Saturday, March 21, 2015

Sportz' NCAA Tournament Recap - Round of 64, Day 2


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: Louisville vs UC-Irvine. Unlike yesterday, there weren't many candidates for this spot.  The Cardinals close win over Irvine gets the spot due to how close the game was.  Key defensive plays late are what won the game for Louisville.  Of course, most of us will remember UCI's 7-foot-6 Mamadou Njiaye.

UPSET OF THE DAY: Dayton over Providence. The only real upset.  The 11th seeded Dayton Flyers won their second game on this tournament by out-muscling the Friars.  The Flyers have had a quirky benefit of playing a First Four game on their home floor, then playing a second round game up the road in Columbus, OH.  Dayton will now face Oklahoma.

CONFERENCE OF THE DAY: ACC. The ACC won three more games today, making them 6-0 so far in the tournament.  Sure, there were some close calls in there (Louisville, North Carolina, NC State, Notre Dame) but every ACC school is still alive in the Dance.

CONFERENCE WITH A BAD DAY: Big East. After a big day on Thursday, the Big East saw Providence upset by Dayton and St. John's lose to San Diego State.  Really, all those one-bid conferences had a bad day since none of them won and most didn't come close.  

DUD OF THE DAY: Iowa vs Davidson. Davidson was getting a lot of buzz as a possible Cinderella team again.  They had one of the most efficient offenses in the nation.  Then they go out and look very scattered and were blown out by a non-elite Iowa squad.

DOMINANT PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: Duke. Not they just blew out Robert Morris in Charlotte, but that they shot 63% from the field and had 28 assists.  They also hit 10-of-21 from behind the arc.

UNDERLYING STORYLINE OF THE DAY: Where are the upsets? Yesterday, we had some great games.  Today?  Not so much.  That happens in the tournament sometimes.  Of the 16 games played, 15 were won by the higher seed.


No comments: