THIS MARCH, OFF-COURT MADNESS ALL THE RAGE.

Byline: BILLY WITZ

Forget about the RPI. Don't bother with bubble teams, good losses and bad wins. Why hassle with mock brackets and tournament pools?

All the real action these days - from mid-majors to welding majors - is going on off the court. And, in some cases, in court.

It's March madness, indeed.

Front and center is the controversy swirling around Georgia coach Jim Harrick, who looks as comfortable in front of the TV cameras as Capt. Queeg.

It centers on accusations by a former Georgia player that Harrick's son, Jim Jr. - an assistant at the school who was fired Wednesday - helped funnel him money and did his school work for him.

This follows the recent settlement of a sexual-harassment claim by an employee at Harrick's previous place of employment, Rhode Island. The victim also claims that the Harricks pulled the same sort of dirty tricks at Rhode Island that they're accused of at Georgia.

The Harricks traveled under a cloud of suspicion at UCLA, too. Senior was accused of recruiting violations - an illegal home visit with Don MacLean - during his first few weeks on the job, and shortly after he was fired, UCLA was on probation for minor NCAA violations. Meanwhile, it was Junior's old Blazer that Baron Davis was tooling around in, in high school.

When Harrick stared into ESPN's cameras and declared he did nothing wrong, it was with all the conviction of Richard Nixon telling the nation he wasn't a crook. And just as convincing.

Harrick might not be copping a plea, but when revelations of academic fraud were unearthed at Fresno State, university president John Welty began singing like a choir boy.

After the school wrapped up the Western Athletic Conference regular-season title Saturday, Welty declared a couple of days later the Bulldogs - one of the surprises of the West Coast - would self-impose a postseason ban this season after finding that reports of academic fraud in the Fresno Bee were (gasp!) true.

Then, fearful that if Fresno State won the WAC tournament the conference would get shut out of the NCAA Tournament, the WAC universities' presidents voted to keep Fresno State out of that competition, as well.

That left new coach Ray Lopes and his players taking the rap for violations that occurred under former coach Jerry Tarkanian. They're also taking one for Welty, who hired Tark and is hoping the action mollifies the NCAA. (Good luck.)

``Our lifeline has been cut short,'' Fresno State senior Noel Felix told the Fresno Bee.

The players at St. Bonaventure weren't going to sit around and wait for somebody to ban them over academic shenanigans. When it was discovered that Bonnies center Jamil Terrell had a welding certificate instead of an associate of arts degree from a junior college, the Bonnies were ordered to forfeit the Atlantic 10 Conference games he played in this season.

The players went one better. They voted not to play their two remaining games - both on the road - thereby annoying the schools who were counting on the gate receipts. Cheaters never prosper, but as it turns out, neither do their opponents.

Some investigations have happy endings. Louisville center Marvin Stone sat out a game over the weekend while his relationship with an AAU coach was examined. It was determined that everything was OK because Stone knew the coach long before Stone was considered a recruitable athlete, presumably meaning preschool.

If Stone ruffled some feathers transferring from Kentucky to arch-rival Louisville a year ago, this was understandable. But Danny Granger going from Bradley to New Mexico creating a fuss?

When Granger transferred, Bradley coach Jim Les pointed fingers at New Mexico coach Ritchie McKay for tampering. Indeed, McKay acknowledged that one of his assistants talked to Granger when he was at Bradley, but it was just a casual conversation. Meanwhile, Granger has ripped Les, saying he could no longer put up with verbal harassment.

Still, it's not as nasty a spat as the one between Arkansas and its former coach Nolan Richardson. The university this week disputed Richardson's charge of racism in his firing, all the details of which are expected to be revealed in a civil suit this spring.

Neither party in that case has to worry about going behind bars. That's not the case for Iowa State assistant Randall Brown, who resigned this week after his arrest on child pornography and obstruction-of-justice charges.

When the regular season ends next week, Brown will have company in the unemployment line - beginning with UCLA coach Steve Lavin and ending with who knows who?

Fortunately, after wading through the morass of suspensions, investigations and adjudications, there is some good news off the court.

According to a Pittsburgh paper's society column, Arizona coach Lute Olson - whose wife, Bobbi, died two years ago of cancer - is planning to remarry the weekend after the Final Four. The bride-to-be is Christine Torretti, the Pennsylvania state Republican chairwoman and the CEO of a gas company.

Olson popped the question after Arizona won at Kansas this season, a trip that was hitherto known for his players being accused of breaking into a candy machine. No word yet on whether Olson sealed the deal with a Hershey's Kiss.

The impending nuptials of Tucson's most eligible bachelor, more than the top-ranked basketball team, has the entire town buzzing. Meaning that if basketball can be reduced to a sidebar there, it's really no different than anywhere else these days.

--Burden to Bear: If California forward Joe Shipp wins the Pacific-10 Conference's Player of the Year award - he'd get this vote - he'll become the fifth Bear to win the award in the past 10 years.

It would be good for Shipp, but maybe not for the Bears. The previous four winners - Jason Kidd (1994), Sharif Abdur-Rahim ('96), Ed Gray ('97) and Sean Lampley (2001) - failed to play in an NCAA Tournament victory in those seasons.

--Blown opportunity? Oregon State guard Mike Cokley, a seldom-used senior, passed up his 15 minutes of fame. After he was scheduled to start his final two home games last week, he turned down at least three interview requests.

--Double dribbles: Gonzaga coach Mark Few was the West Coast Conference Coach of the Year for the third year in a row, the first time that's happened since Santa Clara's Dick Garibaldi was honored from 1968-70. ... Weber State became the first team in Big Sky Conference history to go through the regular season undefeated. Kentucky and Penn are the only others currently unbeaten in conference play. ... North Carolina A&T, which is 0-23, is the only team among 323 in Division I that has yet to win.

CAPTION(S):

3 boxes

Box:

(1) FAST BREAK

- Billy Witz

(2) CONFERENCE STANDINGS

(3) LEADERS