Just a quick recap of what I saw in my Sportz Room -- filled with TVs that I can watch all four games going on at the same time.
GAME OF THE DAY: Kansas vs Western Kentucky. This almost was one of the, if not the biggest, upset in NCAA tournament history. And it wasn't one of those where the underdog stunned the favorite early and then lost the lead. This was very much a back and forth affair with the backdrop of a heavily packed and nervous Jayhawks crowd in Kansas City. Quite an amazing.
UPSET OF THE DAY: Florida Gulf Coast over Georgetown. Stunning. This is a school that is younger than the players on their basketball team. They just beat the team that were co-champions of the Big East. And they did so rather handily. I know that six other #15 seeds have beaten a #2 seed in tournament history, but this seems the most unlikely.
CONFERENCE OF THE DAY: Atlantic 10. The A-10 is amazingly 6-0 in the NCAA tournament. Not only did Saint Louis, VCU and Butler win games as the better seed, but Temple upset a NC State squad that was highly ranked in the preseason and LaSalle (who also won in their First Four matchup) upset Kansas State in Kansas City. Crazy. This league will have 5 of the 32 teams remaining at the end of the day.
CONFERENCE WITH A BAD DAY: Big East. The Big East struggled. Georgetown was the biggest seed to go down in the tournament. Notre Dame was crushed by Iowa State. Villanova and Cincinnati lost close ones.
DUD OF THE DAY: Minesota vs UCLA. After all the hype of the Pac-12's success on Thursday, I was excited to see what UCLA could do against a Minnesota team that barely made the tournament. Well, the Bruins didn't show up. Tubby's Gophers took it to UCLA and made a must see close game into a laugher.
DOMINANT PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: Miami. The Hurricanes flexed their muscle with a 29 point win over Pacific. The ACC regular season and tournament champions have that look as a title contender.
UNDERLYING STORYLINE OF THE DAY: Blowouts. There were upsets, yes, but even they were blowouts. Only 5 of the 16 games were decided by 8 points or less. And even in those games, they could/should have been blowouts. North Carolina were up by 20 on Villanova, LaSalle was up big on Kansas State and Illinois had a 16 point halftime lead on Colorado.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
*Bird mascots are now 7-0 in the NCAA tournament. Louisville, Oregon, Creighton, Marquette, Temple, Florida Gulf Coast and Kansas all won their second round games. On the flip side, those frisky cat mascots are just 2-8. Only Memphis and Arizona won their 2nd round games.
*We will have a #12-vs-#13 game for the second straight season. Ole Miss will play LaSalle on Sunday with a Sweet 16 bid on the line.
*Kansas will play North Carolina on Sunday in Kansas City. 56 years ago today, North Carolina beat Kansas in Kansas City in one of the greatest NCAA Championship games in history. The game went to triple overtime before the Tar Heels beat Wilt Chamberlain and the Jayhawks for an undefeated season and a championship.
*The Big Ten is proving how great a league they were this year. They are 7-1 in the dance with only Wisconsin losing..
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