Late Game Strategies

Sometimes you just get beat by a good player making a great play. That’s what happened to Michigan against Kentucky. Aaron Harrison drained a 3 to win while being closely guarded.

But there might have been a way to avoid that result.
Here’s the situation, Michigan ball, down 2, 56 seconds left.
Michigan did the prudent thing by trying to get a quick shot, which Stauskas missed.
Here’s where they screwed up, twice they got offensive rebounds and kicked them out for rushed 3s. They didn’t need a 3 trailing by 2, and they certainly didn’t need the hurried jacks they settled for. It worked out because Jordan Morgan tipped one in (it actually looked like Julius Randle did) to the time game.

But Kentucky had plenty of time and Harrison hit the game winning shot.

I think once the shot clock was turned off (under 35 seconds to go in the game) Michigan should have held the ball for a better shot, with less time left. It seems to me, if you miss a shot there, no matter how much time is left, you have very little chance to win.
So if you’re best hope is overtime or a game-winning , it’s better to do that as late in the clock as possible to prevent Kentucky from getting the ball back with a legit opportunity to score.

Tournament Thoughts: Second Round Sunday

#3 Iowa State 85 #6 North Carolina 83
I moved the best game of the day to the top of the column because that's the billing it deserves.

What an unfortunate ending to such a great game though. I think it was the right decision, the clock clearly did not start on time when the ball was in-bounded. I wonder what would have happened if the clock started late and UNC had tried for and made a shot instead of trying to call timeout.

Which by the way was a boneheaded move by Ol' Roy. There was not nearly enough time in 1.6 seconds to dribble up the court, call time out, inbound again and have time for anything against a set defense. Totally stupid.

Here's where it got away from UNC: Four minutes to go they're up 8 and have the ball, Marcus Paige took a quick jack and missed a 3 they didn't need. Huge mistake. Iowa turned into it a Naz Long 3.

Then McAdoo commits a foul and Iowa State turns it into a Monte Morris 3.

On the next possession again UNC in a rush. Kennedy Meeks grabs an offensive rebound and doesn't even come down with it. Shot missed, Iowa State turns it into a Melvin Ejim layup on the break. A few seemingly mild mistakes and the lead goes from 8 to zero in less than 2 minutes. I blame the coaching here too. I hate the stall offense some teams employ, basketball's version of the prevent, but it's prudent to at least be patient and make the defense work.

But the biggest mental breakdown of all, the one that cost them the game way letting DeAndre Kane leak out for the go ahead basket with 30 seconds left. You can't let a basket that easy decide the game. Though they did come back and score, and made Kane work for the real game winner, but he made a great play.

I'm not sure what the answer was but all the drama was sucked out of this game by 3 separate reviews, one on an out of bounds play, another on a 3-point shot and of course the game-ender. I know we want to get the calls right, but we can't review everything, it ruins the game.

#10 Stanford 60 #2 Kansas 57
This was a result certainly a surprise to me. I thought Kansas had enough players to knock off Stanford, even without Embiid. Every time Kansas started to make a run, grab some offensive rebounds or hit some shots, Stanford fought back.

I did think it was pretty low rent for CBS to zoom in on a crying kid. Not just once, several times. Kids are different than coach's wives.

Andrew Wiggins scored couldn't make a shot and had as many points as turnovers. That led Jim Nantz to go on a rant about how its not the best players who win a game. It's the best team. There is a lot of merit in that argument, and Damino and I have been discussing it in regards to Duke. But coming out of Nantz's mouth it seemed like he was being an old fuddy-duddy who doesn't like one-and-dones and prefers teams that have 5 four-year players in their starting lineup.

I agree that college basketball would be better off, teams and games would be better if there weren't so many players coming in and leaving after one good year. But there's really only one logical, fair thing to do to prevent that, go back to the days when the most NBA-minded players didn't have to go to college at all. But seeing as how that's the NBA's call, it doesn't seem likely to happen.

In pointing out that the two most heralded freshman, Wiggins and Parker combined to win 1 tournament game, Nantz seemed to be gleeful at the triumph of team over talent. But like any other factor in the tournament, nothing is a guarantee of success. Sometimes the team full of savvy veterans beats the collection of talented underclassmen. Sometimes they don't.

