Before I jot down some general thoughts about last night's games and how sorry the Big East looked yesterday, I thought we needed one more look at the jumper than Danero Thomas nailed to slay Vanderbilt. Eat it Commodores!
Thursday had such an entertaining string of games, two of my friends openly pondered whether or not it was the best opening day ever of the NCAA Tournament. (We may have had a few beers at that point.) But still, were they wrong? I think they might have been right. It was certainly the best day I can remember in a long time. We already discussed the days games, but the night games were almost as good.
I didn't think Wake Forest even deserved to be in the tourney, and their game was one of the most exciting of the evening as they knocked off Texas 81-80 in overtime. Tennessee's win over San Diego State was no cakewalk, and New Mexico barely survived against my alma mater, the Montana Grizzlies.
We have to discuss the New Mexico/Montana game for a minute, if only because I'm still grumpy about it. I watched it in a bar with former Sun columnist Rick Maese, a New Mexico grad (assuming they actually hand out degrees at that podunk college, I can't really confirm) and so it was like a blood feud for three and half hours. Montana really could have won, but their leading scorer, Anthony Johnson, who was coming off a 42-point performance in the Big Sky Championship game, had three points and was 1-of-12 from the floor. Disgraceful. I still need to figure out a way to break it to my wife that I gambled away our daughter's college savings and that Maese holds the pink slip to my car, but so if you have any suggestions, leave them below.
Can we talk about the embarrassment that is the Big East before today's games begin? I'm really tired of hearing every year that it's the best conference in the country, only to see it lay a collective egg in the tournament. Big East basketball is ugly basketball, and Georgetown and Notre Dame were U-G-L-Y, and sure didn't have no alibi yesterday. Villanova should have lost to Robert Morris, and probably would have if not for some generous calls from the referees. I'm tired of hearing Georgetown make excuses every year, and Big East apologists like Digger Phelps make excuses for the league. There is no way Notre Dame's Luke Harangody should have zero points two minute remaining against Old Dominion.
I know we're biased here in ACC Country, but it looked a lot more like the Big Least yesterday.
That said, I still don't see how Syracuse doesn't make the Final Four.