Sweet 16, Day 1

The first two games are winding down in this year's sweet 16 action.

The Purdue versus UConn game was never out of hand but after a well played first half that saw Purdue's Robbie Hummel keeping the Boilermakers in it with the jumper. Hummel would finish with 17 points and JaJuan Johnson had 13 as well. UConn was just too much for the overmatched Big Ten team down low though. Hasheem Thabeet tallied 15 points, 15 rebounds, and 4 blocks clearly controlling the paint. Three other Huskies finished in double figures including another double-double for Stanley Robinson. UConn advanced fairly easily by a final score of 72-60.

The more heatly contested of the two early games was that of Pittsburgh and Xavier. Close games are becoming a theme of this year's tournament for the top seeded Panthers of Pitt. Pittsburgh actually trailed at the half by 8 points and Xavier has kept them on the run all game. There is still 3:46 left in this game at the moment and the two teams are tied at 52. More to come at game's end.