Minnesota coach Tubby Smith knows he's not at the University of Kentucky anymore.

First of all he isn't being second-guessed on a daily basis. Secondly he's become beloved. Thirdly and perhaps most cruelly for UK fans, he knows he's not in Kentucky anymore because he's in the NCAA tournament.

The coach that Wildcats fans could not wait to leave Lexington is this week in Greensboro, N.C., preparing for the first round of the NCAA tournament while Kentucky, one of the most regal programs of all time, just won an NIT game.

Asked how he felt about Kentucky not making the NCAA field, Smith replied, "Well, disappointed. A lot of those young men are young men that we recruited. You want to see them do well. They lost some talent off the team last year, but they have a lot of young talent, much like we do."

Kentucky fans should recognize the Minnesota team that plays the pressure defense that allowed Smith to get 263 wins and a national title for UK.

The Gophers were 20-14 in Smith's first season, an 11-game improvement. This season's 22-10 team is just the second Minnesota team since 1999 to make the NCAA tournament.

"This sends a message to our players and our team that we are building and we are headed in the right direction," said Smith.

While everyone talks about how close the tournament site is for No.1 seed North Carolina and No.2 Duke, this is also a homecoming for Smith.

He graduated from High Point College, less than 14 miles from today's game, where he captained the 1973 team.

Fan-in-chief: President Barack Obama's bracket, as told to ESPN, has North Carolina beating Louisville with Pitt and Memphis also in the Final Four.

Leaving Duke out of the Final Four brought a teasing reply from Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski: "As much as I respect what he's doing, really the economy is something he should focus on, probably, more than the brackets. So why would I care about that?"

This might make Coach K feel better: Last year as a candidate, Obama also picked UNC to win, and the Tar Heels lost in the national semifinals.

Mocs bits: Chattanooga plays top-seed Connecticut in a West Region game in Philadelphia today. A few things you might not know about the Mocs:

Why they started 1-7: They opened against Tennessee, Missouri, Memphis and Southern California.

Famous alum: Terrell Owens also played three seasons of hoops at Chattanooga, including the Mocs' 1995 first-round loss to UConn, 100-71. He played one minute but managed to block a shot and grab a rebound.

Why the Mocs? The school moved from its Native American mascot and embraced a fierce-looking mockingbird, Scrappy, who wears a train conductor cap. The mockingbird is the state bird.

This year's Steph? Guard Stephen McDowell averaged 21.3 points in the Southern Conference tournament and ranks third in the nation in three-pointers made per game. "He can really shoot the basketball. He's not Steph Curry," Shulman says of the Davidson star. "He's Steph McDowell and that's good enough for us."

Language barrier: Artsiom Parakhouski, Radford's 6-11 center from Belarus, learned English in three years. So how long did it take him to learn trash talk? "Trash talk?" he asked, laughing at a Wednesday news conference. "You know, I don't know really yet what means, trash talk. Yeah, knew some words, but I'm not paying attention to this. I just try to learn English like it's the English."

What a guy: North Carolina coach Roy Williams and Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg are rivals who have played a series of close games the last few years. Even so, Radford coach Brad Greenberg, Seth's brother, likes Williams a great deal.

"Roy, he's an unbelievable guy," Greenberg says. "He's one of those guys when you run into him, he doesn't just say hello. He asks you how you're doing and he means it.  He's a genuine, authentic guy who, as much success as he has had and has, he's a warm person. I really respect him for that."

Contributing: Erik Brady, Kelly Whiteside