Friday, March 18, 2011

My 2011 NCAA bracket results after day 1

The biggest shock to everyone yesterday was that it was St. Patty’s day, and I did not have a drink.  I know, shocking, someone not drinking on St. Patty’s day, what has the world come to?  After everyone recovered from that realization, the second biggest shocker yesterday was Morehead State’s upset win as a 13 seed over 4 seeded Louisville.  Did I have that in my bracket?  That would be a negative.  I had Louisville going to the Sweet Sixteen, so much for Rick Patino and company.  Yesterday’s first day of the NCAA tournament was more exciting then in years past.  Upsets happened, buzzer beaters occurred and controversial no calls at the end of games can now be argued leading us into today’s action.  All in all there were six games decided by 3 points or less and three total upsets.  After the first day of March Madness this is how my bracket faired:


East:

I went 2 for 2 here.  West Virginia looked a little shaky, but they pulled it together to beat Clemson by five, 84-76.  Kentucky on the other hand had more of a struggle and had to fight to hold off an overly intelligent Princeton team.  In the end, the math was on Kentucky’s side, 59-57.

Southwest:

I finished 1 and 1 here yesterday; as did most of America I am sure.  Unless you are a Morehead State alum, you picked Louisville.  Morehead State pulled off the upset of the day with a 62-61 win.  In the other game in this region, 12 seeded Richmond upset 5 seeded Vanderbilt.  I did have this one picked, score one for me.  I think a lot of brackets out there had this game pegged though, so my advantage was minimal.  The two upsets yesterday have set up a game with 13 seeded Moorehead State playing 12 seeded Richmond for the right to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.

West:

I was 3 out of 4 in this region, not bad.  If you went “chalk” here, you finished 4-0.  3 seed UCONN rolled over 14 seed Bucknell 81-52.  2 seed San Diego State beat 15 seed Northern Colorado by 18, 68-50.  6 seed Cincinnati ended Missouri’s upset bid with a 78-63 win.  The best game of the day in the region was considered to be the worst matchup going into the start of yesterday, Temple won in buzzer beater fashion of Penn State 66-64.  Some in the national media were ripping this game as un-watchable basketball, so much for that.  The game I dropped here was Cincinnati over Missouri.  After Cincinnati was blown out by Notre Dame in the Big East tournament, I thought Missouri was a lock.  As yesterday proves, there are no locks this season.

Southeast:

The only region to have every game yesterday and I finished 5-3.  I hope that is not a sign of things to come today.  My winner’s were Pittsburgh over UNC-Ashville 74-51, Butler in a great game over Old Dominion 60-58, BYU over Wofford 74-66 (Jimmer 32 points on a bad night), UCLA with a win over Michigan State 78-76 and Florida in a run away over UC Santa Barbara 79-51.  I went a little adventurous in this region and chose two upsets, 11 seeded Gonzaga over 6 seed St. John’s 86-71 was not one of them.  I jumped on the Utah State bandwagon, which crashed and burned to the tune of a 73-68 loss to Kansas State.  I also joined the Belmont club, under the belief that Wisconsin was playing very poorly coming into the tournament, that ended in a Wisconsin 72-58 win. 

In the end I finished 11-5.  My upset picks went a combined 1-3.  We all know the guy in the office that had a brain fart and picked Moorehead State over Louisville will have his 15 minutes of gloating fame come to an end today.  Unless of course something crazy happens again, which as it seems this season, could very well happen.  If you had picked all favorites yesterday you will be sitting at 13-3, but what is the fun in going all chalk?  In today’s games I have one upset bid with Marquette over Xavier.  If it goes the way yesterday did, I should be fine at the end of play later tonight, but that’s why they play the games. 

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