My son’s 2nd birthday party was today, so I set up ten manual recordings to catch the last 10 minutes or so of the following games: Kentucky/Tennessee, Temple/Rhode Island, Duke/Miami, Ohio St./Illinois, Vandy/Miss. St., Richmond/Xavier, Purdue/Minnesota, Washington/Cal, Kansas/K-State and SDSU/UNLV. It worked out pretty well. If a game starts at 10 AM, I found that recording for an hour starting at 11:30 will catch the last half of the second half and if the game goes long, you’re covered. It was fun mowing through them — almost like the first couple of days of March Madness.
Anyway, here are some random thoughts from what I saw:
– Kentucky was very impressive in a blowout of a pretty good team in Tennessee. I’m pretty sure I’m going to pick them as a Finals team unless they’re on the same side of the bracket as Kansas. More on that later. Another exception might be Syracuse — I’m not sure how well the Wildcats would fare against a good 2-3 zone.
– Temple worked over Rhode Island, who probably played themselves out of a tournament bid with a poor performance.
– Duke fended off a feisty Miami team. The numbers say that Duke/Kansas are 1/2 or 2/1, but there’s a sense that they’re not for real. I wonder if the so-called “eye test” might be a little racist in this case. Duke has a number of white guys, and while they’re not the most athletic team in the country, they’re not stiffs either. They have size, outside shooting and experience. They could make a run or get knocked off early in a bad matchup if they don’t shoot the three well.
– That Ohio State/Illinois double-overtime battle was a fun one to watch. Unfortunately, as it stands, Joe Lunardi has Illinois as the first team out of the tournament. With Houston upsetting UTEP for an automatic bid, someone deserving would be left out. It didn’t help that…
– Mississippi State looked very solid in a win over a ranked Vandy squad. By making the SEC finals, the Bulldogs have passed Ole Miss, and it makes sense since they won the regular season meeting as well. It looks like Florida may be left out in the cold too.
– Richmond/Xavier went into overtime and while the Musketeers had control for much of the stretch run, the Spiders forced an extra period and capitalized. Both teams are safely in the tournament, but it was a fun game to watch nonetheless. We’ll see if Richmond can upset Temple tomorrow.
– Minnesota blew out Purdue. I didn’t see that coming. The Gophers have to be in now, right? I think both Minnesota and Illinois are deserving of a spot, but them’s the breaks.
– Washington isn’t going to have to sweat it out tomorrow. They’re in after beating California in the Pac-10 final. That’s another outcome that makes things tough for Illinois and Florida.
– Kansas looked pretty solid in a win over K-State. In the several games I’ve seen, they don’t seem to dominate, but they don’t beat themselves either. Right now, I’m pretty sure I’m going to pick them to win my bracket.
– Watch out for San Diego State as an upset special in one of those 6/11 or 7/10 matchups. They’re really athletic and play solid defense, and they just play hard. Point guard D.J. Gay is the wildcard. Otherwise, the Aztecs have a front line that can hang with anyone.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
