Calipari is back in the final four again. He is the second coach to take three programs to the final four (UMass 96, Memphis 2008, Kentucky 2008). The first coach to do that was Rick Pitino (Providence, Kentucky and Louisville).

The Kansas Jayhawks are the 2008 NCAA men’s basketball champions after beating the Memphis Tigers in a thrilling overtime game. (NCAA March Madness 2008 highlights)

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Michael Levy on his blog posts this on the Reagan assassination attempt:

Thirty years ago today, on March 30, 1981, tragedy almost befell the American government when John Hinckley, a deranged drifter trying to impress actress Jodie Foster, on whom he had developed an obsession after seeing her in Taxi Driver, fired six shots from a .22-caliber revolver at President Ronald Reagan as the president left a speech he had given to the National Conference of Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO at the Washington Hilton.

As Reagan left the Hilton, he waved to those gathered outside. Almost immediately thereafter, Hinckley fired. One bullet entered Reagan’s chest, puncturing a lung and lodging one inch from his heart. Reagan, shoved into the presidential limousine by Secret Service agent Jerry Parr, was quickly rushed to George Washington University Hospital for emergency surgery after he realized he had been shot. Despite serious bleeding, Reagan walked into the hospital. Always one for timing, Reagan joked with doctors as he was being wheeled into the operating room: “I hope you’re all Republicans.” To try to comfort his wife, Nancy, Reagan also told her “Honey, I forgot to duck.”

James Brady and police officer Thomas Delahanty (bottom) lie wounded on the ground

More seriously wounded was Press Secretary James Brady, who was shot in the head and was permanently disabled. Brady went on, with his wife, Sarah, to champion gun control through the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence (and, hence, the Brady Bill was named in his honor when it was passed in 1993). Also wounded were Thomas K. Delahanty, who was hit in the neck by one of the shots and fell to the ground, and Timothy J. McCarthy, who leapt in front of Reagan, taking a bullet in the right chest.

As chaos ensued, and with Vice President George H.W. Bush aboard Air Force Two, Secretary of State Alexander Haig famously declared “I’m in control here.” (Years later, I happened to sit next to Haig on a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta, and it took all I had not to ask him about that line.)

Coming just 18 years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and 13 years after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, many once again wondered about the safety of any occupant of the Oval Office as Reagan convalesced at George Washington hospital.

Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan in George Washington hospital four days after the shooting

Just 12 day after the shooting, however, Reagan was released. The president subsequently made a series of carefully staged public appearances designed to give the impression that he was recovering quickly, though in fact he remained seriously weakened for months and his workload was sharply curtailed.

Reagan leaving the hospital with his wife and daughter Patti Davis, April 11, 1981