#8 Kentucky 78 #1 Wichita State 76
Wichita State has nothing to be ashamed of. They didn't blow a perfect regular season. And they didn't go 35-0 on a fluke. They are a damn good team.

Fred Van Vleet can run my team any day.

And this wasn't a matchup of athletes vs. grinders, these Wichita State guys can play. Cleanthony Early is a great player, and he's got mad hops.

If there was one area where Kentucky had an advantage it was size inside. They only got 7 offensive rebounds, but it seemed like every time they needed one, they got it.

Nick Wiggins had more points than his brother, 5-4.

This was a really great game and if Kentucky keeps playing this way they can beat anyone.

What percentage of TVs in Kentucky will be tuned into the Kentucky-Louisville game?

#11 Tennessee 83 #14 Mercer 63
The SEC is now 7-0 in this tournament. Two for Florida, two for Kentucky and now 3 for Tennessee.

This is the third time in four years than a play-in team not only one their first round game as well, but made the Sweet 16.

Mercer was a nice story but they just ran out of gas.

#4 UCLA 77 #12 Stephen F. Austin 60
Same thing happened to SFA. They just didn't have the same pep as they had against VCU. They also missed a ton of shots. Without Thomas Walkup (people in NYC hate this guy) the rest of the team made only 10 of 40. For an underdog to be a Cinderella and win two games they've got to be near perfect. They were anything but.

The Pac-12, another much-maligned conference, is also sending 3 teams to the Sweet 16, Arizona and Stanford as well. And Oregon also acquitted itself nicely before succumbing to Wisconsin.

3 #1s made the sweet 16, only 2 #2s and 1 #3, but all 4 #4s will be there.

#6 Baylor 85 #3 Creighton 55
Total domination. This did seem like a team of better athletes playing against an old slow group of jump shooters. Maybe Creighton just never saw a team as big and athletic as Baylor in the new Big East.

A shame for Doug McDermott to end a fantastic career here. I love watching the spectacular freshman, but just as much as anyone I like to watch a guy grow and improve for 4 years. And he's technically a walk-on this year. His dad, the coach, is paying his way so someone else can have the scholarship.

He didn't play badly, though his 15 points on 7-14 looks better than it is. During the brief time that this game was in doubt, he couldn't even get a shot off.

Classy move by Coach McDermott to use a dead ball to take his players out one by one for a nice ovation from the crowd and a hug from the coach.

It's nice for Doug McDermott to be the 5th leading scorer in college history, but remember it's a different era. Yeah he appears to be "only" 500 points behind Pistol Pete, but he played 60 more games. McDermott's 21.7 ppg average is nice, but it's less than half of Maravich who averaged 44.

#1 Virginia 78 #8 Memphis 60
Total domination from the jump. Virginia trying to prove that it's not just a plodding defensive team, they can actually score.

Virginia won the ACC regular season, conference tournament and now they're the last team standing. I think that proves they were the league's best team this season.

They got off to a bad start with 4 losses in non-conference before New Year's but 3 of them came against VCU, Wisconsin and Tennessee. Maybe those losses weren't as bad as we thought.

#1 Arizona 84 #8 Gonzaga 61
This wasn't even that close. I had this game on in the background while writing this post and Arizona just dropped one amazing play after another. They are incredibly good.

So there was some wildness to this first weekend, Syracuse, Duke, Wichita State and Kansas all get knocked off, but the most popular Final Four selections: Florida, Arizona, Michigan State and Louisville are all still alive and looking good.

Tournament Thoughts: Dayton 55 Syracuse 53

What the hell happened to Tyler Ennis? Remember when he went more than half the season without making a turnover in the final 5 minutes of a game? Why did he take two outside shots at the end of the game.

Here is what Jim Boeheim said about the game ending 3-point miss:

"The last shot was a great shot. It was the right play. A chance to win the game. You don't have enough time to get to the basket. I have no problem with that shot."

And Ennis:

"I thought I got a really good look.I didn't think I had enough time to get to the basket. I think the look I got, I think everybody was happy with it. I thought it was good.''

I can actually understand that, time was winding down, he had no time to pass, he would have been driving into the teeth of the defense and risking not getting a shot off at all.

It was the jumper on the previous possession that I think was much worse.

So did Coach Boeheim:

"With 13 seconds to go, we wanted to get it to Tyler and drive the ball. We'd just driven the ball for three baskets. I don't know why he settled for the jump shot. There was plenty of time. He had space. I'm not sure why."

