Instant Tourney Reaction, Day 2 (Beck)

Naturally, today is the day that the upsets abound. Yesterday went essentially according to plan, but today was full of close games (two in overtime) and shocking upheavals. Plus, my bracket suffered heavily.

First, #6-seed Marquette willed themselves to a win over #11-seed Utah State by hitting clutch free throws in the final seconds of the game. Dionte Christmas scored 29 for the #11-seed Temple Owls, but they couldn't hold on for a win against #6-seed Arizona State, who had Jeff Pendergraph and Derek Glasser (who shot 4-5 from 3) both score 22 points. Lastly, my big call of #14-seed North Dakota State over #3-seed Kansas almost came to fruition, with Ben Woodside dropping in 37 points for the Bison, but the Jayhawks were just too much and they won by 10. All of these upsets I thought were locks crashed and burned.

And, on top of that, #11-seed Dayton Flyers took care of #6-seed West Virginia, ruining my Sweet Sixteen. I picked two 11-seeds to beat 6-seeds, but sadly I chose incorrectly. Dayton led big the whole game behind Chris Wright, who scored 27 points and had 10 rebounds. #12-seed Wisconsin dispensed of #5-seed Florida State in the first overtime, despite Toney Douglas's 26 points and 6 rebounds. And finally, the most shocking of all, #13-seed Cleveland State took down #4-seed Wake Forest in a rout. The Vikings led by double-digits most of the game, and finished it winning 84-69. Strike out three of my Sweet-Sixteen teams.

However, #9-seed Siena won over #8-seed Ohio State, though they needed two overtimes to pull out the win. For the second year in a row, Siena has moved on to the second round of the tournament. #10-seed USC took down #7-seed Boston College behind a perfect shooting effort (10-10 FG) from Trojan forward Taj Gibson, 20 points from Dwight Lewis and another 18 points from freshman-sensation Demar DeRozan. Thankfully, I at least called those upsets.

Another trend that ran through Day 2 were #1-seeds struggling against the #16-seeds: Pittsburgh beat East Tennessee State by 10 points, but they were only up 3 points at half-time and, with 4:27 left to play in the second half, Courtney Pigram hit a 3 for ETSU to bring them within two points of the Panthers, 57-59. Pittsburgh dug in and finished the game out, taking it 72-62, but UConn and UNC rolled by at least forty points over their two opponents. Likewise, #1-seed Louisville was only up two points, 35-33, over Morehead State at the half, though they won the second-half 39-21 and won the game 74-54. What's up, guys?

So, the upsets finally checked in to the tournament, and after a perfect 16/16 on picks on Day 1, I went a pitiful 9/16 on Day 2. I'll admit NDSU was a little stupid, but every year some sub-12-seed wins a game, I just didn't know it was going to be Cleveland State, and I doubt anyone else outside of the Northeast Ohio area knew the Vikings would win either.

Oh, and the Tennessee Volunteers should be ashamed of themselves. Whenever they lose games, it's always like this: they look lackadaisical, they take bad shots, they can't dribble, and they generally don't look like they care that much. Granted they only lost to Oklahoma State 77-75 in the final seconds, but if they would've had their heads on straight they could've won handily. Too bad the Cowboys will be beat by Pittsburgh, who rebounds from their pitiful loss and take their anger out on the kids from Stillwater.

My biggest gripe is that I should've followed my own advice and known that the Pac-10 is not a bad league, as 5 out of 6 of their teams (USC, UCLA, Washington, Arizona State, and Arizona) moved on to the second round, with California's loss to Maryland the only exception. Just like during bowl season, people count out the Pac-10 and then they shine bright in the post-season. Oh well.

Looking forward to Day 3, Memphis regains its stride against Maryland; Villanova does the same against UCLA; Gonzaga beats up on Western Kentucky; the 1-seeds (UConn and UNC) continue to roll; and my big upset of this round will be the #7-seed Texas Longhorns over the #2-seed Duke Blue Devils. Duke has choked in every tournament for the last few years, and this team will do the same. AJ Abrams is a one-man wrecking-crew, and he's ready to drop 40 on Coach K's boys for the win. Lastly, Washington better roll over Purdue.

25/32 ain't bad, but the best I can be is 13/16 for the Sweet Sixteen. That's not great.

Despite the set-back and the bracket-busting, throw up your glass to another round of games tomorrow!


- Beck