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BOB'S BONUS: Our esteemed US correspondent BOB CRAVEN knows only too well what this time of year means - March Madness! So here's a bonus update from our man on the spot on what's happening as NCAA basketball winds into its most exciting weeks of the (post)season.  

THE past week has been nuts in NCAA ranks as the regular seasons are over, all the conference tourneys are done,and the seedings and schedules for the Big Dance are fixed.

The women in particular were most of the big news starting with the women's SEC semifinal game between undefeated and national No. 1 South Carolina and Tennessee. 

South Carolina had blown a 23-point lead and found itself down 71-73 with 1.1 seconds left. Their designated 3-ball shooter was bottled up and the ball was in the hands of 201cm forward Kamila Cardoso, their leading scorer and rebounder, who threw up a long, one-handed prayer.

It was answered as her shot banked in off the glass at the buzzer for the one-point win, the first 3-pointer of her career. 

She had only attempted one other and that was several years previously during her first college season when she was with Syracuse U. prior to transferring to South Carolina. 

Now it was on to the game all wanted to see in the SEC as South Carolina would take on Louisiana State for the conference title and its automatic bid to the NCAA tourney.

In other games involving big names and top teams, Caitlin Clark scored 28 to lead No. 3 Iowa into the Big Ten Final against Nebraska and Jaz Shelley (Iowa won), and Paige Bueckers scored 29 to lead UConn into the Big East finals. 

JuJu Watkins led the Southern Cal women to the Pac-12 title by defeating national No. 2 Stanford in the final.

The South Carolina-LSU game turned out to be more exciting than the South Carolina semifinal game against Tennessee.  Carolina maintained its perfect record, but the game was marred by a late-fourth quarter brawl between the two teams ignited by a steal by Carolina, the resulting purposeful foul by the LSU player who lost the ball (Tessa Johnson) whose foul stopped a breakaway hoop. 

She also bumped into a different Carolina player.  This caused the 201cm Cardoso to run over and push/flatten Johnson. 

Cardoso was immediately ejected, as were several other players who left the benches to join in the action.  Cardoso will now be forced to miss Carolina's first NCAA tourney game.

For me, even more interesting than the fight was the subsequent reactions of the respective head coaches. Dawn Staley of Carolina immediately claimed the moral high ground by apologising to the players, coaches, fans and anyone else within earshot - a class move in my honest opinion.

She added that this kind of image is not what women's basketball needed. 

LSU's Kim Mulkey was more into feeding the anger, expressing outrage that Cardoso didn't pick on someone closer to her size, and wondering out loud what might have occurred if Cardoso had instead taken on LSU's star big Angel Reese, not one known to back away from a challenge. 

Mulkey suggested that then the two of them "could just take it outside ... " and settle things.

LIFE was much quieter on the men's side, although not without some excitement and some upsets.

No. 1 Houston dominated No. 14 Kansas by 30 to claim the Big 12 title, and No. 7 North Carolina downed No. 9 Duke and took the ACC crown. 

One of the biggest surprises for the men had to be my alma mater, the U. of Oregon, a mid-tier team at best this season, running the table to claim the Pac-12 conference title, the last one that will ever be held. 

Eight of the 12 conference members will be joining the Big 10 starting next year. 

Another unexpected upset occurred in the semis of the Big 10 where No. 1 seed Purdue was upset by No. 4 seed Wisconsin.

So, the NCAA has done its ranking and scheduling magic and the draws for the Big Dance are set. 

For the Women, it's no surprise that the overall No. 1 seed is undefeated South Carolina. 

They are looking to be the 10th women's basketball team to go undefeated for an entire season and are a No. 1 seed for the fourth consecutive year.

The other three No. 1 regional seeds are Iowa, USC and Texas. 

The tourney starts Wednesday with the first play-in games.  Full madness starts Friday with 16 games, followed by 16 more on Saturday.  Tennessee will continue its streak of appearing in all 42 previous NCAA Women's Tourneys.

In the men's draw, UConn, the defending champions, are the overall top dog, with the other three No. 1 regional seeds going to Houston, North Carolina and Purdue. 

Michigan State extended its nation-leading streak among men's teams to 26 straight years in the tourney. Gonzaga made the field for the 25th consecutive year.