Game Notes

My favorite holiday is the second round of the NCAA tournament.  I stopped at Mark's Donuts on the way home from work Thursday morning, and I have not stopped eating yet.  The only times that I have left my couch in the past two days is to empty my bladder and refill my coffee cup.

I have watched most if not all of 31 of the 32 basketball games played so far.  I did not turned on the Duke/Lehigh game until there was less than two minutes left.  I hate Duke so much, that I will not watch them play, even when they are losing.  Though that little bit of the game that I watched was nearly my favorite part of the weekend.

Of course my favorite game so far was Murray State's 58-41 win over Colorado State.  The Racers shot poorly from the free throw line, the three point line, and from two point range.  Their usual difficulties with defensive rebounding continued.  Because of these struggles, Murray limped into half time down by one.  In the second half the defense that earned them a 30-1 record shutdown the Rams offense.  Now that the rust from the eleven day layoff is gone, Murray State is poised to make their first trip to the sweet sixteen.

The state of Kentucky has a 4-1 record so far.  The only loss was against another Kentucky school.  In addition to Murray State's win, two former coaches, Mick Cronin and Mark Gottfried, also won their second rounds games.

There have been a few moments when only one game was on, but more often at least two and sometimes four games were going on at once.  To keep from missing any of the games, I borrowed my roommate's laptop.  This was almost sensory overload.  Especially since I had the sound turned on for three of the games.

Missouri losing yesterday ruined the chances that my prediction bracket would win any awards.  I picked Missouri to advance to the final four.  The last time this happened to me was 2006 when Kansas lost their first round game to Bradley instead of in the championship game like I predicted.  I picked Duke to lose in the next round, so their loss did not hurt my brackets much (though even if it had, it would have been worth it).

I should be glad that Missouri, the #2 seeded team in the West, was upset yesterday, but I'm not.  If Murray beats Marquette, they play the winner of the Florida/Norfolk State game.  I think the Racers matched up better against Missouri than Florida.  But I will wait to worry about that game after the Marquette game today.