But Ennis thought he could make it:

"I had some space. They were guarding me off a little bit. I think it was (Devin) Oliver on me. Whoever it was, I think they knew I was going to drive. Any other night, I think that was a good shot. My shots weren't falling tonight from the outside. Maybe it would've been better to drive. I think I had the confidence."

And maybe that's what it comes down to, a bad night at the wrong time. I like his confidence, but sometimes it cuts both ways, it makes you feel like you can accomplish anything, but it also leads you to make the wrong decisions. Clearly the missed jumper with 13 seconds left was a bad decision.

Here's the paragraph from the game notes that sums things up pretty well:

With Syracuse trailing 47-42 with 4 minutes remaining, Tyler Ennis drove to the basket on five of the Orange's next seven possessions, scoring 11 straight points to pull Syracuse within one. However, Ennis took jump shots outside the paint on the Orange's final two possessions, missing both.

Throughout the entire game Syracuse couldn't hit an outside shot, and Dayton just packed its defense in the middle and every drive to the basket was met with 3 or 4 guys. Maybe that is what Ennis thought would happen if he drove on those last two possessions (especially the last one).

I guess what I think is, Ennis wanted to be the hero. He didn't think Dayton would let him get to the basket but he knew they would dare him to take a jumper. He thought he would make them, so he took them. He didn't, game over.

But as usual, if not for Ennis and Fair Syracuse wouldn't have been in this game, even though they combined to make only 11 of 35 shots.

As the game hinged on those two plays it doesn't make sense to rehash the first 39:47, especially because I deleted the game in anger when I usually like to rewatch them before I write these posts (even the bad losses).

I think Boeheim wasted at least one timeout, ceding an advantage we had been given when Dayton used its last TO. But he did use the second one to set up the press which created the steal that could have won the game, so it almost worked out.

The refs missed a clear travel on Dayton in the corner, a clear hop, and they blew it.

I also disagree with the elbowing call on Cooney in the first half. The guy was so close to Cooney he could barely have moved without striking him. Maybe the call was in the letter of the rule, but not the spirit. The NCAA has a big problem with these zero tolerance rules. If you have officials, you have to trust their judgment.

Vanessa Williams was at the game.

Gerry MacNamara still looks 12 years old (leftover from the first round:

Archie Miller's wife, Morgan Miller, incidentally, the same name as Bode Miller's wife was going nuts in the stands, all while wearing a shirt that said "Dayton High Life." Wouldn't it make more sense if it said "Miller High Life?"

One last stupid face from Jim Boeheim for this season:

Tournament Thoughts: Second Round Saturday

#1 Florida 61 #9 Pittsburgh 45
Typical game of what you would expect from Pitt. They beat you up and hang in there. Typical of what you would expect from Florida, eventually their athletes were too much for Pitt to keep up with, and once they started nailing shots they pulled away.

#4 Louisville 66 #5 St. Louis 51
There are no more 5 seeds left in the tournament.

St. Louis actually gave Louisville a game for a little while but then they gave the ball to Luke Hancock, he hit a couple threes and that was that.

#2 Michigan 79 #7 Texas 65
Our third straight nondescript game of good team beats bad team by a lot. Except Michigan had this one in hand the whole way.

I think there is a strong chance we will get a national championship rematch in this regional final. Michigan would have to beat the Mercer-Tennessee winner and Louisville would have the tougher task of facing Wichita State or Kentucky.

#4 San Diego State 63 #12 North Dakota State 44
North Dakota State actually hung in for a little while but couldn't match the athleticism.

Great performance by Xavier Thames. He killed NDSU every way possible.

#2 Wisconsin 85 #7 Oregon 77
Probably the most aesthetically pleasing games of the day. With 7 minutes left in the first half more points had been scored in this one than in the Syracuse game, which had been in play for twice as many minutes.

I'm very surprised that Wisconsin was able to beat Oregon at their own game. But they are not as slow and lumbering as they have been in previous years under Bo Ryan. They have a lot of guys who can shoot and the like to spread the floor and pass it around to get the defense moving.

They hit 11 of 28 from 3 with 6 different players making at least one.

Thus ends the long career of Mike Moser. He started at UCLA, went to UNLV and finished up at Oregon. He played the 2009-10 season at UCLA, sat out a year, played 2 at UNLV but because he graduated he got back that lost year of eligibility.

