Thank you to everyone for your patience with the first entry in this year's blog. It's always a little time consuming getting all of the brackets into the spreadsheet, but I've been a bit slow getting back up to speed after a week in Vegas. (Pro tip: no more than 4 days in Vegas. You'll thank me!)
And as always, if you don't want to read the recap and just want to see the spreadsheet, click here.
There's no better event on the sports calendar than the first two days of March Madness. 16 games each day, always some shocking upsets and buzzer beaters. Plus there is the mental test of trying to remember which channel the game you want to flip to is on. That process is made slightly harder by the fact that every time you flip the channel, it seems like you land on an AT&T commercial rather than a basketball game. We're not here for you, Lily!
One thing the NCAA has done in recent years is to try and space out the games in the early session on Thursday and Friday so that it isn't non-stop chaos. There was always about an hour break between the early and late sessions, but that cushion has gone away somewhat so that you don't have a bunch of close games coming down to the wire all at the same exact time. (Horse racing has been unable to solve a similar problem, despite the fact that they could easily push back a race or two by a couple minutes so that degenerate gamblers like myself don't have to lose money in one fell swoop). So the first 4 games went off in more of a 2x2 fashion, with the earliest two tipoffs providing very exciting finishes. Maryland-West Virginia got things started with two halves of basketball that were eerily similar. In the first half, the Mountaineers jumped out to a 13 point lead, but the Terrapins would claw their way back to hold a 2 point edge at the break. West Virginia got off to a hot start again in the second half, building up a sizable 9 point advantage. But just like in the first half, Maryland responded, holding a 2 point lead with seconds to play. A missed Terrapin free throw gave the Mountaineers a chance at a game winning three, but the shot would not fall, making Maryland the first team to advance to round two.
Starting soon after Maryland-West Virginia was Virginia-Furman. Furman might not be a household name in college basketball, but they were featured in one of the more popular highlights of March in 2022. They were playing in the finals of the Southern Conference Championship and appeared to be on their way to the Big Dance. But a buzzer-beating 3 in overtime crushed those dreams. The Paladins refused to fall one game short again this year and their reward was a matchup with the Cavaliers. Virginia spent most of the year at the top of the rankings, but they started to backpedal a bit late in the season with losses to Boston College, North Carolina, and Duke. This one figured to be close because that's simply how Virginia plays the game. They play suffocating defense, but don't score a ton, resulting in fairly close low-scoring affairs. And for most of this game, the Cavaliers were in control of this one. They never trailed in the first half, and in the second half, they led by a dozen with under 12 minutes to go. But the next 7 minutes belonged to Furman, as they went on a 19-4 run to take a 3 point lead. Virginia wasn't fazed though, going back in front by 4 with only 19 seconds left on the clock. Then two incredibly crazy plays happened. Virginia fouled a 52% free throw shooter for Furman with 12 seconds left, a seemingly safe play given the circumstances, but Garrett Hein calmly stepped up to the line and drained both free throws. Then came the play that everyone will remember from this tournament, no matter what happens the rest of the way. The Paladins trapped guard Kihei Clark on his own baseline with last 10 seconds ticking away. Rather than call timeout, Clark attempted to heave the ball backwards towards the other end of the court. It barely got to half court, where Hein was waiting. He picked the ball off, threw it to his teammate JP Pegues, who rose up and drained a 3 to stun the crowd and give Furman the lead. Virginia had one last chance from half court to steal back victory, but just as we saw in the first game, the miracle buzzer beater would not fall. Furman reminds us why we love March, sending home 4th seeded Virginia in the first upset of the tournament.
The last two games of the first session were not as close. Howard hung with top seed Kansas for about 16 minutes before reality set in as Kansas would pull away for a dominant 96-68 victory. Utah State kept it closer in their matchup with Missouri. In fact, they led with 10 minutes to play. But it was at that stage that the Tigers would go on a 18-5 run that the Aggies could not recover from. Missouri advances with a 76-65 triumph.
The late afternoon session began with another #1 seed putting up 96 points as Alabama sent home First Four victor Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. The next game had the feel of a Virginia-Furman remix. Rather than it being a 4 vs 13 matchup, we had the historically-ripe-for-an-upset 5 vs 12 matchup between San Diego St and Charleston. San Diego State plays very slow and relies on suffocating defense (sound familiar?). Charleston came into the game as a bit of an enigma. They won 31 games, but they definitely needed that 31st win because their strength of schedule was so weak that they likely wouldn't have gotten an at-large bid had they lost in their conference tournament. San Diego State also had something to prove. As the Mountain West champion, they needed to defend their conference's reputation, as Utah State's recent loss meant the Mountain West had lost 10 straight NCAA games. The Aztecs weren't doing a lot to give MWC supporters confidence early on as it was Charleston that held the lead for most of the 1st half. But San Diego State did enough before intermission to hold a 3 point edge at the half. They would extend it to 9, but the Cougars would find a way to tie it back up with 3 minutes to go. There wasn't a lot of pretty basketball in those last 3 minutes, and as you might expect, that favored the Aztecs. San Diego State would score 10 of the last 14 points in this one, getting the Mountain West in the win column with a 6 point victory.
