The most interesting part of the rest of the Wolves season has begun: Today’s opening day of the NCAA tournament, where sophomore center Brook Lopez and the Stanford Cardinal are clobbering Randy Wittman’s kid and Ivy League champs Cornell out in Anaheim this afternoon and where Michael Beasley and O.J. Mayo go at each other in just minutes in the Kansas State-USC game in Omaha.

It’s just a hunch, but I’m betting Mayo more than anyone in this tournament raises his stock for this summer’s draft, even though he has suggested he’s coming back to school for sophomore year. He reminds me a little of other West Virginia-raised athlete who had his share of acclaim and problems and promise. Some guy named Moss.

The Wolves late-season winning ways (Wednesday’s comeback over Memphis was their fifth win in seven games) might again lead to no lottery luck and it wouldn’t surprise me if they have to make a tough call on a guy like Mayo when it comes to their pick this June. They need talent — at least two more supremely talented players they can put next to Al Jefferson — at any position they can find it. It’ll be interesting to watch tonight’s game, and the tournament, and decide whether Mayo might be a steal or just a tease anywhere in the lottery after Beasley and Derrick Rose.

If he continues to play like he did coming down the regular season stretch, I’d take the promise of his talent and his upside over a big man (Brook Lopez) or a big-man project (DeAndre Jordan). I’m never right anyway, but USC is my sleeper pick in my office-pool bracket to make a run to the Elite Eight, if their anxious youth doesn’t panic in a potential second-round matchup against maddening Wisconsin.

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