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So the first round of the NCAA Tournament has finished, and boy was yesterday’s action quite exciting. Here are some things of note.
1. There have never been upsets for all four games at one location. Yesterday in Tampa, the two #12 seeds and two #13 seeds beat their respective #5 and #4 seeds. It started with #12 Western Kentucky beating #5 Drake with a three-point buzzer beater in overtime. Then #13 San Diego came out and beat #4 Connecticut with a last second jumper. And if that wasn’t crazy enough, #13 Siena dominated #4 Vanderbilt although a lot of experts did have this as a prime upset. And to close out the evening, #12 Villanova staved off #5 Clemson which I did pick. This is the prime example as to why I love March Madness.
2. Fuck USC. Seriously Trojans. They looked absolutely pathetic against Kansas State. I had USC going to the Sweet Sixteen again, so it looks like that part of my bracket is fucked. Stupid Trojans. Never ever trust the private schools. EVER.
3. If you have Duke going far, be concerned. After watching #2 Duke struggle against #15 Belmont, I am concerned. The Bruins exposed the Blue Devils lack of size in the middle. I knew this going into the tournament which is why I only have them going to the Sweet Sixteen. But now they have to face a pretty tough West Virginia team. I don’t know.
4. I am horrible at picking upsets. Of all the upsets I had chosen for the first round, the only ones I got right were Villanova beating Clemson and Davidson beating Gonzaga. Yikes. And I'm down towards the bottom in my bracket pool at work. I think I'm going to cry a little bit. And fuck you. It's my birthday on Thursday so I'll cry if I want to damn it!
5. Interesting games for the second round. North Carolina and Arkansas will be an interesting game. Arkansas has bigs that can block shots. If I'm not mistaken, they are among the top in the nation in blocked shots. UCLA and Texas A&M will also be a tough match up. I expected the damned mormons of BYU to be in that spot, so I don't know. But the one that intrigues me the most is #12 Western Kentucky against #13 San Diego. These are two schools that really should be there, but now that they have this opportunity what will they do?
6. CBS has horrible horrible announcers. Since the NCAA only has live streaming video and no streaming radio of the games, I decided early on to put on the game at work and just listen to the announcers to follow the action. Boy was that a bad idea. In the middle of the Xavier-Georgia game (the first game to tip off), I just turned it off in disgust. In the games that I've seen there have been missed offensive foul calls by the announcers, a lack of calling the action (i.e. moments of silence) and just overall annoyance.
So have fun this weekend with the second round.
AP Photo by Steve Nesius
