OJ Mayo and Bill Walker played on the same aau and high school teams. Throughout their high school careers Walker was always second fiddle. Not Tonight! Walker owned the first half as Michael Beasley got in foul trouble. Wlaker ended with 22 and Beasley had 23 to lead the Kansas State Wildcats to a 80-67 victory over USC. Mayo finished with 20, but had to work for every point.
Credit Coach Frank Martin with gambling with Beasley in the first half, helping the Wildcats secure a 37-27 halftime lead. In the second half he switched defenses constantly and kept the Trojans off balance. Not bad for a guy in his first college head coaching job.
The upset of the day almost happened in the 2-15 game. Belmont took Duke to the wire and lost on a driving layup with 11 seconds to play. Belmont exploited Duke and showed that they are not a team capable of making the Final Four. If Coach K was not their coach and they didn’t have Duke on their uniforms they would have never been a 2 seed.
The Big 10 stayed on a roll as Wisconsin knocked off Cal-Fullerton 71-56. It was the third double digit win of the day for a Big 10 team. I guess the league is a little better than the national pundits thought.
Bob Huggins took over at West Virginia and a whole lot of writers thought he would have a tough time getting this team to adjust to his system. Well, he proved that he is a Hall of Fame coach by leading them to their 25th win of the season. they knocked off an Arizona team, that in my opinion had no business being the tournament. With Joe Alexander having a bad night it was Darris Nichols picking up the slack. If this team gets good guard play, look out.
Notre Dame put away George Mason by halftime. It what many thought was the 5-12 matchup that could be an upset (I know I did), the Irish came out smoking. Coach Mike Brey has put together a very balanced squad led by Luke Harangody. For my money I would take Harangody over Hansborough any day of the week.
UCLA beat Mississippi Valley State 70-29. Not much to say about this game. They did what they were supposed to do.
A year after Winthrop won an opening round game, they lost a player and their coach. More importantly, they lost the ability to sneak up on anybody. Washington State did it’s homework and wore down the Eagles by outscoring them 42-11 in the second half.
Coaching note: Look for Tony Bennet to be in the mix at Indiana.
