NCAA Tournament Thoughts: Friday Night

Maybe Master Bates is right, I should just pick every 5 seed and give up ever trying to get those upsets right. Last year 3 12s won so I picked 2 this year, neither of them came up and I am 0-3 in those 5-12 games, and 1-3 in the 6-11 games. There are upsets, and I know there are, yet I always pick the wrong ones.

They just showed the Naismith Watch commercial for Wes Johnson. I would vote if only standard text message rates didn't apply. I don't even know what that means, they could charge me $1000 for all I know. Wes will have to win this one without me.

New Mexico State's band just played "Livin on a Prayer." At least I think it was the NMSU band. Michigan State is winning by 13 so it wouldn't make sense for them to play a song about the union being on strike and being down on your luck it's tough...oooooh so tough.

Interesting story about Arkansas-Pine Bluff. They started the year 0-11 by playing a murderous non-conference schedule, all on the road. Five of those games were against top-50 RPI teams (Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, UTEP and Missouri). That's 4th in the nation in non-conference SOS. The interesting thing is they went 17-4 in their remaining games. Still their overall SOS was 275 (30 slots better than the next best SWAC team) because their best conference opponent was RPI 199. But the goal was to ready the team for the tournament and they won the conference and beat Winthrop so maybe it worked. But it didn't help them avoid an ass-kicking by Duke.

Two of APB's opponents playing each other, Georgia Tech and Oklahoma State. They are 33 and 32 in RPI so it should have been a close game and it was. I wasn't impressed with James Anderson and I think Derrick Favors looks a lot like a guy who will be drafted high and be a complete bust.

No team fucked up the late game so far in this tournament more than Oklahoma State. Georgia Tech didn't get a field goal in the last 8 minutes. Every time they had the ball OSU fouled them. They were 0-5 from the field and still outscored OSU. James Anderson chucked up an unnecessary three then the Cowboys took too long to foul, just a complete botch job. The Big 12 ends the first round 5-2.

More fathers and sons:
Glen Rice Jr. is on Georgia Tech
Johnny Dawkins Jr is on Duke
Leadrick Eackles of Oakland is the son of former Washington Bullet Ledell Eackles
Andy Rautins of Syracuse is the son of Leo Rautins (why don't they ever mention this?)

Michigan State a team known for its steadiness and toughness, and good coach blew a 16-point lead to New Mexico State. But they eventually held on to win, mostly because of size. They couldn't hit a shot but they kept getting offensive rebounds.

Louisville came out flat and was down 22-4 before they even got into it. Despite a late comeback they couldn't overcome Cal and the Pac-10 beats the Big East twice in the first round.

I didn't see much of the Gonzaga, Maryland or Ohio State games.

I did hear them say that Gary Williams and Tom Penders each entered the game with 648 career wins.