March Madness: Day 2

Interested in upsets? Satisfied. The first day of the 2008 NCAA college basketball tournament was bit of a snooze, admit it were all a little let down by Belmont. Day 2 however, started and finished with a BANG! Davidson's Stephen Curry answered the call and delivered with authority, Jim Calhoun was sent packing before his suitcases were even empty and my man crush Jay Wright avoided costing his Villanova Wildcats a chance at the round of 32, surviving an epic battle with Clemson. Did I mention that Sunday afternoon will include the likes of Western Kentucky & Siena? On Monday morning the NCAA tourney will include either San Diego or Western Kentucky in the Sweet 16, didn't see that one coming.

My MVP of the day goes to Davidson sophomore guard, Stephen Curry. After drilling his 8Th three ball of the day with 1:04 remaining on the clock Gonzaga was all but finished by Curry. The most recent player to score 40+ points in an NCAA Tournament game since Cuse' guard, Gerry Mac, Curry was unstoppable. We were all introduced to Curry during last years tourney because of his former NBA sharp shooter dad, Dell Curry, but there is alot more to the story of Stephen. Playing his high school ball in the state of North Carolina, the Tar Heel & Blue Devil backyard, Curry was overlooked by the ACC powerhouses and choose the road to Davidson. I'm sure Coach K wouldn't mind having Curry's 40-point performance against Belmont Thursday night. Dispatching of tournament regular Gonzaga is quite an accomplishment for the young Davidson Wildcat team, especially when they trailed by as many as 11 points during the game. The road only gets more difficult for Curry and Davidson with Georgetown staring them right in the face tomorrow afternoon.

It will go down as the greatest 4-game upset swing in one location. Basketball fans in Tampa, Florida were witness to victories by (2) twelve seeds and (2) thirteen seeds during Fridays first round tournament play. Knocked out of the tourney on Friday in Tampa were teams from the ACC, SEC, Big East, and every ones tourney sleeper Drake. Advancing were, Villanova, an at-large (12) from a power conference, Siena (13), who I literally know nothing about, Western Kentucky (2), which prevented me from doing any sort of real work yesterday afternoon, and San Diego(13), a city which is now responsible for giving me two of my greatest joys in life, knocking out Jim Calhoun and providing the setting for Will Ferrell, the legend of Ron Burgundy. The real treat will come on Sunday when 2 of the 4 teams will wind up in the sweet 16.

For all of the women in your office pool who decided that this would be the year the sixteen seeds knocked off the one seeds in the first round:

North Carolina beat Mount Saint Mary's 113-74
Kansas beat Portland State 85-61
UCLA beat Mississippi Valley State 70-29
Memphis beat University of Texas - Arlington 87-63

It isn't going to happen, but feel free to keep doing it EVERY YEAR.

Lastly, my tip of the cap for Friday goes to the kids from Indiana, there first round exit is a microcosm of their entire season. After losing their head coach because of NCAA rules violations, the university opted to release the announcement of their coaching search while interim coach Dan Dakich is still in the position and attempting to prep for a tournament game. Another example of how the school could care less about the student athlete and more about their own wallet, GO HOOSIERS!