Tommie Prince (left) leads the cheers as Pepperdine becomes the tournament's only true Cinderella story.
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Player to watch
A point guard's supposed to be an extension of the coach, right? You might think that'd be a scary sight for whomever's supposed to be John Chaney's duplicate on the court for Temple, but Pepe Sanchez is just fine. Who else can have an 0-for-3 shooting night and let everyone know he's the best player on the court? That's what 15 assists to just two turnovers will do.
Random thought
Will Quentin Richardson's only NCAA Tournament memory be getting his 3-pointer blocked by Nick Bradford, sealing the Blue Demons' OT loss to Kansas? Q tipped, indeed.
Stock Rising
Desmond Mason. Folks, this guy can fill it up. Come Sunday, he'll get to prove if Pepperdine's stifling D was a fad against Indiana or the real thing.
Bracket buster
The one, the only Cinderella to make it to the second round -- Pepperdine. The Waves get the nod for sending Indiana home early. Gonzaga, we already knew ye. Seton Hall? You're in the Big East. You don't get the slipper until the Sweet 16. To do that, the Pirates need to shock the world by beating Temple.
Second round game we'd pay to see
Tulsa-Cincinnati. The Golden Hurricane can play Cincinnati's game; the question is can the Bearcats keep up? Tulsa was almost jobbed by getting a seven seed (it's more like a four or five), but then lucked out by drawing the depleted Bearcats rather than Temple, Iowa State or St. John's.
User Message of the Day
Has anyone else been snakebitten by the lack of upsets in the first round? I picked too many upsets in
an upset-free tourney. I had SE Missouri St., no dice. I picked Dayton, nope. I had Creighton and Utah
St, no can do. I am only 26-6 after the first round. Anyone else having problems?
-- OttotheBigFatOrange
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Daily Word: Favored teams advance, but it wasn't easy
All but three of the top 32 seeds advanced to the second round of
the NCAA Tournament, but don't think that means the selection committee
wasted its time creating the bracket.
What did we learn after two days? That the committee did a decent
job of putting together a lively tournament, even if there were technically only three upsets. Three others were a possession away, but had those come through, it would have only made this more of an unpredictable tournament, not necessarily a better one.
So what if at this point last season, 12 teams in the bottom half of the draw (four 9s, four 10s, two 12s, a 13 and a 14) had advanced to the second round? Taking out the four No. 1 seeds, the average point differential this year was 11.11. Last year? 11.79. Across the board, the games are just as close.
What about single-digit margins, you ask? This year's tourney has had 13 so far, compared to 12 last season. One-point victories? Three in 2000, two in 1999.
The committee should be commended for putting together
competitive games that gave us four overtime matchups (compared to one in last year's opening round) and two gems out of the 4-13 matchups -- Tennessee over Louisiana and LSU over Southeast Missouri State.
For more of Andy Katz's Daily Word, click here.
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QUESTION OF THE DAY
Which player impressed you most in the first round? |
ESPN's Len Elmore
Marcus Fizer, Iowa State. It was a close-game situation against Central Connecticut State, and he stepped up to help carry his team. What happens in many tight situations is that guys tend to run away and hide. That doesn't take anything away from the performances of Bootsy Thornton or Richie Frahm. But Fizer did it with power and finesse.
ESPN.com's Andy Katz
Brendan Haywood, North Carolina. He scored 28 points and had 15 rebounds in
the Tar Heels' victory over Missouri. While plenty of other players are deserving of the honor, Haywood's contributions were even more significant. He had gone through a season of erratic play and the Tar Heels couldn't have advanced without him being a force in the middle. Haywood's inspired play in
the post gives the Tar Heels a chance against Stanford. Without him being physical inside, the Tar Heels would have no shot against Jarron and Jason Collins and Mark Madsen.
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TOURNAMENT CHALLENGE
The Madness is under way. This year's pool is larger than ever, with 590,000 brackets submitted. Click here to check your brackets. Some interesting tidbits:
The only first-round game the majority of brackets got wrong was Pepperdine over Indiana (20.2 percent picked the Waves to win).
60 percent of brackets predicted No. 10 Seton Hall to upset No. 7 Oregon.
65 percent predicted No. 10 Gonzaga to upset No. 7 Louisville.
Only 569 brackets predicted Lamar to defeat Duke.
Michigan State was the favorite pick to win it all (29.21 percent), edging Duke by a scant .09 percent.
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ESPN BRACKETS
Bracket fever has hit ESPN! We have our own Tournament Challenge group here, and you can check it out. First, you'll need to log on to the Challenge main page with your entry, and then check out the Featured Group Great Minds of Bristol U. to see our predictions for the NCAA Tournament. Jay Bilas leads after the first round after successfully picking 30 of 32 games (he missed Missouri's upset bid and had Indiana getting past Pepperdine). |
Cinderella Watch
We were patient Thursday, trading the excitement of upset bids falling just short for the real deal. But the upsets still didn't come Friday. Louisiana? Done in by a questionable call. Butler? Gotta make your throws. Utah State? One and done. The clock was ticking...
And then finally, in the last game of the last session of the first round, the glass slipper found a fit. Pepperdine might have entered the Big Dance through a side door as one of the last at-large teams, but the Waves sure made their presence known when the dance floor was their's.
All that Pepperdine did was hand Indiana the worst first-round loss in Hoosier history. That's not the way you expect Cinderella to show up, but nothing about the Waves' 77-57 thrashing of the Hoosiers went as as expected.
Forget about the supposed distractions from the latest wave of Bob Knight horror stories -- one team showed up Friday and one didn't. For that, Pepperdine earned two more days in Bracketville as the tournament's only true Cinderella.
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