Saturday, March 17, 2012

March Madness First Round


After reading a little bit of the “first four” I became more and more excited for Thursday to come. Both BYU and Western Kentucky staged amazing comebacks, 25 points and 16 points respectively, to write their teams in to the field of 64. If Tuesday showed us even the slightest glimpse of what was to come then we’d be in for a treat. Then came Thursday.
            Let me first begin by describing my viewing situation. Being in Goma, DRC since September has put me at a huge disadvantage to properly follow sports of any type because of the lack of reliable electricity, much less proper Internet or TV coverage of the games I want to see. Nonetheless I have done my best to read up on the box scores and game recaps to keep myself sane in knowing what is going on in college basketball.
            Luckily, since January, I have had access (limited) to African ESPN. The channel has done a good job broadcasting the NCAA and NBA games. Goma is currently 6 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in US, which means that games are usually between 1:00 and 5:00 AM our time, and replays show sometime in the middle of the work day. This means that I have spent many late nights watching basketball (when electricity is available).
            This time difference means that during this March madness the round of 64 games are being broadcast from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM straight, and all the games have been broadcast.[1] So, just so everyone knows my situation, it is now about 2:00 AM on Saturday morning and I am waiting for the SLU-Memphis game to come on. I have only slept 3 hours since waking up at 7 AM on Thursday, but I could not be more happy to be sitting here writing this blog post and watching college basketball.
            So lets get to the juicy stuff, the first round action that occurred on Thursday. I’m not going to lie, but after 12 straight hours of games I was starting to get bored. I don’t know if its just that the selection committee has become way to good at their seedings or if I have been naughty this year and basketball Santa was giving me a lump of coal, but the games on Thursday were very un-intriguing. Here are some observations I had from the Thursday games:

  • SYRACUSE- OK, UNC-Asheville put a scare on “Cuse, but that game was the closest to madness we were able to see. More so than UNC-Ashville playing out of their minds, and having a great coach, the real reason the game went the way that it did was because of the uninspired play of Syracuse. Maybe deflated after the loss Of Fab Melo for the tourney, and the ridiculous comments made by Boeheim about academics[2], but the Syracuse looked like they wanted to be anywhere else but Pittsburg playing basketball. From what I have seen throughout the year, and on Thursday night, I wouldn’t be surprised if they suffer a 3rd round or Sweet 16 bow out.
  • Am I alone?- Am I the only one who really wanted Harvard to win? Also, am I the only one who wanted to turn off the TV because of how boring the Wisconsin-Montana game was? If it wasn’t for the lumberjack beards scattered along the Montana bench I might have died from the fact that my heart would have stopped supplying blood to my brain due to lack of stimulation.
  • Best Game of the Day- The only game that really kept me interested was VCU-Wichita State. I thought Wichita State was the best mid-major in the tourney[3].  Shaka Smart did it again though with VCU. It is awesome to see a hard working and enthusiastic coach rubbing off on his players. The VCU players really play some inspired ball. They are in supreme condition and are skilled players, but I believe it is their heart and enthusiasm, which bring them success.
  • Jae Crowder…- I think that I am in love with Jae Crowder, or maybe just the way he plays. Id be fine with either, really.
  • Biggest Surprise that was Not Really Surprising- I did not think for one second that the studly transfers of Iowa State would ever lose to the young cocky and misled superstars of Uconn. At least Drummond and Lamb have the NBA to look forward to, and I hope Napier somehow finds a way to marry himself, get himself pregnant, and have too much responsibility with his new family to play college basketball again. He would be doing us all a huge favor.
  • Lower- Seeded Teams Who I Think Showed They Have What it Takes to Make the Sweet 16: Kansas State[4], Iowa State, and New Mexico
  • Higher Ranked Teams Who Will Probably Bow Out Early- Syracuse and Indiana.
  • Biggest Surprise of the Night: West Virginia getting spanked in what was practically a home game for them by the Zags.

