By J.P. GIGLIO, Raleigh News and Observer

Against all historical odds, Oklahoma State, a program that hasn't won an outright conference title since 1948, is two wins away from playing for the national title.

The same pejorative words and damning phrases kept coming up when Mark Gottfried asked about the North Carolina State men's basketball program he inherited.

"Selfish," "didn't play hard," "didn't play together" -- this is what the Wolfpack's new coach heard about his team, which finished 15-16 last season, outside the NCAA tournament for the fifth straight time.

You can't keep your quarterback forever.

It just seemed that last year's class of veteran Atlantic Coast Conference quarterbacks, notably Tyrod Taylor at Virginia Tech and T.J. Yates at North Carolina (with 86 starts between them), had been around that long.

Before taking his second different team in four years to the Final Four, Kentucky coach John Calipari described the North Carolina State job as "terrific."

"Someone will go in there and do a really good job," said Calipari, who has been to the Final Four with Memphis (in 2008) and now the Wildcats and was one of four coaches to publicly spurn the Wolfpack in the spring of 2006.

The NCAA is investigating two University of North Carolina football players in connection with possible improper involvement with sports agents, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

UNC athletic director Dick Baddour confirmed Thursday that the NCAA "had been to Chapel Hill to speak with some of our student-athletes" but declined to provide further details.

Everyone's a winner on college football's signing day, except the recruiting services that provide the rankings.

After the prospects become actual college players, the star rankings will be dissected, and when another Aaron Curry or Mark Ingram falls through the system, it will be Miller Safrit's fault, or one of his colleagues at Scout.com or its competitor, Rivals.com.

The Atlantic Coast Conference will release the full basketball schedule for the 2009-10 season this week, likely on Thursday, but we already know the nuts and bolts of the conference schedule.

On the three-year rotation, the slate of ACC opponents will be just like the 2006-07 season. That's good news for Virginia and bad news for Georgia Tech.

Early lessons from the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament:

NORTH CAROLINA NEEDED EARLY TEST
If North Carolina wins the national basketball championship, Roy Williams should send LSU a thank-you card.
UNC got exactly what it needed from LSU in Saturday's NCAA Tournament second-round win -- a push.