Sunday, March 22, 2009

Madness 1st Weekend Wrap

Another big day of college hoops...
  • First of all...the higher ranked team in every game today won...that basically never happens....so that should lead any story....
  • Pitt looks better/outlasts Oklahoma State....the Cowboys were game, but that is the Pitt team I picked to win it all...thanks for showing up....
  • Another day, another elite 8 team gone from my bracket....Arizona State couldn't handle Syracuse....Eric Devendorf was the story and if Johnny Flynn had played well it might've gotten ugly....
  • Umm...Dominic James played for Marquette...and I'm not sure it was a good thing....he put up 17 minutes of nothing and they lost by 4 points....are we convinced if they have a full strength guard in there they don't win that game? Just saying....A weird win for Missouri to get outrebounded by 11 and win, but they only committed 7 TO's
  • There's a 12 seed in the Sweet 16 (Arizona) but not the one I thought would be (Wisconsin)....Zona got the benefit of playing an under-talented Cleveland State and took advantage with a cruising victory...Wisconsin led at half but absolutely died in the 2nd half (scoring 22 points) and only shot 29% for the game....29!!!
  • Blowout of the day? Not Louisville/Siena (Somehow, although the Cardinal wasn't ever really in doubt)....how bout Kansas over Dayton? I saw that one coming a mile away....Dayton wasn't ready for primetime, and Sherron Collins had 25 and 7 (along with Cole Aldrich and his crazy 20 rebound/10 block triple-double game)
The Sweet 16 is set....A full game-by-game preview will post Thursday...but a quick overview
  • The theme....for a second year in a row...is Chalk, Chalk, Chalk....lowest seed (other than #12 Arizona)? how bout #5 Purdue.....Every single 1,2, or 3 seed in the field is alive....Jeez...
  • I'm actually excited for the prospects of the 2nd weekend with no "cinderella"....hear me out here...the quality of play will be higher....and I know there is a #12 left but it's the #12 that features 2 lottery picks (Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger)....I know the "tourney only" basketball fans love the cinderella...but I'm really fine with a higher quality of play...
  • And finally...the thing that angers me most about this upcoming week's (namely Thursday and Friday) games....Why ON EARTH would they still be showing regional doubleheaders at this point instead of showing all 4 games in their entirety? I just don't get it....Go with 5:00, 7:00, 9:00, and 11:00 if you have to....or even overlap them by 45 minutes so we can just see the 2nd halfs....SOMETHING! I don't understand why there is still a game we can't watch on our TV (if we dont have the package, etc.) in the Sweet 16....Makes no sense at all to me...

That's it...some other content until Thursday (with madness sprinkled in)...maybe even a couple more parts of the MLB Preview...Until then...

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