Most moments from March Madness were shining

Moments from March Madness — some shining, some a bit dull around the edges — that made the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments worth remembering:

— Lily from AT&T and Jake from State Farm. If you thought the Baylor defense was relentless, you weren’t paying attention during the TV timeouts.

— Hinkle Fieldhouse. The venerable basketball palace on the Butler campus that opened in 1928 and served as a sound stage for “Hoosiers” received more air time than the officials putting six-tenths of a second back on the clock during replay reviews.

— Conference of Champions: The Pac-12, which makes its postseason home in Las Vegas, was responsible for both finalists in the women’s championship game, sent three teams to the men’s Elite Eight and made its chief spokesman, Bill Walton, more happy than a tie-dye T-shirt vendor at a Grateful Dead concert.

— In the Annapolis. Charles Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee made a wrong turn on the way to the men’s Final Four in Indianapolis and wound up in Maryland instead.

— NCAA dumbbells: Or whoever was responsible for providing the women’s teams with a few hand weights while the men pumped iron at Gold’s Gym on steroids.

— Drew Timme’s mustache: Last seen on the upper lips of fourth-fifths of the Southern rock band Molly Hatchet, the facial whiskers of the Gonzaga big man could do it all except keep his Baylor counterparts off the backboards.

— Mick Cronin’s dad: He helped signed Chipper Jones to an Atlanta Braves contract, and when Sister Jean got knocked out in the Sweet 16, bobblehead doll makers begin to size up Hep Cronin, father of the UCLA coach.

— The bank is open: Not only was Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs’ 40-foot overtime prayer answered in a classic Final Four game against UCLA, it will provide comfort over years to come for those weary of watching Duke’s Christian Laettner beat Kentucky.

— Adia Barnes: Arizona’s charming women’s basketball coach used her middle fingers to defy critics upon reaching the championship game, during which she pumped breast milk after giving the halftime pep talk when her baby daughter got hungry. Even Bob Knight would have been impressed.

— The dental parlay: A bettor during the first round told RJ colleague Ed Graney he had a scientific method that had little to do with point spreads and strengths of schedule. He had gotten down on the dental parlay, Colgate and Oral Roberts.

It was good to have the Madness back.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.