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Posted 03/09/2007 at 09:07 AM
In my last blog, I wrote about how much I love the conference tournaments and yesterday was all the reason I needed to convince myself I'll continue to love them for years. In case you're not a college basketball fan or you were just stuck in your office yesterday, let me give you a recap of a great day of hoops. All in all, we saw eight overtime games and one dobule overtime game. There were upsets all over the country and the NCAA Tournament landscape was changed drastically. With action from noon till 2:00am, you couldn't peel yourself away from the TV for minutes without feeling like you were going to miss something spectacular.
Let's start with the early games where Clemson fell to Florida State on what I think was a questionable foul call with one second left on the clock. Al Thornton knocked down a free throw to give the Noles' the win and a improve their position in the at-large bid ladder.
At Madison Square Garden, Georgetown was up by 19 at the half but needed some late three-pointers to hold off a Villonova comeback. The following game was a big time matchup between Syracuse and Notre Dame which saw the Irish pull out a 6 point win. The Syracuse loss was no doubt a set back in their tournament hopes. If that wasn't enough action out of the Big East, Louisville needed OT to send West Virginia home and Pittsburgh and Marquette were neck and neck at the half before the Panthers pulled away for a win.
In the CUSA tournament, which Memphis is just about a lock to win, Rice upset Central Florida to advance A loss for the Golden Knights didn't mean much as they wouldn't have beat Memphis later and are certainly not going to the NCAA Tourny but they did lose to Rice which is a bad way to end a good season.
Now how about a few shockers? Let's start with the "U" knocking Maryland out of the ACC tournament. And that wasn't the only ACC upset of the day as N.C. State took Duke into overtime before sending the Blue Devils home in the first round. And we're not done!. In late action, Wake Forest knocked off Georgia Tech in OT to advance. Man I wish I was in Tampa to see this live.
But if I was at the games in Tampa, I would have missed California's upset of #3 UCLA out west. In my opinion, losing in the first round of your conference tournament should disqualify you from receiving a number one seed. We'll see if the commitee agrees.
The worst loss of the day goes to the Arizona Wildcats who were simply manhandled by Oregon. That leaves Arizona at 20-10 on the season and praying the tournament commitee will hold their spot.
They say things can get crazy in Vegas but no one expected Air Force to fall to Wyoming in the first round of the MWC tournamet. The loss gave San Diego State a chance for a statement win later in the day but they choked, losing to Colorado State, a sixth seed.
Other teams boarding the bus early from their respective tournaments are Missouri, who lost to Baylor, and Tennessee, who fell in OT to LSU.
OK, just to show that my head isn't completely buried in the NCAA Tournament sand, I'm well aware that Tiger Woods has secured his own tournament for the PGA Tour which is likely to be held at the Congressional Country Club just outside Washington D.C. AT&T is the title sponsor of the new AT&T National and the event will benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation. It's great to note that all active military personel will be admitted to the grounds free of charge as well as children under the age of 12.
I spent almost an entire blog bashing Woods for not giving enough back to the PGA Tour and its fans because he plays in so few tournaments. While I won't take that comment back, I will commend Woods for his latest actions. Now Tiger, please DO NOT make this an invitational.
Congrats to Willis McGahee who finally gets a chance at playing on a real football team. No offense to the Bills but if you're willing to trade the only bright spot you had in your future, you're not very smart.
Tennessee QB Erik Ainge has injured his knee and will be out of spring practice. When your starting QB goes down with a partially torn meniscus that requires surgery, its not a good thing.
12:00 today we start up the action again. Dont' be late or you just might miss something.........
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