The middle games today were fantastic. My friend from Georgetown is mysteriously missing — yesterday, she was very eager to mock me for the Duke game….
– How about Stephen Curry? Shut down entirely in the first half, he came alive in the second to lead Davidson in a thrilling comeback over Georgetown.
– You know what that game reminded me of? The one between Louisville and West Virginia a few years back — where WV was shooting the lights out of the building but the Cardinals hung in and were able to come back and win? Same thing here. Georgetown was at one point shooting 70% from the field. But Davidson managed to hang around and weather the storm, and once Curry found his stroke, it was their night.
– Inferiority complex alert: With 1,700 students, Davidson is even smaller than Carleton. But we struggle in D3, and they’re a D1 sweet sixteen team? Ouch.
– Memphis is a lot of fun to watch, and I love their athleticism. But they’re not going to go much farther in the tournament with that type of abysmal free throw shooting. They have discipline problems too (though their unbelievable bench depth helps mitigate the latter).
– I’m surprised Tennessee eked out its game over Butler. Not because I originally expected Butler to win, but after they came from way behind to send into OT, I thought the Volunteers would fold. Give them credit for showing a lot of grit to steady the course and pull out the game.
– Also in the Butler/Tennessee game — that might be the first time I’ve ever seen where a team didn’t get its first lead of the game until overtime.
– There was so much excitement going on that the network never once flipped over to Western Kentucky/San Diego, even as that game too featured a surprising comeback by the southern California squad. Can’t say I blame them — Butler/Tennessee and Georgetown/Davidson really were more exciting. But it just goes to show how many great games happened today.
– Texas’ win over Miami was the other game of note today. The others — UNC over Arkansas, Villanova over Siena, and Louisville topping Oklahoma — were all rather one-sided affairs.
Sweet sixteen is next. Anybody think any double-digit seeded teams will make it another round? Davidson (10) seems to have the best shot against Wisconsin (3), but also still hanging out are Western Kentucky (12) against UCLA (1) and Villanova playing Kansas (1).