RED! ... WHITE! ... RED! ... WHITE! ... RED! ...

Despite a late injury to its fantastic point guard and a blatant attempt by the officials to keep Illinois competitive late, Western Kentucky upended the higher-seeded Illini last night and advanced to the second round of the men's NCAA basketball tournament. The Associated Press is referring to this as an upset, as WKU was the 12th seed and Illinois the fifth, but the Hilltoppers were obviously the better team from the start.

WKU has to be the all-time leader in NCAA-tournament appearances under different coaches. Ed Diddle, John Oldham, Jim Richards, Gene Keady, Clem Haskins, Murray Arnold, Ralph Willard, Matt Kilcullen, Dennis Felton, Darrin Horn and now Ken McDonald--10 coaches--have each taken the Hilltoppers to the tournament. Rah.

Also:

-- $4 million in federal stimulus funds will pay for the Green River Intra-County Transit System--serving Daviess, Hancock, Henderson, McLean, Ohio, Union and Webster counties--to buy seven hybrid buses and expand its administrative offices and garage.

-- The boys' Sweet Sixteen high-school basketball state tournament has reached the quarterfinals, and my friend Stephen handicaps today's four games thusly: Grayson County (26-6) and West Jessamine (27-8) "should have fun playing each other, and one school will get a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the state semi-finals. ... The championship of Louisville. The second game features the two Louisville teams, Central (17-14) and Eastern (31-2). These are two of the legendary programs of the KHSAA ... Last year, Lexington Catholic (26-7) and Covington Holmes (33-2) met in the state semi-finals, with Holmes winning 57-50. Holmes then lost in the finals to Mason County and Darius Miller. Now they're back. ... The two best teams to come out of the mountains in years, Shelby Valley (31-4) from Pikeville and Elliott County (30-2) from Sandy Hook. Rupp will be a complete madhouse for this game. There were over 21,000 people there last night to watch Shelby Valley and Elliott County play their first-round games, and there should be even more tonight."

-- Madisonville's newspaper, The Messenger, puts a poll question on its front page every day, and readers can vote at http://www.the-messenger.com/. Yesterday's question was, Will Billy Gillispie be coaching UK next season? The results published today: Yes 48 percent, No 52 percent.

-- Martin County's unemployment rate held steady from January 2008 to January 2009, according to the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training. It was the only of Kentucky's 120 counties to not see an uptick in unemployment over the last 12 months.