What a Finish

Virginia Tech looked all but dead, down 14 or so to Illinois and basically unable to get a rebound. Then it happened: Illinois couldn't hit a shot to save its life.

VT outscored Illinois 12-0 in the last for or so minutes, winning the game by 2 and advancing over the 12 seed. To these eyes, this was the game of the tourney so far, it's only rival being the Duke loss.

Villanova has an early lead on Kentucky. Because of my Providence connection, I do feel a little affinity toward the Big East teams, but I just don't have a good about them. One game that I wish was being televised? Holy Cross vs. Southern Illinois, a tale of two mid-major conference teams. It's tied 4-4 now.

-PF

Snow Getting Heavy

OK, guys, I went outside to shovel. Let's just say the snow isn't as light as it was when I hit Dunkin' earlier this afternoon. The snow is damn heavy. And my back hurts. To quote the great Mike Tyson, "My back is broken. (It) broke my back. It's spinal."

Anyway, Wisconsin pulled it out in the end, like you would think. So did Nevada. The only day game still going is Oregon vs. Miami of Ohio. The 3 seed, Oregon, is taking care of business, as of now. We'll see.

-PF

Winthrop Wins

Winthrop pulls off the biggest upset of the tournament so far, knocking off Notre Dame. Maybe the Irish players started dipping into the kegs of Guinness a little early. That's my guess.

Wisconsin was the No. 1 team in the country for a time, and it still is having tons of fits trying to come back against Texas A&M - CC. One A&M team is picked to go very far in the dance, but it certainly ain't the one from Corpus Christi. There's still more than 15 minutes left, but this would be the biggest upset of the last 10 years, possibly.

Creighton, a 10 seed, is beating Nevada, a 7 seed, right now. But there's still plenty of time left in this one.

-PF

Cutting That Lead

Notre Dame is clawing back, down only three with more than four minutes left. My bracket will look better if the Irish come back all the way. Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, so come on.

-Pat Ferrucci

Wisconsin Still Losing

The Badgers are finally on the board, but are still down 25-13. In other action, Notre Dame is down 12 to Winthrop with about nine minutes left. That's another upset in the making.

The Big East isn't long for this tourney, in my opinion. Georgetown is the exception. Tennessee is having no problems with Long Beach State. Interesting stuff.

-Pat Ferrucci

Wisconsin ... Not So Good

Could an upset be brewing?

No. 2 seed Wisconsin has been shut out in the first four minutes of its opening-round game. Texas A&M - CC is winning 10-0. Georgetown started poorly yesterday, too, before winning a blow out. But this could be the first real upset. Doubt it, though.

-Pat Ferrucci

UNLV Wins

Well, as I write this there are six seconds left, but this one is done. There have been very few upsets in these first couple days. We'll see ....

-Pat Ferrucci

Wow

Remember when you were a kid playing hoops in the driveway, when a ball would almost go out of bounds and you'd try to hit it off your opponent? UNLV just did that at huge moment in this tie game.

What a play!

-Pat Ferrucci

GT Has The Lead

Georgia Tech has taken lead, after falling behind badly once it tied this game up. The only problem? GT just took a shot-clock violation. How do you do that in college, when the shot clock lasts like seven minutes?

Well, UNLV just took the lead back on an easy layup. If you can't tell, GT is the chosen team on my two brackets ....

-Pat Ferrucci

GT Ties It Up

For the first time in a while, Georgia Tech just tied UNLV.

Remember when the Runnin' Rebels were incredible? When I was kid, UNLV had a simply sick team, with Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony, Anderson Hunt, George Ackles and Stacey Augmon as the starting five. Four of them played in the NBA, three of which (Anthony, LJ and Augmon) had long, good careers.

Of course, that's when the university was giving out sports cars, money and women to lure blue-chip players. Those were the days ...

-Pat Ferrucci

Up And About

OK, so I finally rolled out of bed. I know, I'm pathetic. I've been looking forward to watching these games and I couldn't get my butt out of the bed until 1:30? Well, actually, I braved the weather and went to Dunkin' Donuts first.

