Soft Pretzel Logic

We have tip-off times for the first round, and let's start with the local games. All times Eastern:

Thursday, March 20

5. Michigan State vs. 12. Temple, 12:30 p.m.

Friday, March 21

6. Oklahoma vs. 11 St. Joseph's, approx. 7:10 p.m.
5. Clemson vs. 12. Villanova, approx. 9:50 p.m.

Isn't that the second year in a row the Wildcats have been put in the last Friday night game?

Also, you can print your own bracket by clicking here.

After the jump, the full schedule.

Well, you've probably seen this on the front of Philly.com by now, but just in case: we're running a really big NCAA Tournament pick'em game on the site. And of course, I want you all to play.

Among other things, you can win a 50-inch plasma TV from Bob & Ron's Worldwide Stereo, which graciously paid a pretty good chunk of change to sponsor the thing. So it'd make thing look real good if you played, if you know what I mean...

On top of that, I'm in the process of setting up another game within our site that you can play. In addition to winning the TV, you'll also be able to play a Beat the Experts game where you can pick against me and writers from the Inquirer and Daily News.

I'll let you know as soon as that game is set up, but I wanted to get word out now because the ads are up. And also because I know you all are going to play on ESPN, Yahoo, Facebook and everywhere else. Well, I hope you'll throw your picks into Philly.com's game as well.

Stay tuned.

Here it is... and there are some surprises.

F Josh Carter (Texas A&M / Dallas, Texas)
F Joey Dorsey (Memphis / Baltimore, Md.)
F Bryce Taylor (Oregon / Encino, Calif.)
F Kyle Weaver (Washington State / Beloit, Wis.)
F Shan Foster (Vanderbilt / Kenner, La.)
F James Gist (Maryland / Silver Spring, Md.)
F Maarty Leunen (Oregon / Redmond, Ore.)
F D.J. White (Indiana / Tuscaloosa, Ala.)

C Roy Hibbert (Georgetown / Adelphi, Md.)

G Wayne Ellington (North Carolina / Wynnewood, Pa.)
G Derrick Low (Washington State / Honolulu, Hawaii)
G Eric Maynor (Virginia Commonwealth / Fayetteville, N.C.)
G Drew Neitzel (Michigan State / Grand Rapids, Mich.)
G Scottie Reynolds (Villanova / Herndon, Va.)

That press release also includes audio from Jay Wright and all the players. Nice job by USA Basketball to include that.

I have to write a quick story, then head out to Haverford. Discuss amongst yourselves, and I'll print your comments and my own thoughts later.

CSTV's David Scott is staying at or near the team hotel (the Marriott in Conshohocken, I understand), and has four of the players who made the first round of cuts down to 14.

Andy Katz is Andy Katz, and has the whole list.

I am at home in Philadelphia, and am not either of those two, so when the roster is officially announced I will let you know and write a story about it that will appear on Philly.com. I will wait until then, though, just to be safe.

Oh, and Scott notes that the players who make the 14-man roster will be at the Phillies game tonight, and "some representation of the squad" will throw out the first pitch . I think it's already sold out, or at least really close to it, but if you're going, that's cool.

Suffice to say that if (given the above reports), they'd kept Ahmad Nivins on the squad, he'd definitely be involved, as he was a pitcher in high school. But then again, perhaps that'll keep the fans from wanting this bunch to stick around the ballpark for the rest of the season.

Two Jayhawks and a Cougar walk into a gym...

Jaime in Seattle writes:

How are Sherron Collins and Mario Chalmers of Kansas University doing? Does either have a good shot of making the first cuts?

Collins hasn't done much of note, really. I would say that he's pretty far behind on the pecking order of point guards. Drew Neitzel and Eric Maynor have been the most impressive thus far, with Derrick Low and Scottie Reynolds next, then Chris Lofton and Collins.

Chalmers is a different story, though, as he'd get slotted in at shooting guard. CSTV's David Scott has him on his mock roster along with Wayne Ellington, and Neitzel and Maynor are the only other two backcourt players on his list.

I still think Reynolds has a shot, but then again, I've been paying a lot more attention to him than I have the other guards because I've been trying to watch the local guys the most. Which brings me to the next email, from Ken Low...

Can you share your thoughts of Derrick Low's performance at the try outs.There is a ton of interest here in the islands.And what chances does he have in making the team? Mahalo for your expertise.

Low is from Honolulu, and I'm going to guess Ken is as well (and I'll also guess he's related). I thought he had a great day today at the point. He was going against Lofton in that scrimmage I wrote up earlier, and I thought Low got the better of the matchup when he was on offense.

Part of that is because Lofton's team was playing zone, and if they had been playing man we might have seen something different. But Low did seem to leave an impression today. By contrast, whereas Reynolds was pretty good early on, he was quieter today. Human nature being what it is about recent impressions, that probably works against Reynolds.

If the initial cuts are down to 14 instead of 12, I think Reynolds and Low have a shot. If it's to 12 and the committee goes for 3's and 4's instead of guards, it'll be a lot harder. Consider them on the bubble.

(And I guess we all know about selection committee chair Jim Boeheim's recent experience with bubbles...)

