NCAA tournament recap (Thursday)

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- There were 16 NCAA tournament games Thursday.

Eleven were decided by double-digits.

(Yawn)

I hope what's on tap is more interesting.

Otherwise, I'm turning my full attention to the NIT.

Here's a recap of Thursday's NCAA tournament action ...

Story of the day: Jim Calhoun missed Connecticut's 103-47 victory over Chattanooga and spent Thursday night in a Philadelphia-area hospital for precautionary reasons. It remains unclear whether the Hall of Famer will return to the sideline in time for Saturday's game against Texas A&M, although Calhoun is expected to be released from the hospital at some point Friday morning.

Game of the day: Eric Maynor had the ball in the final seconds against one of college basketball's storied programs, and stop me if you've heard this one before. Two years ago in a similar situation, Maynor hit a late jumper to help VCU beat Duke in the first round of the NCAA tournament. This time, it was UCLA on defense, and because UCLA played better defense, Maynor never got a clean look. Instead, he forced a shot at the buzzer that missed badly, allowing UCLA to escape with a 65-64 win .

Upset of the day: I'm not even sure it was an upset, because pretty much everybody I know predicted it to happen. Still, a No. 12 seed (Western Kentucky) beat a No. 5 seed (Illinois) by a 76-72 margin, and now first-year WKU coach Ken McDonald is just one win away from becoming the hottest young coach in America, which would translate into a nice pay raise, at the very least.

Predictable star: Marcus Thornton took 15 shots, made 10 and finished with 30 points in LSU's 75-71 win over Butler . The SEC Player of the Year took over, but only in spurts, getting most of his points in succession, either late in the first half or towards the middle of the second. Next up is a showdown with North Carolina in North Carolina. It'll match the SEC champions against the ACC champions, the SEC Player of the Year against the ACC Player of the Year (assuming Roy Williams allows Ty Lawson to play).

Unpredictable star: Roburt Sallie entered the NCAA tournament with 39 made 3-pointers, meaning he basically sank one every game. And then came this game against Cal State-Northridge, a game in which Sallie shot 15 3-pointers, made 10, and finished with 35 points to help Memphis advance with an 81-70 victory that wasn't safe until the final minutes.

-- Three random notes --

1. Oliver Purnell fell to 0-5 all-time in the NCAA tournament thanks to Clemson's 62-59 loss to Michigan . He's now lost once with Old Dominion, twice with Dayton and twice with Clemson. He lost despite having the higher-seeded team last season and this season.

2. Washington barely had to deal with Mississippi State's Jarvis Varnado in a 71-58 win over the SEC tournament champions . The nation's leading shot blocker played just six minutes in the first half because of foul trouble. He finished with five blocks in 23 minutes.

3. One of the stories coming out of Selection Sunday was that only four non-BCS schools received at-large bids. After one day of the NCAA tournament, two of those teams are already gone because Texas A&M eliminated BYU and LSU eliminated Butler. Dayton and Xavier (at-larges from the Atlantic 10) play Friday.

Closing statement: Tyler Hansbrough became the ACC's all-time leading scorer in North Carolina's 101-58 win over Radford. It was another monumental accomplishment for the four-time All-American, but that doesn't mean his teammates couldn't clown him, just a little.

"I'm just glad he broke the record on a free throw," said UNC's Bobby Frasor. "I think that's pretty fitting."