You know you're getting old when the guys you used to watch now have sons in college. Last year it was Tim Hardaway Jr. and Glenn Robinson III on Michigan, this year it's Devin Marble on Iowa and Traevon Jackson (son of Jimmy) playing for Wisconsin. Looks just like him too.

By the way, Jackson had a great game, 16 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists.

#4 Michigan State 80 #12 Harvard 73
I don't know if we proscribe certain traits to Harvard's players just because they're from Harvard or if they really exhibit them in greater frequency than players from other schools. But the poise, intelligence and decision making of these players is amazing. But I don't want to diminish their abilities by calling them "scrappers." They can run and jump and shoot.

At first it seemed like they were a little worried about Michigan State contesting their shots, so they shot too fast. They were worried about getting beat down the court on a fast break so they didn't go after offensive rebounds. But once they settled down and realized they could play with these guys, they made an amazing comeback.

At 15 minutes of the second half Harvard trailed 53-39. 8 minutes later they led 62-60. A 23-7 run in 8 minutes against a team many people are expecting to win it all. Impressive stretch of basketball.

But Michigan State just has too many weapons. They got back to their game and hit some 3s and held off Harvard.

One weapon they don't have is Denzel Washington. Both Greg Gumbel and Doug Gottlieb called Denzel Valentine that.

#7 Connecticut 77 #2 Villanova 65
Early in the game Villanova led 19-9. UConn made it 20-13 by the under 8 timeout. Allie LaForce interviewed Jim Calhoun, briefly and awkwardly, and he said he thought the team was on the verge of something, and it was, as Verne Lundquist pointed out several times, the old coach saw it coming.

The only guy more correct about this matchup than Calhoun was me. I have a long of history of correctly predicting the #2 seed that will lose in the second round. But I almost never picked the right team to do it. This time I did. Part of my reasoning was that this would be an old school Big East game, which favored UConn, and indeed it was.

Shabazz Napier just took over this game. He scored 25 points on 9 of 13 shooting, in just 25 minutes due to foul trouble. He was awesome.

Tournament Thoughts: First Round Friday

I had no time to take notes today, and if I had I would have no time to compile them into coherent thoughts. I'm lucky I even had time to watch the games, which I barely did, doing a lot of recording and scanning.

What follows is just the most important things of the games of the day. But I'm trying a new way, using the final score so when I read these 5 years from now I'll remember what the hell I was talking about.

#14 Mercer 78 #3 Duke 71
And there is our first major upset. I really thought Duke was good enough to go to the Final Four. I wouldn't even say they flamed out here, Mercer just played an incredible game. But this is the second time in 3 years that Duke was a huge favorite and lost in the first round (remember Lehigh?)

If I had to put a finger on what went wrong I would say they didn't play good defense, allowing Mercer to shoot 55%.

But also Duke fell in love with the 3-pointer, 37 attempts. But maybe a bigger problem, and a harder one to explain is how they made only 7 out of 25 2-pointers.

No one is ever going to say Coach K is not a good coach but he may be falling victim to a couple things here. First, he is such a great recruiter and his program has so much tradition that he consistently gets the best players in each incoming class. But, those guys leave after 1 maybe 2 years. And he's not having time to teach them a team game.

So they don't play great defense and they stand outside shooting 3s because to do otherwise might require more years in the system, so they go back to individual skills. And a team like Mercer more experienced is able to beat them.

But is he supposed to say no to Jabari Parker?

#6 Baylor 74 #11 Nebraska 60
Nebraska may have played the worst first half of any team in the tournament. They scored only 16 points and made only 6 field goals. They came back with 44 in the second half but Baylor was coasting at that point.

#3 Creighton 76 #14 Louisiana-Lafayette 66
This game was closer than the final score would indicate. ULL led 50-46 with 12 minutes left, but Creighton stayed true to themselves, passed the ball around made some 3s and went on a 22-10 run, which pretty much sealed it.

#2 Kansas 80 #15 Eastern Kentucky 69
This game was also much closer than most of us thought it would be. They were actually tied 32-32 at the half. But eventually Kansas's size took over, they dominated on the offensive glass and EKU ran out of gas.

