Lineup

2008 NCAATOURNAMENT PREVIEW

38 | BIG BANGTHEORY
Contenders with smaller, speedier lineups hope to cut the behemoths down tosize
By Grant Wahl

49 | THEDOMINATORS
From Bob Kurland to Patrick Ewing, traditional, back-to-the-basket big men haveplayed a pivotal role

56 | BEWARE OFTIGERS
After a run of Final Four losses, LSU and Sylvia Fowles are poised to breakthrough
By Kelli Anderson

67 | MAD ABOUTMARCH
The 65 reasons this is basketball's best month

73 | THEBRACKETS
UCLA will win its 12th title by riding freshman Kevin Love
By Grant Wahl and Luke Winn

80 | FROM THE SAMECLOTH
Succeeding his father, John Thompson III has remade Georgetown into acontender
By Alexander Wolff

FEATURES

HOCKEY

94 Shooting for60
If Alexander Ovechkin hits that elusive mark, will it augur an offensiverevival?
By Michael Farber

PRO BASKETBALL

100 Good News, BadNews
Shaquille O'Neal has embraced his role with the Suns. But does he help them?
By Jack McCallum

MOTOR SPORTS

104 ControlIssues
Kyle Busch runs on the edge, and after switching teams, he's on top of hisgame
By Lars Anderson

GOLF

108 The Roarrr...
After pouncing on the leaders in the third round, Tiger Woods snatched hissixth straight win with a putt on the 72nd hole
By Alan Shipnuck

BASEBALL

112 Hitting ItBig
Once, Angels infielder Howie Kendrick could barely scare up interest from ajunior college. Now he's a future batting champ
By Chris Ballard

• The FantasyAll-Sleeper Team
• The Fantasy All-Overvalued Team
• The top players, position by position

Departments

10 Leading Off

18 Letters

20 Players
• A soldier's fortune
• Athletes cast their votes
• First Person: Josh Hamilton

32 Faces in theCrowd

36 Just My Type
By Dan Patrick
• Greg Paulus likes Shirley Temples

128 Point After
LeBron and Jay-Z have an exceedingly normal friendship. Why does that botherthe NBA?
By Selena Roberts

Inside ...

124 The NBA
• The strange way Philly caught fire

126 Baseball
• Praise for the Yanks' new manager

COVER PHOTOILLUSTRATION BY ED TRUSCIO; MAIN PHOTOS: SIMON BRUTY (SUMMERS), DARREN CARROLL(RUSH), BILL FRAKES (LOFTON), ANDREW HANCOCK (LAVENDER), PETER READ MILLER(LOVE), AL TIELEMANS (ADRIEN)

BACKGROUND PHOTOS:GREG NELSON (9), BOB ROSATO (8), DAVID E. KLUTHO (7), AL TIELEMANS (5), JOHNBIEVER (4), JOHN W. MCDONOUGH (4), MANNY MILLAN (4), DAMIAN STROHMEYER (3),ROBERT BECK (2), FRED VUICH (2), BILL FRAKES (1), AP (13), US PRESSWIRE (10),ICON/SMI (6), GETTY IMAGES (4), CAL SPORT MEDIA (2), BRIAN JENKINS (1),MITCHELL LAYTON (1), MICHAEL J. LEBRECHT II/1DEUCE3 PHOTOGRAPHY (1), PATRICKMCDERMOTT (1), DON MCPEAK/BELMONT UNIVERSITY (1), PATRICK SHANAHAN (1)

SI.com
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March Madness
SI.com has complete NCAA men's and women's tournament coverage all month long,with news, scores and expert analysis. Daily highlights include ...

• Q&A's withSeth Davis
• Grant Wahl: Five Things We Learned
• SI writers' blog and Luke Winn's tourney blog
• Breakdowns and predictions for every round
• Photo galleries of the best shots from the Dance
• Video highlights of top teams
• Plus on-site analysis from Lars Anderson, George Dohrmann, Lee Jenkins,Stewart Mandel, Arash Markazi, Corey McCartney, Gene Menez, Andy Staples andBill Trocchi

COMPLETE NCAATOURNAMENT COVERAGE AT SI.COM/BASKETBALL/NCAA.

FEATUREDWRITERS

TOM VERDUCCI
Inside Baseball
Relief pitching could be the Achilles' heel for the Tigers.
SI.com/verducci

PETER KING
Monday Morning Quarterback
Examining when the top quarterbacks should be drafted.
SI.com/king

IAN THOMSEN
Inside the NBA
The Celtics embrace the challenge of a brutal West Coast road trip.
SI.com/thomsen

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PHOTO

CHRIS GRAYTHEN/GETTY IMAGES (GEORGIA)

THE DAWGS HAD THEIR DAY ON SUNDAY

PHOTO

MEL LEVINE (KING)

PHOTO

MEL LEVINE (THOMSEN)

ELEVEN PHOTOS