NCAA: Upsets Highlight Day 2 of NCAA Tournament

Posted on | March 21, 2009 | No Comments

It took until the last few games to get some real upsets and some great drama but finally the upsets and the excitement came. In all, 3 #12 seeds beat #5 seeds and a #13 beat a #4. Cleveland State beat #4 Wake Forest to advance to the 2nd round of the Tournament. The #12 seeds that won were Arizona, Wisconsin, and Western Kentucky.

While those were the biggest upsets, the best game of the entire first round was #9 Sienna beating #8 Ohio State in double overtime. These teams hit big shot after big shot. But it came down to Sienna’s Evan Turner hitting another 3 pointer (he hit one at the end of the 1st overtime to force the 2nd overtime) with just under 4 seconds. That was enough to catapult Siena to a 2 point win. Now the Saints will take on Louisville on Sunday.

But before we get to Sunday, we have some great games to watch on Saturday. A birth into the Sweet 16 is at stake for all these teams. Every game on Saturday has the potential to be a barn burner. In fact, the only game I don’t see being close is the UConn vs. Texas A&M.

Looking at it now, the games that are must-sees are Villanova vs. UCLA, Memphis vs. Maryland, and Oklahoma vs. LSU. Nova and UCLA should be a hard fought game that goes all the way down to the buzzer. It will be interesting to see how well Memphis plays. There are a lot of people who aren’t sold on Memphis and Maryland, though not a great team, is a good team that should give them a run. Finally, there are a lot of people sleeping on Oklahoma (including me). LSU will provide somewhat of a test for the Sooners. Though the SEC is certainly down this year. But LSU did beat a pretty solid Butler team. So we will see.

Possible upsets to look for today? How about LSU over Oklahoma and Maryland over Memphis.

Related posts:

1. NCAA: Looking at the West Bracket
2. NCAA: Expect Upsets in the Tourney
3. NCAA Tournament: Round One, Day One
4. NCAA: An Overview of the NCAA Tournament Bracket
5. NCAA: Reacapping the 1st 2 Rounds of the NCAA Tournament

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