Post-St. Bracket’s Day (trademarked by Brendan Donahue) Quick Hits

• Overall, not the most exciting of first days. The West Virginia/Creighton game was by far the best, with the first half relying on huge runs and the second half relying on nip-tuck action to keep the fun going. With the other games in check, we were waiting for it to be over before we went out, and everyone slowly gathered into my room for the awesome ending, which included an airballed three and Mike Gansey assisting on the go-ahead, fast-break dunk. That made up for the lack of upsets the rest of the day.

• Never was I more confident than with picking UAB over LSU’s crappy guards and then X-ing that game out of channel-flipping rotation when the Tigers started jacking up three’s as opposed to going inside when they were only down eight. You could see they were playing right into UAB’s hands, despite the Blazers being down early.

• I love the bar at the top of the screen. It’s not intrusive, and it lets you keep up with all the action. Great work by CBS on that one.
• At one point in time, number 3 seeds Arizona and Gonzaga, along with 2-seed Wake Forest were losing. You knew all three of them were not losing (none of them did, actually), but there were some tense moments for those going by their brackets and not their heart.

• If you picked Wake Forest to win it all, you have to feel really good about how they came out of the gate strong against powerhouse UT-Chattanooga. Honest to God, how in the world do you pick a team to win the championship after watching them be weak on defense all year, and rationalize that “Well, they’ll win it if they play defense as well as they did against Florida State”. There will be no one more shocked than I if the Demon Deacons win the championship.

• The OC sucked again. Sigh.

• Adam Morrison carried the Zags a lot more than I thought he’d have to, especially against Winthrop. He’s going to need Ronnie Turiaff to step up some against Bobby Knight’s Red Raiders, who are playing really well right now.

• Can UAB outrun the Arizona Wildcats? I don’t think so, but I can’t wait to see them try. I think it’ll be a lot like the Kansas game last year, with Channing Frye playing Wayne Simien’s part of the immovable big man that does in Squeaky Johnson and the rest of the Conference USAers.

• Me: Yeah, Danny pointed out that Chris Paul was wearing all white shoes and socks, and it looked weird. I told him you’d be proud.
Dill: I like Danny.

• Just for the record, Farleigh-Dickinson was outrebounding the Fighting Illini 17-7 at one point, 8-4 on the offensive glass. If those big boys from Boston College start banging, things might get interesting in the Sweet Sixteen, although again, it’s all about guard play.

• Shaq beats Kobe again. Didn’t see that one coming, as I’m sure Kobe had the troops all fired up to face his evil rival. You know, the one that won LA three championships. The Heat are really, really good, despite only have two and a half players you’d probably take on your team if you were starting one. I’m excited for the eventual Detroit/Miami Eastern Conference showdown, although I’d be even more pumped if the Celtics somehow slipped in there. By the way, Boston has lost one game since Antoine Walker was traded back. Who was there? This guy.

• If you’d like to defend Wake Forest’s chances against West Virginia with a phrase involving “The Mountaineers don’t have enough athletes”, I’d just like to point out they beat Villanova in the Big East tournament semi’s, and last time I checked, the Wildcats have a couple quick guys on their team.

• Games I’m most excited about on Saturday? Texas Tech vs. The Zags, Washington/Pacific, WVU/Wake and UAB/Arizona. I’m also interested to see how Andrew Bogut and his short-shorts do against a real front line, like the one Oklahoma will be rolling out, although that game doesn’t necessarily excited me overall.

Happy Friday.