Day one is in the books, 16 teams are headed home, and 16 more will play at least once more, starting tomorrow. Let's recap all the big stories:
Duke Loses The only real upset of the day came from the Rams of VCU, who took down Duke 79-77 behind 20 clutch points from Eric Maynor. I'm not sure which I like more: my mid-game comment to Carolina March, or Carolina March's post-game schadenfreude. Probably the latter.
Trust Yourself, Kids One of the things that frustrates me more each year is the growing number of invitations to various NCAA Pools. I inevitably play in too many of them, inevitably fill out various "scenario" brackets, and inevitably regret half the stupid picks I make. (Next year? I'm capping myself at two: the BON pool and the best proposed pool by my friends.)
At the site yesterday, I picked scores for each game, correctly identifying 14 of the 16 winners. In the BON Bracket, though? My picks went 11-for-16. Looking at the selections, I'm befuddled as to why I went away from several teams I really liked. You live and learn, I guess.
Buy & Sell It's obviously time to bail on all of yesterday's losers, but what about among the winners? Who were the most and least impressive?
Buy: Washington State, VCU, Vanderbilt, Louisville
Sell: Texas A&M, Pittsburgh
The Cougars, Rams, Commodores and Cardinals all had impressive showings that foreshadown Sweet 16 appearances. Of course, Vandy and Washington State will play one another, so they can't both keep rolling. I'm nervous about Texas A&M, though, as they spent a lot of energy holding off Penn, and now get a rested, red hot Louisville team in Lexington. The Aggies will still be in great shape if they survive to San Antonio, but it's certainly not a gimme at this stage.
First Day First Teamers Greg Oden (Ohio State), Roderick Wilmont (Indiana), Eric Maynor (VCU), Aaron Afflalo (UCLA), Tyrese Rice (Boston College)
And that's it. Yesterday is just that, and we've got 12 more hours of hoops today, including Texas at 6:30 p.m.
Schedule of games forthcoming.
--PB--