- The Upset - Only one legitimate (in my mind, at least) upset on Thursday... Morehead State's Demonte Harper banged home a game-winning triple with less than 5 seconds to go to knock off #4 seeded Louisville... Somehow, Morehead managed to win with their best player (NBA prospect Kenneth Faried) shooting just 4 of 17 from the field even though he had 17 rebounds... Louisville got less than stellar efforts from Siva and Marra, plus an injury to Knowles... a tough one... onions!...
- Buzzer-Beaters ruled the early session... Butler's Matt Howard got a put-back as the clock hit 0.0 to beat Old Dominion at the gun... I can't get a box-out!?!?... Temple got a game-winner from Juan Fernandez to beat Penn State by 2, after an absolute bomb from Battle to tie the game... and Kentucky's Brandon Knight hit a floater off-glass with 2 seconds to go to knock off Princeton... Knight was 0-7 FG before that...
- Michigan State made a ferocious comeback to down 2 with a few seconds to go, but had to go the length of the court, resulting in a Kalin Lucas traveling violation and the 2-point loss... no excuse for being down as much as they were, but an impressive comeback...
- West Virginia stormed back from a double-digit deficit to win by 8 over Clemson... really seemed like Clemson got worn down near the end of this one, and WV took advantage... Truck Bryant led the way with 19...
- Richmond "upset" Vandy... 69-66 and the 12 seed knocks off the 5... it's not an upset for me since Richmond was a 2-point underdog, and basically was 50/50 to win, but they continue their impressive tourney record... the Spiders now have 5 wins all-time as a 12-seed or higher... easily the most ever... that's a legit team, and now they're a sweet 16 favorite since they draw Morehead State in round 2... Kevin Anderson led the way with 25...
- Jimmer alert... Fredette had 32 points as BYU held serve over Wofford... his shot selection is laugh-out-loud funny at times, but they really need him to carry them offensively, and he's trying to do that... 7 assists as well... interested to see how they try to stop...
- Gonzaga!... I admittedly didn't think they'd beat St. John's, but I missed on this one... they dominated inside winning the glass 41 to 18 (wow), and shot a blistering 54%/60%/81% on FG/3pt/FT... Just great offense all night... they'll be a big test for BYU...
- The Blowouts - Pitt cruises by 23 behind Ashton Gibbs' 26 points... San Diego State pulls away late after having just a 6-point half-time lead, and wins by 18.. Kawhi Leonard (21 and 10) is a man... Florida crushes UCSB... I actually thought the Gauchos would hang around, but I was wrong... UF led 43-19 at the half and never looked back... Chandler Parsons controlled things from the jump.. and UConn wins by 29 behind a near triple-double from Kemba Walker.. 18 points, 12 dimes, 8 boards, and he didn't even play his customary 40 minutes in this one...
- Wisconsin survives test #1 in their march to solidify my Final 4 pick (lol)... 72-58 winners over Belmont thanks to some wildly efficient offense... 50% FG, 55% 3s, and 80% from the line on the game... the Badgers are currently the best free throw shooting team in THE HISTORY OF COLLEGE BASKETBALL sitting North of 82%... insane... Belmont shot just 37% and made just 6 of 22 threes... not enough...
- Cincinnati cruises over Missouri... never phased by the up-tempo pressure from Mizzou, they pretty much kept their distance all night... led by 11 at half, and played keep-away in the 2nd...
- RIP Utah State... the 11-point deficit they undertook to K-State at the half was too much to overcome... Jacob Pullen led the way for KSU with 22, and made Frank Martin look smart... not a small feat!
Elsewhere...
- Jim Tressel self-extends his suspension... the formerly 2-game ousting is now 5 games after he decided to make it even with his players... it's a blatant attempt to avoid further NCAA sanctions (their investigation is ongoing), but a fairly smart one IMO...
- NBA Stuff - Derrick Rose had 21, and Omer Asik added 16 boards for the Bulls in their 84-73 road win in NJ... that's 8 straight... The Blazers throttled Cleveland by 41 (!) behind Lamarcus Aldridge's 20 and 11... man, Cleveland stinks... and New York gets a team-record 20 triples to beat Memphis 120-99... big-ups to local product Toney Douglas with 29...
What to watch for on Friday...
- The Madness Day 2... All day!... Oakland/Texas and Michigan/Tennessee are both good early games... I'm excited for Villanova/Mason and Arizona/Memphis in the afternoon... Florida State and Texas A&M needs to be captivating in the early evening (two 1/16 games and a 2/15 in that timeslot, yikes)... but the last 5 games of the night are all interesting for me... 4 of them are pretty tightly seeded (Washington/UGA is the biggest point-spread), and the 5th is Cuse/Indiana State which has sleeper written all over it...
- Heat @ Hawks - 7:30 SportSouth - Kind of a shame this will be overshadowed by the tourney... but also, kind of nice to avoid the Heat circus...
Seize the day... watch some games!
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