1st is the Worst, 2nd is the Best...

The 1st Round of this years tourney was a little bit boring with most of the high seeds winning. Of course, except for my beloved Dukies. I couldn't watch the games yesterday, it just hurt too much for me to look at the TV. BUT, today, Ohio State/Xavier revitalized my passion for this tournament.

Ohio State, who had going to the Final 4, looked horrible against the Musketeers. I was sitting there at 59-50 kicking myself for picking the young Buckeyes. It was obvious that Xavier wanted nothing more than to hurt Thad Matta who abruptly left them 3 years ago. With 4 minutes left, it looked like they would. Then, they started the Duke offense. You can't take the air out of the ball with 4 minutes left and little by little, Ohio State chipped away. Then, after Greg Oden fouled out down 2 with 9 seconds left on a foul that should've been called an intentional foul, Justin Cage, one of those kids recruited by Matta had a chance to ice it and missed the second free throw. Ron Lewis hit a clutch 3-pointer to tie the game and Gus Johnson just reaffirmed why he is the greatest announcer out there right now with the "He's been fantasssssssssstic!" as Lewis hit the shot. Mike Conley took over in OT and Xavier had choked up their chance at taking down an in-state rival.

Maryland and Butler was another great game. Maryland really kicked me in the groin this year. First, they manhandle my Dukies twice this year and then I buy into the team and they lose to Butler. Now, I will admit Butler got every single break in this game including a horrible charge call on DJ Strawberry with 30 seconds left that would've tied the game. Then, Gary Williams had a brain freeze. He let Butler dribble the clock down to 5 seconds on the game clock down 2, which was an asinine move to say the least. In the NBA, you can get away with that because you can advance the ball to half court on a timeout. In college, you would have to get the rebound, call timeout, and then go 94 feet in 3 or 4 seconds just to tie the game. Horrible performance. Bye Mike Jones. Who? Bye DJ Strawberry. Bye Ekene Ibekwe. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. All I have to say is: Darryl, Darryl, Darryl!!

Texas A&M held on for dear life against a very talented but young Louisville team who inexplicable as a 6 seed was awarded 2 home games. Acie Law is the clutchest player in American and he was the difference. He, the senior came through at the end and Edgar "Don't call me Sammy" Sosa, the freshman, did not. Now, Texas A&M essentially gets two home games in San Antonio for a right to play in the Final 4. I like their chances...

BC as Steve Lavin would say are the Tinmen because they have no heart. All they do is complain and they blew a golden opportunity to take down a very over hyped Georgetown team that is getting significant press for a team that has a loss at home against Old Dominion.

The Vandy/Washington State game was an absolute classic and CBS did a great job going from this game to VCU/Pitt and then back to the Vandy game for Double OT. There was some questionable officiating in this game but in the end, Vandy's ability to hit the perimeter shot really hurt Washington State. State had a chance to win it but they missed a 3 and Vandy got a fast break layup to seal it. Great game!

During this game, I check the scoreboard and VCU is down 19 and I'm thinking, Duke could have done this. Then, all of a sudden the lead started to shrink and rapidly might I add. VCU comes all the way back to tie it and then Levance Fields on Pitt was fouled with 2 seconds left. All he had to do was hit 1 free throw and he missed both. At that point, I felt VCU just had some magic. They ran out of gas in OT, took some ill advised shots and Levance Fields redeemed himself by hitting a huge 3-pointer. I'll admit I was rooting for VCU. I'm one of those guys who likes the team, unless it's Maryland or UNC, to advance far to validate the loss. In fact, until VCU lost today, Duke had lost in the tournament since 1998 to only teams that advanced to the Final 4:
1998: Kentucky (National Champ)
1999: UCONN (National Champ)
2000: Florida (Title Game)
2001: They didn't lose
2002: Indiana (Title Game)
2003: Kansas (Title Game)
2004: UCONN (National Champ)
2005: Michigan State (Final 4)
2006: LSU (Final 4)

Carolina struggled for about 34 minutes with Drew Neitzel and Michigan State but Hansbrough coupled with their ridiculous depth was too much for the Spartans. They will face the winner of Texas/USC in East Rutherford next week.

In the final game of the night, UCLA and Indiana appeared to be in a snoozer and an offensive struggle. Despite the lack of scoring, it felt like UCLA was in control of the game until Indiana went on a furious run to overcome a double-digit deficit to tie the game in the final minute. BUT, Aaron Affalo, say whatever you want about him and his putrid performance against Florida last season, but the team on his back and hit two big free throws that essentially sealed the win for the Bruins.

Hopefully, the good games will continue tomorrow. They were tremendous today. Probably, the best 2nd Round of the Tourney in a while that I can remember. Hopefully, Florida will go down tomorrow but I can't see it happening.

Again, Duke season recap will come later on as well as recruiting blogs and if anything on McRoberts breaks, I will be there...

Patrick Patterson, if you're reading this, we need you. Come to Duke, become the next Elton Brand and lead this team back to the Final 4 next year. Virginia will lose Reynolds and who knows about Singletary. That team will blow without them. Kentucky is bad fit for you. Tubby may get fired and Randolph Morris is the guy there. Florida is attractive but who will come back and who will leave? Finally, Wake Forest is an awful fit for you. They are too young and they won't be competing in the upper echelon of the ACC for a while. Go to Duke, they win national championships.