The tournament’s first real upset is worthy of a quick, post I think. The second seeded Wisconsin Badgers were up-ended by the 7 seed, UNLV. Since this game wasn’t carried in my are except for the final three minutes, I don’t really have a good idea of what happened. If we take Clark Kellogg’s word for it, and why shouldn’t we, Wisconsin got off to a slow start…again…but this time faced an opponent against whom an offenseless team wouldn’t be able to come back. Jim Nantz, who I still contend should stick to golf and leave basketball to Gus Johnson, Len Elmore, and Bill Raftery, pointed out that Wisconsin was ranked number 1 just four weeks ago. This should give you some idea of how much stock to place in poll rankings.
This game caused some major shake-ups in the standings. Among the big winners and losers are:
- Kyle Gratz leap-frogged from 5th to 1st.
- Carrrr-ne Asada roared from 9th to 3rd.
- Ben Crone vaulted from 19th to 7th.
- David Kincheloe jumped from 23rd to 10th.
- The soon-to-be-married Nathan Inskeep is feeling good about life, moving from 45th to 13th.
- A couple of Davises were among the biggest winners. Pastor Tim “Don’t Tell Anyone I’m From Oklahoma” Davis rocketed from 57th to 15th, and Jim “Not The Cartoonist (but definitely the prognosticatorist)” Davis came all the way from 75th to 18th.
- Our former leader, OSUHumphrey, slipped from 1st to 2nd.
- Our top lady, Kathy Thomas, slipped from 2nd to 4th.
- Ahmgwana Kickbooty got his booty kicked from 14th down to 22nd.
- Bryson “Oral Roberts All The Way” Davis, once ranked as high as 13th, should have prayed harder. He has dropped all the way to 60th.
Check back tonight for the round wrap-up and awards.
Of course, the biggest winner of all in the UNLV upset over Wisconsin is Oregon. They slipped past the #14 seed Miami-Ohio in the first round, and then were the beneficiaries of the Winthrop upset over Notre Dame to easily handle the #11 seed in the second round. Now, they draw #7 UNLV in the third, instead of the much tougher (ranked #1 just four weeks ago!) Wisconsin. If Butler can top the shaky-looking Florida next week, Oregon could virtually skate into the finaly four. Go, Ducks!
60th looks pretty good from where I sit!
I must say that the lack of 1st round upsets has led to some really tight games in the second round. Now if CBS could just figure out that we don’t need to see the lone blowout when there’s a down-to-the-wire game going on elsewhere.
In response to deaver95:
Gator v Duck…Bulldog v Duck…I don’t see Duck coming out on top of either scenario. 😉