March Madness: Day 1

Well, the greatest single sport event outside of the World Cup is underway, and we've seen some fantastic games so far - and some bracket busters... ouch.

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The tournament started off by inducing heart attacks in a number of us who expected Xavier to reach the Sweet 16. Georgia, which was coming off of a stunning and unexpected run to the SEC championship wherein they won 4 games in 3 days and weathered the tornadoes in Atlanta, came out looking good, and Xavier, the highest ranked mid-major in the country, came out flat. Georgia doesn't really have a whole lot of talent, but they seemed to be riding on emotion, and Xavier seemed unprepared. Luckily, Xavier righted the ship and came out on top, but that would have been quite an upset.

Kansas, Michigan State, and Marquette all followed with fairly easy victories, all of which I expected. I did not, however, expect UNLV to beat Kent State, let alone comprehensively. UNLV has done well this year relying on all grit and defense, but they have no offense. Kent State, meanwhile, was a balanced team, with good scoring inside and outside and solid D. But UNLV strangled Kent State in the first half, and by the time the halftime whistle blew, the score read 31-10 UNLV. They then cruised to the victory.

Pitt advanced easily, as did Purdue. Stanford absolutely embarrassed Cornell, holding them to 15.6% shooting in the first half. That should have been Princeton getting blown out in the first round, not Cornell! Ugh, let's not get started on the state of Princeton basketball.

Then came a couple of pivotal games. USC-Kansas State was given top billing going into the day, and it didn't disappoint. It was a back and forth battle, Michael Beasley each living up to the hype in his tournament debut - OJ Mayo not so much. In watching USC this year, I decided that they were a great threat to make a deep run in the tournament, not because of Mayo but because of his supporting cast. With Taj Gibson and Daniel Hackett finally rounding into shape leading into the tournament, I figured they were underseeded at 6. But in this game, Beasley's supporting cast came up huge, and K State pulled off the upset, hurting my bracket significantly, as I had USC in the Elite 8.

At the same time that that game was playing out, Duke was holding on for dear life against Belmont. I did not see much of this game, mostly because I watched the other, expecting Duke to pull away at some point. Rice will probably have more insights on this game, but from what I saw, it was just a case of Belmont playing really well and matching Duke shot for shot. It came down to the very end, with Gerald Henderson driving the length of the floor for a layup with 12 seconds left to give Duke a one point win. Here's Rice's take on the game, sent to me in an email:

Belmont played a great game . . . it was a combination Princeton offense wed with a spread . . . ironically, it was essentially Duke's offense. And Belmont's defense was solid. They couldn't keep up with Henderson and Nelson was definitely off of his game, but they stayed at home on the three point shooters and never were caught out of position. But I agree, Duke didn't play too terribly. The only thing going out of that game that I can say is that Demarcus Nelson has the flu, which is the only way I can explain how he got beat off the dribble so much. It's the only way to explain why the ACC defensive player of the year coudn't guard Belmont's point guards. Singler also apparently has the flu, but he didn't play too terribly. Definitely not a vintage Singler game, but still. Duke had far too many unforced errors and we certainly failed to hit our threes, but besides Nelson's paltry 2 points and 4 turnovers, we didn't look terrible. Talk about a maddeningly inconsistent team. We absolutely dominate Carolina, Wisconsin, Clemson, and cruise to relatively easy victories over Maryland and VaTech only to lose to UNC and Clemson and then win by one against Belmont. I just hope the confidence of the team isn't shot going into tomorrow's game. We need to regain the swagger we had earlier in the season. And if you happen to find the real DeMarcus Nelson wandering lost through the streets of DC, please direct him to the correct basketball venue.

In the remainder of the day's action, Washington State beat up on Winthrop, Texas A&M squeaked out a win against BYU, and Notre Dame took out George Mason. Wisconsin was able to pull away from CSF in the second half, so the upset I was hoping for didn't happen. CSF, oddly, chose not to push the tempo, walking the ball up the floor on their possessions, which played right into Wisconsin's hands. Here's some advice, kids: when tournament time comes around, don't get away from what got you there. Speed would have rattled the Badgers; instead, they walked away with a fairly comfortable win. West Virginia then beat Arizona in a game I hope shut some experts up. Look, I know Arizona is a strong program and had some big wins this year, but they also had quite a few losses - 14 of them, to be exact. At their best, they're obviously very good, but their best doesn't show up very often and I don't know why analysts thought it would yesterday. They were vastly overrated and were rightfully beaten by a better WVA squad. In the final game of the night, UCLA trounced Miss Valley State 70-29... ouch. Yeah, that was a bit of a mismatch.

Anyway, that's it for day 1. I picked 13 out of 16 games correctly in my bracket (the bracket I played in my pool at work had the BYU-A&M game right), but it really wasn't a very good day because I lost an Elite 8 team, and all 3 of my misses were in the Midwest, so that region is already fouled up. I have to hope that Clemson and Gtown join Kansas in that region's final four. But I'm not too worried overall, because last year I had a bad day 1 and then was nearly perfect the rest of the way and finished 2nd out of over 100 brackets at work, netting me a nice chunk of change. Hopefully the same happens this year. Day 2 games start in a few minutes, so here's to another exciting day of college basketball.