Tournament Thoughts - Late Thursday

South Dakota State was a trendy upset pick but I didn't see it. Michigan wasn't playing great down the stretch but they have a lot of good players.

It's a shame that Nate Wolters had such a bad game. He's better than what he showed in this game.

Louisville's domination of #16 North Carolina A&T is more typical of what we see of 1-16 games. Every once in a while you see a game like Southern versus Gonzaga. But this result is much more typical of what we see with 1-16 matchups.

But don't conflate these results to have any grander meaning. Don't assume Louisville is unbeatable or Gonzaga is vulnerable based only on what we saw today.

I misjudged the Belmont-Arizona game. I thought Arizona would be lazy on defense and Belmont would be able to run and gun on them. But early on it was Arizona nailing 3s and Belmont couldn't make it close.

Maybe we all underestimated the Pac-12. They started off 3-0. The most impressive of which was Cal over UNLV. UNLV has a lot of big, strong athletic guys, but the couldn't make a shot. Moser and Bennett were all over the place, but couldn't put the ball in the basket.

It wasn't just the poor shooting, UNLV made some stupid mistakes and got lazy on defense. They deserved to lose this game.

Good strategy by Cal to foul with ten seconds left and again with 6. It's so easy to make a 3, so hard to rebound a purposeful miss. I think UNLV screwed up by making the free throws. And being unable to foul right away.

Cal's victory had nothing to do with playing an hour from campus. There were a lot of fans there, but UNLV had people too. It had zero impact on the outcome.

Missouri has Alex Oriakhi formerly of Uconn. He was one of the big thugs who rebounded and blocked shots while Kemba Walker shot the ball 20 times a game. He won a national title, but elected to transfer, citing UConn's ineligibility from postseason play. His diminished playing time may have also been a factor. But he ended up at Missouri and didn't even have to sit out a year.

Nice to see Larry Eustachy has recovered, but he will never live down these pictures. It's just a shame they cost him his marriage to Stacy Eustachy. But at least he's got a ticket to the second round. Good luck against Louisville.



What VCU did to Akron was ugly. It's just one of those things that snowballs. VCU was staying in an aggressive press for a long time. I know that's the only way they know how to play but when you're up 40, maybe you want to give it a rest.

With 15:32 left in the second half Chauncey Gilliam hit a layup to make it 65-34. Akron didn't score for the next 7 minutes, and VCU added 12 more points for a 43-point lead, which ended up as a 46-point victory. I will like to see how that press does against Michigan.

Now, on to the big upset of the first round so far, the show stopper, the Cinderella, Harvard over New Mexico.

But first, a couple non-game observations. Doug Gottlieb said "things were Breaking Bad for New Mexico." Inside reference, but totally unnecessary. Glad to know he is a fan of the show. Makes me hold him in slightly higher esteem.

Why do they have to say "AT&T at the half is presented by AT&T?" Don't they think we could have figured that out.

New Mexico didn't choke, or even play badly, they just got beat by a better team that night.

I think there is something to this Ivy League thing. We saw Princeton beat UCLA, take Georgetown to the wire as a 16 seed. Cornell made the Sweet 16, in 2010. I know there were also a lot of years when the Ivy champ got bounced in the first round, but it sure seems as if Ivy players keep their heads and execute the game plan even under pressure.

New Mexico just couldn't get any consistent offense going. Bad day for the Mountain West, 3 teams out so far. Good day for the Pac-12, 3 teams advancing so far.

If Harvard can hit some threes and slow down the tempo they can pull off the upset of Arizona that Belmont failed to do.

And personally, my bracket is shot to shit because I had New Mexico in the final game. Yikes! But that's March Madness for you.