Done, over, donesky, donezo, finished. All these words describe my bracket right now. Like the majority of the nation I chose Kansas to take the national championship, but after 9th-seed Northern Iowa’s amazing triumph over the No. 1 overall seeded Jayhawks, 69-67, we know that won’t be happening.
On Saturday three of the eight games consisted of a lower seed defeating a higher seed, with all of those wins coming by an eight-seed margin. St. Mary’s (CA), a team that snuck into the tournament after upsetting Gonzaga in the WCC Championship, took down the 2nd-seeded Villanova to start the day. The 10th-seeded Gaels received a huge effort from Omar Samhan. His 32 points and seven rebounds allowed his team to be the first to punch their ticket into the 2010 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
As mentioned earlier, Northern Iowa was able to hold Kansas’ Sherron Collins to only 4-of-15 from the field as David took down Goliath in Oklahoma City. The Panthers advance to face the winner of today’s matchup between No. 4 Maryland and No. 5 Michigan State next week.
Number 11 Washington embarrassed 3rd-seed New Mexico, 82-64, behind shooting 48.5% from the field. The Huskies were propelled by 18 points from Thursday night’s hero, Quincy Pondexter, and 15 each from Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Isaiah Thomas, respectively. A year when the Pac-10 looked weak, they could possible get two teams in the Sweet 16 with a California upset over the 1st-seed in the South Region, Duke.
If you didn’t pick Kansas to win you probably went with Kentucky and they look every bit the favorite right now, crushing the ACC’s Wake Forest, 90-60, Saturday night. The Wildcats shots an outstanding 60% from the field behind 20 points from Darius Miller and 19 from DeMarcus Cousins. John Calipari has this team rolling and we’ll find out today if they will face Wisconsin or Cornell today for a possible birth into the Elite 8.
The Wisconsin-Cornell game today at 1:50 CST is UATV’s John Thomas’ Upset Pick of the Day. I correctly picked this matchup and while I love both teams, I went with Wisconsin on my bracket. However, Cornell has a nasty 1-3-1 defense they play that helps them slow down opposing offenses.
Yesterday, I finished 4-4 while losing Kansas for the rest of my bracket. Two of my Final Four teams moves on yesterday (Baylor & Kansas State), while West Virginia plays Missouri today. Maybe today will go a little better but it isn’t looking hopeful in the coming week.