The first two rounds of the NCAA tournament are done with a few surprises that have reached the “Sweet Sixteen” to go along with the usual suspects that anything less then a National Championship is a disappointing season.
The Men’s Tourney got underway last Thursday afternoon where the favored teams seemed to squash the hopes of a colleges hopes of being this year’s Cinderella team. On Thursday the big surprise came from #12 Western Kentucky who upset #5 Illinois 76-72. Jeff Jordon a backup Sophomore PG would score 1 point in 12 minutes for Illinois. Jeff Jordon is the oldest son of Michael Jordon.
The other upsets from Thursday were #10 Maryland over #7 California 84-71, #10 Michigan defeated #7 Clemson 62-59, and #9 Texas A&M defeated #8 Brigham Young 79-66.
Several potential upsets were close to happening as Virginia Commonwealth who many people had, which included myself had picked the 11th seeded VCU Rams of upsetting 5th seeded UCLA. VCU missed a jumper at the buzzer that would have given VCU the upset instead of 65-64 losers to UCLA.
Several top teams did get scares as #3 Villanova came from 14 points behind in the 2nd half and would come away with the 80-67 victory over #14 American to hold off American’s upset bid of Villanova. #2 Memphis got on by #15 Cal State-Northridge 81-70 after Cal State-Northridge led by 6 points with 10 minutes left to play.
#1 seeds Connecticut and North Carolina would take care of business as #1UConn easily defeated #16 Chattanooga 103-47, and #1 UNC took care of #16 Radford 101-58. 2 seeds Duke and Oklahoma also won fairly easily as #2 Duke defeated #15 Binghamton 86-72, and #2 Oklahoma defeated #15 Morgan St. 82-54.
On Friday the upsets that the NCAA tourney are known for occurred and unfortunately for #6 West Virginia they fell victim to #11 Dayton as the Mountaineers couldn’t get going and would lose 68-60. With the win Dayton got their first tournament win in 19 years. The big upset from the first round was that of #4 Wake Forest, as the Demon Deacons were upset pretty handedly 84-69 by the 13th seeded Vikings of Cleveland St. Wake Forest had been ranked #1 in the country earlier in the season. Other big upsets were #12 Wisconsin defeating #5 Florida State 61-59 in overtime, #10 USC upset #7 Boston College 72-55, and #5 Utah was upset 84-71 by #12 Arizona. Arizona was criticized for their selection into the NCAA tourney after losing 5 of their last 6 games where people believed that they didn’t deserve a tourney bid.
#1 seeded Pittsburgh barely escaped #16 East Tennessee St.72-62, and #1 Louisville was able to get on by #16 Morehead St. 74-54.
In the 2nd round games on Saturday the only upset was a 5 beating a 4 with #5 Purdue squeaking by #4 Washington 76-74. Top seeds North Carolina and Connecticut were able to easily advance to the 2nd round with #1 UConn defeating #9 Texas A&M 92-69 and #1 UNC defeated #8 LSU 84-70. #2 Oklahoma was able to defeat #10 Michigan 73-63, and #2 Duke just got by #7 Texas 74-69. Other 2nd round games from Saturday were #4 Gonzaga avoiding the upset by #12 Western Kentucky with a jumper with 0.9 seconds remaining to win 83-81. #2 Memphis easily defeated #10 Maryland 89-70, and #3 Villanova took care of #6 UCLA 89-69.
On Sunday the top seeds ruled supreme as #1 Pittsburgh got on by #8 Oklahoma St. 84-76, and #1 Louisville survived a scare defeating #9 Siena 79-72. #2 MichiganState barely escaped #10 USC 74-69. #3 Kansas defeated #11 Dayton 60-43, #3 Syracuse defeated #6 Arizona St. 78-67, and #3 Missouri edged #6 Marquette 83-79. #4 Xavier defeated #12 Wisconsin 60-49 and #12 Arizona defeated #13 Cleveland St. 71-57 in a battle of two surprising teams.
The “Sweet Sixteen” gets underway tomorrow night with four games on the docket beginning with #1 Connecticut taking on #5 Purdue at 7:07pm. #1 Pittsburgh will host #4 Xavier at 7:27pm. #2 Memphis host #3 Missouri at 9:37pm, and #2 Duke will host #3 Villanova at 9:57pm.
On Friday night the remaining four games of the “Sweet Sixteen” get underway with #1 Louisville taking on the surprise 12th seeded Arizona Wildcats at 7:07pm. #3 Syracuse faces #2 Oklahoma at 7:27pm. Defending Champion and 3rd seeded Kansas takes on #2 MichiganState at 9:37pm. #1 North Carolina will play #4 Gonzaga in the nightcap at 9:57pm.
In the Women’s Tourney, the four top seeds Connecticut, Maryland, Duke, and Oklahoma all won their 1st round matchups. #1 UConn the only undefeated team on the season defeated #16 Vermont 104-65, #1 Maryland took care of #16 Dartmouth 82-53, #1 Duke easily defeated #16 Austin Peay 83-42, and #1 Oklahoma defeated #16 Prairie View A&M 76-47. Defending champion and 5th seeded Tennessee was the surprise ouster in the 1st round as #12 BallState upset the Lady Vols 71-55.
In the 2nd round Monday night was upset night as #2 Auburn was blown out 80-52 by #7 Rutgers. #3 Florida State was upset 63-58 by #6 Arizona State, #3 Ohio State was upset by #11 Mississippi State 64-58, and #3 North Carolina was upset by #6 Purdue 85-70.
In NBA news Washington Wizards All Star PG Gilbert Arenas who has missed the whole season may be playing in his first game on the season after recovering from September knee surgery on Saturday night when the Wizards face the Detroit Pistons. Unfortunately for the Wizards they currently are 16-56 on the season after being a playoff team a season ago when Arenas was in uniform.
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