Even though we are not to the apex of this year's NCAA Tournament, it has been quite wild. In my oppinion, this has been the biggest upset year since I was born. There are not only little upsets, but big upsets. Pretty much everyone I know has their bracket in the garbage. Unless you have dumb luck, there are a lot of brackets totally ruined. Let us begin. <u>Chicago Bracket</u> The first of our upsets was not very big at all. In fact, many people suspected it would happen. Ninth seeded Nevada defeated eighth seeded Texas in first round action. In the same bracket, however, there was a larger upset. Wisconsin Milwaukee walked all over number five seed Alabama, ending their season with a screech. In the same Chicago bracket, number eleven seed University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) defeated six seeded LSU. This was all of the first round upsets in Chicago, and we move onto the second round. It was Wisconsin Milwaukee playing Boston College. Some said beating Alabama was a fluke, and they stood no chance against fourth ranked Boston College. They shocked some more people. They defeated Boston College on that day, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. They will now face top ranked Illinois. <u>Albuquerque</u> The first round games here were all right. No upsets. But then a couple huge games were to come. The Red Raiders of Texas Tech were to face the third seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs. It was close all game long, but led by Ronald Ross, Bobby Knight's Red Raiders advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. And then there was a big game. It was West Virginia and Wake Forest squaring off. Many expected Wake Forest to clean the floor with the Mountaineers. Apparently they had other plans. Seventh seeded West Virginia won an exhillerating game in double overtime, overcoming the second seeded Decons. <u>Syracuse</u> This one started from the get go. Ninth ranked Iowa State defeated the Minnesota Gophers, easily. NC State then took care of seventh seeded Charlotte. And then, what may be one of the biggest upsets ever occured. The Bucknell Bisons just snuck into the Big Dance. Coming into this game, no team from the Patriot League had ever won a NCAA Tournament game. The Bisons made history. They defeated a stacked Kansas team ; shocking the sporting world. It was now second round time. Fifth ranked Villanova faced the fourth ranked Florida Gators. The Gators were considered the hottest team in the country coming into the Tournament. Villanova cooled them down, winning the game with relative ease. It was NC State's turn to pull off yet another upset. They were up against the defending champion UConn Huskies. The game was close, and the star won it for the Wolfpack. Senior Julius Hodge drove the lane and hit a layup plus the foul, to seal the game. A ten seed in the Sweet Sixteen. <u>Austin</u> This has probably been the least dramatic bracket, comparatively, but there was one amazing finish. To kick things off Mississippi knocked off eighth ranked Stanford in a blowout game. And the other shocked game in the country, Vermont took on Syracuse. Syracuse had a lot of people behind them. As a four seed, a lot of people had them in the Final Four. Dreams were broken. Vermont stunned the Orange that night, beating them down in the fourth quarter. Drama. Second round: Utah pulled off the only upset. They upended third ranked Oklahoma ; advancing to the Sweet Sixteen by leader Andrew Bogut. So this is what we have so far. A lot of huge upsets, a lot of disappointed teams. In the Sweet Sixteen we have all four number one seeds. Two number two seeds. One number three seed. One number four seed. Two number five seeds. Three number six seeds. One number seven seed. One number ten seed. And one number twelve seed. There have been fourteen total upsets so far. I hope all my information was as accurate as possible. Man, has this been on mad year in college hoops. Phew.
What a tourney so far... No one would have predicted this to happen, unless you randomly picked teams, but what are the odds of that? The only problem with these low seeded teams is that it makes things so much easier for top seeded teams to win it all. That's the only problem with this...
Nice recap Pure. The fact you had to write all of that just shows how strong the madness has been this year.
What a great weekend in the NCAA Tournament. This has been the best opening weekend in quite awhile as you saw the big boys go down early. The upsets has been the story of the tournament along with Bobby Knight going to the Sweet 16. If you are in Wisconsin, it's basketball fever with UW-Mil and UW going to the Sweet 16. I am not shocked about UW-Mil beating BC. BC did not finish strong and they were vulnerable.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Nice recap Pure. The fact you had to write all of that just shows how strong the madness has been this year.</div> I was thinking that too. It took quite awhile to type it all out. That just proves the quantity of upsets ; big and small.
I was surprised at myself... I'm not a big college basketball expert, but I decided to go ahead and try out a bracket. I correctly guessed all the 8 vs. 9 matchups, along with UAB and NC State's first-round wins. In fact, my only misses in the first round were UW-Mil, Bucknell, and Vermont. I got Texas Tech over Gonzaga and Utah over Oklahoma correct too... I don't know why, it's probably just luck, but I'm doing pretty well (42-6 so far)... but it has been a great tournament so far. Thank God for Sportsnet (I'm in Canada.)
