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

Central CT in trouble

CCSU down 19-9 to Ohio State at the 11:0o mark of the first half. They were down 14-3 at one point.

Could be a long night. The New Britain Herald's Jason Vallee is blogging from Elmer's in New Britain with Blue Devil fans

-- STR

Hartford..where have you gone??

As I watch the tournament there are always a half-dozen cities that seem to host the early rounds every year or every other year.

Today it was Winston-Salem, N.C. and Wake Forest's home court which seems to have games every other year. Then you have Boise, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Greensboro and even Indianapolis in the Hoosier Dome.

Hartford used to be in that mix. The Civic Center hosted the 1st and 2nd rounds in 1983, '85, '88, '90 and '98

In 1985 Georgetown played in Hartford as the tourney's overall No. 1 seed in Patrick Ewing's senior season at the height of Hoya Paranoia . The Hoyas beat Lehigh and then Temple. Another highlight was a Loyola-Chicago team that featured a prolific scorer named Alfrederick Hughes who had never met a shot he didn't like and earned the nickname "Alfredbrick." Although he certaianly made his share as well. Loyola won two games in Hartford also, but lost to Georgetown in a Sweet 16 matchup at Providence.

The Hoyas went on to the Final 4 and beat St. John's before losing the title game to Villanova in one of the classic college basketball games ever played.

1985 was also the first year of the 64-team tournament. The "Modern Era" perhaps.

More on Hartford later....

Another Blowout

Vanderbilt leads George Washington 45-20 at the half. Colonials shoot 25% 5 for 20!!

What has happened to the Atlantic 10? They used to be a much stronger league.

-- STR

Boring first 7 games!!

Well we;ve seen nothing very exciting in the first seven games of this tournament.

Average margin of victory was 15 points and the closest game was two 9 point spreads..BC over Texas Tech and Butler over Old Dominion...AND the higher seed is a perfect 7-0.

Anyone have any upsets in the night games??

-- STR

Penn to lose

The Quakers will lose their 9th tourney game in a row

A&M 68, Penn 52

Back to Penn and 1979 run

The Quakers may be on quite an NCAA losing streak, but that was not the case in the 1979 NCAA Tournament.

That was the year Penn joined DePaul, Michigan State and Indiana State in the Final Four. A Final Four most people would say ushered in a Renaissance period in college and pro basketball thanks to the igniting of the Larry Bird/Magic Johnson rivalry.

It was a 40-team tournament back then and Penn was the No. 9 seed in the East. In succession the Quakers beat Iona, then top-seeded North Carolina, Syracuse (which by the way had just beaten UConn -- and freshman Corny Thompson -- in the second round) and then St. John's. Penn's Tony Price averaged 23 points a game in that stretch.

The clock struck midnight a week later though when Penn got beaten 101-67 by eventual champion Michigan State.

Penn/Ivy League Tourney History

I heard the CBS guys say Penn has lost 8 straight NCAA Tourney games. There was time througout the 1990s when the Ivy League representative was a very sexy upset pick.

Ever since the 1989 tournament when Princeton as the 16 seed in the East led by 8 at halftime and lost to top-seeded Georgetown 50-49.

In those days ESPN still broadcast the first round action and I can remember at halftime they threw it back to the ESPN studios where John Saunders and Dick Vitale sat speechless for about 10 seconds.

The wrong #14 seed

Oral Roberts loses 70-54 after shooting 35% from the field..

But now with 11:42 to pay Penn out of the Ivy League leads Texas A&M 39-37. A&M known for defense but the Quakers on a 19-5 run and 21-10 in the second half

-- STR

Oral Roberts Faltering

My big upset pick looks to be in jeopardy as oral Roberts is down by 7 with 11:05 to play.

The key is shooting as the Golden Eagles are just 15 of 41 for 36%. Caleb Green averages 28.5 per game but he has only 9 points today on 3 of 13 shooting.

-- Shawn Rychling

Oral Roberts ahead

Oral Roberts as a 14 seed giving Washington State all it can handle. Golden Eagles have the lead 28-26 lead at halftime.

Ken Tutt has 10 points for Oral Roberts

Belmont hanging around

No. 15 seed giving Georgetown a tussle early. Belmont was ahead 11-4, but it's been an 14-1 run for the Hoyas over the past several minutes..GTown leads 18-12 with 8 minutes to go 1st half.

Hoyas a trendy pick to win-it-all or at least get to the Final 4 by many and they have showed some first-round jitters

Holding Form

Well the 3 higher seeds prevail in the first "window" of the tournament BC, Maryland and Louisville. So much for Davidson pulling the upset.

Now we'll see if Oral Roberts can do it against a Washington State team making a rare NCAA appearance.

All but over...BC a winner

Close finish never materialized..BC leads Texas Tech by 7 with 13 seconds left..

Now here is CBS at it's infuriating worst.. Where is the Maryland-Davidson which is a 4-point spread with 4 minutes left?

There is the buzzer..BC 84, Texas Tech 75. probably Georgetown next for BC in a reunion of old Big East rivals.

Speaking of Bob Knight...

SI.com has a great Timeline of Bob Knight controversies which begins in the Pan Am Games fiasco in Puerto Rico in 1979 where Knight is accused of hititng a police officer.

Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe write an interesting profile of Knight today where the coach says the NCAA should reduce the Tournament field to 32 teams.

Since a Sweet 16 trip with Indiana in 1994...Bob Knight coached teams only have one Sweet 16 appearance and that was texas Tech in 2005.

