A familiar theme ran through the first round of action in March Madness: double-digit seeds led by double-digits against power-house teams only to see those leads vanish. #2-seed Memphis had tons of trouble with #15-seed California State-Northridge, but led by Roburt Sallie and his 35 points the Tigers extended their 26-game win streak, the longest in the nation. Nevermind that they trailed for most of both halves. The Matadors lost control, and they had to check their bags for a return-trip to SoCal, where Northridge's head coach will have to deal with his son legal's troubles.
Likewise, #14-seed American, led by the diminutive Garrison Carr and Derrick Mercer, had a 14-point lead over #3-seed Villanova in the second half. What's worse than that, Villanova was playing in Philadelphia, essentially a home-game for the Cats. Thankfully for my bracket, since I have Villanova going to the Final Four, Dante Cunningham, Corey Fisher, and Co., ran out the rest of the game and took down the Eagles.
Lastly, #13-seed Akron fought valiantly against #4-seed Gonzaga, holding a lead for a large portion of the game, but once the 2nd-half hit the 10-minute mark the Zips didn't have any more zip and the Bulldogs took care of them easily.
It's not difficult to see why these things happen: the higher-seeds are better teams with deeper benches, and the lower-seed teams are used to playing worse competition with primarily their starters alone. Come tournament time, those benches make a difference, and sooner or later the bigger, badder teams refuse to lose and they kick it up a notch.
The only big upset involved #12-seed Western Kentucky over #5 Illinois, a prediction I made in the last post. However, it's not really fair because the Hilltoppers made a great run into the Sweet Sixteen last year and returned most of the same team, giving a mid-major something not typically afforded to them: tournament experience. The Illini were missing their starting point guard, and they've been extremely inconsistent all year. Plus, the Hilltoppers had a 17-point lead at one point over the Illini, but only won the game by 4 points. Clearly, this was a mid-major who didn't have a long bench and wore down over the course of the game, but had a big enough lead and could hold it long enough to eek out the win. Their experience in the tournament before helped them win this game, and that's a lesson that other mid-majors could learn in the future.
Other than that, just a couple #10-seeds (Maryland and Michigan) over #7-seeds (California and Clemson, respectively). Big whoop.
And while #11-seed VCU made things very interesting for #6-seed UCLA, the Bruins continued to roll. A lot of people picked VCU in the upset because they returned the center-piece from their win over Duke two years ago, the dynamic and clutch Eric Maynor. That being said, 2007 is 2007, and 2009 is 2009. If we were going with what VCU was like in 2007, then we should compare UCLA to their 2007 Final Four team. And like I tried to tell people all year, the Pac-10 is not nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be. UCLA is still a great tournament team because they play solid defense and have a great point guard in Darren Collison who can work long possessions that result in points. While I think they're good, I don't think they can perform with Villanova in Round 2, who will rebound from the pitiful performance against American. Every time Villanova has a bad game, or Scottie Reynolds, they return stronger the next. We'll find out on Saturday.
In the rest of the bracket, the Tar Heels didn't have a problem without Ty Lawson, and UConn didn't have a problem without Jim Calhoun. The Washington Huskies rolled, as did the Boilermakers. LSU played tight against Butler, which means they'll get slaughtered by UNC. Texas A&M torched BYU, but UConn will have their number.
So far, my bracket is perfect, but I'm knocking on wood.
Tomorrow, remember to look for #11-seed Utah State over #6-seed Marquette; #12-seed Arizona over #5-seed Utah; #11-seed Temple over #6-seed Arizona State; and my pick of the tournament, #14-seed North Dakota State led by Ben Woodside over #3-seed Kansas. Even if it doesn't happen, I don't care, because like I said before, West Virginia will beat the game's winner and go into the Round of 16.
You heard it here first, y'all.
- Beck
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