Thursday, March 11, 2010

Crazy Start To Conference Tourneys

With most conference tournaments from the Big-6 under way, it is time to look back at the day that was. That day was Thursday (clever, I know). All across the country lower seeds took out higher ranked teams. To be honest, due to finals and all that, I only got to concentrate on two tournaments. However, those two provided plenty of upsets. To get the most out of today, I decided to follow the best conference, Big East, and its polar opposite, the Pac-10. Both provided plenty of drama and excitement. Sure the Big East featured five ranked teams, while there were non on the Left Coast, but oh well. The day began with Georgetown showing it only knows how to play against good teams, as it beat archrival and squeeze of the month Syracuse. The Hoyas did not slip as they did against the Orange earlier this year as Chris Wright was dominating and Greg "Craig" Monroe showed why lefties are so awesome. The day continued with Marquette taking on Villanova. The announcers kept talking about how it was going to be a good game and all that jazz, but I wasn't buying it. And I was proved wrong. 'Nova decided to also shoot itself in the foot and lose to a lesser (though talented) opponent. Then came the Bruins turn to pull of an "upset".

Even many die-hard UCLA fans didn't expect their Bruins to pull out the win against the Wildcats of Arizona and to fall to them for the third time this season. For what ever reason (that reason was probably Reeves Nelson), the Bruins dominated throughout most of the game, and sent Arizona and it's "25 year streak" of NCAA tourney appearances back to the desert. Though then Cal dominated the Ducks, the third game of the tournament was a thriller. Well, not really. Stanford jumped out to a lead early one, gave most of it up, but then stepped on the gas in the second half and embarrassed those Shocker-waving-Sun-Devils all the way to Tempe. But back to the lEast Coast. Notre Dame and Shrek, err Luke Harangody sent much higher ranked Pitt packing a bit early for Jamie Dixon's taste. This marked the third straight upset in the Big East Quarters. Luckily for WVU, they had a miraculous bank shot to win against the Bearcats of Cincinnati. The same thing almost happened back in Los Angeles, where Beaver Fever was in full swing against UW, but the Fever fell asleep halfway through the middle part of the second half and Washington prevailed. This sure sets up a fun march for all fans out there. I wonder if Syracuse, ASU (if they make it in), Nova, and Pitt play well or play like this guy sings:

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