The tournament opened with a bang, as the first five games were decided by just fifteen points, and four of those games — Butler/Old Dominion, Temple/Penn St., Kentucky/Princeton and the upset of the day, Louisville/Morehead St. — were decided by two points or less.
Unfortunately, the rest of the day’s action wasn’t so exciting. Richmond upended Vanderbilt in a three-point nailbiter, and Michigan State’s furious comeback made UCLA sweat a little bit, but other than a late run by Utah St. (against K-State), the rest of the day’s games were snoozers.
My bracket picks started off strong, but a 1-3 record in the night games — losing Michigan St., Utah St. and St. John’s — spoiled an otherwise fine first day.
So far, Sagarin and Pomeroy ratings are faring as expected. Not counting the First Four, Sagarin is 7-2 (78%) in games where the favorite had a 2+ point advantage, and is 12-4 (75%) overall. Pomeroy’s favorites that were 65% or greater are 6-1 (86%), while his straight picks are 11-5 (69%). (Both systems were 3-1 in the First Four, losing the USC game.)
I lost two Sweet Sixteen teams (Louisville and St. John’s, who seemed unaware that they had a game against Gonzaga today), but the goal throughout the first two days is not to lose any Elite Eight or Final Four teams, and so far, so good.
Maybe the best thing about the first Thursday of the tournament is that we get to wake up and do it again tomorrow. I’m planning to spend the day with my good friend LaRusso at a few different locales in Orange County, so I’ll be tweeting from the road.
The soon-to-be Pac-12 Conference recently 