Not to distract everyone from the Plame-gate breaks, but its also March Madness time! My dad and I agree–these two days (the amazing frantic energy of round 1) are the best in all of sports.
For all of that, though, it was a pretty dull first day. Virginia Commonwealth upset my beloved Duke Blue Devils, but I actually called that in my bracket (it’s painful to pick your favorite team to go down in round one in an upset, but Duke was entering the tournament on three game skid and 4-7 in its last 11). I think that next year Duke will be a very strong team (assuming they don’t lose anyone to the draft), but this year they’re too young and too raw. And mid-season surge notwithstanding, I still don’t trust Greg Paulus in the clutch.
Aside from that, GW gets the award for biggest bust of the day. You can never get too angry when one of your upset picks doesn’t pan out (that’s why they’re “upsets”), but losing by 33 to Vanderbilt is 1-16 seed territory.
Finally, I’ve been a Marquette fan this season after watching them beat Duke in impressive fashion early this season. My brother tells me that the “early season Marquette” kind of disintegrated as the year went on. That would have been nice to know prior to having them beat North Carolina in round two–seeing as they dropped to Michigan State last night. Worse yet: both teams played pretty bad, so I think UNC will stomp MSU next round.
Brag, lament, or otherwise chat as you see fit.