Long recap ahead. Better get off the next exit and visit the Magic Spreadsheet if you're looking for a quick fix of pool standings before watching today's games:
(Quick version: Fred Alcaro and Scott Brown have built a little bit of a lead on the field in the Main Pool, while Scott Brown, Nate Heffner, and Vince Berarducci are battling it out at the top of the Gamblers Pool.)
The Day 2 Hangover is a real thing. There is so much anticipation for the first 16 games of the tournament and somehow, someway, those first 16 games never seem to disappoint in terms of drama. Upsets, buzzer beaters, overtime thrillers...they all play out on Day 1 year after year. Without fail, there are articles online about how Day 2 is going to be an encore of Day 1, with predictions of all the top seeds that are going to be shown the door. And inevitably, it doesn't happen. Maybe the big name teams that play on Day 1 don't fully appreciate that their opponents are capable of beating them on the right day. And maybe the teams that play on Day 2 see the carnage from Day 1 and snap out of their trance of superiority. Whatever the dynamics may be, it always seems that Day 2 is a letdown from the fireworks of Day 1. For most of this year's Day 2, that pattern held.
First game of the day featured Colorado taking on Georgetown. The Hoyas had to win the Big East tournament to make the Big Dance and Patrick Ewing's team pulled off a weekend of upsets to punch their ticket. There were quite a few surprise champions in the major conference tournaments this year. Would Georgetown follow the path of Oregon State and keep the momentum going? Or would they be more like Georgia Tech, who left all their magic at the ACC tournament? The answer came quick in this one as Colorado took advantage of a Hoya defense that didn't extend out to the arc. The Buffaloes aren't a big 3-point shooting team, but they kept firing and connecting from downtown in this one. Colorado sank 11 treys in the first half, opening up a 24 point advantage. They would hold on to that huge lead from there on out, eventually winning by 23. St. Bonaventure was another team that probably needed to win their conference tournament to make it into March Madness and they succeeded in taking down the A-10 tourney. Unfortunately, they drew a very hot LSU squad that made a run in the SEC tourney before falling in the finals by a point. The Tigers only got an 8 seed, but this never felt like a tight 8-9 matchup. LSU didn't build a huge margin like Colorado did in their game, but they were always in control, gradually increasing their lead as they cruised to a 15 point victory.
In the other two games of the first session, there were two upset possibilities: one from a team you might expect and one that would have really destroyed brackets. UNC Greensboro was a 13 seed, but they had gotten some buzz as a potential Cinderella as they took on Florida State. Both halves this game were played the same way. The Seminoles jumped out to a big lead midway through the first half, but the Spartans drew within 3 by halftime. In the second half, it was more of the same as a 14-2 run turned a tie game into a Florida State lead of 12. UNC Greensboro would fight back again though, as they trimmed the lead to 1 with 5 minutes to go. But the Spartans could never quite get over the hump and take the lead. Florida State held sway over the last 5 minutes and the Seminoles moved on with a 10 point win.
The other upset alert was happening in the Kansas-Eastern Washington game. The Eagles were following the Oral Roberts upset blueprint to a T. They had two big time scorers (brothers, no less!) who were not afraid to take the game to their more heralded opponent. The Groves would combine for 58 points in this game and Eastern Washington jumped out to an 8 point halftime lead. But for all the scoring they were doing, the Eagles weren't doing a lot on the defensive end. Once the Jayhawks started knocking down shots in the second half, you could sense momentum was on their side. Kansas would score 55 points in the second stanza and Eastern Washington was unable to keep pace. The Jayhawks got a scare, but would advance after a 93-84 victory.
The second afternoon session also featured two blowouts and two potential upsets. #1 seed Michigan played First Four victor Texas Southern and the Wolverines put things away early, opening up an 18 point lead at the half and coasting to an 82-66 victory in round one. The other blowout also involved a First Four team. Drake hadn't won a tournament game in 50 years before their win over Wichita State. They might have celebrated that win a little too much as they could not keep up with USC for more than a half. The Trojans broke the game open after the break and the PAC-12 stayed undefeated with a USC 16 point win.
