Welcome back, sportz freaks to another edition of Z Money's Sportz Talk. Well, March Madness certainly lived up to its name this past weekend, as the opening two rounds of the NCAA tournament were filled with upsets galore.
It started rather quickly, when Old Dominion (seeded 11th in the South Region) knocked off #6 Notre Dame early on Thursday. From there, the chain of underdog victories began to grow, and teams destined for glory found themselves on a long bus ride home. Just how many upsets did we see in rounds one and two? Well, if you consider an upset to be a victory by any lower seeded team over a higher ranked opponent, then there were exactly 15 upsets out of the 48 games played. Thats roughly a third of the matches. Teams like Cornell (#12, East), Saint Mary's (#10, South), and Northern Iowa (#9, Midwest) all took down teams rated higher than them in round one. The reason I've singled these three out, however, is the fact that they not only upset their first round opponents, but the Big Red, the Gaels and the Panthers all followed up these victories with wins over even higher ranked opponents.
After knocking off #5 seeded Temple, Cornell went on to defeat #4 Wisconsin in rather easy fashion earlier this afternoon. Saint Mary's also shocked the country when they not only took down 7th seeded Richmond in round one, but then proceeded to eliminate 2nd ranked Villanova, ending the Wildcats hopes of dancing in the Sweet 16. Northern Iowa defeated UNLV in the #8-#9 match up in the first round, which is an upset we see all the time in this tournament. However, what came next for the Panthers was far more impressive. Fresh off their victory over #16 Lehigh, number 1 overall Kansas was ready to steamroll through their next opponent en route to a Sweet 16 birth. Northern Iowa had other plans. The Panthers gave up an early 2-0 lead, but then erased it and took a lead of their own, one which they would never relinquish.
These three teams aren't the only ones who pulled off major upsets in the first round of the tourney, but they're three of the four low-seeded teams remaining in the field of 16. (#11 Washington is the other).
So now with the #1 overall team in the nation sitting at home, the question remains as to who will walk away as the champion of this rather peculiar tournament? Three #1's remain, along with the aforementioned upset specialists. All I know is, I've got just nine out of the sixteen left from my original bracket prediction. They are:
#1 Syracuse
#1 Kentucky
#1 Duke
#2 Ohio State
#2 West Virginia
#3 Baylor
#5 Michigan State
#6 Xavier
and yes,
#12 Cornell
I took 'Cuse, Duke, and West Va. to the Final Four, so that's still pretty strong, although my 4th finalist was Kansas, whom I already spoke about.
The match ups in the Sweet 16 only get crazier from here on out, as pairings of #1's and under dogs with double-digit rankings still remain evident. Since I did so poorly in the first two rounds, I won't be trying to redeem any of my picks. However, I will try to give you some insight as to who I will believe will win these next eight games. I like to keep my audience waiting, though, so my predictions for the Sweet 16 will come sometime during the next few days. Until then, keep on reading, and keep on watching as March Madness gets even madder.
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