March Madness, it comes but once a year. All over the country people are united under the umbrella of collegiate sports’ greatest soap opera. Sixty-five teams enter and one exits cutting down the nets in San Antonio on Monday, April 7. This tournament is an experience in itself for me so I figured the best way to remember the first day of the 2008 tournament was to keep a running diary of my first day experiences.
11:15 a.m. Fully stocked for a day of hoops action, CBS throws us to Washington D.C. for a much anticipated matchup of fourteenth seeded Georgia and third seeded Xavier. I have Xavier going all the way to the Elite 8, so if they lose today, I’d be bummed. Plus we get Gus Johnson on the call of this game. If you have never heard a game he calls, go to YouTube.com and check out any of his clips; it’ll change your life.
11:45 a.m. Georgia is up huge against Xavier, Kansas is throttling Portland State and Temple is getting beat up by Michigan State. This further confirmed my theory that Drew Neitzel is in fact the worst thing to happen to basketball in the past 10 years.
1:30 p.m. CBS cuts away from a close Xavier/Georgia game to show Marquette and Kentucky players warming up. I ask myself, why cut away from a close game to watch Dominic James hoist up another brick. Frustration has set in. This Xavier game is way too close for my comfort, Georgia just won’t die. It’s too early to be this nervous.
1:40 p.m. First set of games are done, Xavier holds on with free throws to win by 12, Kansas takes Portland State to the cleaners winning 85-61 and Michigan State gives me my first incorrect bracket pick by beating Temple 72-61. The second round of games are starting with Marquette who I picked to beat Kentucky, Kent State versus UNLV, I have the Golden Flashes in this one and Pittsburgh facing off against Oral Roberts, I like the Panthers in that one.
2:30 p.m. Marquette fans are rejoicing, the Golden Eagles are winning a close one against Kentucky. It’s a matchup between Jerel McNeal and Joe Crawford in a battle to see who can will their team into the second round. Kent State, busy defining mediocrity scored 10 points in the first half and have me cruising towards my second wrong pick of the tournament, while Pitt is showing Oral Roberts what Big East basketball is all about. At the same time, Purdue has tipped off against Baylor and this was my only coin flip game, I flipped a coin because I had no vested interest and thought it was an even match up; Purdue won, go Boilers. In an all-academic matchup, the Stanford Cardinals faced off against the Big Red of Cornell in what was a mismatch of epic proportions.
4:00 p.m. The second set of games are done, and the winners are Marquette escaping a better than expected Kentucky team. Kent State mounted an admirable comeback but still lost by 13 to the Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV. Purdue rolled over Baylor winning 90-79 and Stanford escaped with a closer than expected 77-53 win over Cornell. Pitt did well to defeat a scrappy ORU finishing with a 82-63 win. During the break I had to drive home, so I figured my two hour commute would get me there just as the next set of games would be ready to tip off.
6:10 p.m. Arrive just in time, as expected. The first two matchups of this sessions peaked my interest - the matchup between freshman sensations Michael Beasley and O.J. Mayo highlight the game between USC and Kansas State. I liked Beasley and K State to beat the talented Mayo and the Trojans. The other matchup was the Bears of Belmont facing off against the Blue Devils of Duke. Belmont has faced a Final Four team the past two NCAA tournaments and proved to be an ample opponent for the Blue Devils.
7:15 p.m. At the half, Beasley has been sidelined with foul trouble, but the Wildcats of Kansas State still lead while Duke cannot seem to pull away from a tough Belmont team. With more games tipping off including Washington State facing off against Winthrop, Texas A&M lining it up with Brigham Young and Notre Dame facing off the darling of two years ago, George Mason. For these games I had Wazzou, A&M and the Irish to advance to the next round.
8:30 p.m. We are officially at crisis watch out mode, Duke is down to Belmont with time running out. Since I have been a huge Duke fan for years, this could be potentially fatal. Kansas State has run away from USC but I have developed a respect for O.J. Mayo, the kid can play. Washington State is taking to it Winthrop in a game that was expected to be close and the Aggies and Cougars are playing a close one in Anaheim. Notre Dame is cruising along as well but just as all hope seemed lost, Gerald Henderson snatches victory from the jaws of defeat and we survive to play on Saturday. Badgers start in 15, game on.
9:00 p.m. Badgers tip-off, team looks good from the outset. Interesting side note, Cal-Fullerton has eleven players on their roster, none of which started their career there. Arizona has tipped off against West Virginia in what should be an amazing game. And in another welcome to the NCAA tournament matchup the Delta Devils of Mississippi Valley State are set to face off against UCLA in which the Bruins are heavily favored. In the last set of games I went 5 for 5 with wins for all my teams, I live a charmed life.
10:15 p.m. Approaching 12 hours since I entered “Madness Mode”, Wisconsin is dominating a smaller, less athletic Fullerton team, West Virginia and Arizona are in a close game and UCLA is just working out MVSU.
11:00 p.m. Games are all wrapped up, and here’s what we know: the teams that won big today showed why they were high seeds. The teams I picked and they lost were not as good as I thought, and Duke might be in trouble.
As the weekend played out, some of my teams went down: Duke, Notre Dame and Drake, for example while others are still alive, Wisconsin and Washington State. My final four picks are UCLA over Xavier in the West, Stanford over Memphis, Wisconsin over Kansas in the homer pick of the century and North Carolina over Tennessee in what could be a very entertaining game. My champion is North Carolina beating UCLA. Excuse me while I go throw up after picking the Heels.