Next up was a game that didn't figure to be all that close: Arizona vs Princeton. Arizona was a 2 seed that had just defeated UCLA in the PAC-12 Championship, making them national title contenders in many people's eyes. Princeton won the Ivy League Tournament, but it's been a while since those Princeton and Penn Ivy League squads had entered the NCAAs as a real threat to take a game or two. However, the Tigers did play a role in two of the most famous NCAA tournament games in history. In 1989, they were a shot at the buzzer away from being the first 16 seed to take down a #1, falling by a point to heavily favored Georgetown. Things went Princeton's way seven years later as they would back cut their way to an upset over defending champ UCLA. And it wasn't like Arizona didn't have some scar tissue as a #2 seed in this tournament, having lost to Steve Nash and Santa Clara in 1993. The Wildcats problem in this game was allowing the Tigers to hang around. At several points in the first half, Arizona led by 8, but Princeton only found themselves down 1 at the break. The Wildcats would push the lead to 10 with eight minutes to play, but their offense sputtered the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Princeton began nibbling at the lead. Soon they were in the lead. And Arizona had no response. The Tigers would end the game on an 18-4 run. Suddenly Virginia's failure paled in comparison as a #2 seed had been taken out in round one. Arizona's players and fans were in shock. As Charles Barkley said after the game, "it's always tough when you lose to them smart kids". Princeton moves on to the second round after a 59-55 shocker.
Arkansas and Illinois met in the final game of the afternoon, but this one was never as close as you might have expected an 8-9 matchup to be. The Razorbacks jumped out to a 14 point lead early on and never really looked back, cruising to a 10 point win.
The early night session looked like it would have a couple of compelling games, but this ended up being the least entertaining block of games on Day 1. Iowa-Auburn was another 8-9 matchup, but it was effectively a road game for the Hawkeyes with the game being played in Alabama. The game was tied at 12 before the Tigers rattled off 9 in a row, the first of many times in this game when they would go on a run as Iowa seemed to be climbing out of a hole. Auburn advances to a second home game on Saturday after an 83-75 win. The Northwestern-Boise State game was similar in that Boise State kept trimming the Wildcats lead over and over again, only for Northwestern to hold them at arms length. Northwestern also advances with an 8 point victory. And Texas-Colgate played out more like a typical 2 vs 15 game as the Longhorns move on after a 20 point rout.
But the game most people were looking forward to in the early evening window was Duke vs Oral Roberts. Duke has been on a 9 game win streak, getting hot at the right time of the year and pretty much dominating the ACC tournament. Oral Roberts had been even better, winning 17 in a row after going undefeated in conference play. This was also a team that had nearly made it to the Elite Eight two years ago as a 15 seed, so they were not going to be intimidated by this Blue Devils squad. What they would be was ice cold. One of the top offenses in college basketball missed their first 12 shots, digging themselves a 15-0 hole. It would get worse from there. The Duke lead would grow to 20 in the first half and as high as 27 in the second half. The Blue Devils get their 10th straight win in a 23 point blowout over Oral Roberts.
The final session of the night included a couple more blowouts as UCLA saw what happened to Arizona earlier in the day and decided to put their game against UNC-Asheville out of reach early on their way to a 33 point romp. And a suddenly white hot Penn State team beat the second place team from the SEC, Texas A&M, by 17 in a game that wasn't really even that close.
That left two games to go. One was a game that many had penciled in as a potential upset. Tennessee had been one of the best teams in the country for most of the season, but like Virginia, they relied on their defense (best in the country!). Like Virginia, they were offensively challenged. And like Virginia, they were definitely struggling down the final stretch of the season. They drew the Ragin Cajuns in round one. And Louisiana learned quickly how tough it was to score against this Vols defense. With 20 minutes in the books, they only had 19 points, finding themselves needing to make up an 11 point deficit in the second half. With 12 minutes to go, the deficit was 18 and Tennessee was looking like the national title contender they had been for the first 2/3 of the season. Then recent Tennessee showed up. The Vols could not put the ball in the hoop, giving the Ragin Cajuns life. The lead was all the way down to 3 with 23 seconds left. Tennessee could only make 1 of 2 free throws, allowing Louisiana a chance to creep even closer, but a three pointer that could have made it a 1 point game was off the mark. Tennessee holds on to play Duke in round two.
We had seen a 4 seed get knocked out. Then a 2 seed hit the showers. Was it possible that we could lose a 1 seed on Day 1? Houston was a big favorite over Northern Kentucky, but their best player, Marcus Sasser, had suffered a freak injury in their conference tournament last weekend. He tried to give it a go in this one, but after less than 14 minutes on the court, he took a seat on the bench. To add to the Cougars' woes, guard Jamal Shead also got injured during this game, though he was able to play through the injury for the most part. Add in some sloppy play from the top seeded Cougars and suddenly the Norse had a chance. They only trailed by 3 at the break and just a few minutes into the second half, the game was tied. Would Auburn really be getting a home game in round two against Northern Kentucky? Well no. The class of this Houston team eventually took over as they began to slowly pull away from that point on. It wasn't a pretty win, but by the time the horn sounded, Houston had a fairly comfortable 11 point victory.
On to the pool standings! There was one regular member of this pool who you knew had the Princeton upset on their bracket and that is Fred Alcaro. The Princeton alum holds the early lead in the Main Pool with 17 points, 1 point ahead of Scott Brown, and 2 points ahead of Aiden Schweitzer. In the Gamblers Pool, Mark Grimes leads the way with 18 points, 1 point ahead of John Falco, and 4 points ahead of Nate Heffner. If you don't feel like scrolling all the way to the top of this post for the spreadsheet, you can find it here.
That's it for Day 1. Day 2's games are wrapping up as I write this. A full recap will be posted early tomorrow.
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