Trav's Thoughts

In 1985, the NCAA tournament field expanded to 64 teams. Since then, no #1 seed has lost to a #16. It didn't happen today, but East Tennessee St made Pittsburgh work for the win, and it took #1 seed Louisville some time to take control against #16 Morehead State.

#1 seeds remain unbeaten at 100-0 since 1985, but the day is coming when a #16 will pull off that monumental upset. I won't be surprised when it happens either.

There was a big upset today, although I won't go so far as to call it major. #11 seed Dayton picked off #6 West Virginia. That puts a bit of a bust on my bracket though. I had the Mountaineers making it through to the third round.

And #12 seed Arizona fought off cries that they didn't belong in the field of 64, upsetting #5 seed Utah.

There were a couple of terrific games in the evening session that both went to overtime. #9 seed Sienna hit a 3 point shot at the end of the first OT against #8 seed Ohio State. Then the Saints hit another 3 pointer with 3.9 seconds in the second OT to beat the Buckeyes. And #12 seed Wisconsin trailed virtually the entire game before making a late run against #5 Florida State. The Badgers scored on a bucket and a foul with 2 seconds to play in OT to beat the Seminoles. And that's two more upsets.

#13 seed Cleveland State scored the major upset of the day over #4 seed Wake Forest. I say major because this was no buzzer beater. The Vikings dominated, winning by 15.

My Midwest bracket is busted as the #12 and #13 seeds advance, although I do have #1 seed Louisville as my Final Four pick out of this region.

Here are the day's results.

Midwest bracket

#1 Louisville beat #16 Morehead St, 74-54
#12 Arizona beat #5 Utah, 84-71
#11 Dayton beat #6 West Virginia, 68-60
#3 Kansas beat #14 North Dakota St, 84-74
#10 USC beat #7 Boston College, 72-55
#2 Michigan St beat #15 Robert Morris, 77-62
#13 Cleveland St beat #4 Wake Forest, 94-69
#9 Sienna beat #8 Ohio St, 74-72 2OT

West bracket

#6 Marquette beat #11 Utah St, 58-57
#3 Missouri beat #14 Cornell, 89-59

East bracket

#1 Pittsburgh beat #16 East Tennessee St, 72-62
#8 Oklahoma St beat #9 Tennessee, 77-75
#4 Xavier beat #13 Portland St, 77-59
#12 Wisconsin beat #5 Florida St, 61-59 OT

South bracket

#6 Arizona St beat #11 Temple, 66-57
#3 Syracuse beat #14 Stephen F Austin, 59-44

So I finish the first round at 24-8. Not too bad. Based on lower seeds beating higher seeds, we've had 10 upsets in 32 games. Last year there were 8 upsets in the first 32 games.

Now the field is at 32, looking to go to 16 by Sunday evening.

Happy Madness!