Sometime this weekend, if you watch the Final Four, you will no doubt be treated to one of the greatest timeout calls in the history of the game.

It's that time of year again. One of our Great Coaches -- my money's on Roy Williams this year -- will sense something funky in his team's approach, probably early in the second half, and call a timeout that will have TV analysts falling out of their blazers in admiration.

It's one of nature's most perplexing realities: how college players can play insanely hard for 40 minutes and the greatest praise is heaped upon a guy in a suit who decides to call a timeout at precisely the same moment the entire viewing public is standing in front of its television saying, "Timeout! They need a timeout!"

	The Jayhawks applaud coach Roy Williams after one of his well-placed timeouts in last week's regional final.

One other thing: As games increase in significance, alleged statistics are repeated as if they actually carry real-life meaning. Since information technology allows us the opportunity to analyze all sorts of data, every piece gets thrown into the meat grinder. When it comes out, all of it -- the legitimate and the insane -- gets distributed with the same breathless sense of importance.

One example, ripped from today's headlines: The last three times the Final Four has been held in New Orleans, a No. 1 seed has advanced to the championship game.

OK. We're repeatedly provided with tidbits such as this, and nearly all the time we either discount it or fail to consciously process its meaning.

So, what does that factito mean -- go out and bet Texas? Just how does the location of the game relate to its potential outcome when the teams in question have no connection to the city or any of the teams that played there previously? Did anyone examine this statement before it was presented over the airwaves and question what the hell it means?

Are we so inundated with information that we've lost the ability to separate the significant from the inconsequential?

And, moreover, why does this bother me so much?

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