Even though Thursday wasn’t the best first day of March Madness I have ever witnessed I still of course enjoyed watching every minute of basketball which was broadcast. Yes, even the Wisconsin-Montana game which was boring as sin was still enjoyable for me (Does that make any sense?). Anyway, the real madness began yesterday, Friday with an incredible line up of games.
I could not have been more excited going into Friday though because I would be able to watch my Detroit Titans, and Sparty play, but also would be treated with some perfect match ups which proved to be great games such as, North Carolina State and SDSU, Creighton and Alabama, Cincy-Texas, Memphis and SLU, and Notre Dame and Xavier. I thought all of these games were great match ups for all the teams and were really unpredictable. These are the type of match ups that cause madness, and Madness it was on Friday.
Almost all of the match ups above proved to be great games, but it was the one’s in which I expected blowouts[5] that really were treats. It has been over 10 years since a 15 seed has beaten a 2-seed and we got to see both Mizzou and Duke go down to teams… wait I cant even remember the names of the teams they lost to? Also games which weren’t upsets, but didn’t make for as coring a game as they should have were the two 16-seed vs. 1-seed games where Vermont and LIU-Brooklyn both decided they wanted to hang out with the Tar-Heels and Spartans.
            Before I get to observations I need to vent a little frustration. Even though I am very grateful to have witnessed a lot of great basketball on Friday, Goma teased me. Not only did they decide to broadcast the Heat-6ers game during the third set of games on ESPN, but the French channel also decided to show the second half of the ESPN double header (Thunder-Spurs). The house I was watching the game at is owned and inhabited by a NBA enthusiast and he insisted on watching both games. This meant that I missed most of the afternoon and night games of Friday. Yes, if you are wondering that includes the Purdue-St.Mary's gem, The Notre Dame-Xavier game, and the Duke upset[6]. It also includes the two most important games of the night, Sparty and the Titans games. I was lucky to catch about 10 minutes of each of those two games though after the two NBA games were finished until Goma again surprised me by deciding to fart out its electricity and send me to bed early.
So I will only make some observations on what I saw, but also some observations on what I have heard happened. Man am I disappointed I missed so much. I am equally as happy though that I got to see such great basketball.
  • My Favorite Game of the Night- The young Alabama[7] team and the highly efficient Creighton team proved to be a great match up. It was like watching a lunatic brother driving his calm and collected older brother up the wall. Even in my notes of the games I wrote for this one, “March Madness’ Finest.” I'm not jumping on the bandwagon of Greg McDermott, because I said when I first saw him playing alongside Harrison Barnes at Ames High that he was a special player, but he really is a great player. I was amazed by the way he ran the floor, made the perfect cuts (what seemed like 10000000 basket cuts that always seemed to work), and had a supreme knowledge of the game. He looked like he was running the team
I had a good feeling that Creighton would win this one, but the Tide really fought it out. They were great on defense, and even though they weren’t highly touted on offense, they seemed to be able to score in every way. This game had me shaking my head saying, “Wow” for the majority of the game[8]. It really was a spectacle, and the best game of the night.
  • The Biggest Upset of the Night- Definitely the Spartans (GO STATE!) of Norfolk State upsetting the Mizzou Tigers. Really I don’t think anyone could have seen Mizzou getting upset in the first round, a true bracket killer as they were favorites to make the final four and in a lot of cases win the whole thing. Man did Norfolk play tough though, and I’ll give it to Mizzou for not giving up in the end, but Spartan big O’Quinn had a beastly game. Man did Norfolk stay on that offensive glass and just make big play after big play. This is the type of game that makes us call it the Madness.
  • Game That Looked Like One Team was Playing Itself- Florida State and The Bonnies played in a slugfest. To me it looked like watching the same team play itself, the two teams resembled each other so much. They were both bigger teams that played great defense and rebounded the ball well. The one thing that really stuck out about the game though was big #44 for the Bonnies, Andrew Nicholson. He came out and his game sounded like Biggie throwing bars, “If you don’t know…now you know.” This guy I guess has been doing this all year for St. Bonaventure, but dang he looked like a superstar, filling up the stat sheet in all different ways. He could bang at 6’9, take the ball to the hoop, shoot the outside jumper, pass, play D, whatever you want in a basketball player this guy has it. I'm pretty sure we’ll be seeing him and Michael Snaer playing against each other in the NBA someday soon!
  • Biggest Letdown by a Mid Major of the Night- Man, I really wanted Belmont to pull one off, but the Hoyas really dominated them. If Belmont wasn’t such a good 3-point shooting team the 71-45 blowout could have been a 50-point blowout. The transition game and the all-around game of players like Jason Clark and Henry Sims actually impressed me.
  • Lower- Seeded Teams Who I Think Showed They Have What it Takes to Make the Sweet 16: Cincinnati, USF, Purdue
  • Higher Ranked Teams Who Will Probably Bow Out Early- The two I would have put here are already gone, so this category is null-and-void I guess. I can see Florida State either going down in the next round or making the final four, it is up to them…
  • Favorite Players of the night: Draymond Green, Ray McCallum[9], Greg McDermott, Andrew Nicholson, “Puttin’ in Overtime” O’Quinn, Henry Sims, and Yancy Gates.
  • AND A BIG SCREW YOU TO THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS!

So that it my thoughts on the first round of games, and am expecting some more great one’s tonight. Lets hope that my TV subscription comes in today and I don’t miss out on Kansas State beating ‘Cuse, and the Rams making it to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row. Man I love March!


[1] ESPN rotates the games which are played simultaneously depending on the time and score of the game. Usually it will switch to the more intriguing game.
[2] His comments calling the APR and academic standards of the NCAA, “nuts”. This story really makes him 50% of the coach and man I thought he was before in my eyes.
[3] Speaking of mid-majors, I really expected Colorado State to pull off the upset, especially after the 1st half, but Canaan and the Shockers proved to be too strong, and more battle tested.
[4] Both because of their pretty good-looking play against Southern Miss, but also their luck in their future match ups.
[5] If you were wondering, yes I definitely had no doubt that U of Detroit Mercy would blow out Kansas. I don’t know if that is the fan in me speaking or just the great desire of my heart, but I count this as an expected blowout.
[6] Really does anyone know what the name of the team who beat them is?
[7] ROLL TIDE! That’s for you Aaron, Green, and Jiff.
[8] Both because of the great play and the ugliness of Creighton’s big-man, his name begins with an E and sounds African.
[9] Senior and Junior

1 comment:

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