After reading all the speculation that Tennessee, after beating Memphis, might lay claim to the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Basketball Tournament's East Region, I eagerly tuned in to see the Volunteers play at Vanderbilt. Any SEC team good enough to prevent the ACC's best from earning a spot in Charlotte is a must see.

But on ESPN, even a must see game is a little hard to see. ESPN bombards the viewer with a constant stream of information known as "the bottom line." On occasion, the bottom line will carry a score or two that interests the viewer. Most of the time, this moving scoreboard assaults the viewer with a never-ending run of NBA partials, player trades, future college schedules (do we really need to know who plays whom Thursday in the PAC 10?) and upcoming ESPN programming. Nothing on the bottom line has anything to do with the game at hand and can distract the viewer from it. At the bare minimum, the bottom line results in a slightly smaller, slightly lower quality television picture, even in high definition.

Thank goodness for the zoom button. This device, found on newer remotes, is designed to expand the 4x3 standard TV picture to fill the 16x9 screen found on high definition sets. The zoom button can also expand the 16x9 HD picture so that you no longer have to look at the bottom line.

So I used my zoom button to eliminate all of ESPN's distractions. With a clean screen, I could devote full attention to Tennessee-Vanderbilt. As everyone knows now, Vanderbilt won a close game on the strength of superior shooting late in the contest, both at the foul line and beyond the arc. Vanderbilt is a very good team - perhaps a No. 3 seed - playing in a unique environment where the benches are at the end line. Very few outsiders win in Nashville. That said, Tennessee did not look to me like a No. 1 seed. Tennessee is a very aggressive team that gets offense from its defense. However the Vols, other than Chris Loftin, are just an average shooting team. They are not big inside and won't really dominate the backboard. Tennessee is not a good free-throw shooting team. In a loosely called game, Tennessee will create turnovers and run the court in a manner that could challenge the best teams in the country. In a tightly called game, the Vols will have to rely on their halfcourt offense, which looks a bit suspect.

Tennessee might not beat Clemson, much less Carolina or Duke. Clemson's guards are quicker and its big men rebound with more authority. Clemson has multiple three-point shooters.

Since Tennessee lost to Vandy, the prospect of the Volunteers getting the No. 1 seed in Charlotte will probably go by the boards. But even had Tennessee won last night, should the Vols get more respect than the best teams in the ACC? Tennessee lost at Texas by 19 (yes, I know Texas is strong - probably a No. 1 seed - but that's too big a margin). Tennessee lost at Kentucky and barely beat Ohio State at home. By contrast, Carolina easily beat Kentucky in Lexington, and thumped Ohio State by double digits in Columbus. And have any of the experts who wanted to send the UNC-Duke survivor outside the East Region looked at what the Blue Devils did to Wisconsin? Duke could have scored 100 on the Badgers, who are now ranked No. 9 in the country.

The ACC has a 29-19 record against teams of the other major conferences. It is the highest-ranked conference in the RPI. Carolina and Duke have lost a combined five games this year, and by the way own a collective six national championships over the last 25 years. And yet the speculation continues that one or both may be a No. 2 seed - or a No. 1 seed sent out its natural region.

I've been racking my brain, how can this be? Then it hit me – the pundits must be getting all their games from ESPN. They are distracted by the bottom line.

Get a zoom button, people.