There’s a lot more basketball to be played in the coming days but I’m here to share my reactions from a number of the games played on Thursday, which was opening day for the men’s NCAA Tournament.
I know the First Four matchups were played on Wednesday, but the real Madness began in the round of 64.
Oh, and by the way, don’t mind my headshot. That picture was taken more than three years ago.
My beard fully connects now.
Again, Morant should be the No. 2 pick
Back in January, I tweeted that I wouldn’t hesitate to take Murray State’s Ja Morant with the second pick — everyone knows Duke’s Zion Williamson is a no-brainer at No. 1 — in the upcoming NBA Draft.
I’m sure I wasn’t the first person to tweet or think that, but I’m willing to bet more people feel the same way now after Morant recorded a triple-double (17 points, 16 rebounds, 11 assists) in the Racers’ upset win, 83-64, over Marquette.
It was the ninth triple-double in the men’s tournament history.
The reason I believe Morant is deserving of the second pick — rather than a talent like Duke’s R.J. Barrett, who has been predicted to go as high as No. 2 — is because of his ability to do everything while on the court, as was on display Thursday afternoon. And it’s been that way all season long (24.6 pts, 10 asts, 5.5 rebs per game this season).
I’m eager to see if Morant and Murray State, the No. 12 seed in the West region, will be able to make a run in the tournament. They’ll play No. 4 seed Florida State, which held off Vermont in the first round, on Saturday.
I was more nervous than Charles Barkley
The ending to the Auburn-New Mexico State game had my heart racing.
The cameras had panned to NBA Legend Charles Barkley, who played his college basketball at Auburn, back in the studio a few times and he was noticeably nervous. But if there was a camera on me, I probably would’ve had him beat.
I needed the Tigers to win, for my brackets’ sake, and they were making it hard for me to prosper (I know, selfish) by committing silly turnovers and fouls down the stretch. And then they made matters worse, after fouling a 3-point shooter, by letting New Mexico State’s Trevelin Queen get open for a corner three with 1.1 left on the clock.
Fortunately, Queen airballed the potential game winner and Auburn escaped with a 78-77 victory.
Safe to say that I’m not feeling so good about picking Auburn to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
Izzo, Spartans on my good side for now
Michigan State isn’t off the hook just yet, but its 76-65 win over Bradley is a good start to me being able to trust (I’m using that word very lightly) head coach Tom Izzo and his program again.
The Spartans haven’t made it out of the first weekend of March Madness since 2015, when they advanced to the Final Four before losing to eventual national champion Duke. They were upset by Middle Tennessee in the first round back in 2016, fell to Kansas in the second round in 2017 and were upset again by Syracuse in the second round of the last year’s tournament.
Now I can understand the loss to Kansas, which was a No. 1 seed two years ago, but those other two losses hurt my brackets. So I told myself to never trust the Spartans in March — advice I obviously disregarded by picking them to beat Bradley.
Hopefully this Michigan State team is different and can make it out of the first weekend, and then win one more, so I can brag about how I smart I am for picking a No. 2 seed to make it to the Elite Eight.
Minnesota made me pay for ACC bias
As a UNC fan, I’m more often than not biased whenever ACC schools play out-of-conference opponents, so I foolishly picked Louisville — which embarrassed my Tar Heels back in January — to beat Minnesota in the first round.
If you’ve been keeping up with the scores, or read the subhead to this section, you probably know that didn’t happen.
Minnesota upset Louisville 86-76 behind an unusual performance from beyond the arc. The Gophers, who only averaged 5.4 made 3-pointers per game (344th in the nation) during the season, knocked down 11 triples in the win.
And that’s the thing about March, nothing done — or not done — before now matters.
Minnesota got five 3-pointers alone from freshman guard Gabe Kalscheur, who posted a game-high 24 points, in order to move on to the second round and ruin four of the five brackets I filled out in the ESPN Tournament Challenge.
Louisville, how could I ever trust you guys again?