Unbelievable second day brings tournament to new heights

SCOTT JACOBS

After a very somber, disappointing, high seed blowout frenzy on Thursday all the analysts were quick to point out that maybe this year is just not the Year of the Upset. And then Friday happened. And Tampa Happened. And the greatest barrage of upsets one host has ever seen flurried across the St. Pete Times Forum like never before. They fell like the bad guys in Scarface. One after another. Say hello to my little… bag of upsets. One of them, San Diego, I called. The others left my bracket gasping for air, and college basketball fans searching for sanity.

The first instant classic came between Western Kentucky and Drake. 101-99. Wow, an incredible game, and an incredible 38 foot three point desperation shot, in addition to 70 threes put up and 30 made, allowed for one of the most compelling high octane basketball games college basketball has seen in some time. With Drake on the ropes, they worked their way back, getting all the way to over team, an taking the lead by 1 with just 5 seconds left. And then it happened. WKU magic on a perfectly executed play happened, and the Hilltoppers shocked the CBS sports loving Earth.

But the gem on this day was San Diego. And I called it. Not sure what caused me to think the Toreros could beat the Huskies, but I rode the gut that they could be a bracket buster all week. I just liked the heart that they showed against St. Mary’s in the WAC Semi’s and UConn’s sluggish Big East tourney performance left me thinking upset when the brackets were announced. And the wild San Diego-UConn second half that just went back and forth was as good as you could of asked for. Brandon Johnson was superb again, scoring 18 before fouling out. But it was Pomare who carried them, before he also failed out. All in all though it was UNBELIEVABLE.

Just like the day was. After it was through, we had two twelve seeds, and a pair of 13 seeds, in addition to a 10 and a 11 moving on to the second round. With a relatively upset free tourney last year, this year we’ve got at least two cinderellas guaranteed amongst San Diego, Western Kentucky, Sienna, and Villanova. This is great. So much fun.

The NCAA Tourney has come through once again. Can’t wait for Saturday and Sunday.

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