As for the upset possibilities, there was a traditional upset chance (#5 vs #12) and a potential bracket buster (#2 vs #15). UC Santa Barbara brings one of the best mascot names (the Gauchos!) to the tournament, but they could also play some ball. They were matched up with #5 seed Creighton, who had most recently gotten crushed by 25 in the Big East finals at the hands of Georgetown. This game was back and forth from start to finish. In the first half, it was the Gauchos who established an early lead, but the Bluejays would finish strong and take a 4 point lead into the locker room. They would extend that lead to 9 in the second half, but then UC Santa Barbara went on an 18-3 run to take a 6 point advantage with 6 minutes to play. From there it was a nailbiter. Creighton would hold a 1 point lead as the final seconds ticked down, but the Gauchos would have the last chance to win. They got it to their big man who laid the ball up to the rim from just a couple feet away. The shot looked destined to fall, but instead it rolled around the rim and out. No upset here as Creighton advanced.
Kentucky didn't make the tournament. Neither did Louisville. But Rick Pitino did. He's now the head coach at Iona, who upset Siena on their way to taking the MAAC tournament title. Could Pitino guide a 15 seed to defeat the SEC champs on opening weekend? For a while, it sure looked possible. Iona hung tough with Alabama during the first half, only trailing by 1 at the half. The high scoring Crimson Tide were held in check by the Gaels throughout this contest, but it was Alabama's defense that would be the difference in the second half. Iona could only manage 23 points after the break as the Crimson Tide would pull away late, moving on after a 13 point victory over a pesky Iona squad.
It was during the first session of games that I finished entering everyone's bracket into the Magic Spreadsheet. And it was during the second session of games that I completed the write-up for Day 1. I was feeling relieved to be done with the hard part of setting up the pools when the bombshell of the tournament dropped. There was only a few minutes left in the studio show as they got ready for the first game of the evening sessions when the report came out that the Oregon-VCU game would not be played and that VCU had been eliminated from the tournament due to Covid issues. This was the cloud that has been hanging over this year's Madness and sadly, it took out a team before we had even completed the first round. Could this happen again in this year's tournament? Let's hope not. But it's a reminder how fragile this whole situation is.
The Oregon-VCU game was scheduled for the late evening session, so there would only be 3 games to end the night. Before then, we had our normal 4 games in the early evening session. Oklahoma and Missouri were former conference rivals (another popular theme of this year's tournament!) who were getting reacquainted. This was a tight one throughout as there were very few runs in this game. Missouri had one in the first half that the Sooners quickly countered and the two teams switched roles in the second half when the Tigers responded to an Oklahoma run. It wasn't until 4 minutes remained that the Sooners were able to create some separation. They widened a 1 point advantage to 8. But Missou would not go quietly. They crept within 3 and had the ball in the waning seconds. As the Tigers struggled to get organized on their final possession, Oklahoma made one of the smarter plays of the day. They fouled a player out on the perimeter with just over 2 seconds left, taking away Missouri's chance to tie it with a 3. The Tigers made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second, but Oklahoma got the rebound to clinch it. While that was going on, Iowa was showing what a 2 seed from the Big Ten should look like, ruining the debut of Grand Canyon University with a 12 point victory that was never truly in doubt. And Maryland kept the momentum going for the Big 10, dispatching #7 Connecticut. The Terps built up a first half margin and held the Huskies at bay while winning by 9.
The most interesting game of the early evening session was always going to be Virginia vs. Ohio. Virginia was not only the defending national champion, they were also the biggest question mark coming into the tournament. Virginia had to withdraw from the ACC tournament due to Covid issues and rather than come to Indiana along with the other 67 teams to get ready for the tournament, they ended up quarantining at home until Friday. That meant showing up last minute, going through a barrage of Covid tests, getting in their 1st practice the day of the game and then playing a popular upset pick in #13 Ohio, who had one of the top players in the nation in Jason Preston. As is typical in any Cavs game, this would be a low scoring slugfest. And because there tends to be little scoring in their games, Virginia's opponents end up hanging around. The Bobcats were only down by 1 at the half and even when the Cavs went on a second half run, the largest deficit Ohio faced was 7 points. Let an underdog hang around and you are asking for trouble in March and that was certainly the case when Virginia started to go cold from the field. There were a bunch of empty possessions for the Cavs as Ohio slowly whittled away at the lead. It was 40-39 when the Bobcats got 10 straight points from one of their players, but it wouldn't be Preston carrying the load. Ben Vander Plas caught fire and suddenly the champs were the team down 7. Virginia's run two years ago was marked by some miracle finishes to survive, but the Cavs couldn't get closer than 2 points in the final seconds. A few free throws iced it and Ohio knocked out the champs with a 62-58 upset.
