NCAA Tournament Thoughts: Sunday

See separate post for Syracuse's domination of Gonzaga.

I slept through most of these games and had to fast forward to catch up on the action so basically all I saw was the two down-to-the wire games, Michigan State over Maryland and Purdue over Texas ATM.

Michigan State blew a big lead then held off hard charging Maryland. In the final 40 seconds there were four made baskets and 4 lead changes. First Greivis Vazquez, who is fuckin incredible hit a jumper, then he answered Draymond Green's basket with another one on a series of incredible dribbles. But his efforts were wiped out as the crosscourt pass that almost hit his teammate in the head found the hands of Korie Luscious who nailed a huge 3 for the victory.

But the injury to Kalin Lucas (achilles) that allowed Maryland back in the game (they smothered the Spartans with the press) will likely cost them against Northern Iowa or perhaps Ohio State down the road. They just aren't a very good team without him and he is out 4 to 6 months.

The other great game was an overtime thriller in which Purdue taught Michigan State a thing or two about winning without your best player. Chris Kramer stepped up to knock of Texas ATM. Only thing is, his basket came with 4 seconds left, making it nowhere near as exciting as the Michigan State game.

When is someone going to point out that Pittsburgh underperforms in the tournament every single year? Is it Jamie Dixon's fault? Is the style of play to blame? Or are they just an undertalented team that works hard and overachieves during the regular season?

Those white kids from Cornell sure can shoot. But I have a feeling they are going to get a rude awakening from Kentucky. The spread is 10, but I'd take the Wildcats by 20. Cornell isn't going to get those open shots against a much more athletic team.

But with Syracuse and Cornell in the Sweet 16, and Kentucky and West Virginia playing in the Dome, Central New York is the college basketball capital of the world. Too bad Siena couldn't make it an NY trio.

Duke was written off at the beginning of this tournament as people tried to avoid going all chalk by picking someone else from that region. But this Duke team is different than previous underachieving versions in that they have a lot of size and don't get pushed around as easily. I still expect them to falter against Baylor.

Conferences are getting a lot of attention and people are killing the Big East. Yes, 6 of the conferences 8 teams lost 5 of them in upsets. But that doesn't detract from what the conference did all year. Was Kansas not the best team all season just because they lost? I know one team losing is more of a fluke, and less telling than 6 teams losing but still, the Big East is very strong, just had a bad weekend.

Three potential Cinderellas are still around. I don't count Washington because an underachieving team with a lot of talent from a big conference just doesn't have that cuddly feel to it. So I look #9 Northern Iowa, #10 St. Mary's and #12 Cornell. As I said earlier I don't think Cornell has a prayer against Kentucky. I don't think St. Mary's will beat Baylor because they will guard Samhan a little more aggressively and probably shut down the open looks for SMU's shooters as well. But I will say I think Northern Iowa will beat a Lucas-less Michigan State team and face Ohio State for the chance to become the next George Mason.