Another barnburner: Norfolk State held off a furious rally by Appalachian State to win 54-53. Appy came back from 18 down to fall one point short.

I've been watch UCLA and Michigan State and I sure wouldn't want to play for Tom Izzo. His players argue with each other and Izzo gets in the faces of his players. UCLA drained a last second long two before the half and Izzo got into an argument with his player, Brown. Thery continued to argue into the tunnel and Izzo grabbed Brown by the jersey and Brown swatted his hand away. Izzo is known to get hot and into his players and his players seem to give it right back to him. That's an unacceptable culture, IMO.

First big upset of the tournament: #15 seed Oral Roberts beats #2 Ohio State 75-72 in OT.

Well that didn't help my final four.

Sorry that that messed with your final four but I do love it when the little programs take down the big dogs...

Ha! Fortunately this year there's no money on it (not around the office to join the pool) so this would be the year for as many upsets as possible. Looks like Oregon State is about to join the 12 beating 5 lineage.

Yep...#12 OSU #5 Tennessee 56. I hope the 12 vs 5 jinx holds true for the Lady Ags on Monday!

Another win for a Cinderella team as #13 North Texas knocks off #4 Purdue 78-69 in OT. North Texas won 4 games in 4 days to win the Conference USA tournament to get into the tournament and this is their first NCAA Tournament win ever. March Madness at its best!

Syracuse is now pummeling SDSU in the 11-6 matchup and while that is great for the chaos lovers I am for one not having a good time

I'd like to see the west teams do well. I'm surprised that Syracuse is routing SDSU at the moment.

Same, all other things being equal.

No plan from SDSU. Refused to adapt when they saw that the shooters weren't having a good night. Now there's no choice but to chuck threes, and it doesn't even matter if the percentage improves to something not horrible, it's too late for that

How was EWU up 8 on Kansas at the half? KU missed their tournament due to COVID. Gave up 46 points in the half!

Eastern is playing with a lot of emotion and aggression. I keep thinking KU will eventually get it in gear but it hasn’t happened yet. The Grove brothers are giving KU all sorts of problems

Tough finish for the Gauchos. Sou missed an easy one with two seconds left the probably would have won it.

mixed emotions. Been nice win for BWC, but I really don’t care for them

yeah I was rooting for them as I have some good friends down there, but I’m not a fan of their coach at all.

OR/VCU declared a "no contest" and OR advances. Multiple positive COVID-19 tests on the VCU side. :meh:

Well that's one heck of a sad way to be eliminated from the tournament!

I'm in the same boat with you, Mike. I wanted SB to win today but more so for the conference. I just don't much care for their coach....

I'm not fond of UCSB either, but I figure the better any Big West team does in the NCAAs the better it reflects on UCD. I actually picked the Gauchos to beat Creighton in my brackets, but I often pick a Big West team to win the first round, which is why I never do well in these bracket contests. I'm too biased (or stupid). Why is it when a really good player like Sow gets a chance for the game winner against the Aggies, he puts it in, but in a game like today, he misses the bunny. I also regret that I got so wrapped up in the basketball tournament I totally missed the football game.

How about former D-2 Abilene Christian knocking off Texas?

My understanding of how the funding works too is that the school (but basically the conference) gets a payout by appearance/team. So a conference having one team win a March Madness game is equivalent to a two-bid conference having bad games in the first round (like MWC this year) from a payout perspective. So it's a big deal to kinda equalize things just a bit.

...and #8 Loyola-Chicago takes down #1 Illinois 71-58...

Illini never seemed to adapt to Loyola defense

Love the Loyola big man.

https://youtu.be/xIjB81HkSvQ

Read a couple of predictions on ESPN.com saying Illinois was going to take it all. Oooops! Big 10 was playing some good ball in the middle of the season, given that this is a weird season and most games were in-conference, but they are not doing well in the NCAA tourney. Ohio State, Purdue and now Illinois upset and WIsconsin trailing Baylor late.

(But Iowa won the NCAA wrestling championship so order is restored in the world.)

With none of my top teams even in the tournament, I tend to root for the west coast teams and the cinderellas (teams seeded below 12). This year, there are more than usual of both, with one west team a good shot at winning the whole thing for the first time since 1997 when Arizona did it. This year, there are 5 west coast teams and 4 cinderellas. The latter is a tournament record.

#15 Oral Roberts heads to the Sweet 16 with an 81-78 upset win over #7 Florida.

Plus a 50-something percent FT shooter makes 2 FTs to put Creighton ahead right before that also. Obviously anything can happen in OT, but he was only 33% or so to make both of those.

It's been crazy. I've watched bad FT shooters drain some crucial shots, while a couple of rock solid shooters brick some. It's really interesting to see how players react to the "lose and you're done" pressure. And Loyola-Chicago was the most under-seeded team. How they aren't a 3 or 4 seed is amazing.