NCAA Tournament – 1st Round
[Guest post by JD]
I refuse to call the play-in games the first round.
Charles Barkley stated the Mountain West was better than the Big10 before the tourney started. 3/4 lost on the first day.
Off the top of my head …
Midwest
Louisville, strong.
Oregon upsets OkSt, proving that a 12 seed was ridiculous. Pac10 got no respect.
St Mary’s nearly got an athletic undisciplined Memphis team.
Michigan St is tough in March.
This St Louis team is solid.
Creighton held off Cincy, a bad matchup for the Bluejays.
West
Gonzaga barely held on, and if they play like that against Wichita St, they will lose.
SEC gets a win over Big10 as Wisconsin shoots 8% in second half.
LaSalle (Go Coach G) holds off a huge comeback from Weber’s K-state
Harvard outplays trendy pick New Mexico from wire to wire for their first ever NCAA tourney win.
South
VCU throttled someone.
Michigan coasted against Coach Nagy’s SDSU.
East
IU played like a #1 seed should.
Temple holds off NCState second half charge.
Cal as a 12 seed gets a home game and upsets UNLV.
Syracuse demolished Montana. Didn’t know they had a team.
Butler is solid.
Marquette was outplayed for 39 min and 30 seconds.
Illini beat Colorado in a game of huge streaks.
The U rolled wearing orange and yellow neon shoes.
3 games should be good tonight, NC vs Villanova, Minnesota vs UCLA, and Notre Dame vs Iowa State. But there will be an upset yet tonight.
—JD
I love the NCAA tourney.
March Madness
Comment by JD (b63a52) — 3/22/2013 @ 4:36 pm
Later, I might have to go take a look at all of the brackets, and look at this a little closer. It really has a potential to be a wild tournament after today. First thoughts – best 12 seeds I have ever seen, A10 I think might be unbeaten, Mountain West over-rated, PAC 10 way under rated.
Comment by JD (b63a52) — 3/22/2013 @ 4:48 pm
The Pac 12 is 3-1 with UCLA playing tonight.
Comment by aunursa (7014a8) — 3/22/2013 @ 4:56 pm
food stamp picked indiana is my understanding
Comment by happyfeet (4bf7c2) — 3/22/2013 @ 5:10 pm
Georgetown down 15 to Florida Gulf Coast. Love it.
Comment by JD (b63a52) — 3/22/2013 @ 5:20 pm
I interrupt for just a sec. I’m not a big sports guy because A) Al Davis pulled the rug out from under me when he moved the Raiders to LA and B) I spent a lot of time riding USN ships before satellite communications made sports available.
A good day was a video of Patrick Swayze in “Roadhouse” or Schwarzenegger in “Predator” and a really great day was Jennifer Beals in “Flashdance.” Which apparently was supposed to have some deeper meaning but I only remember the scene where she dumps water on herself onstage at the strip club.
So now “March Madness” is for me when the Rio Grande Turkey season opens on the 16th in the south zone of Texas.
I don’t expect that to mean anything to anyone, but at least if I were a Congress critter I’d say, “I don’t care about the NCAA.”
Then discuss shotguns and loads for the spring turkey season.
But I wouldn’t be all Nancy Pelosi and claim I’m so excited I can’t sleep because a tourney I know and care nothing about is taking place. And then express my fervent hope everyone gets a participation prize.
What’s up with that?
I may not care about the NCAA tourney, but I know others do. Especially the players who want to win at least as bad as I want to kill a turkey.
That is all. Sorry for the interruption.
Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 3/22/2013 @ 5:34 pm
I know there are always first round upsets but this seems different than in the past. I don’t know if these are better teams or the NCAA did a worse job seeding them. Frankly, it doesn’t matter because I love the tourney, too.
Comment by DRJ (a83b8b) — 3/22/2013 @ 5:35 pm
DRJ – I think this is a really deep field. I think there is much less difference between the best team and the 40th team this year than in years past.
Comment by JD (b63a52) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:01 pm
Georgetown agrees.
Comment by DRJ (a83b8b) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:13 pm
I like seeing Georgetown lose. A lot.
Comment by JD (b63a52) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:20 pm
Good Luck with the turkey shoot, Steve57.
Go you Golden Gophers.
Comment by mg (31009b) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:33 pm
North Carolina hung on against a tough Villanova team. I’m not complaining about the officiating but that was a very physical game.
