Tournament Thoughts - Early Friday

You knew Duke wasn't going out as a 2 seed to a 15 two years in a row. It just wasn't going to happen. But Albany did hang in there with them for a while.

What a horrible shooting game by Wisconsin (15-59). It can go either way with them. Either they harass you into an off night or they have one themselves.

Marshall Henderson is a little bit exciting, a little bit annoying, but he's a pretty good player and made shots down the stretch when Wisconsin couldn't.

Only VCU kept it from being a clean sleep by the 12 seeds. I'd love to go back and look but I would say that if you bet on the 12 seeds either with the money line or with the spreads, over the years you probably made a lot of money.

Valiant comeback by NC State but they dug themselves too big of a hole. They almost came all the way back, down 65-62 they ran a great pick and roll and kicked it out to Lorenzo Brown for a wide open 3, but he missed it. They also had another chance, looked like a clean block on a breakaway which would have given them a chance to cut to 2, or even 1, but the refs called it a foul.

Dominant performance by Miami. They are a good team, and probably a serious contender to win this thing.

This elbow rule is out of control and it almost cost Creighton the game. 60-54 McDermott gets the rebound and is sure to be fouled, he swings his arms, hits the guy in the face with an elbow and its 2 shots and the ball. Cincinnati missed both free throws but hit a 3, which could have taken a 6 point lead to 1. Wouldn't have been a great way to end that game. Yes the player should swing his elbows lower, learn to do that so if you strike an opponent you do it in the chest, but it's being enforced too tightly.

I'm beginning to think teams in automatic fouling situations should feign the foul and try to force a mistake. It worked for Marquette and it almost worked in this game too. The guy who receives the ball should just wait to be fouled instead of trying to make a crazy pass.

Valiant comeback by Kansas State thanks to the huge size advantage by Jordan Henriquez. But some poor decisions down the stretch really hurt them. They didn't even get a serious shot off on their last posession.

The Atlantic-10 is now 6-0, with two wins for LaSalle. That will help salve some of the mid-major sting of the Mountain West's poor showing.

The West is the upset regional with the the 12, 13 and 14 (Ole Miss, LaSalle and Harvard) all advancing and at least one of them is going to the Sweet 16.

And now we have to hear about how LaSalle had an advantage by playing an extra game.

This is the 6th straight year a 13 has beaten a 4.

You knew a team with Oladipo and Zeller wasn't going to play a close game with a 16 seed like James Madison.

Illinois-Colorado started simply enough, 17-16 Colorado to start the game. Illinois went on a 23-6 run. Colorado scored the next 21 points, then Illinois scored 9 in a row. There was also a stretch when neither team scored for 4 minutes. But Illinois did hold on to end the afternoon session and knock out the first Pac-12 team.