But Kansas went 0 for 7 from 3. If they have to go up against a zone team like say, Syracuse, and they can't hit outside shots, the zone can pack it in and clog up the middle.

I still think Kansas is an excellent team with or without Embiid, with a good chance to win it all.

#8 Gonzaga 85 #9 Oklahoma State 77
This game was completely marred by bad officiating. They called 61 fouls, resulting in 78 free throws of which the teams made only 62 percent. At times it seemed like the refs were mad at Oklahoma State, particularly Marcus Smart. Some of those calls were ridiculous.

Smart is definitely leaving after this year and if he can control himself and behavior like a professional I think he is going to be a great pro. I don't like him and the way he behaves but his talent is unquestionable. 23 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 steals.

At the end of the game Oklahoma State employed the strategy to foul Gonzaga big man Przemek Karnowski. Announcer Andrew Catalon called this "Hack a Polack." Karnowski actually is from Poland. But I guess the PC thing to call people from Poland is Poles. He was sitting with another Polack, Mike Gminski, who immediately pointed it out. Catalon apologized, he probably didn't realize it can be seen as derogatory. I don't think this is a big deal. Nails is furious and expects Catalon to be fired.

#6 North Carolina 79 #11 Providence 77
Another case of a smaller team building a lead and having it snatched away by a larger team's offensive rebounding. With 4:30 to get Providence led 71-66. On its next two possessions UNC missed shots, got the rebounds, made shots and tied the game. But that wasn't all, with the score tied at 77 James Michael McAdoo grabbed not one, but two offensive rebounds leading to the two game-winning free throws (which he needed 4 attempts to make).

#12 Stephen F. Austin 77 #5 VCU 75
This is probably the game I will remember most from this first round. JeQuan Lewis will go down in history as one of the biggest goats. How do you foul a 3-pointer shooter ever? But especially with a 4 point lead and 5 seconds left in an NCAA Tournament game. Don't even contest the shot, don't even try to rebound a miss, just get out of the way. Horrible.

But because these are college kids and not paid professionals it does make you sad to see a guy walk off the floor like this, knowing he cost his team the game.

#11 Tennessee 86 #6 Massachusetts 67
Another one for the play-in game teams. Seems like at least one of them every year plays on Tuesday or Wednesday then wins again in the first round.

#1 Virginia 70 #16 Coastal Carolina 59
This game was close much longer than it should have been but eventually Virginia's defense clamped down. With 8:52 left CC hit a 3 to tie the game at 47. Over the ensuing 8 minutes they scored 7 points and UVA scored 23.

Evidently a Chanticleer is some kind of rooster.

#8 Kentucky 56 #9 Kansas State 49
This game had the weirdest start to any game I've ever seen. Kentucky got a technical free throw because Kansss state walk-on Brian Rohleder, who played only 31 minutes all season, earned a technical foul for dunking in warmups before the game. NCAA rules prohibit dunking with less than 20 minutes until tip, and Rohleder's dunk came with 19:58 showing on the clock.

A rule is a rule and I don't really blame the officials for enforcing it, though it would have been easy to look the other way because it was only 2 seconds into the no dunk time. But this rule makes absolutely no sense. Why oh why is it on the books? I bet it will be abolished this offseason, though the NCAA is so provincial they may keep it just out of spite.

#4 UCLA 76 #13 Tulsa 59
So the first round didn't end with another major upset. Duke was the only one of the top 12 teams to lose. But 5 of the 5s and 6s lost. In each of the previous 6 years a 13 has beaten a 4, for a total of 7 times. 6 of those 13 seeds went on to play a 12 seed in the second round. There is no real reason why upsets like that should be bunched together, but they seem to be. Stephen F Austin did it's part and Tulsa kept it close for a while, but UCLA starting hitting some shots, getting some runouts, and now they get SFA in round 2.

As much as I like the fact that Danny Manning is the coach of Tulsa, by the end of this game I was sick of hearing about him too.

Tournament Thoughts: Syracuse 77 Western Michigan 53

I don't want to get too excited about a blowout victory over a #14 seed but for a team that limped into the tournament on a major shooting slump this was certainly a welcome result.

The biggest bright spot was Trevor Cooney who had been 10-51 from 3 since his explosion against Notre Dame in the beginning of February. He made 4 of 8 from deep and led the team with 18 points. And he showed some confidence, which he had probably lost because of his prolonged slump. SU needs him to be a threat from deep in order to keep the middle open for drives by Ennis and Fair.