ACC Reputation: 98 Level: Superstar Since: Aug 30, 2006	Posted on: March 20, 2009 3:43 am Score: 76 1st day better than last year or 2007 IIRC the last couple years the first day of the tournament has produced collective yawns. I can distincrtly remember reading blogs telling me if I was at the office I wasn't missing much. Then the Friday games last year were a lot better with WKU-Drake, USD-Conn, Gonzaga-Davidson, and some others. I think you can argue there were 7 decent games just no great ones although VCU-UCLA and LSU-Butler were close to being great. LSU-Butler, Memphis-CSNorthridge, UNI-Purdue, American-'nova, UMich-Clem, VCU-UCLA, WKU-UIll [ Reply to Comment ]
dmberger Reputation: 89 Level: All-Star Since: Nov 3, 2006	Posted on: March 20, 2009 4:27 am Score: 70 NCAA tournament recap (Thursday) There were some compelling stories that were thisclose to being etched in the win column, but Villanova and Memphis pulled it out, as well as UCLA. Western Kentucky rescued the first day, in terms of potential cinderellas. WKU could win on Saturday. [ Reply to Comment ]
canuck23 Reputation: 98 Level: Superstar Since: Sep 12, 2006	Posted on: March 20, 2009 7:54 am Score: 99 NCAA tournament recap (Thursday) Hey Gary - I don't care that Villanova ended up beating American by 13 points. You cannot argue that that was not a great game to watch, as the first 15 minutes of the 2nd half were unreal. The pace at which both teams were playing was ridiculous. Kudos to American for giving Villanova a much tougher game than most expected. [ Reply to Comment ]
Blue Heaven Reputation: 98 Level: Superstar Since: Dec 18, 2006	Posted on: March 20, 2009 8:32 am Score: 112 NCAA tournament recap (Thursday) Gary, get it right. The shot by Maynor did not miss badly. it hit the front of the rim and bounced off. Throwing up a brick and missing everything would have been missing badly. Before the start of the tournsment I would have given no chance of Maryland beating Memphis, but after seeing Memphis play, I think Maryland will beat them. I guess that soft schedule that Memphis played did not prepare them for the tournament. Few upsets opening round, but some very close games. Go Heel's !!! [ Reply to Comment ]
waltonbryan Reputation: 0 Level: Amateur Since: Feb 17, 2009	Posted on: March 20, 2009 8:43 am Score: -100 This comment has been removed. Post Deleted by Administrator
Norman Rockswel Reputation: 4 Level: Amateur Since: Jan 26, 2009	Posted on: March 20, 2009 9:04 am Score: 46 NCAA tournament recap (Thursday) Gary, nice not so subtle reference to Monday evening's epic shootout between Curry and Mills. Not that they would enhance the NCAA's or anything zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. [ Reply to Comment ]
accnodefense Reputation: 94 Level: All-Star Since: Dec 12, 2007	Posted on: March 20, 2009 9:47 am Score: 97 Drama seems to come on Friday A team seeded 13 or worse has not won on the opening Thursday since 2003 when 13th seeded Tulsa beat Dayton, and even that wasn't really an upset since most thought Dayton was seeded too high. If you want to get technical, the last real surprise on Thursday was in 2002 when 13th seed UNC Wilmington beat USC in overtime. All the major upsets since then have come on Friday - Vermont over Syracuse, Bucknell over Kansas, Northwestern State over Iowa, Bradley over Kansas, San Diego over UConn and Siena over Vanderbilt all happened on a Friday. [ Reply to Comment ]
RJP11 Reputation: 95 Level: Superstar Since: Mar 28, 2007	Posted on: March 20, 2009 10:15 am Score: 121 NCAA tournament recap (Thursday) Well, considering it appeared to me that the highest point of the ball never even made it above the level of the rim on that shot & it hit the bottom of the rim & bounced downward, I'd characterize that as a "badly missed shot" in that it had zero chance of going in. In fact, it looked like it might have been grazed by the UCLA defender, taking the ooomph out of it & changing the trajectory. It's not a slight on the kid at all ... UCLA just D'd him up better than Dook did last year. VCU still brought it strong & Anthony Grant once again proved why he won't be at VCU for another tourney run next season. If Bama or Georgia were wise (I think not), they'd hire that guy. [ Reply to Comment ]
ea10s-kadima Reputation: 86 Level: All-Star Since: Nov 19, 2008	Posted on: March 20, 2009 11:00 am Score: 121 NCAA tournament recap (Thursday) I know that most of the games were decided by double digits, but that doesn't mean by any means that there weren't exciting games yesterday. The big dance tipped off with a great game between Butler and LSU, and the Maryland vs. Cal game was very fun to watch as well (even if I am partial to the Terps). It was played in the single digits for most of the game, as were some of the others that ended in double digit victories. Villanova vs. Amerian was also a fantastic game too, there is no denying that either. Just because Villanova won doesn't mean they didn't have to fight for it. I was terrified of having one of my elite eight picks go down in the first round of the tournament at halftime. Of course, there were going to be 1-16 yawners, but still come on. VCU vs. UCLA was an absolute thriller. People may debate whether or not Eric Maynor should have had the last shot, but I think Stephen Curry giving up the ball in last year's elite eight contest against Kansas is proof that he did the right thing, even if it was a highly contested and forced shot. Western Kentucky also pulled off a nice win, so I wouldn't neccessarily agree with the sentiment that the first day of the tournament is a yawner. I understand that this year's NIT field has a very strong field relatively speaking, but it is nonetheless still the Not Invited Tournament. [ Reply to Comment ]
BluDevFan Reputation: 94 Level: All-Star Since: Jan 12, 2009	Posted on: March 20, 2009 11:04 am Score: 72 NCAA tournament recap (Thursday) Gary, you refer to UNC as the ACC champs and LSU as the SEC champs. I'm a Duke fan, so I'm prejudiced here, but do you consider the regular season champs as the champs of all conferences? Mississippi State and Duke, of course, won their tournaments and are therefore the "official" champions. [ Reply to Comment ]

Gary Parrish

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