From the opening tips on Thursday and Friday, upsets were in the making and no matter what it does to our brackets that we fill out, this is what March Madness is all about!! In total, there were 13 games where lower seeded teams pulled off upsets this weekend. Four of the 16 teams advancing to the Sweet 16 are double-digit seeds. Three of the four #1 seeds are still alive, as Pittsburgh was edged by 8-seed Butler 71-70 Saturday night. Of the 11 Big East schools that made the NCAA Tournament, only 3-seed UConn in the West and 11-seed Marquette in the East are the only two that advanced to the Sweet 16.
In the Southwest Region, 12-seed Richmond upending 5-seeded Vanderbilt started the trend of upsets throughout this first weekend of the 2011 NCAA Tournament. 13-Morehead State had their moment in the sun as they upset 4-Louisville 62-61 in Denver on Thursday.11-VCU had no problem with 6-Georgetown, winning 74-56 and knocking the Hoyas out in a hurry. 10-seed Florida State took down 7-Texas A&M, 57-50. That set up two inriguing Round of 32 match-ups. Those two match-ups resulted in upsets last night in Chicago. VCU drilled 3-seeded Purdue 94-76 and Florida State ended 2-seed Notre Dame's dream of their first Sweet 16 since 2003, dominating the Irish 71-57 in the night cap at The United Center.
The Southeast Region proved to be another region that no one could pick right to save their brackets! This year's Michigan State team was a #2 pre-season ranked squad that had a lot of promise and many intrical parts coming back from last year's Final Four team. As one would expect, Tom Izzo would naturally have this team ready and primed for another run at the Final Four. Instead, they stayed on the radar of the NCAA Selection Committee and squeeked in the tournament with a 19-14 record and a 10-seed, dropping their first game to 7-UCLA, 78-76.
We all expected that BYU would have no troubles, because they have Jimmer Fredette and a great supporting cast that would lead them to wins over Wofford and Gonzaga to reach the Sweet 16. Beating Wofford 74-66 and Gonzaga 89-67, the Cougars are now pitted with 2-seed Florida on Thursday night in New Orleans.
5-Kansas State and 4-Wisconsin advanced to the Round of 32 to meet each other late Saturday night. Down the stretch is was Wisconsin coming out on top, 70-65, despite the fact that Kansas State senior Jacob Pullen became the all-time leading scorer in KSU history with his 38 points against the Badgers in his final game as a Wildcat. Pullen was 9 shy of the record before Saturday's game and shattered former Mike Evans' scoring record (2,115) by knocking down 38 Saturday for his career total of 2,144.
8-seed Butler needs no introduction to the NCAA Tournament's upseters category. Nipping 9-Old Dominion 60-58 on Thursday afternoon, there are sure to be more tricks up head coach Brad Stevens' sleeve and some more showed up Saturday night against 1-seeded Pittsburgh. It is honestly one of the best games that I have seen in quite a long time! Such an up-and-down affair from start to finish, it was only fitting that Butler came out on top in this thriller. Andrew Smith's layup with 2.2 seconds left gave Butler a 70-69 lead. Shelvin Mack then brushed against Gilbert Brown around the sideline at midcourt, sending Brown to the line. He made 1-of-2 to tie the Bulldogs at 70-70. The ensuing rebound by Matt Howard proved to be pivotal. Even with the game tied and a possiblity of overtime, senior Nasir Robinson fouls Butler's Matt Howard with 0.8 left. Howard made the first of two free throws for a 71-70 Butler upset of 1-seed Pittsburgh and advancing the Bulldogs to the Sweet 16 once again!
The East Region only had a couple upsets and they both involved an 11-seed from the Big East. The Marquette Golden Eagles started their NCAA Tournament by knocking 6-seed Xavier out with a 66-55 convincing win on Friday. They continued Sunday as they upset the 3-seed Syracuse Orange 66-62 to move on to the Sweet 16 in Newark, where they'll now face 2-North Carolina.
The West Region was full of great games, but nothing that really surprised our brackets like the Southeast and Southwest did. The biggest shock was how bad that 8-Michigan embarrassed 9-Tennessee, 75-45, in their first game of the tournament on Friday. It could have been Volunteers' coach Bruce Pearl's last hoorah before he gets the oust in Knoxville in the coming weeks, considering all the has happened recently there for him.
5-Arizona barely pulled out the W over 12-Memphis in the closing seconds. Leading by the final score of 77-75, Wildcat big man Derrick Williams' block of a 3-point attempt at the buzzer helped secure the win for Arizona and a meeting with 4-Texas, who escaped a scare by 13-Oakland, 85-81. Arizona then took their magic on to beat the Texas Longhorns 70-69 to advance to the Sweet 16 to meet up with Duke.
1-Duke fought off a pesky 8-Michigan Wolverine team 73-71 to advance to another Sweet 16.
Saturday evening, 2-San Diego State took all that it could handle with 7-Temple, dropping the Owls 71-64 in double OT. It'll be interesting how that test against Temple will treat the SDSU Aztecs as they'll move up the California coast to Anaheim for the West Regionals this weekend. They meet up with UConn in the first game on Thursday, while Duke and Arizona will clash in the nightcap.
This is the point where we'll separate the men from the boys, seeing who really belongs and it Cinderella's glass slipper still fits for the Virginia Commonwealth Rams. Will the Butler Bulldogs take the NCAA Tournament by storm again and beat Wisconsin and the BYU/Florida winner?? Will Marquette continue its run and beat North Carolina? Willl the Ohio State-Kentucky game be as epic as it appears it may be? Does Arizona have a shot vs. Duke? What kind of game will UConn vs. San Diego State be? Does 1-Kansas hold an edge in the Southwest (San Antonio) Region because they're joined there by 12-Richmond, 11-VCU and 10-Florida State?
All of these questions will be answered starting Thursday night in Anaheim (West), San Antonio (Southwest), New Orleans (Southeast) and Newark (East).
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