Practice ended at around 6:50, a bit earlier than I expected. But a lot of the players were getting tired, and it seems the coaches decided to give them a break for the night. The roster cuts will be made later this evening and announced to the media tomorrow. I'll post audio of Jay Wright's post-practice remarks later tonight, and then be back here for tomorrow's practice, which starts at noon.

I guess someone's reading this thing, because I got an email from Mark Hollingsworth in Lexington, Kentucky:

What is wrong with Lofton? He thrives in an up tempo catch and shoot style….no one better in the country. Is he having an off week?

I've been wondering that myself. Not just because of the tempo, but because Lofton certainly seems to me to be the kind of shooting point guard Jay and the other coaches are looking for. But he hasn't shot well while he's been here, and you've got to get it done here to get on the final squad.

Lofton isn't on the floor right now, but I'll keep an eye on him when he comes back.

So for the second straight revenue-sport-season, we are left with Florida and Ohio State to determine the national championship. This time, it's in men's basketball. Mike Jensen and I got into this a little bit on the College HoopsCast last week, but now that I have a bit more time and space here's what I really think about tonight's national championship game.

Even though I've said it already, I might as well say it again: I don't like it. I don't find it healthy that two schools are dominating the college sports landscape the way these two are. Of course, they raise and spend enough money each year to qualify as minor countries, and they have good coaches (there, I said it) who can recruit the top players in the country and win games because of it.

Still... it just feels weird. Yes, it has something to do with the fact that these are football-first schools who've put money into basketball and overtaken schools that embrace college basketball first and sometimes way above everything else. But any school can spend a lot of money. Syracuse, Kentucky and Connecticut surely do, and it's not like they're football powerhouses even though they're in BCS conferences.

For me, the real problem is the way in which the football powerhouses have risen to prominence seemingly without batting an eye. Florida, Ohio State and Texas come to mind, and you bet it's no coincidence that those three schools clean the rest of the country's collective clock in football every year.

Nor is it a coincidence that their stadiums are larger than a significant proportion of the towns and cities in their respective states. And it's not coincidental either that the next team to make it big with rented NBA players is Southern California.

(If you haven't read it yet, read this piece by the Inquirer's Frank Fitzpatrick, in which he compares the profits of the four No. 1 seeds in this year's tournament to the rest of the Sweet 16 combined.)

I'm sure some of you readers out there have longer memories than I do and are more cognizant of how things were in the 1970s and 1980s, when there was a clearer separation between basketball and football schools. But now we have a situation where even though Big East and ACC schools have more than enough money to play with each year, they get trumped by the Big 12, SEC and Big Ten on a pretty regular basis.

Yes, Georgetown made the Final Four, and yes, Villanova almost did last year. But I fear that even though those two schools are among the heavyweights of Big East basketball, at some point, the presence of any non-BCS heavyweight school not called Duke, Kansas or North Carolina will be surprising to us no matter the conference.

Before you ask, no, I'm not advocating any kind of change in the way money should be distributed among teams and conferences. It's a free market. The only way you do anything about it is by getting players and coaches who can come and knock the other guy off when he's feeling just cocky and self-absorbed enough to not play good defense and hustle for loose balls.

(Except when you get stars not being whistled for flagrant fouls, or converting a few seconds' worth of grit into a game-tying three that forces an overtime in which the little guy runs out of gas.)

It is of some help if you have Big East or ACC basketball money. That's just enough to get the Villanovas and Georgetowns of the world a few players each year who keep the lesser football lights, especially the Big East's I-AA football schools, in the national conversation. It certainly gives them them a better shot at knocking off the BCS football schools than teams from the CAA or A-10 have.

But don't forget for a moment that a big reason why those two schools are in it is their coaches and the assistants who surely work ten times as hard at recruiting as the assistants at Ohio State, Florida and Texas.

That's enough of a rant for the night. I hope I'm way off about all this, but I fear I'm not. Better to get ourselves ready for it now, so that we won't be all that surprised by it in the years to come.

My old friend Bryan Graham of CSTV.com is down in Atlanta (lucky him), and compiled THE stat of last night's Georgetown-Ohio State game.

Put simply: when Greg Oden was in and Roy Hibbert was out, the Buckeyes outscored the Hoyas 15-2.

For the rest of the Oden-Hibbert matrix, click here.

First is the Inquirer's Mike Jensen, who said Ohio State would win. Second is Caulton Tudor of the Raleigh News and Observer, who on his podcast said that one team would come out with "stage fright." The veteran ACC columnist was right, though he was wrong to predict that team would be Ohio State.

The team was Georgetown. The Hoyas committed nine first-half turnovers, and recorded only five assists on 9-of-20 shooting in the first 20 minutes on the way to a 67-60 defeat.

Ohio State recorded four assists and four turnovers in the first half, and ended the game with 13 assists and eight turnovers. Georgetown finished with 17 and 14. Green and DaJuan Summers had three each, while Roy Hibbert, Jonathan Wallace and Patrick Ewing, Jr., had two each. That's twelve turnovers from the Hoyas' starting five and sixth man.

It sure was huge that the Buckeyes were able to keep Jeff Green in check. Not so much the nine points as the five field goal attempts. Here's Green's final line:

And once again, the old Lawrence North High School teammates came up big for the Scarlet and Gray:

Considering how much of the first half Oden spent on the bench, that's really impressive. And it's just as important to note that the block came with 47 seconds left in the game and Georgetown desperate to cut into Ohio State's nine-point lead.

