Crazy First Weekend

What a crazy weekend of college basketball in the NCAA tournament. Upsets and controversies all over the place. If you're one of the 400 people in the United States who's bracket isn't busted congratulatons!

Lets start off with the games that probably ruined everyones bracket in the Louisville vs Morehead State match up. The 4 vs 13 upset that not many saw coming. If you watch ESPN at all you would have predicted this upset because all the analysts were saying Morehead State is no joke. Morehead has some very talented, quick guards with some aggressive bigs down inside. They fought hard to get the victory and it was well deserved. If you weren't paying attention there was a Topekan on the Morehead State roster, Lamont Austin who was a Highland Park grad of  '07 along with Kyle Weems who now plays at Missouri State University. Highland Park won the 5a state championship that year.

If you were like me you wrongly thought Penn State was going to upset Temple which also was one of the 6 buzzer beaters on friday. Temple was no match for San Diego State in the third round though.

Butler who also won on a buzzer beater in the second round off of a Matt Howard layup as time expired advanced to a battle with the top ranked team in the Southeast Pittsburgh Panthers. This was one of the best games in the whole tournament. It was played with a lot of heart from both sides. It was a very fast paced game and in the end came down to the last 7.1 seconds or so when Butler's Shawn Vanzant drove the ball down the lane and dished it off to sophomore Andrew Smith who layed it in with 2.2 seconds remaining putting Butler up 70-69. Pittsburgh heaved the ball down to half court to Gilbert Brown who was fouled with 1.4 seconds left. Brown a 78% free throw shooter drained the first one tying it up at 70 a piece and the second one rimmed out. On the rebound by Matt Howard, Nasir Robinson from Pittsburgh inexplicably fouled him on the arm with 0.8 seconds left sending Howard to the line where he put the first shot in and purposely missed the second sending Butler to the sweet 16 in the most exciting game yet.

Kentucky also barely won in the second round against a surging Princeton team who were coming in off of an emotional last second game winning shot. The game was tied at 57 when freshman sensation Brandon Knight who was scoreless the whole game banked in a nifty layup with 2 seconds to go ending the Tigers season who were looking to be this years cinderella. Kentucky aslo went down to the wire against West Virginia in the third round but out lasted the Mountaineers.

But this tournament isn't lacking cinderellas its lacking top seeds. The previously mentioned Pittsburgh Panthers. As well as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who i had advancing to play KU in one of my brackets they were stunned last night by a newly energized Florida State team. Fresh off their superstar Chris Singleton returning they knock off Texas A&M as well as Notre Dame. Singleton one of the top players in the ACC broke his foot in February and is just returning after surgery. He logged good playing time against A&M but sat the bench most of the game against the Irish in a game that was never in question.

VCU is certainly raising people's eyebrows. A team who had to win a play-in game in this years newly added "first four". They are shutting up their nay sayers out there. Coach Shaka Smart is out to prove a point it seems. On selection sunday everyone was saying how they should not be in the tournament now he has led his Rams to 3 straight victories. Which is a VCU school record previously they had only won one game in the "Big Dance"

Getting to the #1 seeds now, Ohio State is looking like they should destroying a very good George Mason team. Sullinger is clicking on all cylinders and fifth year senior David Lighty went 7-7 from three point range in the George Mason win. It seems no matter where you try and focus to shut them down someone else steps up. The Buckeye's other talented freshman Aaron Craft had 15 assists a career high.

Duke had a slight scare in the second round against a difficult Michigan squad. Only winning by two. Senior Nolan Smith had himself a game breaking Tim Hardaway Jr's ankles. The game came down to the final seconds, Michigan would have tied the game on a floater that bricked off the back iron. The big story for the Blue Devils however is Kyrie Irving, only playing in 10 games this season before suffering a toe injury in December. In those 10 games he was marvelous shooting 51% from the field and 45% from three, averaging nearly 17 points per game. Irving had an unbelievable performance on December 1 against Michigan State scoring 31 in an 84-79 win against the Spartans. Now that he is back for the Blue Devil's they are my favorite to win it all. In his first game back Irving had 14 points in 16 minutes of action. Duke now in the sweet 16 will play Arizona who have a weapon down inside with Derrick Williams it looks to be the best pairing in the West region.

Staying in the ACC my personal favorite team the North Carolina Tar heels had a controversial game themselves against the Pac-10's Washington Huskies. The game was a battle all the way down to the end. Harrison Barnes a preseason All-American was on point leading the Heels but as the games was about to end a last second shot was touched by John Henson of UNC and it went out of bound with 0.5 seconds left. When played in slow motion it looked as if 1.4 seconds should be on the clock but the officials didn't go to the replay monitor and the game went on Washington's Isiah Thomas put up a last second shot to try and eclipse the Tar Heels but it fell short and so UNC advances to play Marquette who squeaked past third ranked in the East Syracuse Orange.

Now on to KU and K-State, the Jayhawks looked pretty sloppy in the first half against the Terriers of Boston University. As the game went on Boston stuck around then momentum quickly shifted to KU's side and the Hawks ran away with it. In the third round game versus Illinois it was a tight one throughout the first half but as the second half began coach Bill Self's team took advantage of some early turn overs eventually cruising to a 73-59 win led mostly in part by the Morris brothers. They now advance to play a pesky Richmond Spiders team.

K-State played a pretty solid game against Utah State in the second round giving Wildcat fans hope that this would be the year. Sadly, Wisconsin had their number in what turned out to be a bloody affair. A game in which stitches had to be handed out I thought for a second the Morris brothers had slipped into a Wildcat uniform and threw some of their infamous bows as they always do. Jacob Pullen had a career night scoring 38 on his way to setting a new school record for career points scored. Pullen was emotional after the game as were many of the Wildcats. A classy move made by NBA great Reggie Miller picked up their spirits a little it seemed. Miller addressed the cats saying they have nothing to be ashamed of and they represented themselves as well as their school very well. They did in fact it just wasn't enough this time around.

A couple teams to keep your eye on would be BYU and Jimmer Fredette as they take on Florida and their 5'8" point guard Eriving Walker. Not related but Uconn's Kemba Walker is looking to lead Uconn past Steve Fisher and San Diego St.