Upset Special

Well there were some pretty good games today. Boston College over Pacific gave me a few heart attacks this morning. The prospect of one of my Final Four teams being eliminated within the first games of the tournament was a bit much to handle.

Luckily for me BC prevailed in double overtime. Of course I was also happy to see the Illini beat Air Force. Frankly the game was too close for a while. The Illini are a superior team, and it never should have been that close, but this tournament has a habit of making games interesting.

Overall on the day I'm 11-5. (Actually in another pool I'm in at work I'm 13-2 right now) The upsets I got right were Montana, and Wisc.-Milwaukee. The upsets that went wrong were San Diego St, and Seton Hall.

Of course this was only the first day. There is still a long way to go, and tomorrow I could lose half my Sweet Sixteen. Really though are there many days during the year better than today? The first round of the NCAA Tournament are fantastic. Just about every team has a chance to win. Sure the #16 seeds are generally doomed, but one of them will have to win at some point.

Still, even though today was a good day for basketball fans, there wasn't as much drama it seemed. Yes there were upsets, but they were generally of the 10 point variety. We didn't have as many buzzer beaters. There was Chris Lofton of Tennessee's game winner in the closing seconds that helped Bruce Pearl's team avoid a huge upset. A lot of people had Winthrop beating Tennessee in the first round, and there has been a lot of talk that Tennessee isn't really deserving of a #2 seed. They may have won today, but I don't think the fashion in which they did it will quiet the doubters.

The biggest game of the day for me though was the Boston College victory. I've seen this team a lot over the last few weeks, and they have impressed the hell out of me. Then I saw them run through the ACC tournament and lose a heartbreaker to Duke in the final. Well somewhere in there I thought I would be smart and use BC as my cool Final Four pick. Then the next day I go on ESPN.com, and I see almost all the "experts" have BC in the Final Four.

This angered me immensely. Then this morning the newly bald Eagles took the court against a team they should beat. They kept letting them hang around too, and I was getting worried. Here I am an hour into March Madness and I'm already dealing with one of my Final Four teams possibly being done.

Regulation ended in a tie, and the first overtime looked even scarier. Before I knew it BC was down 6 with only a few minutes left. Then with 4.3 seconds left, and BC down 2 Craig Smith went to the line with a chance to tie it up. Of course he's a 66% shooter from the line, and I'm already downing my second bottle of Pepto Bismol. My bracket on the line and in the hands of a kid who only succeeds 2/3 of the time.

Then he made them both. Never even grazed the rim. Another chance!

Finally in the second overtime Pacific's lack of depth caught up with them, and they were worn down by BC. Final score BC 88 Pacific 76. My dreams of Bracket Champion were still alive.

All this in the first 3 hours. Only 5 and a half rounds to go.

Random Thoughts

• Congratulations to the US Baseball team on their 2-1 loss to Mexico tonight. They are now officially eliminated from the WBC, and I think they're gonna take the ratings with them. I'll still watch though, there's very good baseball being played.
• Wait til next year Cub fans. First Kerry Wood gets his annual ailments, then there's the annual "There's nothing wrong with Prior.........Ok, so there's something wrong with Prior" posturing as Mark Prior has a problem with his shoulder. That's nothing new for Cub fans, but this is. Now Derrek Lee has a sore shoulder.
• The North Siders aren't alone however, as the White Sox deal with Scott Podsednik's sore arm, and Dustin Hermanson's bad back. Oh and let's throw in Jose Contreras too. These aren't the kinds of things you want to hear before you defend a title.
  
• Speakin of my White Sox, here's a nice story on C A.J. Pierzynski.
  
• The Knicks are the greatest story in the NBA, and it has absolutely nothing to do with basketball. Whether it's Isaiah Thomas' incompetence, or fueding between Larry Brown and Stephon Marbury, they always keep us entertained.
  
• Daunte Culpepper to the Dolphins, Drew Brees to the Saints, who cares!? I wanna know what's gonna happen to Joey Harrington!
  
• Forget Leinart, Young, or Cutler. There's a much better option at QB out there and apparently the Jets and Falcons are working on a deal for him writes Michael Smith.
  
• Attention Bears fans, they didn't get Randle El, they didn't get Archuleta, but at least they did something to shore up the secondary.