So Ohio State has definitely proven that it belongs in the national championship game, and as I write Florida is in the process of doing so as well. It'll be a rematch of the national championship football game in the building where the Gators won the SEC championships in football and men's basketball.

The college sports universe has pretty well resolved itself down to two programs. Make of that what you will. I don't like it, but then again I don't have anywhere near the money needed to do anything about it... and really, do any of us?

Having said that, a note to any readers out there who are Kentucky fans: Of those two programs I mentioned above, your basketball team isn't one of them.

Okay, here's the must-read column of the day... or at least the one I can find before the Inquirer and Daily News stories hit the web. The Washington Post's John Feinstein reports the following from the lobby of the coaches' hotel in Atlanta:

Tubby Smith, who left Kentucky to take the Minnesota job a week ago, walked by as Boeheim was speaking. Someone asked [Smith] if he might take the Kentucky job, because every other coach in the country had been mentioned at some point. "Now that," he said, "would be a good rumor to start."

Big news coming Monday, though. Maybe sooner depending on things.

In the meantime, consider this. One of the undercurrents to pretty much every college basketball season is the shouting between the Big East and ACC over which conference is better. The southern half of the East Coast (plus Boston College) ended the season with the highest conference Pomeroy ranking, while the northern half (plus South Florida) was fifth.

The head-to-head games between the conferences don't conform to the standings, though. In the regular season, the Big East went 6-5 against the ACC, with four of the five losses tallied by teams that didn't make the conference tournament.

In the postseason (NCAA Tournament and NIT combined), the Big East was 4-1. Arguably the two biggest games, Georgetown-UNC and tonight's NIT final between West Virginia and Clemson, both went in the Big East's favor.

Does it mean anything? No, and I'm counting down the ten seconds until someone emails me to make the point. But it's not like bragging ever requires a real excuse.

The 21-year-old behind the University of North Carolina's mascot mask died today of the injuries he suffered when he was hit by a SUV last week near the Meadowlands.

There are some great video features on Philly.com today about the teams in the Final Four, including highlights of the regional finals. Watch them by clicking here.

Congratulations, Jared Miller:

That would 1998, my dear Mr. Tannenwald - Kentucky, Utah, UNC, Stanford.

I suppose I'll have a large root beer at the Penn Relays...

I am in part to blame for his winning, because I forgot to exempt practicing journalists from being eligible to win. Still, nice to know that he and his employer think so highly of me.

Though I'm not sure they sell root beer at Franklin Field.

If John Thompson III can do this with Georgetown, just imagine what Fran Dunphy can do with Temple once he's had time to bring in the players he wants.

Seriously.

Can you do this without looking it up? I had to.

When was the last year the Final Four did not feature two teams from the same conference?

I think I'll even put a prize out there, since I haven't had many readers the last few days. First to reply wins a drink from the concession stands at the Penn Relays.

I know this isn't a soccer blog, and I doubt I have all that many readers who are also interested in the sport, but there's an old adage in the game that Italy is the only national team capable of making defense look beautiful. Catenaccio, translated as "door bolt," is the style of soccer the defending World Cup champions have made famous over the years.

UCLA just did it on the basketball floor against Kansas in those final minutes. Yes, the Jayhawks made some really stupid decisions with the ball, specifically their insistence on driving the lane when they needed threes in a hurry.

But still, what a great performance by the Bruins. Before the conference tournaments started, I thought UCLA was the best team in the country, and they showed their best tonight.

Can you excuse me for hoping that UCLA meets the Georgetown-UNC winner in the national championship game?

Well, we know what games we're getting tomorrow and Friday...

Thursday:

7:10 p.m.: 4. Southern Illinois vs. 1. Kansas (San Jose)
9:40 p.m.: 3. Pittsburgh vs. 2. UCLA (San Jose)

Friday, March 23:

7:27 p.m.: 6. Vanderbilt vs. 2. Georgetown (East Rutherford)
9:57 p.m: 5. USC vs. 1. North Carolina (East Rutherford)

It's a shame that we aren't getting Texas A&M-Memphis, which could well be the best game of the Sweet 16. And by getting both San Jose games we won't hear any of Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery. But I would expect liberal doses of the two San Antonio games (the above and Ohio State-Tennessee), especially as the San Jose games tip 17 minutes earlier than the San Antonio games do and will thus end earlier.

As for Friday, no surprise that we're getting the two Meadowlands games. Those are definitely the two to watch, so no complaints.

Also, there's a poll on the sports page of Philly.com asking how many of your Sweet 16 picks are still alive. Go vote in it.

Sorry, but the commenter's name made it too easy not to use.

Verne and Bill's San Antonio region looks to be the most exciting of them all. And with those two making the call, the telecast is sure to be equally exciting. Shame some decent games with Georgetown and UNC will have nantz and packer announcing.

Maybe. A&M-Memphis and OSU-Tennessee will be great games, but the real heavyweights are Georgetown and Carolina. Lundquist and Raftery might be the people's champions, but Nantz and Packer are definitely the "establishment" crew.

