Madness gets going

The opening day of the NCAA men's basketball tournament didn't disappoint--an overtime game, a double overtime game, and three top-3 seeds being pushed to the wire. Best game so far was 8 George Washington coming from 18 down in the second half to beat 9 UNC Wilmington in overtime by 3.

I've correctly picked all 11 games so far except one (12 Montana beating 5 Nevada), including the two other upsets, 11 Wisconsin Milwaukee beating 6 Oklahoma and 10 Alabama beating 7 Marquette.

Sometimes in this tournament not picking the upset is the way to go--my theory is when there's a lot of parity overall the slightly better teams win.

Watching 5 Syracuse try to claw back against 12 Texas A&M... these 5-12 games are always crazy. Since I have the Orangemen going out in the next round anyway, it's cool if the upset happens. Now 6 Indiana vs. 11 San Diego State on the other hand.... Announcers are very pro-Syracuse, I think they're gonna lose, down 6 with just over a minute left and Gerry McNamara's on the bench with a groin injury.

Oh well, looks like I'll be 12-2, with the other two games currently going against me too. Better than the Big East, which is 0-4 today.

They switch to the Indiana game--they're within one, with a chance to finish the three-point play. Meanwhile, the team USA baseball team just lost to Mexico 2-1, amazing. So the U.S. is out of the inaugural World Baseball tournament, having lost to Canada, South Korea (which is undefeated so far) and now Mexico, and having beaten South Africa, Mexico earlier and Japan. The semifinalists are South Korea, Japan, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

Oh well, poor Bud Selig, everything he touches turns to dross. Back to IU, Mike Davis is out as coach after this tournament. And IU is falling apart a bit, went from being tied to down by three with SDSU at the line, lead now five. Ugh. IU guy misses both free throws, even worse.

Turns around just like that--IU hits two free throws, SDSU--coached by ex-Michigan coach Steve Fisher!--turns it over, but then horrible 3-point IU shot attempt and then they foul. Some very bad basketball down the stretch for IU; SDSU misses though, IU grabs ball, misses three but then gets the board and the shot.

One point game, SDSU crazy three miss, now IU foul, not a great call by the refs. SDSU makes both, three points down; nice drive by Hoosiers, one again. Wow, crazy play--SDSU guy had ball poked away into back court, could've grabbed it back but thought he couldn't (if the other team hadn't touched it he'd be right), just standing over ball, IU guy dives on floor and on the jump ball possesion is IUs.

Wow. IU puts up a crazy three-pointer, after getting a pass tipped--just pure luck, suddenly up by two. Game's over, SDSU throws the ball the length of the court, out of bounds. That's basketball for you--in the blink of an eye you go from in command to down and out. IU makes two free throws, wins 87-83. Wow.

Just one game still going on tonight, Washington up by double digits over Utah State, but CBS signs off at 12:30. So time to test the free webcast....

Wow, it's a totally ridiculous system. They put you in the 'general admission' line, I'm currently 136 in line. Gotta wait about 2 minutes before they let people 'in' again. Good timing, Utah State's cut the lead to 7. 20 turnovers for them, though, with the latest one.

Commercial blasts on this thing. It's like you're afraid to click on anything, don't wanna get kicked outof line. Hmm, some promos apparently aren't streamed online, so they fill the space with a stay-tuned graphic. They couldn't have sold an ad to someone for $1 instead?

Back, the arena's half-empty, ridiculous. Momentum starting to swing back to Washington, amazing that UTSU isn't out of it with 14 more turnovers than the Huskies. Good announcer, Dick Enberg, for a late night game.

Game's back and forth, Washington up 7 with about 4:30; in my experience the lower seed never wins when they're down by this margin, usually they have to be up and hold on. Lead now 8 after a 3/2 swap. Washington hits another 3, this game is over--up by 9, 3:30 to play. Whoops, except Utah State hits 3 back. Down to 3, another 3 for Washington. 9 point lead after UTSU hits a 2 in response. UTSU gets a steal, let's see if they can cut to 7 or 6... Timeout instead from UTSU.

So far 4 graphics instead of commercials in like 10 minutes. At least run an ad for a CBS program! Anyway, Washington winds up winning, 75-61.

So I'm 13-3 after day 1.