Thursday, March 18, 2010

Breaking Down the NCAA Tournament: Day 1

March 18, 2010

Great day of basketball! I felt a little down since North Carolina isn't in the dance this year, but there have been some great games thus far! Here are my thoughts of the first day of action as the day went on ...

BIG EAST OVERRATED?: The Big East pounds its chest that they are the best conference in America. Maybe, but you don't flex that muscle by going 1-3 in your first four matchups in the tournament. It isn't just that the lost, but who they lost to. No.3 Georgetown got demolished by an Ohio team that was below average in the MAC this year. No. 6 Notre Dame was beaten by a pretty good Old Dominion squad ... but you'd think a Big East team could handle that. Then No. 6 Marquette loses to a Washington team that needed a run in the Pac-10 tournament just to get into the dance.

Add in the fact that No. 2 Villanova needed overtime (and some shaky officiating) to down Robert Morris and the Big East isn't having a banner day. Tomorrow should be better since Syracuse, West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Louisville are in action.

BEST GAMES OF THE DAY: I have Mega March Madness so I get the opportunity to pick which games I want to focus on. I swear on my life that I picked right (it was important since I had to turn my other three TVs to other games so I wanted the main game I was interested in on my biggest HDTV). I started with BYU-Florida. Um, double overtime is quite a game, eh? Then I moved to Vanderbilt-Murray State. I chose that game since I had been going around telling people that Murray State is my Cinderella this year. And I was treated to the best ending of the day.

The West Coast only game was Butler-UTEP and that was a pretty good game for a while.

The first late game was UNLV-Northern Iowa and that was an awesome game. Close throughout and had a thrilling ending. Right now I chose Texas-Wake Forest so maybe that will end wildly! (Ed. note: It was a great finish. Ish Smith's game winning shot to end overtime? Pretty nice!)

WHERE'S THE ACC?: It is weird that the ACC got six teams into the dance and only one of them played today -- Wake Forest against Texas. Duke, Maryland, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Florida State all play on Friday.

WHAT HAPPENED TO GEORGETOWN?: Going back to the Big East's woes, the biggest shocker of the day had to be Ohio crushing the Hoyas. Nobody saw that coming. That team is too talented to keep getting bounced from the NCAAs this quickly.

GOGGLES: Whomever that cat was for Sam Houston State that the call "Goggles" really impressed me. He had a great game in their loss to Baylor, but I was more impressed with his sportsmanship. Whenever people fell around him, he always offered to help them up. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it does matter when you watch it all game long.

UPSET CITY, BABY!: As I'm typing this, there have been five double-digit seeds advancing. Murray State, St. Mary's (who blew through Richmond), Ohio, Old Dominion and Washington. Ohio became the first No. 14 seed to win a tournament game since 2006. Add in No. 9 seeds Northern Iowa and Wake Forest winning and we've had seven "upsets" in 16 games.

WASHINGTON-MARQUETTE WAS RARE: Washington's victory over Marquette was special because ... well, there weren't many games featuring two teams from a Big Six conference. The only other one today was Texas-Wake Forest. Tomorrow, we get Oklahoma State-Ga Tech, Clemson-Missouri and Cal-Louisville.

SO WHAT AM I WATCHING TOMORROW: Since I had the magic touch today, I'm hoping my viewing schedule tomorrow ends up the same way. The first round of games (12:30ish) will have me focusing on Minnesota vs Xavier. I'll have an eye on Cornell-Temple, but I think the Minnesota-X game will be a bit better to actually watch. The second round of games (2:30ish) will be Missouri-Clemson. Again, I'll have an eye on Siena-Purdue since I have Siena as my Cinderella, but you have no idea which Mizzou or Clemson team shows up. The only game during the West Coast only time period (5:00ish) is Utah State and Texas A&M ... which should be a pretty good game anyway.

Tonight, I'll start off (7:30ish) with Georgia Tech-Oklahoma State. It's a hard time slot since three ACC teams will be playing at the same time. I don't care about Duke slaughtering Arkansas-Pine Bluff, but that Florida State-Gonzaga game will be verrrrry interesting. Then to close out the night (9:30ish) is a no-brainer: California-Louisville.

As for Saturday ... well, I'll start with some NIT action with North Carolina-Mississippi State. At 1:00, we will all be treated to St. Mary's-Villanova (could be interesting). The 3:00ish games will have me checking out Murray State-Butler. The 5:30 game will be tough. I think I'm going with Washington-New Mexico over ODU-Baylor. The 8:00ish game will have me checking out Wake Forest-Kentucky with a strong eye on BYU-Kansas State.

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