No word yet from KYW on what games they'll feature. But we do know that the TV ratings for the first round were the highest since 1991. Notice how both the games featured in the press release took place Friday. Then again, it shouldn't surprise you that this USA Today story doesn't portray things in quite the same way as the official line.

Check out these great features on UNLV's upset win over Wisconsin and USC knocking out Texas and Kevin Durant.

CBS has released the tip times and broadcast pairings for the Sweet 16 games...

Thursday, March 22

San Jose (Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas)

7:10 p.m. 1. Kansas vs. 4. Southern Illinois
followed by 2. UCLA vs. 3. Pittsburgh

San Antonio (Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery)

7:27 p.m. 2. Memphis vs. 3. Texas A&M
followed by 1. Ohio State vs. 5. Tennessee

Friday, March 23)

St. Louis (James Brown and Len Elmore)

7:10 p.m.: 1. Florida vs. 5. Butler
followed by 3. Oregon vs. 7. UNLV

East Rutherford (Jim Nantz and Billy Packer)

7:27 p.m.: 2. Georgetown vs. 6. Vanderbilt
followed by 1. North Carolina vs. 5. Southern California

If I had to guess... the first Thursday game is a toss-up, but no question we'll get UCLA-Pitt for the second game. Hopefully there won't be too many fouls and we'll be able to catch the end of Memphis-A&M. As for Friday, everyone will start in St. Louis, but there's no question in my mind that we'll get the Georgetown and Carolina games. And if you had any doubt as to which regional is the best of the four, the announcer pairings should put that to rest right away.

Also, if you pay attention to broadcaster hierarchies over time (which I do, though I don't necessarily recommend it for one's health or social life), you might realize that Enberg, Lundquist and Nantz always do regionals and the fourth slot is sort of open. For the last two years, it's been Gus Johnson, and now it's James Brown (both have been paired with Len Elmore, by the way). It shows you how highly Brown is regarded that he gets the gig this year.

Brown last called NCAA Tournament games in 1994, which I am pretty sure was his last year at CBS before leaving for Fox. It was also the last time something rather particular happened to the Big 5.*

(And until St. Joe's made the Elite Eight in 2004, it might have been the last time Billy Packer had to deal with the local teams, though I don't know that for sure...)

Anyway, let the countdown to this year's Sweet 16 begin. It's going to be quite something.

* - Hat tip to friend of the blog Mark Greenspan, who has or has access to more archival footage of Big 5 games than you could possibly image.

UNLV over Wisconsin, 74-68. I know some people picked the Runnin' Rebels to win this game, but not very many. Nonetheless, UNLV led by 12 at halftime and held off the Badgers in the second half.

And for the first time this tournament, we have a genuinely surprising result.

Or are there others you didn't expect?

Games televised on KYW are in bold... they are also the feature radio games on WPEN-AM 950.

12:10 p.m.: 5. Tennessee vs. 4. Virginia (Columbus)

2:15 p.m.: 9. Purdue vs. 1. Florida (New Orleans)
2:30 p.m.: 7. UNLV vs. 2. Wisconsin (Chicago)
2:40 p.m.: 5. Virginia Tech vs. 4. Southern Illinois (Columbus)
2:50 p.m.: 11. Winthrop vs. 3. Oregon (Spokane)

4:45 p.m.: 7. Nevada vs. 2. Memphis (New Orleans)
5:00 p.m.: 8. Kentucky vs. 1. Kansas (Chicago)
5:15 p.m.: 5. Southern California vs. 4. Texas

No complaints once again. The guard duel between Tennessee's Chris Lofton and Virginia's Sean Singletary will be fantastic. We'll see if Florida can keep it rolling on offense, though Winthrop-Oregon could be a better game. And Kentucky-Kansas is by far the marquee game of the last timeslot, though I think Nevada can upset Memphis and USC-Texas will make the football fans happy.

Vanderbilt-Washington State and (unbelievably) Virginia Commonwealth-Pitt in overtime simultaneously.

So much fun.

Thoughts on Michigan terminating Tom Amaker?

He really never got it going there, never made any inroads in the local recruiting markets of Detroit and Saginaw, and they still continue to struggle in-state vs MSU.

Another former Duke assistant who failed to get it done on his own...

Who is next for Ann Arbor?

I would say this about the Wolverines. Michigan basketball is pretty irrelevant at this point. A "big name" school, yes, and certainly a good job, but does anyone really care at this point?

If that's Amaker's fault, it tells you what you need to know. And I really don't know who's going to be available to take the job.

Well, Tubby Smith could be, couldn't he?

Well, there we have it. Butler to the Sweet 16.

It's funny, because so many people figured Maryland wouldn't even make it to the second round because they're so inconsistent. So it's not necessarily surprising that the Terrapins went down today.

It would have been so much sweeter if Xavier had knocked off Ohio State. Maryland is definitely an ACC school, but has long had much more of a scrap-and-grit mentality to it. Duke and Carolina get all the good basketball players. The Florida schools have historically dominated the conference in football, and Penn State gets a very large percentage of the good football players in Maryland.

Still, we have a mid-major in the Sweet 16, and for the second time in three years it's from the Horizon League (remember Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2005?). It sure would be something if the Bulldogs took out Florida too.

