Sunday, March 19, 2023

Sportz' NCAA Tournament Recap - Second Round, Day 1



Just a quick recap of what I saw in my Sportz Room -- filled with TVs that I can watch all games going on at the same time.

GAME OF THE DAY: Arkansas vs Kansas. There was this feeling that one of the three No. 1 seeds playing today would join Purdue and be ousted from the dance. Kansas, without Bill Self once again, had to fight off Arkansas and their two likely lottery picks. What makes this the game of the day wasn't that the defending champs went down, but because it was actually a great game. Back and forth with huge shots, huge defensive plays and a buzz in the arena .

UPSET OF THE DAY: Princeton vs Missouri.  Here we go again! Princeton becomes the latest No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16. The Tigers upset the Tigers. After seeing St. Peter's and Oral Roberts do it recently, Princeton gets to the regional semifinals for the first time since 1967.

CONFERENCE OF THE DAY: SEC. The SEC has already placed three teams in the Sweet 16. Alabama did what they do, Arkansas knocked off Kansas, and Tennessee out-muscled Duke. With Kentucky playing today, there's a chance the league represents a quarter of the field next week. The SEC did see Missouri get rolled by Princeton and Auburn blow a big lead over Houston, but the results are there.

CONFERENCE WITH A BAD DAY: Big Ten. After watching regular season and tournament champion Purdue go down on Friday, the Big Ten had another bad day. Maryland's loss to Alabama wasn't surprising, nor was Northwestern's loss to UCLA or Penn State's loss to Texas. Still, three Big Ten teams went down and Michigan State and Indiana are all that is left.

DUD OF THE DAY: San Diego State vs Furman. These are bound to happen. Furman just couldn't hang with San Diego State, who really showed why they are a force to reckon with in a very interesting South Region.

DOMINANT PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: Alabama vs Maryland. While Purdue and Kansas are gone and Houston needed a comeback to dispose of Auburn, Alabama dominated Maryland and showed why they are the best team in the tournament. They just ran past the Terps and watch as the destruction of brackets open up their path to their first Final Four

UNDERLYING STORYLINE OF THE DAY: Alabama and Houston on a collision course. I mentioned Alabama's domination of Maryland and touched on Houston's comeback on Auburn ... but Houston was certainly sensational over the second half of their win over the Tigers. Down 10 at half, the Cougars used terrifying defense and explosive offense to outscore Auburn 50-23 in the second half. With so much going on around the bracket, it seems as if we could be headed for an Alabama-Houston title game. Sure, there are 22 other schools who still think they can cut down the nets in Houston, the cream may be rising to the top. 

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