Second batch of games out of the oven

There were some really interesting games in this second group of games. I predicted Cornell against Missouri and Dayton versus West Virginia would be the games to watch. I can claim fifty percent on that.

Cornell didn't put up quite the fight against Missouri that I thought they would. Big Red lost the game 59-78. They clearly couldn't handle the swarming defense of the Tigers for the game's entirety. Missouri will face Marquette in the next round in what should be one of the better games of the round. Missouri likes to run the floor and play their full court press while Marquette isn't opposed to getting up and down but they will likely want to avoid a track meet with this Tiger team.

In an interesting surprise, East Tennessee State gave Pittsburgh all they could handle today. Even though Pitt ended up winning this game they needed a full effort from Dejuan Blair who had 26 points and 16 rebounds. This was a game that should have been a walk for the Panthers and turned out to be anything but. All in all, Pitt moves on and will face Oklahoma State over the weekend. That match-up should also be a hard fought battle which makes me think a little bit. Assuming Pitt gets past the Cowboys, how much are they going to have left in the tank after two difficult games in the first and second rounds?

The biggest surprise was the 11th seeded Dayton Flyers upsetting the 6th seeded West Virginia Mountaineers. Huggins and company were in the game the whole way down the stretch and had a ridiculous amount of chances to tie the game and even take the lead late but could never seem to find the buckets when it mattered. Ruoff being in foul trouble, and eventually fouling out, certainly didn't help any. Tough loss for both WVU and my bracket. It's never a good thing when you have a team you pick as your sleeper sweet 16 team lose in the first round, ouch. Dayton gets Kansas next round and I am convinced the Flyers have more than an average chance at winning that game also.

It is break time for the tourney games and that means we all have a chance to breath, eat, workout, shower...ya know, whatever you gotta take care of until the 7:00pm EST games start. Those games include:

(1) Louisville vs. (16) Morehead State
(5) Utah vs. (12) Arizona
(7) Boston College vs. (10) Southern Cal
(4) Xavier vs. (13) Portland State

The Utah game should be the best one as they match up well against the Wildcats. The only other game that I could see being a great game is BC vs. USC but that all depends on which USC team we get today. Will we get the team that was red hot and won the Pac-10 tourney or will we get the team from the regular season that was average at best? No way to know until we watch the game. Enjoy your break and see ya on the other side.