Jerami Grant was another bright spot, showing no lingering effects from his back injury, leaving Western Michigan's bigger slower defenders in the dust on several nice moves to the basket.

Tyler Ennis was back to his steady self, making the team run and setting up other guys. He had 6 assists and only one turnover. He also had 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting.

CJ Fair was also great getting 14 points and 11 rebounds despite frequent double teams which forced him into 5 turnovers.

As is often (but not always) the case, a team that doesn't see a zone like ours played by a team with athletes like ours, Western Michigan was completely flummoxed in the first half and by the time they settled down it was too late.

As is always the case, the cameras caught Jim Boeheim making a stupid face.

Syracuse may have caught a break with Ohio State getting knocked off though Dayton is a pretty good team as well. In 2011, SU was in a similar situation, a 3-seed, having beaten Indiana State in the first round. #11 Marquette (then a conference opponent) knocked off Xavier, and beat Syracuse as well, before losing to #2 North Carolina in the Sweet 16.

We'll see what happens tomorrow at 7:10 PM.

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.

Tournament Thoughts: Early Thursday

First game of the tournament was a doozy, Ohio State vs. Dayton.

We started off by learning that Thad Matta won't play in-state schools in non-conference. I guess it's win and you were supposed to lose and they use it against you in recruiting. Does Jim Boeheim know about this?

Bill Raftery and Verne Lundquist doing the game with hottie Allie LaForce on the sidelines. They showed pictures of them from 1988. Raf and Verne looked much as they do know. LaForce was an infant.

Raf was on his game, dropping a great Irish accent for Cavanaugh, and then doing a great whine to imitate Jim Boeheim.

Aaron Craft almost cost his team the game with a stupid intentional foul. But he hit a 3-point play to tie it back up at 55, then made a great pass to give OSU the 57-55 lead.

Ohio State's Shannon Scott committed an even dumber foul, fouling the 3-point shooter with a 2-point lead and the shot clock winding down.

Craft is one of those players who gets too much credit. He isn't all that talented but he gets a lot of credit because of his style of play and skin color. He should have gone to Duke.

He did play a great game though, and hit what could have been the winning shot.

Great play by Vee Sanford. First game, first exciting game winner. A great start to the tournament.

American took a 17-10 lead over Wisconsin early. After that Wisconsin went on a 56-11 run. I'm not kidding. American scored 4 points in the first 12 minutes of the second half. Wisconsin scored 28.

The Pitt-Colorado game was a similar blowout. 46-18 at halftime? For Pitt?

Talib Zanna had 16 points in the first half. Colorado had 18. Pitt had 13 assists. Colorado had 0. Colorado attempted 17 field goals. Pitt made 18 field goals.

Cincinnati got a weird administrative technical for using a player who was not in the book. Not sure how the hell that happens. Did they just forget to write a player's name in?

Harvard does it again. Big upset for the second year in a row. If you include Cornell in 2010, the Ivy League has pulled off first round upsets in 3 of the past 5 years.

I wanted to pick this as my 12 over 5 upset but I was talked out of it by people who said Cincinnati was too physical. But this game comes down to shooting. Harvard can shoot, Cincinnati couldn't.

Cincinnati plays a physical brand of defense but Harvard never let it affect them.

Oregon can really score. BYU got within 3 then Oregon just blew their doors off.

That will be an interesting matchup against Wisconsin. Every year a 2 seed loses in the second round (almost every year) this could be the one.

Not the start you wanted to see if you picked Florida to win it all, but they eventually pulled away and booted Albany back to upstate New York.

I wouldn't take anything from this performance and project forward as to what it means for Florida's ability to go to the Final Four or win it all. It was 20 bad minutes and has no bearing on what will happen next.

But I am surprised it happened. Florida has so much size and athleticism that I wouldn't expect a team like Albany to be able to keep up with them.

Albany acquitted themselves well in this tournament except for those ugly shorts, purple in front, yellow in back.

Even though Michigan State didn't blow out Delaware you can see why so many people are picking them for the Final Four, and to win it all. Adreian Payne was absolutely dominant, and they have a bunch of other good players as well.

