march madness day 1

Virginia Commonwealth 79, Duke 77. Today is a very good day. And according to the Sports Guy, the refs were in on the take big time from Duke so much that VCU completely dominated the Blue Devils on both ends of the floor and yet the game was still a nail-biter. But the end result is the same: no more Duke! My bracket could totally go to crap from here on and I'd be happy with just my Duke upset pick to be proud of.

So far I'd say I'm faring pretty well. Of course, most of the favorites won, so a lot of people are probably saying that. I went 13-3 overall on the first day of action, and I'm only kicking and mutilating myself over one stupid pick -- BYU over Xavier. (I was actually on the fence on this one and I'm really hoping my work bracket says Xavier because I'm not totally sure I went with BYU.) I should know better than to pick an overhyped mid-major team over an underseeded team that's been in the thick of things all year. But then I did the same thing with Winthrop tomorrow so hopefully I won't get bit by the same mistake twice. Anyway, I didn't suffer any crushing defeats and so all of my late-round teams are still in the mix. Hopefully I'll still be able to say that in three days, after the Sweet 16 is set.

One thing is worth a mention of its own. How about Louisville's total beatdown of a very much inferior Stanford team? For most of the first half that game was a total rout on a scale rarely seen in college basketball much less the tournament (I really thought the Cardinal would be in single digits at the half), Stanford poured on a late run to make it 46-20 at halftime, and then they even managed to make it look almost non-laughable at the end, 78-58, with Pitino's subs surely in for most of the second half. And people were saying that had big upset potential...idiots. Since when has a Pac-10 team not named UCLA or Arizona actually played up to its tourney seed? I don't remember such a thing. Stanford always sucks, USC always sucks, Washington has always sucked, Washington State will likely suck on Saturday, and I'm afraid Oregon will also suck and make me deeply regret picking them to lose to Florida in the Elite Eight. What was I thinking? Oh well, nice to see some talking heads eat some crow for picking one of my favorite teams to hate to do some damage.

Overall, a good day. What would cap the first round nicely tomorrow night is Arkansas exploding and crushing USC in a statement game.