I know the Atlantic 10 doesn't really qualify as a mid-major conference, and that Xavier is one of the A-10's upper-class teams to boot, but I couldn't help rooting for the Musketeers to beat Ohio State.

There are a lot of teams in this country that can't get games against BCS schools because the BCS schools don't think anyone else matters. Xavier and Ohio State had only played four three times before today, and as I wrote earlier, it's well known that the Buckeyes refuse to play either of the Cincinnati schools.

Now the reason why has been exposed for the entire nation to see -- the big boys are afraid they'll lose to the team that cares more and scraps more to get the win. Yes, Ron Lewis hit some seriously clutch shots, including the heart-breaking three at the end of regulation. But it was clear for all 45 minutes that Xavier wanted it far more than Ohio State.

So the BCS big boys can keep on smiling and rolling through to their manifest destiny dates with big late-round paydays. At least for now. Maybe Butler beats Maryland. Maybe VCU beats Pittsburgh. Maybe Nevada beats Memphis.

Or maybe Winthrop beats Oregon tomorrow, or Southern Illinois beats Virginia Tech. But those are the only teams standing in the way of an all-BCS Sweet 16.

I'm sure the BCS commissioners -- especially the Big Ten's Jim Delany, whose belief in Purdue was justified when the Boilermakers beat Mustafa Shakur's Arizona yesterday -- have visions of cash registers in their heads at the moment.

I just wonder what the TV ratings will be for today and tomorrow. If they aren't so good, it might send an equally strong message.

He has been through so much over the last five years, and even though he's been with Villanova for that long I find it hard to believe that he won't be there when the Wildcats take the floor next season.

Regardless of what you think of Villanova, you have admit that Curtis Sumpter was a damn good college basketball player. Hopefully a pro team will think of him just as highly, even if his game isn't all about athleticism and selfishness.

I wrote yesterday about how happy the Selection Committee must be with the lack of first-round upsets.

Well, one of the most significant measures of the committee's work was just realized with Southern California's 77-60 win over Arkansas. For the first time since 2000 and only the second time since the field grew to 64 teams in 1985, no 12-seeds beat 5-seeds.

I've gone on and on already about how bad a job I think the committee did in seeding teams this year. You and I both knew Long Beach State wouldn't beat Tennessee, and that Virginia Tech and USC were definitely better than Illinois and Arkansas. The Illini almost pulled it off but blew a big lead late, and Arkansas proved why it shouldn't have been in the field in the first place.

I thought Old Dominion would get a Butler team that hadn't been playing well coming in, but the Bulldogs got back to their good form and hit their shots when it mattered.

So that's it for the first round. Lots of big names advancing, but was it really all that fun? I don't think so, and I say that independent of Penn and Villanova's losses. There were some good games today, especially Creighton-Nevada, but it's not a hard case to argue that the only really resonant moment so far has been Eric Maynor's shot to beat Duke.

Winthrop-Notre Dame and Creighton-Nevada were decent, and made my afternoon at the office more lively than it would have otherwise been on a slow news day. Maybe if I had seen the end of Miami (Ohio) vs. Oregon, which the Ducks won by two points, I'd think differently, but I was on my way home from work when the game ended.

I mean, I'll be as happy as anyone if North Carolina plays Georgetown and UCLA plays Kansas and Florida plays Wisconsin. But the real buzz in NCAA Tournaments, the stuff that gets people who otherwise wouldn't care to talk about it around the water cooler the next morning, is caused by the upsets and the victorious players who celebrate them.

It just doesn't feel that way this year.

Appropriate that Curtis Sumpter scored the last points of Villanova's season, but shooting 32 percent from the field in the NCAA Tournament will knock you out every time. I didn't think it would be that bad for Villanova tonight, but the Wildcats have struggled with this all season and it bit them in the rear one final time tonight.

Kentucky takes four and a half seconds to throw the long pass, and Randolph Morris jumps.

Nardi misses a wide open three, and Sumpter barely avoids fouling out. 61-56 with 1:28 left.

With all due respect to Billy Packer, Ramel Bradley's feet were still moving when Reynolds hit him. Not by much, but they were.

And now Packer praises the officials after bashing them all night. Geez.

Kentucky has a 28-22 edge in rebounding and a 59-50 lead with 3:08 to play.

Not coincidental.

What a huge three by Nardi as the shot clock expired. Billy Packer called it lucky, but one of the oldest adages in sports is that you make your own luck.

Then Randolph Morris got called for his fourth foul. Scottie Reynolds hit the first free throw, missed the second, and at the other end 'Nova forced Kentucky into a timeout.

Sumpter with a three, and it's 49-42, and hope is not yet lost.

And that was not a foul on Sheridan.

Big jumper by Jodie Meeks to give Kentucky a six-point lead, 42-36. At the other end, Reynolds drives hard to the basket and Bobby Perry tries to draw the charge, but didn't quite stop before Reynolds got there.

First free throw no good. Second is good.

I agree with Nantz and Packer that Villanova is a scorer sort, but I'm not entirely sure the scorer is Nardi. The distributor, maybe, and certainly someone to be guarded, which helps Reynolds get open. But Shane Clark and Dante Cunningham are the ones who seem to me to be really missing tonight.