BC up 6

Eagles edging away a bit with 4 minutes to go...76-70...now a steal and a missed 3...tech still in it.

3:43 to go and a timeout..

BC-Texas Tech tight

Teams have pretty much traed baskets most of the second half with B.C. creeping out to a couple of 4-point leads lately. Eagles up 74-70 with 5;13 to play. Has turned into a fun game to watch as Tech is a bit outsized, but BC is typically playing down to the competition

-- Shawn Rychling

Halftime

The score is Louisville 46, Stanford 22

The rout is on..

At Rupp Arena, Louisville is crushing Stanford 44-17 late in the first half. Rick Pitino's pressure defense proving to be too much for the Cardinal to handle.

Many pundits were knocking Stanford's selection to the tournamnet over teams such as Syracuse, Drexel and Air Force. So far Stanford is proving the doubters right.

Davidson down just 1

Davidson making me look good so far..they were up 8 in the 1st half on Maryland and down 1 at the half.

High scoring games so far. BC 41, Texas Tch 39...MD 44, Davidson 43..both at the half.

-- Shawn Rychling

Bob Knight

B.C leads Texas Tech 3-2 early on..

I have to say I am rooting for Bob Knight.

It's a simple formula as to why: The more the national media dislikes someone the more I root for them and that goes for politicians, celebrities, sports figures and oil company CEOs.

-- Shawn Rychling

ON DEMAND!!

The NCAA and CBS Sportsline have made a big push to add bandwidth for March Madness on Demand this year with all the games broadcast over the internet. The good news is it's free The bad news is I logged in at Noon and I'm still number 33,000 in line to "get-in" to the system. Hardly ON DEMAND I would argue!

I will say that last year the service debuted and as the day went on it was easier to get online. So here I cam see the games I want to see.

-- Shawn Rychling

So they teased me..

Well Channel 3 started with Maryland-Davidson and then switched to B.C.-Texas Tech..oh well

-- Shawn Rychling

TV Coverage..why??

OK...The local CBS coverage offerings are as pathetic as always...Channel 3 is offering BC-Texas Tech as the early game when Maryland-Davidson would be much more interesting and in Game 2 Georgetown vs Belmont which should be a blowout which is good since Oral Roberts-Wash. State and Old Dominion-Butler are so much more compelling. I'm sure Channel 3 probably has little say in the matter, but why do we get BC..they aren't a BIG EAST team ANYMORE. And why G'Town is I think most fans are sick of watching teams from that league especially if they have an easy blowout in Round 1. here's Channel 3 Schedule for the 1st 2 days. Friday is a little better. i think if you have digital you can watch more games

How to win your office pool...

Here's an interesting guide from collegehoops.net List 7 factors to take into consideration.

Safe to say I did not read this before I made my picks.

-- Shawn Rychling

Final Four Predictions

OK..here's how I see it with my bracket. And it is VERY chalky, but can you have a George Mason type run 2 years in a row?

East: Georgetown
South: Texas A&M
Midwest: Florida
West: Kansas

Georgetown and Kansas will play for title with Kansas winning.

Surprises: I have Duke in the Final 8 losing to Kansas. I just see their draw with potential opponents as Pitt, Gonzaga and UCLA as SOFT CITY....I also have Notre Dame in the Final 8 losing to Florida...Big East stronger than the selection committee gave it credit...I also think Vanderbilt, Butler and UNLV and Creighton could make Sweet 16 runs...Memphis makes an early exit as well. Give me your picks and I'm sure there will be plenty to debate.

-- Shawn Rychling

Upset Special?

In picking those big tournament upsets that always seem to happen I try to look for a lower-seeded that has veteran players who have been to the tournament before against a high seed that may be making it's first tourney appearance in several years. Doesn't always pan out, but like picking horses you have to have an angle.

This year I give you No. 3 Washington State vs. No. 14 Oral Roberts at 2:40 p.m. Thursday.

Oral Roberts has two seniors in Kaleb Green and Ken Tutt who both topped 2,000 points in their careers and the Golden Eagles return to the tournament after losing to Memphis in last year's 1st Round.

Washington State meanwhile is making its first appearance in the tournament since 1994. And only it's fifth appearance in school history. The 1994 team included Mark Hendrickson who played fours years in the NBA and is currently a pitcher with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He's also played with Tampa Bay and Toronto in a 6-year career. He's just the 11th player to play in MLB and the NBA.

The coach of that 1994 Washington State team? Kelvin Sampson who moved on to Oklahoma following that season and is now at Indiana.

The Cougars are 25-7 and had a great year, but how will they react on the big stage against an Oral Roberts team that has been here before? Will be interesting to watch.

-- Shawn Rychling

Duke...Stuck in the middle with (VC)U

A first look at this year's bracket and perhaps the strangest thing -- stranger even than seeing no UConn -- is that Duke isn't listed at the top or bottom of the page.

From 1997 thru 2006 Duke has been a No. 1 seed no fewer than 8 times and a No. 2 once (1997). The other seed in that 10 year span was a No. 3 in 2003. Check out past brackets here.

This year the Blue Devils are the 6th seed in the West Region and will play No. 11 VCU in the 1st Round Thursday at 7:10 ET. Unlike many of those higher-seed years the Blue Devils won't be playing in their backyard. This year they were shipped out to Buffalo, NY.

It's Duke's lowest seed since a No. 8 placing in 1996. That was the year after a 13-18 season in '94-'95 during which Mike Krzyzewski took a leave of absence for all but 12 games due to back surgery.

-- Shawn Rychling