Saturday, March 23, 2013

NCAA Tournament: Round of 64 Day 2 Recap

No. 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast had the win of the night by knocking off No.2 Georgetown. (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)

This is more like it. Anyone still feeling good about your bracket? Yeah, I didn't think so. Except for maybe one of our writers, Fred, who somehow picked Harvard and La Salle. Showoff. The tournament balanced a day of blowouts and chalk Thursday with nail-biters and  Cinderella's in training Friday. So naturally the major talking point after Friday is …

Who Wants A Slipper?
Today proved upsets are still alive and well in March. For the second day, a No. 1 was tested before closing out a narrow victory as Kansas held off Western Kentucky. Kansas City didn't see a No. 16 win, but it did see two double-digit seeds pull off victories back-to-back as No. 12 Ole Miss defeated No. 5 seed Wisconsin before No. 13 La Salle blew an 18-point lead to Kansas State before coming back to win. Other notable upsets were No. 11 Minnesota over UCLA, No. 10 Iowa State crushing Notre Dame, No. 9 Temple (upset in name only). Oh and then there was …

The biggest win of the day goes to No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast, a school that wasn't founded until 1991, who outplayed No. 2 Georgetown all game to move on to the next round. This is the second consecutive year a No. 15 has defeated a No. 2 (Leheigh and Norfolk St. last year), and before that it hasn't happened since 2001 (Hampton over Iowa St). The increasing trend of No. 15 seeds winning makes a No. 16 victory seem more likely.

Hot and cold
Don't tell the A-10 it isn't a power conference. Teams from the A-10 are 5-0 (VCU, La Salle, Butler, St. Louis andTemple) and most have a good chance of advancing to the Sweet 16. No BCS conferences can show that kind of record. The Big Ten's only loss has been Wisconsin, and the ACC's was North Carolina State, but the Big XII is 2-3, Pac-12 is 2-2 and the Mountain West has been disappointing with both New Mexico and UNLV falling in the first round.

Milestone for Ol' Roy
UNC's second-round victory over Villanova earned Roy Williams 700th career victory. His reward? Having to face his former school and No. 1 seed Kansas in the third round. Roy has faced KU twice before since he left, both times being in the NCAA Tournament, and Roy is 0-2. Still, 700 wins is a incredible accomplishment for a Hall of Fame coach.

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