How busted is your bracket? First weekend of tourney action in review
A. Isaac If you haven’t lost a final four team yet after the first weekend, consider yourself lucky. The tournament lost its first #1 seed and a plethora of dark-horse contenders over the last few days.
Here’s a recap of some highlights and lowlights from 2nd and 3rd round action of March Madness 2011.
Upset of the weekend
Most would say that Pitt being ousted as the #1 seed is the biggest surprise of the tournament thus far. But when you consider that Butler is coming off a year when they were National Championship runner-ups and returned a fairly solid team, it gives you pause. It also gives you pause when it’s Pittsburgh, a team that has annually gagged the last several years with Jamie Dixon at the helm. So no, surprisingly, that’s not our winner. That goes to the Purdue Boilermakers who were absolutely spanked by VCU in tournament action Sunday night. The Rams barely snuck into the tournament, needed a play-in game to get to the main draw, and then proceeded to beat Georgetown. But the fashion in which they beat Purdue was mind boggling. They scored 52 second half points en route to a 94-76 shellacking. Many thought Purdue was in position for a #1 seed just weeks ago. Good thing that didn’t come to fruition because given their play lately, we could have seen the first 1-16 upset.
Boneheaded play of the weekend
This one’s close, as close as you can get to utter stupidity during a sporting event. But the winner has to be Pitt’s Nasir Robinson for fouling Matt Howard with a 1-point lead 90 feet away from the basket. After Pitt was giving a gift by Butler on a stupid half-court foul, they were sent to the foul line trailing by 1. Gilbert Brown drained the first one to tie the game but clanked the second one off the rim. What happened next can only be described as the biggest brain fart in tourney history. No words can describe this tomfoolery.
Defensive play of the weekend
There may have been a lot of contact on this one, but the referees swallowed their whistle. Trailing by 2, Memphis opted to purposely miss their second free throw. The ball caromed into the hands of Wesley Witherspoon and all that stood between him and overtime was Arizona’s Derrick Williams. Needless to say, the All-American won that battle handily.
Ankle breaker of the weekend
With Michigan and Duke knotted up in a close affair to reach the Sweet 16, Nolan Smith decided to take over. In a two-minute span, Smith scored 10 straight points to give the Blue Devils the distance they needed to pull out the win. Included in his scoring barrage was this ankle breaking crossover on Tim Hardaway, Jr. Oddly enough, it was Hardaway’s father who popularized the move in the 90′s.
Ref blunder of the weekend
Given the state of awful refereeing the past few weeks in college basketball, there was a number to choose from here. But none were as shocking or perplexing as the ending of the Washington-North Carolina game. The Huskies attempted a desperation three to tie it from mid-court. The shot was woefully short but strangely, John Henson of North Carolina touched it before it went out. There appeared to be more time left on the clock, surely more than the 0.5 seconds the cameras showed. Officials opted not to go to the monitors to check and Washington was forced to throw up a prayer with limited time remaining. Replays showed the ball making contact out of bounds at about 1.1 mark. Even if you argue that there is a delay between the ball going out of bounds and the refs whistle, the least they could have done was looked at it more closely on the monitor. Especially since it was way overused during the middle of the game.
Uncomfortable interview of the weekend
Kansas State’s Jacob Pullen was visibly upset–so much so that he probably shouldn’t have been up on the podium in the post-game of a heartbreaking loss to Wisconsin. But the senior manned up and tried to give it all he had, mimicking his entire career with the Wildcats. When a reporter asked about how emotional the game was, the tears started flowing and head coach Frank Martin, well, he wasn’t too happy with the question.
Mike Pereira wannabe of the weekend
CBS took a page right out of the NFL’s playbook and had an official on stand-by ready to analyze the most crucial of calls during games. The man is the head of officiating and his name is John Adams, although, Charles Barkley hilariously referred to him as Sam Adams. He was boring, dry, and looked to be about 80 years past his prime. It made for some compelling TV.
Hot sideline reporter of the weekend
Jaime Maggio is certainly no Erin Andrews, Jenn Brown, or my personal favorite Suzy Kolber. But the CBS reporter did an admirable job this weekend covering the games and interviewing coaches at halftime. It also helps that she’s easy on the eyes.
The crypt keeper of the weekend
If you were hoping for more boring Wisconsin Badgers basketball, well, you’re in luck. Kansas State folded down the stretch as the Badgers along with their pleasant-looking head coach Bo Ryan moved into the Sweet 16 for only the third time in the last decade. Surprisingly, Ryan has had a lot of success in the regular season. But when push comes to shove in the tourney, he usually folds like a cheap suit. In fact, he has only beaten a better seed ONCE in his entire career. As much as we’d love to hammer Ryan even more for his skeletor-esque look, he did legitimately make us laugh a few years back with his version of the Soulja Boy.
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