Tampa "Upset City" Bay

Thank God that we have the amazing Sienna-Villanova matchup to analyze coming up in the second round! It was a very strange day in the NCAA tournament, a record-breaking day, in fact. Never have four lower seeds beaten four higher seed the same day in the same location.

I have to admit, I wasn't surprised to see Drake fall to Western Kentucky. Drake had not made the tournament since 1971 and had never won a tournament game. I did not think that their season warranted a 5 seed. The game yielded the tournament's most exciting moment so far, as Ty Rogers hit the game-winning 26-foot trey as time expired. WKU is officially my favorite Cinderella in the tournament. I think their momentum will carry them past San Diego, but they will hit the wall against UCLA.

UCONN was a bit of a shocker. The Huskies had some bad losses this season (Providence, TWICE!), but San Diego should not have been able to handle a team with the size that UCONN has so easily. I blame this one on Jim Calhoun. Though UCONN is a media darling and probably overrated this season, Calhoun did not have his team prepared for the small guard play of San Diego.

Siena defeating Vanderbilt was puzzling as well. Vandy was arguably the best team in the SEC behind Tennessee this season and they lost UGLY tonight. Losing by more than 20 points to a relatively under-the-radar Siena team (they had the same record as Rider in the MAAC) is unacceptable. Vanderbilt laid a huge egg today, shooting 41% to Sienna's 56%. This loss could sit for a looong time in Commodore-land.

Lastly, we have Villanova knocking off Clemson. The same Clemson that almost beat UNC allowed Villanova to shoot back into the game after leading handily in the first half. Nova went 6-8 down the stretch to end the regular season and did not particularly shine at any time this year. Clemson no doubt will be a bracket buster for many people, some of whom had them all the way to the Elite 8 or even Final Four.

Here's predictions for Saturday's games:
Wisconsin over Kansas State in a very close game.
Washington State over Notre Dame
Stanford over Marquette
Xavier over Purdue
UCLA over Texas A&M
Kansas over UNLV
Duke over WVU
Pitt over Michigan State