Syracuse Shocked Amidst Tourney Course Correction

Photo courtesy of OregonLive.com/AP.

The NCAA Tournament resumed last night and for the most part, was pretty predictable, amid a few surprises. The twelfth-seeded Cornell Big Red sprang burst onto the scene with big upset wins over Temple and Wisconsin, winning in convincing style. Their average margin of victory in the first and second round was 15.5 points. Unfortunately for them, they faced the steamroller known as the Kentucky Wildcats and lost 62-45 to the top-seeded favorites from the Bluegrass State. Despite the lop-sided defeat, Cornell's squad has just finished the best season in school history. As for Kentucky, the pre-season expectations were a national title, and they're one step closer.

Photo courtesy the Idaho Statesman/AP.

Eleventh-seed Washington Huskies have been dogged by the national media this tournament in regards to the current state of West Coast basketball. They surprised Big East stalwart Marquette and defeated third-seed New Mexico, but couldn't defeat the West Virginia Mountaineers, who won 69-56. The Huskies lead by two at halftime, but the Mountaineers exploded for 42 points in the second half. West Virginia will move on to face Kentucky Saturday night in a battle of top-seeds in the East region. The winner moves on to Indianapolis and the Final Four.

Despite being a small school, Xavier has been a known college basketball destination for years. The Musketeers took on the Wildcats of Kansas State in a thriller that went to double-overtime. The highlights speak for themselves (video courtesy CBS):



While Xavier fans will no doubt take a while to forget this loss, fans of the Kansas Jayhawks must be fuming. To have your team, the number one overall seed, lose to a little-known school in the second round, then have your biggest rival head to at least the Elite Eight and possibly a national title, that's gotta be embarrassing.

But the biggest surprise of the night was the West region's top seed, Syracuse, falling to unheralded five-seed Butler. Butler has been a factor in several past tournaments, but this year was favored to be knocked out in the first round by the prognosticators, mainly because of their designation as a five-seed. (Seems like every March Madness, a 12 seed knocks out a 5, so this year, people had Butler pegged as a first-round loss. This year, only one 5 seed lost in the opening round, Temple lost to Cornell). Here are the highlights (courtesy CBS):



Butler, a liberal arts school in Indianapolis with a student population of about 4500, will face Kansas State in the West Regional Final Saturday night in Salt Lake City. The winner goes on to the Final Four, which happens to be in Indianapolis this year. As for Syracuse, this game cannot be labeled a disappointment, since they were without center Arinze Onuaku, the team's glue. Had Onuaku been on the floor, the game would have likely been very different.

Tonight's games include Tennessee vs. Ohio State, Duke vs. Purdue, Northern Iowa vs. Michigan State, and Baylor vs. St. Mary's. Some great storylines continue tonight as UNI and St. Mary's try to continue their improbable runs, Purdue tries to get to a home-state Final Four, and one of the top players of the country, Ohio State's Evan Turner, laces up against Bruce Pearl's talented Vols.

Big East Blues

The Big East Conference holds many of college basketball's powerhouse teams. Syracuse, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Villanova, Louisville, Marquette, and West Virginia were all selected to this year's NCAA tournament. Literally, half of the conference is in the tournament, and that's without traditional power UConn. There's been debate the last few years on whether or not the Big East or the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) is the better conference. After day one of March Madness, the ACC is looking good while three Big East teams made an early exit, and a fourth nearly joined them.

Georgetown's Chris Wright. Photo courtesy the Washington Post.

The biggest surprise of the day was third-seeded Georgetown losing to fourteenth-seeded Ohio, 97-83. The pundits who like to call upsets never saw this one coming. For Georgetown to lose to a team that had a losing conference record and by 14 points is the very definition of March Madness. Ohio led by as much as 19 and face sixth-seeded Tennessee Saturday afternoon.

In college basketball the last few years, there's been an inherent East Coast bias, partially because there weren't as many teams out West that had the "quality" of the Eastern clubs. So it was a pleasant surprise to see the Washington Huskies beat the Marquette Golden Eagles narrowly on a Quincy Pondexter jumper. Few basketball pundits were calling for the upset here. Not bad for the 11th-seeded Pac-10 tournament champs. They'll face the third-seeded New Mexico Lobos Saturday evening.

Photo courtesy of The State (S.C.).

Villanova was a Final Four candidate for some going into the tournament. No one gave 15th-seeded Robert Morris a chance. While Villanova did go on to win 73-70, it was in overtime. Robert Morris players played the game of their lives to bring a tournament power to the brink of elimination. As for 'Nova, it was a close call in part due to the disciplining of Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher and this narrow win could serve as a catalyst for a deep run in the tournament.

The third Big East team to fall was Notre Dame to Old Dominion, 51-50. The fact that the Irish lost wasn't the surprise, many pundits had this game pegged for an upset, but rather that Notre Dame's star senior forward Luke Harangody only scored four points in 23 minutes. Certainly not the way Harangody wanted his last game in an Irish uniform to go. Old Dominion next takes on Baylor Saturday evening in a game that could be even more of an uphill battle for Dominion, since Baylor is a three-seed.

As for the ACC, their turn to dance is today. Wake Forest won their matchup yesterday against Texas in an overtime upset but fellow ACC teams Duke, Maryland, Florida State, Clemson, and Georgia Tech play their first-round games today.

Other notable scores on Day 1 of March Madness:

6 Tennessee def. 11 San Diego State, 62-59
5 Butler def. 12 UTEP, 77-59 (many had this game pegged for an upset)
13 Murray St. def. 4 Vanderbilt, 66-65 (buzzer-beater upset special)
10 St. Mary's def. 7 Richmond, 80-71
7 BYU def. 10 Florida, 99-92 (Billy Donovan shown the door)