11:14 left in the game, and it's a 14-2 Kentucky run to make it 44-37 at the commercial break.

Scottie Reynolds knows his stuff, making a shot out of an awkward reception outside the arc. Two of the three are good, and Villanova has the first six points of the half to lead 34-30.

Here's tomorrow's schedule. Games airing on KYW are in bold, while games scheduled to air on WPEN-AM 950 (the local affiliate for the national CBS Radio/Westwood One broadcast of the tournament) are in italics.

1:10 p.m.: 1. Xavier vs. 9. Ohio State

3:20 p.m.: 4. Maryland vs. 5. Butler
3:40 p.m.: 3. Texas A&M vs. 6 Louisville

5:40 p.m.: 3. Washington State vs. 6. Vanderbilt
5:45 p.m.: 2. Georgetown vs. 7. Boston College
5:50 p.m.: 3. Pittsburgh vs. 11. Virginia Commonwealth

8:10 p.m.: 2. UCLA vs. 7. Indiana
8:15 p.m.: 1. North Carolina vs. 9. Michigan State

No complaints from me. I've never been that fond of just the one game in the early slot, but that's mainly because I get so used to having four games going at once that one game feels strange. 20 minutes of Maryland-Butler should be enjoyable.

A small part of me would rather see see Georgetown-BC, but Pitt-VCU will be a great game. I believe that Philadelphia is a secondary market for Pitt games (the same way it is for Steelers games), which is why it's on here. And of course, all the out-of-market games are streamed online anyway.

Drummond is in to put some size on the floor against Randolph Morris, and he's done a pretty good job.

Except he just picked up his third foul, and boy was it questionable. I would have called a travel instead, if not a charge.

30-28 Kentucky at halftime. The game is still very much there for Villanova's taking.

Sumpter with a nice turnaround jumper in the lane to end the scoreless run.

"The game is not that difficult to play if you think out there," Billy Packer said.

That's why they pay him the big money.

Six and a half minutes without a Villanova field goal.

We have seen this before, but Jim Nantz and Billy Packer have not.

Foul on Shane Clark with 7:54 on the clock gives us another stretch of commercials.

A lot of blue in the United Center stands tonight, and it sure looks (and sounds) like it's a lighter shade than the Main Line's variety.

Kentucky's Ramel Bradley hits a three to tie it at 18. As CBS fades to a commercial, we see Jay screaming at Will Sheridan.

Not good... but Kentucky's one made three so far seems more like the exception than the rule which is good.

Nardi decides to pull a Reynolds (which we used to call a Nardi anyway) and unload a three from halfway to Ohio, which he makes.

14-9 'Nova with 13:32 on the clock.

Kentucky starts four guards by accident. Guard Dwight Perry's name was accidentally put on the list instead of his cousin, Bobby, a forward who usually starts . So right after the tip lands in Curtis Sumpter's hands, Dwight fouls him to stop the clock so Tubby Smith can get Bobby in.

"The next thing he does is fire the assistant coach" because of the mistake, Billy Packer said of Smith. Weird start, to say the least.

Jay Wright in what looks like a two-piece black suit, which surprises me a bit because I'm so used to seeing more. A very crisp outfit with a white shirt and silver tie to go with it, but I can't tell the exact number of pieces because the CBS bio graphic is covering half his body.

Reynolds nails a 3 at 18:20 to put 'Nova up 3-2.

Sumpter with a three at 17:26, 6-2 and the game plan's going well so far.

Good questions from commenter Mitch Rosenzweig:

What are your thoughts on the coverage so far? Think its been too heavy on the look-ins? That one of my beefs. I would rather stay with one game.

Who do you think is the best CBS annoucing duo? Who do you not like? Why?

I have always liked Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel...they have a good balance.

Gus Johnson is terrific too

I like the look-ins. The reason why the first two days of the tournament are my two favorite days of the entire sports calendar is that there's so much going on at once. I certainly use the online video streaming, but I also get a sort of adrenaline rush when there are two games at once coming down to the wire. Wisconsin-Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Creighton-Nevada provided that sort of moment. You just never knew what was going to come next.

As for the announcers, I have long been a fan of Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery. I tend to like understated play-by-play men more than overactive ones (although I do like Brent Musburger and Mike Tirico), and Lundquist is very good at picking when to raise his voice and when to not.

Raftery is my favorite analyst because he's just so funny. He has great one-liners and an even better sense of timing when delivering them.

I like Gus Johnson more than I used to, but sometimes he still goes a little too far over the top for me (which Musburger doesn't do quite as much as he used to). My least favorite tandem, though, is Jim Nantz and Billy Packer. Nantz is fantastic at golf and as a studio host, but he comes across to me as awkward when he raises his voice to exclaim something.

As for Packer, I don't dispute his credentials, or his status as the top network color voice in the sport. In terms of analyzing the action on the court, I think he's fantastic. But it shouldn't surprise at all that I really don't like how much he gloats over the big-time programs, especially in his native ACC.

He calls ACC games for the conference's regional network, and if you ever get a chance to listen to those (they're on ESPN Full Court and often broadcast over-the-air if you're in that part of the country), you can just tell how little non-BCS conferences matter to him. There are 31 conferences in Division I, not six, and whether he likes it or not the other 25 have a right to get on the floor with the big guys this time of year.

