I’m playing hooky from work. It’s Friday, it’s the first round of March Madness, I just watched a guy from 14th seeded Northwestern State hit a three-point prayer at the buzzer to beat 3rd seed Iowa, and I’m on the edge of my seat as Bucknell has earned the Patriot League a ton of credibility by beating Arkansas … life just doesn’t get any better than this.
DirecTv: This is not a paid endorsement, nor am I a dramatization of an actual DirecTv customer. DirecTv is the greatest thing to ever happen to sports fans since television itself and ESPN. I don’t care what any cable television company offers, the sports packages offered by DirecTv make the world a wonderful place. Every first round game, second round game, and the choice to watch any game you want whenever you want. It’s great that the networks don’t control which games I can watch. Especially since my market invariably shows the “1 versus 16” blowout at the expense of the interesting first round match ups.
College Wrestling: Lost in the hoops' March Madness is college wrestling’s biggest weekend, as the NCAA Wrestling Championships are being held this weekend in Oklahoma City. Wrestling is definitely an acquired taste, but if you have never watched a real wrestling match tune into ESPN2 on Saturday night to get a glimpse of the best wrestlers in the country fighting to become national champs. If you happen to be a wrestling aficionado, you’ll be happy to know that ESPN U is broadcasting from the semifinal round on through the finals.
“5 versus 12”: What used to be considered an upset is now an ordinary occurrence, as the first day of the hoops tourney saw two 5 seeds lose to their 12 seed opponents. I’m not sure if this is due to poor seeding decisions or just the nature of the teams that wind up as these seeds. Next year we’ll hear about teams not wanting to be seeded 5th.
Article comments
1 - Ty
""5 versus 12": What used to be considered an upset is now an ordinary occurrence, as the first day of the hoops tourney saw two 5 seeds lose to their 12 seed opponents. I'm not sure if this is due to poor seeding decisions or just the nature of the teams that wind up as these seeds. Next year we'll hear about teams not wanting to be seeded 5th."
It's the nature of the teams. Usually a 5 seed is a major conference team that did not win their conf tourney but already has themselves penciled into the sweet 16. They are overrated usually.
A 12 seed is usually a mid-major conference champion who is underrated and is squarely focused on the first round game.
The exception to this rule was Nevada/Montana, because Nevada was the WAC champion and Montana was the Big Sky Champion. Nevada was not overrated, but Montana was certainly underrated.
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
How about (5) Syracuse vs. (12) Texas A&M? Many people penciled in the Aggies into the tourney before 'Cuse. Yet the Orangemen won in the deepest conference, so they were rewarded with a 5 seed.
THIS JUST IN: Gerry McNamara still feels great.
3 - sal m
syracuse had been pretty bad for most of the year, but by winning the tourney i guess they had to be at least a 5...that situation was pretty unusual with a major conference...sometimes in a lesser conference you have a surprise winner in the tourney, but those teams always get low seeds...a bottom team doesn't usually win the tourneys in the power conferences...
mcnamara's last game was very odd...finishing sitting on the bench...
4 - Hairynipples
I am still hung over from first round action. I would like to make a personal attack, yet I refrain. Did you know George Mason is an airline mechanic at Newark and lives in Nutley?