Tournament Thoughts: Late Thursday

We begin the evening session with a look at the adorable grandson of St. Joseph's coach Phil Martelli who sits (stands) behind the bench, wearing a suit, emulating his grandfather's mannerisms and even diagramming plays.

Here he is being interviewed by our favorite sideline hottie Allie LaForce:



Beautiful designed play by Kevin Ollie at the end of regulation. He got Shabazz Napier an open shot to win the game, it didn't go in but St. Joe's almost got caught watching the paint dry.

St. Joe's's DeAndre Bembry has a serious Afro. And a cool beard.

I hate the way UConn plays. They do way too much one-on-one, reckless drives to the basket, contested jacks, bad defensive reaches and stupid unnecessary fouls. That would never happen if Jim Calhoun were still alive.

But they have the talent to overcome those shortcomings.

UConn sealed the victory by making 15 free throws in a row to seal the game, including one from an unexpected source, Brimah, to tie the game late in regulation.

The same could not be said of NC State which gave up one of the biggest choke jobs in recent tournament history. With 5 minutes left, TJ Warren hit a layup to make it 59-45. He had an and-1 opportunity that he missed. From that point on St. Louis outscored NC State 25-11, thanks to 9 of 21 from the line for NC State. That's right, with a big lead in a tournament game NC State shot 43% from the line. They also missed a couple more in overtime (so did St. Louis) which cost them any chance to recover the win that had slipped through their fingers.

Rob Loe (no, he's Rob Lowe) had a huge game for St. Louis, 22 points and 15 rebounds on 8 of 11 shooting.

The two teams combined to make 32-63 free throws for 51%, the second worst percentage (min. 50 attempts) in tournament history.

But North Dakota State is the plucky underdog that did pull off the second 12-5 upset of the tournament. They had a big lead, blew it, then clawed back to tie it and then won it in overtime.

It couldn't have happened without Isaiah Cousins who committed an idiotic foul with 4-point lead and 32 seconds to play. That gave ND State two free points. Cousins compounded his error by missing a free throw to make it a one possession game which the Bison took advantage.

Best game of the day: Arizona State versus Texas. First true buzzer beater and well played by both teams. Both teams have good big men, Jordan Bachynski (25 points, 10 rebounds) for Arizona State and Cameron Ridley for Texas (17 and 12 plus 4 blocks) including the game winner he scooped off the ground and flipped in over the outstretched arm of Bachynski just a few tenths of a second before the red light went on.

95 points were scored in the second half as both teams used their big men and dribble penetration to get the defense moving and then used great ball movement to find open shooters. That's the kind of basketball I love to see.

What a great game, even though when I did my bracket I noticed I picked all 4 7 seeds so I changed one, Texas.

It always amazes me when a college player not on BYU is married. But they kept showing Bachynski's wife and mother in the stands. But it does make sense because he is a Mormon, he did a two year mission and he turns 25 later this year, a few months after he and Malia celebrate their third wedding anniversary.

Villanova beat Milwaukee by 20, but the game was much closer than that through most of it. Now they have one of those interesting matchups we're going to see over the next few years, former conference rivals who can now be paired up in the early rounds of the tournament. I'm still sticking with UConn to knock them off.

I hate all the talk about teams being experienced, and veteran, and Louisville is defending champs. Manhattan looked like the more composed team that entire game. But Luke Hancock, MOP of last year's Final Four, single-handedly ended any Manhattan upset bid with 8 points in a row.

I would still worry about Louisville though if I had them in the Final Four. They should beat St. Louis and who knows after that if they have to play Wichita State and Duke or Michigan. Would be interesting if to get to the Final Four they had to beat both teams they beat in the Final Four last year.

Of all the first round games, the one I wanted to see most was last, New Mexico State-San Diego State. I've been reading and hearing a lot about Sim Bhullar for NMSU. He's 7'5" and 330 pounds. Obviously he is a monster on defense, first shot of the game he blocked flat-footed. And on offense he did more than just stick his arms up in the air. He's a very intriguing NBA prospect. He's only a sophomore so hopefully he will stay and work on his game.

They also have his brother, Tanveer, who is 7'2" and a redshirt freshman this season.

And they have 6'10" 265-pound Tshilidzi Nephawe from South Africa. That makes NMSU the only team I've ever seen start 2 centers and 3 guards.

Kevin Aronis onions!!!!!!!!!!! Could have been the biggest shot of the night, he missed one, got it back made a move and nailed a 3 to send the game into overtime.

I'm really sick of hearing so much about the coaches. The Louisville Manhattan game was dominated by talk about Pitino and his former assistant. Similarly but to a lesser extent, SDSU vs NMSU.

A great first day, 4 overtime games, the most ever in one day of the tournament. They were all in the evening session (UConn-St. Joe's, North Dakota State-Oklahoma, San Diego State-New Mexico State and St. Louis-NC State) plus two buzzer beaters (Dayton-Ohio State and Texas-Arizona State) one other big upset (Harvard-Cincinnati) throw in Manhattan putting a major scare into Louisville and you have a 50% awesomeness ratio. Let's hope that keeps up for 3 more days.