NCAA March Madness Musings and Highlights (3/19/15)
Highlight of the Day – Coach Ron Hunter of Georgia State suffering from a torn Achilles is forced to coach from a rolling chair on the sideline and proceeds to fall off that chair when his son, RJ Hunter, hits the game-winning 3-point shot. RJ Hunter struggled throughout the game, but closed the game by scoring 12 of the last 13 points and led #14 Georgia State in a 57-56 upset over #3 Baylor.
Sick Highlight of the Day – SMU’s coach Larry Brown suffering from bronchitis, a lack of sleep from having the hiccups for forty-eight hours and the sick ending of the game when goal-tending is called against SMU on a 3-point shot by Bryce Alford (9-11 from 3-point range). Yes, I know, that technically it was the right call (even though it appeared he missed the rim to the right), SMU had a bad turnover just prior to the play and SMU’S Nic Moore had two chances to score in the last ten seconds. I will recover from the loss, but it was a sick ending for a team that made a 19-0 run late in the second half after having a horrible shooting day and was seconds away from a victory.
First game of the tournament started with tension when Notre Dame’s Zach Auguste got into early foul trouble, but thankfully he was able to finish the game and was instrumental in Notre Dame’s win over Northeastern (69-65) when late in the game he recovered a Northeastern turnover, was fouled, sealed the win by making his free-throws and scored a game-high 25 points.
Lost one team from my Final Four on the first day (unfortunately, that is not unusual).
Although I lost SMU from my Final Four when they lost to UCLA, at least the loss was to a team coached by a former Big Ten player, Steve Alford, who led Bobby Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers to the 1987 NCAA Championship (I know as a Big Ten fan that should make me feel a little better over the loss, but so far I am not sure it does).
Very strong performance by the Arizona Wildcats (unfortunately, I do not have them in my Final Four).
Very strong performance by the Villanova Wildcats (fortunately, I have them winning the tournament in my Best-Dressed Bracket).
Great performance by Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell who led his team in an overtime victory over VCU with 28 points (4-7 from 3-point range) and during the game took an elbow to the eye and managed to get stitches while the refs reviewed the flagrant foul call, made it back into the game without missing any time, and a few seconds later hit a big 3-point shot.
Ohio State captured the first Big Ten victory in the tournament.
The Big 12 was tied with the Big Ten for the most teams, seven, in the NCAA tournament. Hopefully, the Big Ten fares better than the Big 12 who had three losses the first day when #11 Texas lost to #6 Butler and two major upsets as #3 Iowa State lost to #14 University of Alabama Birmingham and #3 Baylor lost to #14 Georgia State.
Villanova’s coach, Jay Wright, lived up to his best-dressed ranking.
Very funny AT&T commercial with Dr. J, Christian Laettner, Clyde Drexler, and a dancing Shaquille O’Neal.
A highlight of the tournament is always watching CBS analyst Charles Barkley and this year has the added bonus of watching him in the very funny Capital One commercials with Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson.
Former MSU Spartan, Mateen Cleeves, joining March Madness as a studio analyst.
Former MSU Spartan, Steve Smith, joining March Madness as a game analyst.
Exciting game between Harvard and North Carolina that saw a Harvard team rally from a double-digit deficit and almost pull off the upset. Harvard missed a last second 3-point shot and lost 67-65 to North Carolina.
Hard-fought game between Purdue and Cincinnati that resulted in the Big Ten’s first loss of the conference after Cincinnati defeated Purdue 66-65 in overtime.
A good reminder for Friday’s games is to not give up on a game. LSU had a large lead over NC State and after losing interest in the game and forgetting to check back, I just discovered they rallied to win 66-65 on a last second shot (what was I thinking giving up on NC State).
Exciting first day of the tournament with an NCAA record being set for five games decided by a 1-point difference.
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