Introduction
March Madness is here, and with it comes the highs and lows of what was an exciting opening weekend to the tournament.
Upsettin’
9-UAB 76, 1-Kentucky 75—Alabama-Birmingham’s Morris Finley drained a 17-foot jumper with 12.2 seconds left. Gerald Fitch’s three-pointer bounced off the rim as time expired as the ninth-seeded Blazers stunned the top-seeded and overall number one Wildcats.
8-Alabama 70, 1-Stanford 67—Down 53-40 with nine minutes left to play, Alabama used a 16-0 run to help pull the Tide back into the game. A last second three-point attempt by Stanford’s Dan Grunfeld fell short and Alabama held on to upend the top-seeded Cardinal in the Phoenix Bracket.
10-Xavier 89, 2-Mississippi State 74—Xavier, who had to win four straight in the A-10 tournament to simply qualify for the NCAA tourney, has certainly left it’s mark. The Musketeers dominated the heavily favored Bulldogs for a convincing victory.
10-Nevada 91, 2-Gonzaga 72—Gonzaga got a taste of its own medicine this year, getting outplayed in every aspect of the game as the 10th-seeded Wolfpack of Nevada recorded their second upset of the tournament.
12-Pacific 66, 5-Providence 58—Big West champs Pacific got 19 points from senior guard Miah Davis, and the Tigers, in the tournament for the first time since 1997, held on to the Friars.
12-Manhattan 75, 5-Florida 60—Luis Flores scored 26 points and Peter Mulligan added 17 to lead the 12th-seeded Jaspers to a fifteen point upset of the fifth-seeded Gators.
Smokin’
Gerry McNamara, Syracuse—McNamara picked up right where he left off from in last year’s National Championship game, draining nine three-pointers and scoring a career high 43 points in the Orangemen’s first round victory over BYU.
Jamar Nelson, St. Joseph’s—Nelson scored 33 points against Liberty in the first round and 24 against Texas Tech in the second round to lead the top-seeded Hawks into the Sweet 16.
Lionel Chalmers, Xavier—Chalmers went 11-for-13 from the floor and had a career high 31 points to lead the Musketeers to an upset of second-seeded Mississippi State.
Intriguing Match-ups
3-Pittsburgh vs. 2-Oklahoma State—In a match-up of “we should have been higher seeds,” the third-seeded Panthers look to knock off one of the hottest teams in the nation, the second-seeded Cowboys. In this match-up of offense versus defense, look for the defense to win out in the end and the Panthers to advance.
5-Illinois vs. 1-Duke—The top-seeded Blue Devils look to not make it three straight Sweet 16 exits while the fifth-seeded Illini look to return to the Elite 8 for the first time since 2001.
Final Four Predictions
St. Louis Bracket—Look for fourth-seeded Kansas to make it back to the Final Four for the third straight year.
East Rutherford Bracket—Look for Pittsburgh to use defense to finally make it to the Final Four.
Atlanta Bracket—Top-seeded Duke should cruise to the Final Four, taking out Illinois and the winner of Xavier and Texas.
Phoenix Bracket—Look for Emeka Okafor’s ailing back to be the key to a Syracuse-UConn showdown. If Okafor can withstand the pain and be a factor in this game, look for the Huskies to be punching their ticket to San Antonio. Otherwise, look for the ‘Cuse to continue their title defense.
