While UCLA, Stanford and Washington State throttled their weaker opponents, USC and Arizona (two of my Sweet 16 picks, that’s right) bowed out early against Kansas State and West Virginia. Either the mid-level Pac-10 teams just aren’t that great, or the Trojans and Wildcats are a little too young.
– I was really hoping Belmont was going to beat Duke yesterday. Even though Duke is severely overrated, they’d still be the most prominent No. 2 ever to fall to a No. 15. Plus, it would have been great if every March we could hear Greg Gumbel say, “When the Belmont Bruins…defeated Duke…in 2008,” while running the clip of a sad Coach K squatting next to the scorer’s table.
– That game did bring one negative about the college game to light again. There were roughly 24 timeouts in the last minute of that game. I know they’re college kids, but these coaches need to take a lesson from Phil Jackson, sit down, and let their teams figure things out for themselves every once in a while.
– Cornell’s Big Red got absolutely destroyed by the Stanford Cardinal yesterday. Remember when the St. John’s Redmen (now the Red Storm, as you well know) used to be the only red team that mattered in college basketball?
– And St. John’s isn’t even as well read as Cornell or Stanford. Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all March.