The Kentucky Wildcats rolled to a 13-point victory over the Cincinnati Bearcats in the Round of 32, but really, the game could have been called after this play in the first half. Kentucky's Willie Cauley-Stein just demoralizes Cincinnati's Quadri Moore with a dunk. I mean...look at Moore. He still doesn't know what's going on.
This is quite the funny concept that actually stays chuckleworthy throughout. Metta World Peace's acting is probably better than it's ever been. Is that saying anything? No, but still. Baby steps. Best line: "Your office has a pool? Where do you work, Google?"
Don't you just love this time of year? The number of fires increases by 60,000% as people burn their brackets across the nation. Trendy upset picks fail, trendy title contenders fail, and things you thought were clever end up failing. How many times can I say fail? Probably as many times as the number of picks I got wrong today. So...several more "fails" are on the way.
1. Louisville easily had the most exciting region: UAB and UCLA won by identical 60-59 scores, and Cincinnati and Purdue (who were tied at 59 going into overtime) won 66-65. Then Kentucky and Hampton played. Oh well. You can't win 'em all. Unless you're Kentucky. Jacksonville was a close second, with three games coming down to the final possession.
2. UNC's Marcus Paige said "it's fun to be the underdog" after his No. 4 Tar Heels beat No. 13 Harvard. Okay, Marcus.
3. It's unfathomable that Baylor lost its game. To be up by 12 with 2:54 left and then not score again is a terrible way to finish what had been a decent performance up to that point. Terrific job by Georgia State to press and force mistakes on Baylor's end, but goodness, what a disaster.
4. Speaking of which, Georgia State coach Ron Hunter has had a rough couple of weeks. After tearing his achilles celebrating his team's victory that punched 'em a ticket to the Big Dance, Hunter had to sit on a stool with wheels for this game. When his son R.J. hit the game-winning three-pointer, Hunter's reaction was...well, not the most graceful.
5. The state of Texas went 0-5 and is out of the tournament entirely. After one day. Ohio, meanwhile, had the best state record, going 3-0 (though one of those wins was Dayton beating Boise State at home by one point, and that happened Wednesday).
6. There were a LOT of stupid plays down the stretch of games, but the dumbest has to be Yanick Moreira's goaltend at the end of the SMU-UCLA game. Bruins guard (and coach's son) Bryce Alford threw up an off-balanced, contested three-pointer that had ZERO percent chance of going in. Moreira didn't care. He was determined to touch that ball, and got called for goaltending. I don't understand why this has been controversial. It was 100% goaltending, and 100% stupid. It's also 100% sad because Moreira is a senior, and that was his final collegiate game.
7. UCLA winning doesn't validate their inclusion into the field. Just like Texas and Ole Miss losing doesn't mean people get to say "I told you so." The Bruins shouldn't have been in at all. They're making the most of their opportunity, so good on them, but they didn't play well enough to earn a bid during the season, and it's frustrating that they'll now be advancing.
8. I thought the Big 12 was supposed to be the best conference?
9. There were five games decided by one point (an NCAA record for a single day) and another by two points.
10. Combined, Kentucky, Villanova and Arizona won by 85 points. The other 13 games? A combined 61 points.
11. Ever so briefly (or maybe for a full year if there are no upsets tomorrow), the 11/6 matchup has more upsets than the 12/5. They had come in with 44 apiece, but 12-seeds went 0-2 while 11s went 1-2.
12. This cracks me up because I live in Austin: James Harden scored 50 points in a Rockets win. Every college team except one scored at least that many points. The lone exception? The Texas Longhorns, of course, who only managed 48.
13. The last time two 3-seeds lost their first game? You'd have to go back to 1995, when Villanova and Michigan State fell to Old Dominion and Weber State, respectively.
14. For how many close games there were, there were actually zero second-half buzzer beaters. The closest was the Wolfpack of North Carolina State, who hit a game winner with 0.1 seconds left. That reminds me...
15. Do you know why March Madness is so exciting? Because teams are so inconsistent and crappy down the stretch that even what appears to be a safe lead is, in fact, in peril. Great example: LSU missed their final 12 field goals and six free throws to blow it against N.C. State.
16. I'll end with my most egregious bracket selection I've ever made: I chose Iowa State to make the championship. They lost the second game of the day. Just like that, my bracket went up in flames. What's the most amazing part of all this? Every year, Yahoo! Sports' Pat Forde does a "Dream/Nightmare Scenario" for each team in the tournament, discussing basically the best and worst things that can happen for each team, with colorful metaphors and whatnot. Iowa State's dream scenario? They win the whole thing while Iowa loses in the first round. Their nightmare scenario? Beating UAB and then losing to SMU in the second round. Let me repeat that: THEY COULDN'T EVEN GET TO THEIR NIGHTMARE SCENARIO. Just a terrible display of basketball.
Everyone enjoys a good slam dunk from time to time. Even moreso if it breaks the backboard, causing glass to shatter everywhere and making games delayed for minutes, and maybe even hours.
That was the case when Siena's Willem Brandwijk threw down a jam during pregame warmups. Normally, this is an illegal thing to do, but only after the officials have come out onto the court. This was early enough in warmups that it was alright.
Well, alright in the sense that Brandwijk wouldn't get ejected. But thanks to what appears to be some really faulty pins holding up the basket, the entire thing just collapses. There was a roughly 45-minute delay while Canisius (the host school) put up a replacement rim. And to make matters worse, Siena lost the game, 83-49. Ouch.
Well, at least one Florida State team won something. The Noles knocked off the Gators in the "Upper Part Of Florida" Rivalry Game, largely thanks to one of the most bizarre finishes ever. Florida State's Devon Bookert tried a fadeaway three to win the game. He missed. Badly. So badly, in fact, that Florida's Jacob Kurtz had an easy grab to rebound the ball and send the contest into overtime.
Which is why what happened next is so weird.
Kurtz tries to grab the ball, but somehow knocks it into the hoop. I've watched this 30 times and still don't understand how it happens. Simply incredible. Meanwhile, all the play-by-play says is "Florida State makes jumper."
Earlier this week, the college all-star shenanigans took place. It's basically a way for players who aren't still in the NCAA Tournament to take advantage of a little extra time in the spotlight. One of those players was Michigan State senior Adreian Payne, who dropped an incredibly impressive dunk.
But he wasn't done there.
Payne then picks up his basketball and executes a fairly complex and well thought out celebration. It involves at least seven other people from what I can see, and I really hope there was no forewarning it was coming at all. Either way, well worth the quick watch.
Dick Vitale first announced a college basketball game in 1979. In case you were wondering, it was a game between DePaul and Wisconsin. As the legendary broadcaster enters his 35th season of calling games, ESPN gathered 35 of his colleagues to do their best impersonation of Dickie V. The results are...well, mixed, but entertaining nonetheless.
