Thursday, March 18, 2010

Your First Day Thoughts?

I'll have a post after the game are done tonight with my thoughts on the entire first day. But I'd love to hear from all of you to know what you saw. One of the things about March Madness is that there are usually four games going on at once, so I can only watch so much of it. So I'd be interested to hear your observations.

I'll probably post again right around the time the last game of the night ends, which should be around 12:30 eastern time.

21 comments:

Unknown said...

That Washington Marquette game was fast!

Thats all I got.

Ohio was way better than I thought. They have a great passing game.

JonL. said...

I think the giant killer, so far, has been Ohio beating Georgetown. NEVER saw that 1 coming at all.

I'm surprised at the amount of close games and OT we've had so far.

UTEP laid DOWN in that game. What was wrong with them. That by far was the worst game today IMHO.

Best shot of the day(even though it made me lose) was the 1 to take down Vandy. Just knew that was going to happen when they passed it to him and he curled around and had the open look.

Overall 9-3 with 4 to go and they look interesting so far. Lehigh has Kansas down by almost 10!

Stirge said...

What stands out to me is how many great players are stashed around the country. It seemed like every team had at least one standout player, regardless of seeding.

I guess the Vanderbilt loss could have been seen, however unlikely.
But the Georgetown loss was a shock to me. That team never got it going - they didn't look ready for what Ohio was going to bring.

As for UTEP, the only thing I can say is that sometimes you see teams quit in all sports, for whatever reason.

DMoore said...

Big East is 1-3, with the one win being a 2 seed winning in OT. They've lost a 3 seed, and two 6 seeds. That's ugly.

Anonymous said...

BYU scared the hell out of me, as I took your advice and advanced them to the Final Four in my bracket hoping to pick up some points. They certainly didn't play like a Final Four team today though, so I'm worried they might get run over by Kansas State tomorrow. Would love to see your thoughts on them, are you still as confident after they got this one behind them?

Jeff said...

You guys all know my thoughts on the Big East this year, so I'm not going to defend them. Although to be fair, if you were going to pick two teams that were egregiously over-seeded you'd go with Marquette and Notre Dame. I blame those upsets more on the Selection Committee than the Big East. Notre Dame should have been a 9 or a 10 seed, so their first round loss wouldn't have been so surprising.


I agree with the sentiment that Georgetown was the huge shocker of the day. I've been talking up Ohio for a while now, but I assumed that if there was one 3 seed that couldn't go down to a 14 it was Georgetown.

And I'm not too worried about BYU. This is the worst I've seen them play all year, so this is probably more about them being tight and needed to go a victory under their belt. I mean, as I type this Kansas is up by 9 points with about 10 minutes left in the game against Lehigh... and I'm not at all nervous about Kansas still being the best team in the country. The Jayhawks just look like a team that was out partying last night, and that didn't take their opponent seriously.

JonL. said...

and yet ANOTHER OT with WF/TEX. And 1 point game with TN/SDS.

Man, Im just blown away by how many have come down to the wire today.

csuramsfan said...

Best first day of the tourney is MANY years.

JonL. said...

agreed ramsfan!

Anonymous said...

are the lower seeds not as good this year or are the low to mid major teams a lot better than usual? everyone said it was a really week bubble this year, but some of these lower tier at large teams have knocked off some big teams, and villanova barely survived...

Anonymous said...

damn it...Texas had that game won...gotta hit those free throws...

DMoore said...

Wow, what a great ending to the Wake Forest / Texas game.

OK, with Wake playing against Kentucky, the whole "DeMarcus Cousins will lose his cool and take himself out of a critical game" theory is about to be tested. I don't know any current college basketball player better at playing a little dirty and pissing off his opponent like Wake's Chas McFarland.

Anonymous said...

WOW u guys do know those shots are called free throws right. What a joke texas should just let mac brown shoot their free throws my god man how embarassing. Big east is a joke and It could just be me but noway byu advances checking on the boards like they did today kansas st will murder them if that happens. The best team today was Kentucky as much as this missouri fan hates to say it

Mark said...

Great first day of the tournament. One of the best in many years. I've been doing brackets since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1986 and this first day jumps out at me. I understand there will be upsets- 12's beating 5's or 10's beating 7's but one of the things I need to wirte down and think about next year is performance over the season and the last 10 games. Georgetwon has been inconsistent all year and Villanova chunked the last month or so. I take that into account, to an extent, but need to remember that next year.

I'm watching the Cornell/Temple game now and Cornell amazes me for the first 30 minutes. They shoot light's out and don't make mistakes. If they can hang on and beat Temple, maybe Jay Bilas was on to something.

Anonymous said...

hope you dont gamble. these are the worst pick i have ever used,i think you should donate to me,for losing my money!!!!

Mark said...

Hey Anonymous,

Go back to work digging ditches. Leave this site to people who REALLY follow and enjoy college hoops. Get a hanky before you pick up your shovel.

Jeff said...

Don't respond to trolls, Mark. Join me in the new post I threw up for Day 2 thoughts. I'll be here all day "working" from home.

Mark said...

Jeff, if Cornell keeps shooting like that, I may have to start listening to Jay Bilas more often. How would Wisconsin match up (if they win) against them? I have them going relatively far.

I'm "working" from home today too. If you know what I mean.

Jeff said...

I think Wisconsin's strategy would be to take the ball at Foote, particularly with Jon Leuer, to try to knock him out of the game.

But the way this Tournament has gone, they should worry about beating Wofford first...

Mark said...

Last question and I'll let you go back to watching games- Can Syracuse make a deep run in this? They have loads of talent mut the injury is pretty concerning through the weekend. I haven't seen FSU play this year and have seen Gonzaga a few times. Syracuse is a big question mark for me as is that entire region.

Jeff said...

We can talk all day, I'm ust trying to drag you to the other post, haha. This post is sliding down on the page where a lot of people won't see it anymore.

Syracuse cannot make a deep run without Onuaku, for two reasons. One, they'll have a six man rotation. Two, anytime they don't have either Onuaku or Jackson on the floor they just are not the same team. Their zone funnels opponents into those big men, and those guys are also needed for offensive rebounds.

I can see Syracuse getting by this weekend without Onuaku, but even if he then plays in the Sweet 16 game Onuaku will be rusty. And if their opponent is Butler, that's a team that shoots the three well, which is always the formula for beating a zone.