opening week. I guess that's what fourth place gets you in some leagues. In most others, it gets you the NIT.

The committee says it protects high seeds for only the first round, which makes no sense given where a team like Villanova would play its first two games.

One team not to feel sorry for: UCLA, a potential second-round opponent of Villanova. In the last three tournaments, the Bruins left the state of California just once over the first two weeks of tournament play, traveling a combined 1,158 one-way miles to reach destinations.

Its journey to Philadelphia this week will be 2,402 miles, the longest one-way trip for any tournament team.

NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK

The Velvelettes sang that finding a good man was like finding that needle. Finding anyone beyond the top two lines of the bracket capable of making the Final Four might also be as daunting. But we'll try.

Here is a No. 3 seed or lower from each region that we could see breathing come the last weekend:

West: No. 6 Marquette.

East: No. 3 Villanova.

Midwest: No. 4 Wake Forest.

South: No. 4 Gonzaga.

YOU KEEP ME HANGING ON

OK, so the Supremes weren't singing about basketball and they couldn't have imagined Ty Lawson not being 100 percent for this tournament.

But that doesn't mean I won't hang on to a feeling that began rising in October and hasn't lessened:

North Carolina wins it all.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at 702-383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.