Bracket Breakdown: Syracuse's Chances

Not Good!
I am usually pessimistic going into the NCAA Tournament, often with good reason, but I was actually kind of hopeful this year, until I saw the region SU got placed in.
Florida is the best team in the country based on performance, and if healthy Kansas is the best team in the country based on talent.
The odds of beating both those teams, or having one or both get knocked off before we get to them are very slim. I would feel a lot better about Syracuse's chances if the teams in their way were the caliber of Wichita State, Virginia, Villanova and Michigan.
The other problem, is that Syracuse just isn't playing very well right now. Starting with the Boston College game their team-wide shooting touch has gone south (Cooney especially) and the lack of scoring has been exacerbated by defensive lapses and the key injury to Grant.
Many SU fans hoping for a deep run point out that SU similarly stumbled at the end of last season, and rebounded to make the Final Four.
There is a key difference, SU won 3 games in last year's Big East Tournament, and zero in this year's ACC. I don't believe in momentum, but confidence does play a role, especially in shooting, and if you want to compare this year to last, you have to consider that.
Second, even if the two situations were identical, does that make this year's team more likely to get hot after a bad stretch just because last year's did? No.
Teams get hot, go cold, get hot again all the time. What they did last year has no impact on when and if this team will rediscover it's game.
That said, this team has two excellent players in Fair and Ennis and two good players in Grant and Cooney (if he's making shots). Combine them with Christmas and Baye Moussa-Keita as purely low-post defenders and this team should definitely beat Western Michigan and Ohio State.
After that who knows, but I don't like their chances.

Bracket Breakdown

The first post of the most wonderful week of the year. March Madness is back and as always, The Poop will have you covered.

I think the Committee got the #1 seeds correct. Florida and Arizona are obvious on all aspects of their resumes, and Wichita State definitely deserved a #1 with their performance. Virginia was a deserving top seed because they won a tough conference in the regular season and in the tournament. Clearly they were the 4th #1, and got credit for finishing strong after 5 early losses (though 3 were to top 15 RPI teams, VCU, Wisconsin and Duke).

But why didn't Louisville get the same respect for finishing strong? Because they have a week resume, only 19th in the RPI, no top 20 wins, their best wins are UConn 3 times and Cincy once. Most of the teams they were competing with played and won tougher games out of conference and in.

The American Athletic Conference had 5 strong teams, but also 5 very weak ones. And the 8th place conference ranking clearly cost SMU an at-large berth. Their only big wins are UConn twice and Cincy, and had no other wins to speak off. Not only that, the bad losses piled up, South Florida, Temple (they went 9-22 this season, worst in school history) and Houston in the conference tournament.

One of the last teams in, and most controversial was NC State, because they had 13 losses. But 7 of those were to top 30 teams.

But it keeps the Committee's trend of rewarding teams with worse records and tougher schedules, in and out of conference.

Southern Miss and Toledo got left out with RPIs in the 30s and SOS in the 130s. Xavier and Iowa made it in however. Iowa was the lowest RPI team (#64) to get an at-large bid. But they will play in the play-in games.

Note: This is a good time to mention that until they expand to 96 teams I will never call the first round the first round. It will be play-in games. I hope you will join me in my silent protest of the NCAA's assault on tradition, common sense logic and everything that makes filling a bracket out fun and easy.

I think the South is the strongest region, at least up top because Florida is the best #1 and if Joel Embiid is healthy, and he may be by week 2 of the tournament, Kansas is the toughest #2 seed.

Everyone thinks the Midwest is murder because of Duke and Louisville as a 3 and 4 but I think Wichita State and Michigan are vulnerable top seeds.

The East with Virginia and Villanova is definitely the weakest, so much so that #4 Michigan State is the 2nd choice in Vegas to win the whole thing.

Stephen F. Austin over VCU is the popular 12 over 5 upset pick. If you believe the extra game helps teams, then maybe you like the NC State/Xavier winner over St. Louis. I would also keep my eye on North Dakota St. vs Oklahoma. But Cincinnati probably has too much size to let Harvard win a second straight first rounder.

A 13 has beaten a 4 six straight years. If we love Michigan State and Louisville then our choices are New Mexico State over San Diego State or Tulsa over UCLA. 20 years ago Tulsa beat UCLA in a 12/5 game and then beat the 4 seed too to make the Sweet 16. Tulsa was coached by Tubby Smith. The current coach of Tulsa, Danny Manning.