And we are back. Day 2 of round 1 appears and who rears its ugly head? That's right, Covid-19. Apparently I was prescient yesterday when I wrote, "And yes, I hope this is the last Covid reference of the tournament. Unless, of course, a team has to withdraw." And guess what, a team had to withdraw. And, although it was not Virginia of the ACC tournament withdrawal due to Covid, it was its in-commonwealth neighbor, Virginia Commonwealth University, giving Oregon an official 1-0 win in a walkover. That will look great for the defensive stats.
What does that mean for the bracket? Nothing. Oregon wins, VCU loses, and that is how it will be scored. Interestingly, the NCAA had a Covid-19 plan to replace teams. If a team from a conference with multiple NCAA bids had to withdraw from the tournament, an ordered list of replacements was made to replace the team, if the withdrawal happened before midnight last Tuesday night (12:00 E.D.T. Wednesday morning). The first team on the list was Louisville. If a team from a single-bid conference had to withdraw before the same time deadline, the conference could replace it. Once that deadline passes, we see what happened yesterday - a walkover.
As for the pool, we have a new leader. Congratulations to Jeff Plamondon of Lincoln, Rhode Island. Jeff vaulted into the lead by selecting Ohio as his guaranteed upset, but also had a strong day 1 by selecting North Texas, Oregon State and Syracuse as upsets. You can see how close you are in relation to Jeff in the standings below.
And, speaking of Ohio, the Bobcats upset the aforementioned Virginia Cavaliers, meaning we will not have a defending NCAA tournament champion. Marcus Jackson of Reston, Virginia is back in the pool this year, so we still have our defending champion in our pool. And, Ashley Poer of Lake Worth, Florida and Steven Usma of Miami, Florida return as well, so let's see if somebody can repeat "in the money".
With the Cavaliers losing, we lost another championship pick, leaving us with 10 remaining. As a reminder, the championship picks in our pool are (remaining teams in bold): Alabama, Baylor, Florida, Florida State, Gonzaga, Houston, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Virginia.
Ohio wasn't the only upset yesterday, although for most of the day it looked like the day was going to end in straight chalk. No upsets whatsoever through the first 8 games. This did not bode well for the many entrants that not only selected Georgetown, but also as their guaranteed upset. Georgetown repaid your faith in them by being down 24 at halftime, as Colorado led the Hoyas 47-23. An entertaining 50-49 second hald did nothing to cut Georgetown's lead as the Buffaloes move forward.
In the late games, 2 of the 3 finished in upsets. UCLA, who defeated Michigan State in a "play-in" game on Thursday night, continued their hot run defeating BYU, and Abilene Christian defeated Texas 53-52. So, what looked like was going to be a slow day regarding upsets, gave our pool 3 upsets, and lots of bonus points.
A good amount of entrants selected UCLA, and Ohio had its proponents as well, with both earning some guarantees. But it was the Abilene Christian choice that was the sparsest, and thus, kudos to Justin Yung of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Colonel Kareem Montague of the DC Metropolitan Area, Braeden Helland of Jacksonville, Florida and Max Macon 2 of Jupiter, Florida for selecting Abilene Christian over Texas. But, you did not have the prescience to gurantee that pick, like Ty Leatherman of Wilmington, North Carolina and Ken Ward of West Palm Beach, Florida. Ty and Ken, you have earned the "Pick of the Day."
But, the "Bracket of the Day" has to go to long-time player Karen Katz of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, as she selected Ohio, UCLA, AND Abilene Christian. Great work Karen.
And since Karen Katz has participated numerous years in this tournament pool, that reminds me that despite the no-contest defeat yesterday, Virginia Commonwealth has participated many years in the NCAA Tournament. So, today's history lesson is just that, Virginia Commonwealth.
VCU first played in the NCAA Tournament in 1980, losing as a 12 seed to Iowa. However, returning most of its players the next year, VCU earned a 5 seed, and defeated 12 seed Long Island, before falling to Tennessee 58-56 in overitme. After missing the tournament in 1982, the Rams continued their run by winning 1 game in 1983, 1984, and 1985 as a 5, 6, and 2 seed respectively. VCU had a long hiatus until 1996, when it returned as a 12 seed only to lose to Mississippi State 58-51. Another hiatus followed before VCU returned in 2004, losing by 1 to Wake Forest as a 13th seed.
But, it was the 2005 Rams team that put VCU on the map. VCU, the 11 seed, played 6 seeded Duke, who should have been known they were in trouble from the day the matchup was announced. The CBS cameras were at VCU, and when the game was announced, point guard Eric Maynor jumped out of his chair and started clapping, ecstatic with the matchup. And boy, did Maynor deliver. Maynor and his teammates overwhelmed Duke with their athleticism, and Maynor scored 22 points, including a jumper with 1.8 seconds left to secure the win 79-77, Maynor scored 6 of his points in the last 1:24. VCU then fell in overtime 84-79 to Pittsburgh. Eric Gaynor went on to be a first round draft pick of the Utah Jazz and spent 7 years in the NBA, before playing 5 professional seasons overseas. He still possesses the VCU scoring and assist records.
Given Virginia's loss, I initially thought that my tournament history segment was going to be based upon defending champions losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but that has happened more times than I thought, and more recently than I thought. And besides, how can I pass up a chance to take a shot at Duke.
Players of the Day
5. Tanner Groves - Eastern Washington. Although Eastern Washington lost to Kansas, Tanner Groves scored 35 points, the most in a game so far in this tournament.
4. Joe Pleasant - Abilene Christian. Pleasant scored 11 points and 8 rebounds. A very nice game, but Pleasant is here because he hit 2 free throws with 1.2 seconds remaining to secure Abilene Christian's 53-52 win over Texas. Pleasant is a 58% free throw shooter for the season.
3. Ben Vander Plas - Ohio. Vander Plas scored 17 points, had 5 rebounds and 4 assist as Ohio defeated Virginia. Although not a lot of points, Vander Plas did score 10 points in a 4 minute span that saw Ohio go from 1 down to 7 up late in the second half. The fact that his father was teammates at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay with Virginia coach Tony Bennett, and in fact that he is named after Bennett (Bennet Vander Plas) is his full name, just adds to the story.
2. Covid-19 - Independent. Defeated Virginia Commonwealth in a walkover.
1. Johnny Juzang - UCLA. Juzang, a Kentucky transfer and brother of Harvard player Christian Juzang, scored 27 points on 10-16 shooting, including 3-7 from three-point range, as UCLA defeated higher ranked Brigham Young University, coached by Kentucky legend and 1996 National Champion Mark Pope. And, if you didn't think I could somehow make this tournament about Kentucky despite its absence, you don't know me well enough.
Best Social Media Posts
1. Truthfully, I didn't pay much attention to social media while watching yesterday's game. The golf torunament can be a little tiring. But, Virginia's loss made me re-visit UMBC's twitter feed from during that 1-16 matchup in 2018. One of the best twitter runs in history, right up there with the Wendy's twitter roast from earlier this year. It all started with Seth Davis, the basketball analyst from CBS, tweeted out "Virginia. Sharpie." at the start of the game. Go check it out @UMBCAthletics.
Now, on to the standings. As always, let me know if you think I made an error in calculations on your bracket. I will be happy to go back and revisit. Remember, points double for today's games. First up is Illinois versus Loyola-Chicago. Here we go ...
