NCAA Tournament Roundup

Tampa was upset city last night as all 4 of the lower seeds won for the first time ever at the same site:

Western Kentucky(12) beat Drake(5) 101-99 in OT in a game with a wild finish. At one point Western Kentucky was up 16 with 12 minutes to go and Drake came back to tie it and then take the lead in overtime, until Western Kentucky hit a game winning three at the buzzer

San Diego(13) beat UConn(4) 71-70 in OT. The main reason UConn lost this game is because AJ Price, who is their PG and potentially their best player, hurt his knee only 9 minutes into the game. At that point the game was tied 16-16, but San Diego was able to pull out ahead by as many as 11 in the first half. UConn fought their way back to force OT but got beat on a last second shot.

Siena(13) beat Vanderbilt(4) 83-62. Vanderbilt should be embarrased by this effort as the 21 point margin was the second highest ever by a 13 seed over a 4 seed. This was a big upset pick for alot of people, I had this picked as an upset early because Vanderbilt only had a 48 overall efficiency rating and they stink on the road but I thought that Siena's defensive ratings were so bad that Vanderbilt would expose them and score close to 100 on them. Guess I was wrong big time on that one!

Villanova(12) beat Clemson(5) 75-69. Looks like free throws played a big part in this one as Villanova hit 10 more free throws then Clemson. I'm still not sure how Villanova won this game, they didn't do anything spectacular but they were solid all around. Clemson did struggle shooting the ball, which is probably because Villanova is a tough defensive team. I'm not shocked that Villanova won the game but I expected Clemson to play better than they did.

Villanova's win made the Big East teams 7-1 in the first round. The only loss was from UConn and they lost on a last second shot after they lost their starting PG to a knee injury, so the Big East was close to going 8-0 in the first round, I think that would have been a record for a conference.