Ok, forgive my ignorance, but I really haven't followed College basketball much at all until a couple of years ago, and not very closely at that, but what's going on with these games today? And the others like them?
They're essentially play-in games to get into the main 64-team tournament. I refuse to call Thursday-Friday the second round and Saturday-Sunday the third round.
And this is why I'm waiting until after the play in games to fill out my brackets.
What an unbelievable choke job by one damn good coach in Tim Cluess. When you completely dominate the pace of the game, and its clear to everyone with eyeballs that BYU can't keep up with your pace... why on earth would you stay in a passive zone for the entire second half, even as the other team is clearly on a run and getting hotter by the second? I wanted to throw my remote through the TV.
I wanted to wait until after all the play-in games to fill out my bracket, but I'm simply going to be too drunk tonight and too hungover tomorrow to make it happen. Doing it now.
Still holding out, even though I don't think any of the teams playing tonight have a chance to win a first round game. Iona was really the only one I wanted to wait for... and I'm still waiting for them to come out of the half time locker room.
I don't pay nearly enough attention to get an actual sense of the field, so I've been using a combination of the KenPom stats to iron out some of the under/overseeded teams, and Nate Silver's March Madness to decide some of the more cryptic early tournament mid-bracket matchups that won't ultimately go anywhere.
last year my stealth warhorse Utah State flamed out instantly, I'm hoping for better luck this year with Belmont and Memphis.
Elite 8:
Kentucky
Baylor
Wisconsin
Ohio State
Memphis*
Missouri
UNC
Kansas
I paid the 4 bucks... worth it to be able to watch at work. I figure if I wasn't at work I'd probably be at a bar watching the opening round, so 3.99 ain't that bad.
It absolutely was. Some good, close games, but ultimately nothing memorable. A couple of the games were fun, though (Wichita State-VCU was a close game the whole way).
Tomorrow has the better match ups for great, close games, though.