March Madness Early Games Open Thread
12:15- 12 Princeton vs. 5 Notre Dame CBS
12:40- 12 UNCW vs. 5 Virginia TruTV
1:30- 13 Winthrop vs. 4 Butler TNT
2- 16 SDSU vs. 1 Gonzaga TBS
2:45- 13 Bucknell vs. 4 WVU CBS
3:10- 13 E Tennessee State vs. 4 Florida TruTV
4- 12 Middle Tennessee State vs. 5 Minnesota TNT
4:30- 9 Vanderbilt vs. 8 Northwestern TBS
Who ya got on upset alert?
Butler/Winthrop going on TBS right now.
Ugh, why on earth did I pick against Butler?
Upset Alert = me.
Dispute between U-verse and Raycom has led to the local CBS station disappearing from my TV.
All of these games are streaming on NCAA website or the app, in case you weren't aware. Helpful for us cord cutters (who still use someone else's cable login) :)
I'm well aware and this may be the event that finally gets me to cut the cord.
I got UNC W over VA since VA struggles to score.. wouldnt mind seeing Princeton upset ND.. speaking of Princeton I visited their campus once.. absolutely incredible. love that place
These early games are not disappointing. ND up 4 on Princeton. UNCW up 2 on UVA.
See if ND can stay loose enough to finish this. Princeton hanging tough.
Princeton down 1 with 3 minutes left!
Headed for great finishes in these two 12-5 games -- which are ALWAYS some of the best ones of the tourney.
If Virginia could make layups they would be in really good shape right now.
ND up 5 with 1 minute remaining
Now 3 with 30 seconds
UVA now up 8 with just under 11 minutes.
So can we outlaw teams calling back to back timeouts with the inbound never being attempted.
WHY?!?!?!?
Butler is up on Winthrop at the half, 41-27
Nice try Princeton. Nice try.
Gonzaga... come on now... wake up.
I really want a 16 seed to win one at some point. Might as well be today.
Agreed. And Gonzaga seems like the perfect candidate to fulfill that honor.
Look out UVA!
Huge loss for Virginia with Perrantes going out with an injury.
And he's back in the game.
Gonzaga certainly does not look like a contender. I definitely am wishing I had them getting upset sooner in my bracket.
I didn't foresee them choking this early... had them against Zona in the battle between the 2 biggest choke artists in the game Mark Few and Sean Miller.
So much for that lol.
If they are representative of the supposed top teams in the country - then I truly believe Michigan has a chance for the Final Four!
It is painful to watch their lack of ball movement compared to ours in the Big Ten tourney.
Honestly I'm surprised that UVA has managed to score 67 points and also given up 63
The pressure of being a 1 seed getting to the 'Zags early on.
is missing shots and making mistakes. Gonzaga is just standing around. Horrible energy...
Pressure can cause you be tight, freeze up, overthink, etc... Mentally it's exhausting and it will show on the court.
they ate biscuits and gravy for breakfast - that makes you move slow too.
Or they just suck - that makes you miss the basket as well.
So it is either pressure, their diet, or they just suck - one of those...
Gonzaga is a good team with a smart coach. It's just the pressure of being a 1 seed. They'll be fine.
Looks like Virginia is going to escape and advance.
I took an extended glance through the champions chosen. I think pretty much everyone took the 1 seeds, 2 seeds, UCLA, or Michigan. There was one Oregon pick, one WVU, and one FSU. That was it. I guess it's not surprising, but with a thousand brackets, I expected a few more oddball champion picks.
Gonzaga is up by 4. Their #16 seeded opponent, South Dakota State is shooting 33% - 9 of 27 from the floor. The Zags are a sweet 31% - 9 of 29 from the floor.
Some really ugly hoops taking place in slow motion. Man...
Michigan State is the only 1 seed to go to OT in their 1st round matchup. It was against Murray State in 1990. The Spartans ultimately prevailed 75-71. MSU ended up losing in the Sweet 16 to Georgia Tech.
the one where Kenny Anderson had his foot on the 3 point line and the refs gave him the 3 to tie and ultimately win the game?
Older Spartys still bitch about that one...
Yup. Sparty was a bad 1 seed anyways. Won their 2nd Rd game by only 4 pts over the 9 seed UCSB. I was shocked they were able to hang with GT.
Jud Heathcoate is the case study of an average coach who got lucky with one recruiting class. Magic Johnson and the '79 title bought him the MSU job for life and even the right to name his successor, even though he was mediocre most of the rest of his tenure (1990 being a rare good season).
MSU is incredibly lucky that Heathcoate's successor turned out to be really good.
Also lucky our program imploded.
MSU/Izzo would have been nothing hadn't Michigan had the hammer dropped on them with sanctions by the NCAA.
Well, looks like I missed on Winthrop. Butler looks pretty good.
Refs aren't great in the game either.
creepy 7th grade girls joke here...