I’m here all day people.
Early games….right now we’ve got Georgia/Xavier, Kansas/Portland State and Michigan State/Temple. My only upset between the three was Georgia (gotta love the story, might as well cheer for them now). I thought about picking Temple but..nah.
Unbelievably, CBS teases me by starting me out with the Georgia/Xavier game and then switching me to Portland State/Kansas. Listen..I’m glad the Vikings made the tournament and everyone charged the court at the Rose Garden. But I under no circumstances want to see them get beat up by Kansas. I just don’t want to see it..kind of like how girls don’t like horror movies or that one part in romantic comedies when the couple breaks up.
9:24: As they show PSU’s coach I wonder what a 16 seeds’ coach says to their team??? I mean really….what the heck do you say??? And if you’re a bench player on one of those teams how do you not tap your teammate on the shoulder and say ‘Damn you know we’re about to get killed right?’
9:28: PSU hits a three!!!! It’s 4-3!!
9:29: Xavier has just blown about 4 layups in a row. Finally Georgia makes them pay by nailing a three. 9-8 Bulldogs in the early going….GET THAT UPSET.
9:30: Xavier turnover leads to a Georgia dunk. AHHHHHHHHHHH.
9:31: Kansas is up 11-3 on Portland State…would it be too much for CBS to switch the game already???
9:36: Temple is up 7-6. Yes I know it’s very early but I’m already shaking my head wishing I had picked them. Ok so it’s too early to even do that, don’t judge! I’m secretly praying Kansas starts to pull away so I watch the two actual games. The good thing about those 1/16 and 2/15 matchups is that they are usually over early. Unfortunately CBS always feels compelled to show them…like they aren’t going to advance or anything.
9:41: Portland St just scored on back to back possessions which means they aren’t going away anytime soon. Stinkin’ crap. And then Jeremiah Dominguez hit a three to cut the lead tgo 9. And Dominguez fed a big tree by the name of Morrison. 4 straight possessions where they’ve scored. Could this be a game???
9:43: No. Mario Chalmers with a three to snap me out of my crazy talk.
9:44: Temple/Michigan St locked in an offensive struggle (9-9 with 12 minutes left) and Georgia is making me feel smart as they are up 2 on Xavier. I’ve got a good feeling about this
people.
9:48: CBS switches over to Temple/Michigan State when Kansas/Portland State was actually getting semi-entertaining. I mean it’s not going to be close all day people. I’m semi-aggravated about that move I mean don’t let me finally get into it then take me away. Sheesh.
23-17 Georgia, 27-18 Kansas and 11-11 between Temple and Michigan State.
9:53: Xavier has turned up the defensive juice from a little bit to a lotta bit. Georgia has got to handle it, meanwhile Michigan State has to find a way to score. Temple will win a defensive slugfest.
9:59: CBS pulls the plus on PSU/Kansas with the Jayhawks up 16. Yes. First look at Michigan State/Temple…Drew Neitzel is 0/4. Not a surprise they are stuck in a struggle. Gotta love that hard-hitting analysis I just gave. By the way…Neitzel…is he a pro??? I don’t know? He kind of reminds me of a poor man’s Dickau, I just feel like he’s always inconsistent.
10:01: PS, the Spartans have two guys on the floor who are whiter than their jerseys (Neitzel and the red-headed Drew Naymick…weird they both are name Drew). What happened to the MoPete/Mateen Cleaves era? Actually what happened to Mateen Cleaves period?
10:03: Michigan State’s offense has woke up, they have their biggest lead right now (up 7). If you picked Temple in this game you should start biting your nails because the Owls haven’t scored in about 8 minutes.
10:04: So of course they get a layup as I type that. My name is SJ’s credibility I have left the building. Also Xavier has missed about 10 layups I swear everytime I glance at my computer they are missing a layup. Georgia is up 31-24 and throwing Xavier a 1-3-1 zone. AHHHHHHH! If they keep it up, Georgia could give us that Cinderella we were missing on Day 1 last year.
10:06: Pulling away time. Georgia just got an alley-oop and is up 33-24 with less than a minute left in the first half, Michigan State is up 28-17 with 4 minutes left and Kansas is up 44-24 with about 2 minutes left. 3-for-3??? Yesssss
10:15: It’s slowing down. Two games at halftime and this Temple/Michigan State game is dull. SO dull that even Gus Johnson seems the slightest bit un-excited. And that’s rare, it’s almost like he’s a soccer announcer waiting for someone to breakaway for a goal except it won’t happen. Or Len Elmore took his soul in the production meeting.
10:17: Neitzel hits his first bucket (TRES PUNTO) with less than a minute left in the 1st half. 35-25 Michigan State.
10:21: All three games at halftime….I’m having withdrawals.
10:28: Unbelievable they are actually sending me back to the PSU/Kansas game. This can’t last longer than 5 minutes right??? It’s 49-26 I mean geeze.
10:30: Georgia with a TIP-IN. Mountain Man Bliss puts the Bulldogs up by 11. Is there a better feeling than watching your upset pick winning?? I don’t think there is I mean it’s the rare combination of being able to feel smart, rub it in someone’s face and just smile. Very underrated feeling. And I hope I didn’t curse the Bulldogs.