There are so many things to like about Niagara, even if they have almost no shot against Kansas tonight. Phil Sheridan and Dick Jerardi explain why.

Wisconsin and Nevada both escape. The Badgers come all the way back to beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi by 13, and Nevada overcomes Creighton in a 77-71 overtime thriller.

This is more like it.

Back later, with Texas-New Mexico State slated as the 7 p.m. KYW game. Too bad, because I wanted to see Kansas-Niagara, with the implications it has for Villanova and the heavy Philly accent among the Purple Eagles.

But that's what the online video is for.

The 2-seed Badgers trailed 15-seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 24-7, with 5:29 left in the first half before cutting the deficit to 27-19 at halftime. No doubt that Chester's finest, Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, is not pleased.

Though that is one heck of a sportcoat.

So you probably saw Ohio State center Greg Oden's 19-point, 10-rebound show against Central Connecticut State yesterday. Check out this video feature on him that's on Philly.com this morning.

So the day comes to an end, and we have a grand total of one upset. Yes, it was a big one: Virginia Commonwealth over Duke. It was great to see a CAA team finally knock off an ACC team, and of course it was all the more special because it was Duke specifically -- the ACC team with more cachet and resonance among the marketers and consumers of college basketball than any other program. And no, I don't count 9-seeds beating 8-seeds as upsets.

It almost doesn't make sense to tell oneself that Duke lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but lo and behold, it happened. Yet on the whole, I found this day disappointing. I referred to this earlier, but now I feel like going into a bit more depth about it.

I wonder if this is actually the way it is supposed to be. Teams get seeded for the purpose of creating some definition of who's good and who isn't. The higher seeds are what they are because they are, at least in theory, the better teams. If that wasn't the case, we wouldn't use the word "upset" in the first place when a higher seed goes down.

And it's not all that uncommon to say that a lower seed beating a higher seed isn't actually an upset, usually because teams were poorly seeded. Take Butler-Old Dominion for example: no one would have called it an upset if the Monarchs had won today. But they didn't. Davidson, Penn, George Washington, Oral Roberts, Belmont, Weber State.

We call it "chalk" when the top seeds win, but at this hour, I can't help thinking about just how amazing it is that all four No. 1 seeds have never all made it to the Final Four. They're supposed to, and yet over all these years that teams have been seeded, it hasn't happened. Maybe now we're finally seeing the selection committee's aims become reality. Is that the point to some degree? Maybe it is.

It should be pretty clear by now that I enjoy mid-major and high-major basketball in equal measure, and occasionally in an unequal measure that favors the little guy. There are two overarching joys of the NCAA Tournament: the crowning of a true national champion and the chance given to smaller teams to play on the same floor as the big boys for 40 minutes on national television.

And even though David is supposed to beat Goliath, upsets have become so regular in the NCAA Tournament athat it feels strange to sit here tonight and recap a day on which there was only one slingshot to be found anywhere in the country.

"You have just seen the biggest upset in today's first round of the NCAA Tournament," CBS play-by-play man Kevin Harlan exclaimed at the final buzzer of the VCU-Duke game.

The emphasis really wasn't necessary for something that earned that title by default.

Just my opinion, but anyone who can do this seems pretty healthy to me...

Yes, I was shocked when Penn started the second half on a 21-6 run to take a 39-37 lead. But then Texas A&M made the kind of statement on offense that neither this Penn team nor any other I've ever seen could stop: two thunderous put-back slam dunks by Joseph Jones that gave A&M the lead for good, 41-39 with 10:31 remaining.

After that, it was the Aggies' defense and the best player on the floor, Acie Law IV. It started when Kevin Egee had to heave up a desperation shot as the shot clock expired with 8:50 left. It continued when Doninique Kirk nailed a brilliant driving layup with 4:52. Mark Zoller airballed a three at the other end, then Kirk put A&M up double digits on a kickout three with 4:08 left.

The coup de grace came with 3:07 to play, when Law crossed over Justin Reilly, banked in a driving layup of his own with three on the shot clock and restored the 10-point lead.

Law finished with a game-high 20. Penn's Mark Zoller had a respectable 19, of which 16 came in the second half. Ibrahim Jaaber scored 16, with 10 coming after halftime.

As has been the case in every game so far today, the better team won. I'm sure this makes Big Ten commissioner and Lord of the Selection Committee Jim Delany incredibly happy, but so far this NCAA Tournament has been really rather boring.

Then again, when the two most powerful people in the committee room are Delany and a guy who hires coaches to run the Princeton offense, this is surely the way it's supposed to be.

For a while in the first half, Penn stood toe-to-toe with Texas A&M and might actually have been the better team on the floor.

The Aggies committed three turnovers in the first 5:14, all of which came as a result of passes that were too strong or simply off the mark. Penn held A&M without a field goal for a stretch of nearly six minutes over the middle of the period, and when Dallas native Justin Reilly's long two-point jumper made the score 11-9 with 8:44 left in the half, Penn fans might have been forgiven for being a little bit optimistic.

