NCAA Tournament Round 1 Recap

The Big Dance AKA the NCAA Tournament is underway and it is as exciting as ever. The action began on Thursday and sixteen games were scheduled. Only one major upset occurred and it happened when #12 seeded Western Kentucky defeated Illinois by the score of 76-72. Other than that one game the toss-ups went either way and the powerhouses dominated their opponents. #1 ranked Connecticut made a joke out of Chattanooga wining 103-47 and the other #1 seed North Carolina beat Radford 101-58. That was Thursday, and Friday was when the upsets began. The first upset, which may be the best one throughout the entire tournament, was when #13 Cleveland State dominated #4 Wake Forest 84-69. Wake Forest fell into the trap; they underestimated their first round opponent. Some people may argue that there are too many teams in the Big Dance but all of them still have quality players. The next upset was #9 Siena defeating #8 seed and Big Ten force Ohio State. This double overtime thriller ended 74-72 in favor of the Saints. Another unexpected win was by the Arizona Wildcats when they beat Utah 84-71. The final upset, and the only Big East team to lose in the first round was West Virginia. Dayton outplayed them to the score of 68-60. Day two of the Tourney was definitely more exciting then day one and I am very interested to see how these lower seeds play in their second round match ups. Today we start round two with eight games scheduled and eight more on Sunday. Here are my picks for today’s games.

#6 UCLA Vs. #3 Villanova Winner = Villanova
#8 LSU Vs. #1 North Carolina Winner= North Carolina
#12 Western Kentucky Vs. #4 Gonzaga Winner= Western Kentucky
#10 Maryland Vs. #2 Memphis Winner= Memphis
#5 Purdue Vs. #4 Washington Winner= Purdue
#7 Texas Vs. #2 Duke Winner= Duke
#10 Michigan Vs. #2 Oklahoma Winner= Oklahoma
#9 Texas A&M Vs. #1 UCONN Winner= UCONN

My feeling is that Western Kentucky will keep the great running going a defeat a very overrated Gonzaga Bulldogs team. Other than that the higher seeds will prevail because of their excellent play and deep benches. Check back tomorrow for picks regarding the next eights games and a recap of today’s action.

Daniel Weberman
NYchalktalk.com