Just three games to end the night and one was over extremely early. Gonzaga brings an undefeated record in the tournament and that record includes wins over 2 seed Iowa, 3 seeds Kansas and West Virginia, and the recently dethroned 4 seed Virginia. They took on First Four winner Norfolk State. The Vikings would score the first 3 points of the game, but there weren't a whole lot of positive from then on. Gonzaga would lead by more than 50 points in this one and could have scored well over 100 points if they kept their starters in. They settled for a paltry 98, demolishing Norfolk State by 43. The last First Four participant left after Norfolk State was done for was UCLA and they were taking on Gonzaga's WCC rival, #6 BYU. The Bruins represented the Thursday winners well as they jumped out to an 11 point halftime edge and were never threatened over the course of the final 20 minutes. The 11 seed moves on with an 11 point win, 73-62.
The final game of the night was not expected to be thrilling, but somehow this game made the Virginia-Ohio contest look like a Golden State Warriors game. That was in large part due to the 14 seed Abilene Christian. The team decked out in purple might have had the most polarizing performance of the 1st round as they played Big 12 champ Texas. Without a doubt, they were the worst offensive team of the opening round. Their offense consisted mostly of running the clock down, driving to the hoop, haphazardly throwing the ball off the glass, and hoping it went in. If you've ever seen me play Pop-A-Shot, where I just rapidly fire basketballs off the square on the backboard to get as high of a score as I can, then you're familiar with this "offense". On the flip side, Abilene Christian had the best team defense I saw in round one. They were constantly helping each other out when a Texas player got free. And they would force 23 turnovers from the Longhorns. They also boxed out better than any team I have seen in years. There were multiple times where a shot hit off the rim and then bounced on the floor multiple times before an Abilene Christian player came over to scoop it up. Each box out was like 5 seconds long and Texas just couldn't break through the purple perimeter to get a rebound. Finally, there were the intangibles. Abilene Christian's bench seemed to have more energy than the guys on the floor. In particular, TV coverage kept showing #33 going insane after every Wildcats miracle went in the hoop. Why am I telling you all of this? Because this game was insanely ugly to watch. But it was close and Texas was in deep trouble late, finding themselves down 4 without the ball and just over a minute to play. Abilene Christian promptly turned the ball over and fouled Texas, who sank 2 free throws to get within 2. The Wildcats ran some clock and then turned the ball over again. The Longhorns came down and nailed a 3, giving them a 1 point lead with 16 seconds left. As much as I wanted to see an upset, I had no faith that Abilene Christian could run a play an offense to score in these final 16 seconds. And I was right. Sort of. Once again, the Wildcats ran clock, drove to the hoop completely out of control and flung up a desperation layup. The shot was blocked off of the backboard and came to another Abilene player who tried to follow up with less than 2 seconds left. A Texas defender slapped him on the arm and the Wildcats got two free throws to win the game. Only problem: the player at the line shot less than 60% from the line all year. Based on the rest of this game, anything from an airball to a banked in free throw to a swish was possible here. The entire spectrum was in play. But give credit where credit is due. The Abilene player went to the line, took a deep breath, and calmly sank both free throws. Texas was out of timeouts and tried to throw the ball to halfcourt for a last second heave, but the Wildcats intercepted it and the party began. The Big 12 tourney champs followed the Big East tourney champs and the ACC tourney champs out the door. It took a while, but Ohio and Abilene Christian provided some hair of the dog to get us through the typical Day 2 hangover.
The first round is complete and only the #1 seeds remained completely unscathed. Will that hold true in round 2? (Spoiler: it ain't looking good at the moment!)
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