Day One Roundup

It was, unsurprisingly, a wild first day in the NCAA Tournament. Let's take a look at some of the action.

Upset I Wish I Had: Montana over Nevada. It seems like every year there's a mid-major team seeded between the #4 and #6 lines that maybe doesn't belong quite that high, and that team always seems to lose or at least comes really close. Recent examples:

2004: #4 Cincinnati barely holds off #13 East Tennessee State, 80-77
2003: #6 Creighton loses to #11 Central Michigan, 79-73; #4 Dayton loses to #13 Tulsa, 84-71
2002: #6 Gonzaga loses to #11 Wyoming, 73-66

The problem here was that Montana seemed to be overseeded as well, and in that kind of game it usually makes sense to pick the team with the best player - in this case, Nick Fazekas. But in retrospect, Nevada was due for a fall (high seeds tend to underachieve when they ride long winning streaks into the tournament).

Upset I Wish I Didn't Have: I looked pretty smart on Iona for a half, and then I think LSU's coach had them all hypnotized to forget it was March. And suddenly they played better! Speaking of that subregional, I also wish I'd taken A&M over Syracuse. I blame the seduction of Iona's flashy guards here; had I not taken them, I at least would have had LSU beating Syracuse, minimizing the damage. As it stands, that whole side of the South is gone except Duke. I thought Syracuse might be running on fumes, but didn't trust A&M to be the ones to do it. Whoops.

Upset That Was So Easy To Call I Shouldn't Give Points For It: Every year there's one of these too. Usually it's a 5-12 game. For example:

2005: #12 Wisconsin-Milwaukee over #5 Alabama
2004: #12 Pacific over #5 Providence and #12 Manhattan over #5 Florida
2003: #12 Butler over #5 Mississippi State
2002: #12 Missouri over #5 Miami
2001: #12 Gonzaga over #5 Virginia
2000: #11 Pepperdine over #6 Indiana

This year, as in 2000, it was a 6-11. The victim is always a power conference team that just seems like it isn't that good, and the upset-puller is usually a scrappy team from a small conference (counterexample to that: Missouri in '02). Wisconsin-Milwaukee actually has the honor of being the lower seed in this scenario two years running, knocking off #6 Oklahoma in a game that I believe the majority of the field picked right.

Game of the Day: I'm inclined to say Tennessee/Winthrop, which was palpably exciting even though (a) I was stuck in the office watching score updates flash on ESPN.com and (b) enough people had picked it that it wasn't nearly as exciting as any other potential 2-15 upset would have been. GW/UNCW was another good one, though UNCW's remarkable choke job in the last couple minutes was hard to watch. Similarly, BC/Pacific was great except for the way Pacific totally threw the game away with a botched last possession in regulation and their stunning inability to break a full-court press. ("How about instead of dribbling at all, I pass it cross-court? How about I kind of lob that pass so it's easy to steal?") And also, way to take a huge BMOC in the second OT, guys. Finally, I watched most of the second half of Indiana/SDSU, and that was pretty entertaining. It's pretty astounding to watch two teams shoot that well for a whole game (a combined 52.4%!). Indiana really escaped with one, though.

Conversation of the Day: As Tennessee/Winthrop came down to the wire, I watched on the internet scoreboard as Ryan watched the game. When Tennessee hit the unlikely shot with less than a second to go, here was how it went in the IM:

Ryan (4:21:27 PM): HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Ryan (4:21:33 PM): off balanced
Flax (4:22:09 PM): aw, lame
Ryan (4:22:25 PM): SO AWESOME
Flax (4:22:29 PM): though actually, since there are people who have winthrop, I wouldn't be as upset
Flax (4:22:37 PM): I thought you were rooting for Tennessee to lose?
Ryan (4:22:45 PM): sure, because they are lame and i like upsets
Ryan (4:23:16 PM): oh wait
Ryan (4:23:31 PM): i thought winthrop made the shot
Flax (4:23:37 PM): ha!
Flax (4:23:42 PM): aren't you watching the game?
Ryan (4:23:42 PM): LAME
Ryan (4:23:44 PM): yes
Flax (4:23:46 PM): haha
Ryan (4:23:50 PM): darnit