100-0, OT, and Upsets

Posted: Friday, March 20, 2009 by Travis Cody in
13


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!

13 comments:

  1. that was a heart breaking loss for the buckeyes.

  1. DrillerAA says:

    The Big 12 is having a nice run. They're 6-0 so far.

  1. It was a heartbreaking loss for my hubby the Buckeye fan, too, but he thinks it's very cool that his Cleveland State Vikings advance to the second round. I, on the other hand, LOATHE the Vikings. Damn Cleveland State...*mumble, grumble*

    My brackets have improved. I'm now tied for second in my little pool...with Vinny!

  1. Boy, are you ever in hog-heaven! March Madness and Dancing With the Stars! However can you stand it?
    Have a blast, Travis!
    ~~~Blessings~~~

  1. I'm so lost on all this but I'm sure glad your enjoying it! What's for lunch?

  1. Mike: It was. But on the other side, it was a tremendous win for Sienna.

    Drilleraa: So much for a conference that everyone said was down this year.

    Songbird: I was just glad that the opening round ACC upset loss didn't go to my Blue Devils.

    Gracie: It's the best time of year.

  1. NNG: Hmmmm...good question. Could be another turkey sammich, or we could hard boil the rest of the eggs and go for egg salad.

  1. Akelamalu says:

    What about the dancing? :)

  1. fritopi says:

    one of these days, one of these days. it's happened in the nba (GS and Dallas a few years ago). it's only a matter of time before it happens in the NCAA.

  1. Uh....I hate basketball and I am clueless on this. Other than the fact that last Thursdays games are the reason our charity auction got bumped to April.

    So like..go team?

  1. welllll....UCLA got totally slammed.

    so I'm backing the boilermakers.

  1. Charles: Well, my pick is Pittsburgh.

    Akelamalu: Dancing returns on Monday with recap on Tuesday.

    Fritopi: Agreed. And welcome!

    Starr: I understand.

    Katherine: They did get rolled. There's a chance with Purdue...they match up pretty well with UConn.