A lot went on after Final Four

 After the nets are cut down on that Monday night in late March or early April, college basketball usually doesn't make much news until practice starts in mid-October.

 Not in 2000.

 The summer started with the surprise resignation of a Final Four coach, Bill Guthridge of North Carolina, and ended with Indiana coach Bob Knight being fired for repeated misconduct.

 A regular season dominated by Cincinnati -- the Bearcats were No. 1 for 12 weeks -- turned into a wide-open NCAA tournament when consensus national player of the year Kenyon Martin broke his leg in the opening minutes of the Conference USA tournament.

 The Bearcats were dropped to a second seed and were gone in the second round.

 Michigan State, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Florida made it to Indianapolis, the second straight year the Big Ten sent two teams to the Final Four.

 But Michigan State's 53-41 victory over Wisconsin in the first semifinal was such a snoozer it had some critics suggesting the conference should have been penalized rather than praised.

 Florida beat North Carolina 71-59 in the other semifinal, but no one thought it would be Guthridge's last game with the Tar Heels.

 Michigan State's three seniors -- a rare word in college basketball -- combined for 58 points in the 89-76 victory that gave the Spartans their first national championship since Magic Johnson led them to their other in 1979.

 Mateen Cleaves, who had passed up the riches of the NBA to return for his senior year, hurt his ankle in the title game but came back to lead the Spartans to victory, hobbling the whole time.

 He was on crutches when the trophy was presented but his smile said it all.

 "This is as storybook as it gets for Mateen," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "He gave up a lot of money, a lot of things to be back here."

 The strength of Izzo and Cleaves' relationship was clear in June when the coach's newly adopted son was named Stephen Mateen Izzo.

 "Mateen has meant so much to me; he's a part of my family and always will be," Izzo said. "I just hope his next coach loves him as much as I do."

 It was the same week that Guthridge stunned everybody with his resignation. The man who had replaced Dean Smith was 80-28 with two Final Four appearances in three seasons.

 "What a marvelous run of three years," Smith said. "I don't think it will ever be duplicated."

 The 62-year-old Guthridge said he lacked the energy for a fourth season and began considering retirement in May after returning from a European vacation.

 "I thought I could get my batteries recharged, and it came time for a decision to be made," he said at his farewell news conference. "I think it is time to turn it over to someone else."

 That was no easy task.

 After being turned down by former Tar Heels and current NBA coaches Larry Brown and George Karl, North Carolina kept the job among family when it wooed Matt Doherty away from Notre Dame after one season there.

 The Tar Heels' coaching news wasn't the biggest of the offseason. Not even close.

 Knight, who won three national championships and 11 Big Ten titles in 29 years at Indiana, was fired for violating a zero-tolerance policy. Four months earlier, tapes surfaced showing him grabbing a player by the throat during a practice.

 University president Myles Brand said Knight was fired for a "pattern of unacceptable behavior."

 In a career that featured a chair thrown across the court and countless technicals and tantrums, Knight's final transgression came in a chance meeting with a freshman who addressed the coach only by his last name. Knight grabbed him by the arm and lectured him on manners.

 Brand called Knight "defiant and hostile" and said he had shown a "continued unwillingness" to work within the guidelines of the athletic department.

 "He did not fulfill the promises he gave me," Brand said, adding that Knight had the option of resigning but refused.

 Knight wants to return to coaching.

 "That's what I've always done," he said. "This is the first time since the fall of 1962 that I haven't had a basketball team. Coaching, teaching, is a daily challenge, and I miss that."

 Mike Davis, an assistant to Knight for the last three seasons, was promoted to interim head coach.

 When the 2000-01 season finally began it seemed a lot longer than six months since Michigan State won it all, and Martin led an All-America team that included fellow senior A.J. Guyton of Indiana, juniors Marcus Fizer of Iowa State and Chris Mihm of Texas, and sophomore Troy Murphy of Notre Dame.

 Only Murphy returned to play this season and it was only three games for another coaching shocker.

 That's when Dick Bennett, who led Wisconsin to its first Final Four berth in 59 years, retired, citing physical and mental exhaustion.

 "I just simply was drained," the 57-year-old Bennett said. "I just simply could not keep up and it began to bother me."