Well the first official day of the NCAA Tournament wrapped up yesterday and the afternoon session proved a lot more drama than the evening.
Five of the eight games played in the afternoon came down to the last shot as Morehead State, Richmond, Kentucky, Butler, and Temple all survived and advanced. Morehead State and Richmond were the upsets of the group. The craziest shot was the shot by Matt Howard of Butler at the last second to beat the Old Dominion Monarchs. This is what March Madness is all about. Edge of your seat action the whole afternoon. At one point, I told my buddy, Beas, “Be still my heart.” Other afternoon winners were Pitt, San Diego State, and West Virginia.
As for the evening session, there were a lot of blowouts and double digit victories highlighted by UConn trouncing Bucknell and Florida rolling the Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara. Cincinnati, Wisconsin, Gonzaga, and BYU all had relatively easily victories over their competitors. The most exciting games of the evening session was Utah State-Kansas State and UCLA-Michigan State. Kansas State held off the scrappy Aggies for a 5 point victory and avoided the 5/12 upset. As for the UCLA-MSU game, it was a stinker for 32 minutes as UCLA led 64-41 with 8:36 to play. However a furious comeback by the Spartans cut it to 1 point but a travel by Kalin Lucas with 4 seconds left ended the Spartans chance at a victory.
Power 6 Scorecard:
ACC: 0-1
Big East: 4-2
SEC: 2-1
Pac 10: 1-0
Big 10: 1-2
Big 12: 1-1
Others of note:
Mountain West: 2-0
Atlantic 10: 2-0
CAA: 0-1