But every time Penn's offense made a move, Aggies coach Billy Gillespie's defense countered and made sure the Quakers never came close to the lead. During the opening stretch in which Penn missed its first seven field goal attempts, Gillespie made his players focus on the guards and Mark Zoller while allowing Steve Danley and/or Brennan Votel to move almost at well on the perimeter. Danley had two moments in which he had the ball at the top of the arc without anyone near him, but Gillespie bet Danley wouldn't shoot and was proven right.

Then, with 14:40 left on the clock, Votel decided to have a crack at the basket and nailed a three. Gillespie responded by pushing his players farther out and making it even harder for Penn to do anything but pass the ball around high screens. Ibrahim Jaaber, Kevin Egee and Justin Reilly made some difficult baskets inside, but Acie Law IV responded to Reilly's first points with the first three of his seven straight for A&M.

Gillespie's defense became even tighter after that. Penn only made two field goals in the final five minutes from eight attempts and a shot clock violation in the final five minutes of the half. A&M started to assert itself on the boards as well as the half went on, including one possessions with 2:26 left where they pulled down three straight offensive rebounds leading to a Josh Carter three that made it 29-16.

Penn had its chances, and was helped by Antanas Kavaliauskas picking up two early fouls, but once A&M asserted itself there was never any question as to who the better team was.

As the second half begins, I don't see that changing.

After the jump, individuals of note and, yes, some analysis from me.

We now know what games KYW will be broadcasting over the air, which is what I was waiting for to do a post listing all the first-round tip-off times. KYW's games are marked in italics:

Thursday

12:20 p.m.: 13. Davidson vs. 4. Maryland (Buffalo)
12:25 p.m.: 10. Texas Tech vs. 7. Boston College (Winston-Salem)
12:30 p.m.: 11. Louisville vs. 6. Stanford (Lexington)

2:40 p.m.: 14. Oral Roberts vs. 3. Washington State (Sacramento)
2:40 p.m.: 12. Old Dominion vs. 5. Butler (Buffalo)
2:45 p.m.: 15. Belmont vs. 2. Georgetown (Winston-Salem)
3:10 p.m: 14. Penn vs. 3. Texas A&M (Lexington)

5:00 p.m.: 11. George Washington vs. 6. Vanderbilt (Sacramento)

7:10 p.m.: 11. Virginia Commonwealth vs. 6. Duke (Buffalo)
7:10 p.m.: 16. Central Connecticut State vs. 1. Ohio State (Lexington)
7:20 p.m.: 9. Michigan State vs. 8. Marquette (Winston-Salem)
7:25 p.m.: 15. Weber State vs. 2. UCLA (Sacramento)

9:30 p.m.: 14. Wright State vs. 3. Pittsburgh (Buffalo)
9:30 p.m.: 9. Xavier vs. 8. Brigham Young (Lexington)
9:40 p.m.: 16. Eastern Kentucky vs. 1. North Carolina (Winston-Salem)
9:45 p.m.: 10. Gonzaga vs. 7. Indiana (Sacramento)

Friday

12:15 p.m.: 13. Albany vs. 4. Virginia (Columbus)
12:25 p.m.: 10. Georgia Tech vs. 7. UNLV (Chicago)
12:30 p.m.: 15. North Texas vs. 2. Memphis (New Orleans)

2:35 p.m.: 12. Long Beach State vs. 5. Tennessee (Columbus)
2:35 p.m.: 11. Winthrop vs. 6. Notre Dame (Spokane)
2:45 p.m.: 15. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. 2. Wisconsin (Chicago)
2:50 p.m.: 10. Creighton vs. 7. Nevada (New Orleans)

4:55 p.m.: 14. Miami (Ohio) vs. 3. Oregon (Spokane)

7:10 p.m.: 16. Niagara vs. 1. Kansas (Chicago)
7:10 p.m.: 12. Illinois vs. 5. Virginia Tech (Columbus)
7:20 p.m.: 9. Purdue vs. 8. Arizona (New Orleans)
7:25 p.m.: 13. New Mexico State vs. 4. Texas (Winston Salem)

Note: KYW's website lists this time slot as "TBA." I have no inside info, but my guess is Niagara-Kansas.

9:30 p.m.: 9. Villanova vs. 8. Kentucky (Chicago)
9:30 p.m.: 13. Holy Cross vs. 4. Southern Illinois
9:40 p.m.: 16. Jackson State vs. 1. Florida
9:45 p.m.: 12. Arkansas vs. 5. Southern California

The only selection I don't like is UNLV-Georgia Tech over Albany-Virginia, but that happened because CSTV has the rights to broadcast Albany-Virginia (and GW-Vandy) to the entire country except for the home markets of the teams playing. At least it will be streamed online.

I have to say, though, if I had no interest in the Philadelphia teams, I wouldn't want to see Penn-A&M. A lot of people are pegging Oral Roberts-Washington State as an upset, Butler-Old Dominion is a better game, and Belmont-Georgetown has Georgetown in it.

A commenter asked why I have three No. 1 seeds in my Final Four. My answer is that I think they're that good. I will certainly concede that Kansas and Carolina are iffy. But if I have to stick my neck out there, I say Kansas is good enough to beat UCLA, even in San Jose; and I think North Carolina is good enough at both ends of the floor to beat Georgetown, even in a halfcourt-offense game.