After a sensational opening day of the real first round (now called Round Two), yesterday's second half of the round was far less compelling. As a matter of fact, it bordered on disappointing.
First, there was the issue of overhyped Big East and Big Ten schools advancing to the second round (now called Round Three). While the Big East hit some tumbling blocks, including Georgetown's surrender to potential cinderella Virginia Commonwealth and Villanova's nail-biting loss to potential cinderella George Mason, the league still had three victories Friday. Notre Dame and Syracuse won as expected, but the crucial game of the day for the conference was Marquette's convincing victory over #5 seed Xavier. It wasn't as close as the final score of 66-55 indicated.
Even worse to this observer than the Big East's surge was the Big Ten's immaculate performance Friday. Michigan and Ohio State each won by about 30, while Purdue won by about 20. In the closest game for conference teams, Illinois beat UNLV 73-62, although that was also a blow out until the last few minutes.
Entering today's action, the Big East had seven of its eleven teams still standing and the Big Ten had five of its seven teams remaining.
Second, there was the issue of lopsided games. While Thursday provided plenty of drama (9 of 16 games decided by single digits), Friday produced very few games watchable until the end. Only five games were decided by less than ten points, and only three of them were truly engaging: Washington's 68-65 victory over Georgia, Arizona's 77-75 edging of Memphis, and George Mason's 61-57 heart-stopper over Villanova.
Of course, Villanova didn't belong in the tourney because it had lost its last five games of the season. In this case, justice was served. The George Mason coach provided another highlight at game's end, when he gave emotional praise to his Colonial conference as well as to his school and players: another tremendous performance.
Is it just me, or does the young Arizona coach look like a reject from a Goodfellas audition? Is it just me, or does Syracuse, with its relatively new emasculated nickname change to the Orange, have the lamest mascot in all of Division One? I know, there is the matter of the equally emasculated nickname change and resultant mascot change to the Stanford Cardinal dancing tree.
Anyway, the West had another strong performance Friday, off-setting some of the disappointment. Of the three teams in Pacific or Mountain time zones, only UNLV was a no-show. The Pac-10, after a rocky start of its own when USC failed to show up in a play-in game earlier in the week, has won its other three early games.
What will Saturday bring? Hopefully, the day will produce more close games, more West wins, more Big East and Big Ten losses, and more great plays. With Jimmer Fredette and BYU playing today, the last wish is a given. Enjoy the tournament!
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