Tournament Thoughts: Late Friday

#7 Wisconsin vs. #10 Pittsburgh

Great start by Pitt. Wisconsin couldn't buy a bucket.

Cute little Wisconsin fan screaming her head off.

Every time the announcers said "Vitto Brown" I heard "Nino Brown."

Probably the worst-played game of the first round so far. Should have been able to predict a game like this. Both teams traditionally have plodding, physical teams.

Pitt just doesn't have the shooters are scorers to go to late in games when they absolutely need a basket.

Robinson ran into his own man! He missed his last ten shots of the game. Brutal way to go out for Pitt.

#3 West Virginia vs. #14 Stephen F. Austin I always love to see Devin Williams. His hair and his goggles are old school to me, remind me of a simpler era in corrective eyewear.

It used to be that teams that pulled off a major upset just slowed the ball down and tried to limit possessions to decrease the impact of the talent disadvantage.
But now it seems that the smaller school teams may actually have a shooting and dribbling advantage. They aren't scared to run and they aren't scared to press, and they aren't scared to jack early 3s.
In fact that is quite often the winning formula.

West Virginia turned the ball over 22 times. SFA only 7.

Tyler Walkup made 19 of 20 free throws. That's a player Billy could love. If he played in New York they would call him "Three Story."

Two years ago Stephen F Austin beat VCU in a 12-5 upset, now they've pulled off an even bigger shocker.

Clide Geffrard is the closest thing I've seen all tournament to a member of Mrs. Poop's All-Hair team.

#3 Texas A&M vs. #14 Green Bay

Impressive run by Texas A&M to put Green Bay away. Didn't hurt that Green Bay went ice cold.

But Texas A&M has a lot of athletic size. Most of us were looking for a team to come out of that region. It could be the Aggies. #1 Oregon vs. #16 Holy Cross

Total domination. Oregon not even tested.

#2 Xavier vs. #15 Weber State

The Pitt band is being paid $15 each to wear Weber State shirts and pose as the Weber State band since their band didn't make it. And they even learned the school fight song.

Xavier still has Miles Davis. But they don't have Matt Stainbrook. He is playing in Europe where Miles is known as Kilometers.
They do have Matt's brother, Tim, but he never plays.
They don't have Miles's brother Sammy. Yes, Miles Davis and Sammy Davis.

Big win for Xavier the least respected of the top seeds.

#6 Texas vs. #11 Northern Iowa Texas has Prince Ibeh, pronouced EE-bay. eBay gets $10,000 in free advertising every time he grabs a rebound.

UNI's Wyatt Lohaus is the song of former NBA center Brad Lohaus, but he is nearly a foot shorter.

Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!

And you have the best game of the tournament ladies and gentlemen!
Both teams played well, almost would have liked to see five more minutes of this game.
But we will never forget that heave by Paul Jesperson. He Steph Curry'ed it. Amazing!

#6 Notre Dame vs. #11 Michigan

Michigan came out shooting hotter than a pistol. 7 of 14 from 3 in the first half.

Huge mistake by Notre Dame's Bonzie Colson, grabbing an offensive rebound with 41 seconds left and trying for the putback, off-balance, with two guys on him, instead of holding and kicking back out. Lack of game situation awareness. With a 3-point lead that late you don't need to score.

It didn't come back to bite them though. Great game by both teams, some impressive shooting, great passing, very entertaining game, but the 6 seed held this time.

#8 St. Joseph's vs. #9 Cincinnati

The Hawk will never die.

Kenyon Martin in the crowd.

Another good close game between evenly matched teams. Lots of driving, dishing and 3-point shooting.

Another amazing finish, but a little anticlimactic. It was still in his hand when the game ended. If he'd just flipped it up, it would have been an overtime. <.br>