10:33: Well Xavier has turned the heat back on defensively and almost got another turnover. You know you’re a Cinderella (sorry MJ) when things just go your way. How else do you throw the ball away, it bounces off the other team’s hand and right into your team’s hands? Exactly.
11:06: Well…..sorry for disappearing but Xavier has taken the lead. I’m slightly devastated. There isn’t a worse feeling than watching that same upset blow the lead and now have to play from behind. Man. The rest have been pullaways but we’ve got a doozy here.
1:12: I’m back with the live updates. Kentucky….excuse me should I say Joe Crawford will not die. Somehow, someway the Wildcats are only down 5 in the 2nd half. Despite the fact that Crawford and Ramel Bradley have all but 8 of their points. Other games going on right now….UNLV is demolishing Kent State in what has to be one of the worst 8/9 games of all-time. All those people who had Kent State winning have to be shaking their head right about now. Purdue is killing Baylor (crap) and Pitt is killing Oral Roberts. Blowout central.
1:14: Looking at the games so far only my upset picks look like they won’t hold up. I’ve got my bad pick (Baylor) and my team that ended up giving them a scare (Georgia). The second one doesn’t make you feel bad because you can always point and say “Man they were close”. The Baylor one is tough to digest though.
1:18: Kentucky is one scorer away from being up by 8 or 10 in this game. Crawford is carrying them, Bradley is game but no one else even exists. Jasper has passed up about 15 shots today (in addition to getting dunked on). He rebounds, he pushes but he doesn’t shoot.
1:19: This is my least favorite part of the tournament. That little break is coming up and there are a bunch of blowouts. Yucky.
1:20: Jasper actually shoots…and misses. Would someone else please score???
1:20: Perry Stevenson says yes with an emphatic dunk. He has 10 points. Kentucky is really slowing this game down to a crawl which is just what they need.
1:21: What they didn’t need? A pullup three-ball from Dominic James. Coup foolishly picked Kentucky, I will proceed to rub this in his face.
1:26: Two of Dominic James’ field goals have been up-and-unders. Interesting. Joe Crawford is a man’s man tho. He just gets And 1 after And 1.
1:34: Kentucky down 8 and Crawford with another driving layup. Kentucky is fouling people off the ball which I’m not sure yo
u could do without it being an intentional foul. It works tho and the big guy misses.
1:36: Joe Crawford nails an amazing three from the top of the key. Bilas says Kentucky won’t go away. False. Joe Crawford WILL NOT DIE! 35 on the day.
1:37: They had to foul, had a debate with my friend on why they fouled. Three second difference isn’t enough time Kentucky had to try and extend the game. They foul Matthews and he hits both of them. Why Jasper has the ball is beyond me….actually I see it. He passes to Ramon Bradley who nails the three. 68-66 Marquette as Crawford/Bradley WILL NOT DIE!!
1:40: Matthews on the line after making two. He makes another two to put them up 4 with 20 seconds left. Why does Jasper have the ball in his hands??? He took 10 seconds, picked up his dribble for no reason and then threw the ball away.
“If I was Joe Crawford I would have spat on Jasper right then. On live TV and everything.” – my friend Robby.
1:43: Game over, Marquette wins a tough one. Someone draft Joe Crawford after today sheesh.
So wrapping up the first half of today….four blowouts that were never in doubt (Kansas, UNLV, Purdue, Pitt), a super dull version of the ‘lower seed pushes the higher seed before the higher seed pulls away’ (Michigan St) and two good games with intriguing results (Marquette/Kentucky, Xavier/Georgia). Both games where teams saw their upset hopes die a slow death. All in all not a bad start.
If anyone is counting I’m 5-for-7 so far. I’ll take it.
2:06: Middle of blowout central…Robby has the nerve to say that Purdue’s offensive rebound with 3 minutes left up 16 was a ‘big rebound’. He was nearly kicked out of the room for the remainder of the day.
2:14: I’m wondering why on earth CBS is still showing this Purdue/Baylor game instead of the Stanford/Cornell game. The one that is still in freakin’ doubt. They are killing me right now.
2:18: Stanford is up 6-0 as I consider sleeping and gearing up for tonight.
3:20: Stanford is up 51-20 for those who care. 6-2 isn’t a bad way to start people. Big games coming up tonight besides the Beasley vs. Mayo….I mean K-State vs. USC matchup. It bugs me that people are making it Beasley vs. Mayo when in all reality it is Beasley vs. Davon Jefferson/Taj Gibson. Jefferson has made a big impact as a froshy (he’s kind of like Stromile Swift except bigger) and could cause some problems in there. Mayo by the way has impressed me big-time with his improvement as a basketball player. I almost owe him an apology. Looking ahead.
Big night for the Pac-10. Four of their six teams are in action tonight. UCLA wil advance with ease, Washington State will probably have some issues with Winthrop and then pull away, USC/K-State could be a blowout or a tight one, but the big one is Arizona/West Virginia. I picked Arizona and that game could have a big impact on a lot of people’s brackets. Don’t sleep on the Wildcats, they are about 20x better with Nic Wise (an actual PG) running the show.
Also the George Mason/Notre Dame battle is tonight. I know a lot of people picked George Mason because of that Cinderella (sorry MJ) run they had a couple years back and just a lack of confidence in ND. I don’t see it for some reason, I’m sorry.
Be back later with coverage of tonight’s slate. I’ll probably be a few minutes late but don’t you mind that.