I felt pretty good after Thursday. I was a fairly respectable 12 for 16 on my bracket picks and my only Sweet Sixteen team to bow out was Harvard, a longshot to begin with. My assessment of the seedings also seemed to be holding true; in effect, the committee was right. A hot Colorado team winning against a possibly overrated UNLV squad and tournament veterans VCU beating Wichita State were the biggest upsets of the day. The UNC-Asheville upset of Syracuse was never going to happen, and even if it had, it would have been a stroke of chace that could not be chalked up to the seeds.
Then Friday happened.
In short order, my bracket, and many others, crumbled like coffee cake. First, St. Bonaventure's valient effort came up short against Florida State, but the stage was set. The fifth and sixth instances in tournament history of a 15-seed upsetting a 2 followed as Duke and Missouri exited early. It didn't stop there. 10-seed Purdue won against a strong St. Mary's squad. South Florida took out Temple. Talent-laden Memphis fell to Saint Louis. Thursday had been called the day of few upsets, but Friday more than made up for it.
So what have we learned from the first full round of action?
Momentum continues, as few teams that made strong runs in their conference tournaments found themselves challenged.
There will be a double-digit seed in the Sweet Sixteen. Hell, a Baylor squad that underperformed in the round might have a hard time keeping a 10-or-lower seed from the Elite Eight.
16-seeds are getting better. No 40 point blowouts this year.
But most of all, we learned that seeding is never perfect and never can be. There will always be upsets at this time of year, and that's fine. Isn't that what makes this weekend so wonderful? Being 19 of 32 on a bracket has never hurt so little.
*Yes, I know that technically it has been the second round of NCAA tournament the past 48 hours, but is anyone actually calling it that? Not even the TV announcers can keep up with that. To me and, I believe, much of the rest of America, it will always be the first round in spirit, so that's what I'm calling it.
