With the tourney's opening round in the books, lets see how the conferences squared up.
Big East: B+Perhaps a tough grade for a conference that opened 6-1, but considering all seven were favorites, five of them prohibitive ones, the standards to grading get a little stricter. Connecticut was insanely dominant, and Syracuse and Louisville won easily as expected. Pitt was extremely underwhelming in their flirtation with #1-seed infamy letting East Tennessee State hang around until the final two minutes, and Villanova allowed #14 seed American to hang around way longer than comfortable for Jay Wright and the Wildcat fans.
That said, Marquette's win over Utah State was a good one. The only blemish was West Virginia's semi-surprising loss to Dayton. The Big East's true measure will be if their FIVE favorites can all hold serve this weekend and push on to the Sweet Sixteen.
Big Twelve: A+Oklahoma and Missouri handled their business easily, as expected. Kansas was pushed, but never in real danger of losing to a game North Dakota State squad. Those results were expected. The real beauty of the opening weekend for much maligned conference was in the wins of Texas, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M respectively.
Texas neat a similarly ranked Big-10 Minnesota squad, Oklahoma State tackled the SEC East champs, Tennessee, and Texas A&M handled BYU with ease, making the
Big 12 a PERFECT 6-0. Three of their six remaining teams face uphill battles in the second round; Texas draws Duke, A&M gets UConn and Oklahoma State gets Pitt. If ANY of those three win, consider it a coup for the Big 12.
Menawhile, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma will all be favored in the contests. If the Big 12 emerges 3-3 in ANY combination this weekend, for a 9-3 opening weekend, this tourney can be considered a success.
SEC: C-LSU beat Butler in their 8-9 matchup, Tennessee lost in the last few seconds in theirs. The Mississippi Bulldogs surprising post season run was over as quickly as it started, getting blasted by Washington. Barring a stunning LSU upset of North Carolina, the NCAA tournament comes to a close for the SEC tomorrow afternoon.
On the bright side, both Kentucky and Florida are still alive in the NIT...
Pac 10: A5-1, with only Cal losing (to Maryland) constituted a huge, validating weekend for the Pac-10 Conference. Washington won big over Mississippi St, UCLA held off everyone's upset darling VCU, and Arizona State vanquished the other upset pick de juor, Temple. The real gems were the final two to tip, USC and Arizona who both beat better-seeded foes with relative ease.
From here, things get interesting for the conference. None of them will be favorites this weekend, but none are squaring off against a Goliath either. UCLA gets a beatable Villanova squad (albeit in Phily), Washington plays a pick-em with Purdue, Arizona State gets Syracuse, USC looks to continue their hot streak against Michigan State and Arizona gets the winner of Wake Forest and Cleveland State. None gimmes; none unwinnable either. For now, the Pac-10 is a solid "A" with an optimistic view for the tourney to come.
Big Ten, ACC: Incomplete - waiting on OSU and Wake to gone final, both have HUGE impact on conference's grade.
A-10: BThe Temple game probably wasn't what the conference was hoping for, as they went down to Arizona State without as much struggle as some assumed Christmas and Co. could cause. However, Dayton's solid, comfortable win over the Big East's West Virginia and Xavier's easy cruise tonight left the A-10 a respectable 2-1. For a conference that usually doesn't see a third bid, two wins in the opening round are something to cheer about.
Xavier gets the Florida St/Wisconsin winner, while Dayton will try to cool off another major conference giant, Kansas.
Mountain West: FFor a conference that has been making a lot of fuss about getting lumped in with the big boys, this tourney was not a good statement on their behalf. Some argued that San Diego St, and possibly even New Mexico and UNLV merited some consideration for at large bids. After the stink bombs Utah and BYU put up this week, it is a pretty tough arguement to sustain.
Mid-Majors: B+
See Mountain West, you get respect! We left you out of the mid-major minutae just to give you a stand alone "F." Now that's respect baby.
Old favorite Butler bowed out early in a rare first round exit. Utah State showed they were good enough to be
in, but not much better that that; close losses don't count when you clamor for at-large bids. And lastly, Davidson's replacement
almost toppled UConn...56 more points and we could have had another 6 OT classic...
If you'd like to include Memphis and Gonzaga, you would have two mid-major wins, lump in the A-10 and you have 4. Those four wins are hardly mid-major programs though (possible exception of Dayton), they just play in non-big 6 leagues. Other than that, the big boys have held serve to this point. (As evidenced by the combined 17-2 record of the Pac 10, Big 12, and BEast).
However, in the interest of fairness more than a few of the little guys
did show well. American, North Dakota State and East Tennessee State gave us 35+ minutes of excitement and Morehead State gave U of L a decent half tune-up (plus they probably sold a lot of T-Shirts to college kids from other schools... everyone love morehead...).
But just when things looked bleak, Siena provided drama times two, winning a dramatic doub;e-overtime game over the "home team" Ohio State Buckeyes. And finally, the Cleveland State Vikings came to Cinderella's rescue in the nights final game. They dominated Wake Forest from the opening tip, withstood a few challenges in the second half, but in the end cruised to a double digit win over the Deacs. Proving once again why the NCAA Tourney is the most exciting event in American sports. Cinderella alwways wears a different gown, but never misses the ball.
Want More? Have something to Say? Read, Rant, Agree, Disagree...Curse at Us (nicely please)Do it all @ MarchManiacs.com
