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: VCU vs North Carolina. The Tar Heels went up 19 points and seemed to be cruising into the second round of the tournament. Then the final 8 minutes of regulation happened that was as head-scratching as you could get from a program like this. Turnovers, bad defense, and curious decisions allowed VCU to mount a massive comeback that sets the record for the Round of 64. VCU's rabid comeback and the weird plays that followed into overtime set the stage for a chaotic tournament.
UPSET OF THE DAY: High Point vs Wisconsin. Wisconsin was pretty hot coming into the tournament, so getting bounced by High Point was pretty shocking. The Badgers were the highest seed to lose today, busting several brackets. The sight of High Point's Chase Johnston breaking out for his first two point basket ... of the season ... to win the game for the Panthers was one of the best of this tournament thus far.
CONFERENCE OF THE DAY: SEC. The Big Ten had a lot of winners, but it was the SEC's day. Arkansas blew out Hawaii, Texas upset BYU and Texas A&M upset Saint Mary's. Georgia did look absolutely awful against Saint Louis, but the two bid upsets showed the depth of this league.
CONFERENCE WITH A BAD DAY: ACC. The losses were spread around quite a bit -- with the Big Ten losing twice -- but the ACC had a rough one. Only North Carolina lost, but they blew a 19 point lead in doing so. Duke was on the ropes against Siena while Louisville nearly blew a huge lead against South Florida. Add in NC State and SMU losing in the First Four and the ACC hasn't had the great start to this tournament.
DUD OF THE DAY: Nebraska vs Troy. I need to mention Nebraska winning its first NCAA tournament game. I felt that Troy was going to give the Huskers a game today, with the pressure of finally winning a tournament game (the lone power school not to) possible making Nebraska tight for this one. That wasn't the case, as the Cornhuskers let it rip all game and punished the Trojans, 76-47.
DOMINANT PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: Saint Louis vs Georgia. I came into the week feeling this would be a fun matchup in the 8-9 game, but it never was that. The Billikens jumped all over the Dawgs and made this a laugher right off the jump. Saint Louis is a dangerous team for Michigan on Saturday.
UPSET OF THE DAY: High Point vs Wisconsin. Wisconsin was pretty hot coming into the tournament, so getting bounced by High Point was pretty shocking. The Badgers were the highest seed to lose today, busting several brackets. The sight of High Point's Chase Johnston breaking out for his first two point basket ... of the season ... to win the game for the Panthers was one of the best of this tournament thus far.
CONFERENCE OF THE DAY: SEC. The Big Ten had a lot of winners, but it was the SEC's day. Arkansas blew out Hawaii, Texas upset BYU and Texas A&M upset Saint Mary's. Georgia did look absolutely awful against Saint Louis, but the two bid upsets showed the depth of this league.
CONFERENCE WITH A BAD DAY: ACC. The losses were spread around quite a bit -- with the Big Ten losing twice -- but the ACC had a rough one. Only North Carolina lost, but they blew a 19 point lead in doing so. Duke was on the ropes against Siena while Louisville nearly blew a huge lead against South Florida. Add in NC State and SMU losing in the First Four and the ACC hasn't had the great start to this tournament.
DUD OF THE DAY: Nebraska vs Troy. I need to mention Nebraska winning its first NCAA tournament game. I felt that Troy was going to give the Huskers a game today, with the pressure of finally winning a tournament game (the lone power school not to) possible making Nebraska tight for this one. That wasn't the case, as the Cornhuskers let it rip all game and punished the Trojans, 76-47.
DOMINANT PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: Saint Louis vs Georgia. I came into the week feeling this would be a fun matchup in the 8-9 game, but it never was that. The Billikens jumped all over the Dawgs and made this a laugher right off the jump. Saint Louis is a dangerous team for Michigan on Saturday.
UNDERLYING STORYLINE OF THE DAY: Blowouts. There is a narrative that the NCAA tournament has changed due to the transfer portal taking the best players from the mid-majors and hoarding them for themselves, so I've been interested to see if that manifests this tournament. We saw a lot of blowouts on Thursday. Seven of the 16 games played were decided by 19 or more points. Five games were decided by at least 25 points. Two were 30 point blowouts. That mirrors last year's output on Day 1.
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