NCAA Tournament Week 1 Recap

Home - NCAA Tournament Week 1 Recap


NCAA Tournament Week 1 Recap

The tournament began with (7) BYU blowing a huge 2nd half lead against (10) Florida, only to hold on and with in their 2nd overtime 99-92. The win snapped a 7-game tournament-losing streak for BYU and a 12-game tournament-winning streak for Florida. (2) Villanova finished the season horribly losing five of their last seven. They continued their spotty play in the tournament barely surviving the first round against (15) Robert Morris. They won 73-70 in overtime, but needed a 10-3 run to end regulation just to force overtime. They would lose 75-68 to St. Mary’s in the 2nd round to St. Mary’s and would be the only 2-seed to go out this weekend. (13) Murray State upset (4) Vanderbilt Thursday morning in what looked like it would be the biggest upset of the weekend. However, later that night (14) Ohio upset (3) Georgetown 97-83. This was the largest margin of victory by a 14-seed in tournament history. It was the Ohio Bobcats first tournament victory in 27 years. The loss had to be made more disappointing given the number of impressive wins that Georgetown earned during the season against (5) Temple, (5) Butler, (3) Pittsburgh, (1) Duke, (2) Villanova, and (1) Syracuse. One of the biggest stories of the weekend was (11) Washington coming back from 15 points down in the 2nd half against (6) Marquette to win 80-78. Only to continue their strong play by beating (3) New Mexico 82-64 to advance to the Sweet 16. Washington has now won 9 straight games including their winning the PAC-10 tournament. I had initially picked (12) Cornell to win their 1st round game against (5) Temple, but later became convinced that Temple was underseeded and had this game in hand. After I had changed my pick Cornell would go on to win the game 78-65 and defeat (4) Wisconsin in the 2nd round 87-69 to advance to the Sweet 16. Cornell became the first Ivy League team to win a game in the tournament since 1998. (4) Purdue surprisingly survived their regional by beating (13) Siena and (5) Texas A&M in OT on Sunday 63-61. After the loss of Robbie Hummel, most people assumed it would be a matter of time before they were eliminated. The Boilermakers will face a huge test next Friday against (1) Duke. The story of the weekend came on Saturday when (9) Northern Iowa defeated (1) Kansas 69-67. Northern Iowa led the whole game, but when Kansas began to make a late charge most fans assumed they would overtake them. Ali Farokhmanesh would then nail a 3-pointer with 35 seconds remaining that would seal the victory. He was left wide open, but could have ran almost all the time off of the clock if he had chosen not to shoot. He chose to shoot, and nailed it. The win eliminated the presumed favorite in the tournament. This loss added to Kansas’s coach Bill Self’s failures in the NCAA tournament. He also lost to (14) Bucknell in 2005 and (13) Bradley in 2006, both in the first round.

Our Partners