Anyway, looks like everything is going as planned so far today in tournament land. Although, while listening to "Mike & The Mad Dog," I heard some dude trying to explain why Albany won't just win one game, but at least TWO in the tournament. Yeah, that might happen. If Virginia doesn't hit another shot today, Albany still probably couldn't catch up.

-Pat Ferrucci

All in all a pretty boring first day

A couple of 9 seeds won in Xavier and Michigan State and VCU the only upset beating Duke..that was an 11 seed vs. a 6 seed.

A couple of interesting 2nd round games. Texas A&M vs. Louisville should be good to watch as will Xavier and Ohio State. Xavier says they haven't been able to schedule Ohio State and would love the opportunity to play the top-seeded Buckeyes.

Enjoy Friday's second day of 1st round games.

-- STR

VCU pulls of the upset

Duke ties the game with 10 seconds left before VCU's Eric Maynor calmly dribbles the length of the court and drains a 17-footer with 1.8 seconds left.

A desperation heave by Greg Paulus falls short and the CAA picks up where it left off last year as Virginia Commonwealth upsets Duke 79-77. Maynor finishes with 22 points. It's Duke's first loss in the 1st round since 1996. Can you name the team??

-- STR

VCU takes brief lead..

...but Duke back ahead 69-68 4:21 to go.

Bad miss by VCU and Duke shooting free thows..Greg Paulus..missed the first and a time out.

VCU is out of the Colonial Athletic Association...just like George Mason

-- STR

VCU giving Duke some trouble

FINALLY.....after 9 hours of basketball there might be something interesting going on.

Duke led Virginia Commonwealth 64-55 just a few minutes ago, but an 11-3 run has sliced the lead to just 1 at 67-66.

The Rams are shooting 60 percent from three-point land hitting 9 of 15 shots.

-- STR

Central Goes Down

Ohio State beats Central Connecticut 78-57. It was an even game in the 2nd half as both teams scored 40 points. You get the sense Thad Matta'a Buckeyes let up on the gas pedal a little bit.

Javier Mojica led the Blue Devils with 19 points and 6 rebounds.

-- STR

Buckeyes on cruise control

Ohio State leading Central 55-32 with 12:24 left in the game. Tristan just hit a deep three for the Blue Devils to get them above the 30-point mark.

Buckeyes jumped out to 8-0 and 14-3 leads and have never looked back.

-- STR

Greg Oden

Ohio State's Greg Oden is one of the smoothest 7-foot freshman I've ever seen.

He just posted up the smaller Jemino Sobers, missed a little hook shot from 10-feet, but just glided into the lane and grabbed his own rebound and converted while he was fouled. Oden then drained the free throw with ease.

Can't help but compare him to UConn's Hasheem Thabeet who is 7-3 but doesn't play with the same ease as Oden.

-- STR

Upset in the making finally??...maybe??

VCU was down to Duke 38-32 with a minute-and-a-half to play in the first half and then B.A. Walker drained a long 3 from NBA range at the top of the key. And then Jamal Shuler followed with a triple from the corner to tie with 4o seconds left.

Duke's Greg Paulus made a pair of free throws to give Duke a 40-38 lead at the break.

Something that is obvious in watching Duke this year is they do not have the athletes they've had in the past. If Paulus is denied the ball as VCU has done the Blue Devils can't seem to get into their offense.

Duke is ripe for the picking and VCU has been a talked about as a darkhorse type team.

-- STR

Central hopes slipping away

Blue Devils trail Buckeyes 38-17 at the half. CCSU shoots 31 percent vs. 57 for Ohio State. Looks like the 16th seed jinx is safe here.

First half was a typical 1 vs. 16 or 2 vs. 15 game. (Last year's Albany-UConn game was NOT typical) Ohio State gets a lead and then is fairly tentative, but too good to allow Central to make a serious run.

-- STR