Comment by DRJ (a83b8b) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:36 pm
I generally love the tournament. But our loss was so painfully, painfully bad that it might be hard for me to watch any of the games for the next week or so. Kudos to Harvard for their game, all around, but… damn, man. Colorado State beat Mizzou, though – maybe they can continue to keep the faith…
I did get a glimpse of a cloudbank against the Sandias this afternoon. That made me feel better. This is such a beautiful place.
Comment by Leviticus (17b7a5) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:38 pm
Georgetown meet New Mexico.
Comment by Elephant Stone (baa285) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:44 pm
Georgetown has been on a downward trajectory over the last few years.
Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:47 pm
I’m doing pretty well in my bracket predictions, knock on wood. The only picks I “missed” thus far have been New Mexico, Georgetown, St. Mary’s, and Kansas State.
Several of my upset picks have come to fruition (Oregon, Ole Miss, Wichita State, et al)
I’d trade it all for my Romney prediction over Obama to have come true last November.
Comment by Elephant Stone (baa285) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:50 pm
I miss Pete Carril and his Princeton teams. Double screens away from the ball, his kids did it best.
Comment by mg (31009b) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:52 pm
Princeton was fun to watch. Gonzaga is fun, too.
Comment by DRJ (a83b8b) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:53 pm
Gonzaga winning it all would be great for college ball.
Comment by mg (31009b) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:57 pm
After Pete Carrill retired, he was an assistant coach to Rick Adelman for several years on those entertaining passing teams in Sacramento a decade ago. Good times.
Comment by Elephant Stone (baa285) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:58 pm
Would love to see Gonzaga win it all. Long live Bing Crosby and John Stockton !
Comment by Elephant Stone (baa285) — 3/22/2013 @ 6:59 pm
Gonzaga might struggle with Wichita State. I like the Zags, but this aint their year.
Comment by JD (b63a52) — 3/22/2013 @ 7:06 pm
SEC gets a win over Big10 as Wisconsin shoots 8% in second half.
That explains it. though I’m not sure how many shots they even took the last 7 minutes against OSU.
What do they drink in the locker room at half-time?
Comment by MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 3/22/2013 @ 7:18 pm
That might hav been an exaggeration, MD, but not much. They were horrible at the end, could not hit the ocean from the beach.
Comment by JD (b63a52) — 3/22/2013 @ 7:27 pm
UK, the defending national champion, was so bad this year that they didn’t make the NCAA Tournament, and then went and lost to Robert Morris — Robert Fornicating Morris! — in the first round of the NIT.
Comment by The University of Kentucky alumnus Dana (af9ec3) — 3/22/2013 @ 7:48 pm
You’re Gophers are rolling, mg.
Comment by DRJ (a83b8b) — 3/22/2013 @ 9:19 pm
Your Gophers, I mean. Maybe you’re a Gopher, too.
Comment by DRJ (a83b8b) — 3/22/2013 @ 9:20 pm
Big10 is looking solid, no?
Comment by JD (b63a52) — 3/22/2013 @ 9:33 pm
I played at the U of M as a freshman, which makes me a golden gopher for life.
My wife has me gopher things all the time.
Comment by mg (31009b) — 3/22/2013 @ 11:26 pm
I am so happy we are getting the tournament over here. Love March Madness!
I’m bummed I didn’t go with my heart and put Geoegetown down for a loss in their first game. I’ve hated the Hoyas since whatshisname wouldn’t let Alonzo Mourning play on the Olympic squad because he wanted him rested for the college season.
Comment by MayBee (d48d90) — 3/23/2013 @ 1:42 am
You could be this person, in the link, who gets it all wrong;
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-many-corrections-on-that-nyt.html
Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 3/23/2013 @ 9:29 am
Yo – howbout dem Owls!
Comment by Amphipolis (e01538) — 3/23/2013 @ 11:18 am
Big10 thumps perennial Cinderella story VCU. By 25. A10′s first loss.
Comment by JD (b63a52) — 3/23/2013 @ 11:23 am
This is a poissible secret weapon against north Korea. (cancel the tournament if he does anything)
Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 3/25/2013 @ 2:27 pm
I mean let him know we will cancel it until he is no longer ruling North Korea if he does anything really bad, or starts to.
Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 3/25/2013 @ 2:28 pm