First Round Thoughts - All Day Long

11:14 - Last entry of the night unless something comes down to the wire. Fullerton is hanging around with Wisconsin. I thought the Badgers had their swagger going at the end of the half, but they can't shake the #14 seed. I sitll like Arizona to upset West Virginia, but I don't understand how so much talent (Bundiger, Wise, Bayless, Hill) can play so listlessly for stretches.

I'll admit it - I flipped channels for a stretch after my bowl of ice cream and watched Hanson play last week's South By Southwest. Weird. They...sucked. I had high hopes that they might have matured into something special, but they sound the same way they sounded when they were all in puberty.

Pending any late game drama, I'll see you tomorrow for the Vols at noon.

10:24 - Beer or ice cream? Which empty calories are going to cap off my night?

Ice cream.

Mason was not impressed with Larranga's talk; they are getting spanked by the Irish. We've been switched to Wisconsin/Fullerton here which looks like it is heading for a Badger blowout.

While the basketball is slow, I have been fairly entertained by the commercials thus far today. "Let's put on our lawyer pants" makes me laugh each time. I count down the seconds to that punchline. I'm also smitten with the DirecTV red-head. She is like the new Mellancamp with her every-10-minutes appearances, but unlike Mellancamp in that I look forward to her visit and she has long, smooth legs instead of cheesy, nauseating lyrics.

I do not understand or enjoy these Coke commercials with the freak in the backseat. Any excuse to see Tate George make that shot against Clemson is welcomed, but it isn't in the same marketing league as "lawyer pants."

9:45 - Did George Mason's entire team just roll its eyes at Coach Larranga's cheesy "Make them disappear" pep talk?

9:38 - A&M advances with my boy DeAndre watching the whole thing from the bench, pouting the whole time. Sad. Gotta give it to Turgeon for having the guts to bench his star recruit whose attitude and effort have sucked all year.

9:16 - Belmont down one with four seconds left...what?1? A lob to nobody?

Boy, the only thing worse than that play was the announcer calling it a "screen the screener play" (it was not) that Duke switched to defend (it did not).

This game is not over...2.7 seconds is a loooong time.

K-State has taken care of USC.

Back to Duke...front rim. DON'T MISS SHORT! Belmont saved its timeouts and it is paying off right now. I love coaches who value timeouts instead of taking them after an opponent hits two shots in a row.

I also love that Duke attacked in transition with Henderson earlier. Don't let the defense get set - there were four guys in the paint, but nobody stopped the drive for the lead.

Here we go...wow. That shot had a chance. Great job by Henderson to avoid the contact. Fantastic game.

8:50 - My friend Linc emailed that DeAndre dogged it down floor after a missed shot and has been on the pine since. I wish it surprised me, but it doesn't.

K-State is up seven with the ball. They look poised to upset the Trojans right now. They are calm and in charge right now, totally unphased by the moment.

Here is your Coach K quandry right now - your defense is built on pressuring passing lanes, but that allows Belmont to backdoor you to death. Do you switch up your philosophy for a #15 seed?

8:42 - USC TAKES THE LEAD!!! OJ MAYO!!!

8:38 - As much as Vol fans have complained about being a #2 in UNC's bracket, at least we didn't draw Belmont. These Bruins are good. They are giving Duke a real game and it isn't like Duke is playing all that badly. We could have our first upset of the day.

USC is battling back. Down 2 with 14 minutes left.

So much for DeAndre having a big tournament; he barely saw the floor during the first half of the A&M/BYU game. The Aggies are playing better without him.

BELMONT TAKES THE LEAD!!!

8:14 - Belmont Bruins, not Bulldogs. I actually knew that.

7:51 - I was not happy with getting stuck with Duke/Belmont, but it has been a brilliant first half. Belmont (I've got the volume down, so I still don't know their mascot) is running a gorgeous offense of backdoor cuts and three-point shooting. Duke looks ripe for the picking.

Meanwhile, K-State is whipping USC right now. I liked how Frank Walker went back to Beasley even after his second foul, but he barely needs him with the way his team is playing defense. They are getting after it.

The other game I want to watch right now is A&M vs. BYU. I used to coach DeAndre Jordan and am interested to see how he'll respond to the Big Dance. He has had a disappointing freshmen year, but I have seen him dominate when he is motivated. Only a couple of times, but I have seen it. I'd love to see him have a great tournament.

Whoa! 3rd foul on Taj Gibson in the first half. USC might bust up some brackets tonight. They look terrible so far. OJ Mayo cannot get a good look. They haven't been able to capitalize on Bealsey's absence at all.

7:17 - Back from the walk - ready for more basketball. The local game is Duke vs. Belmont which is a big disappointment. USC/K-State? I know Belmont is in Nashville, but nobody cares about them here.

Whoa - Beasley just picked up his second foul. I've got it on the laptop right now. USC (everyone's sleeper team, though I have a Pac-10 team seeded lower going deeper...) is off to a slow start, but K-State won't last long without Beasley on the floor.

Vince Gill is cheering on the Belmont...what are they? Bulldogs? I might be making that up. That guy has the life. A great voice, Amy Grant at night and he is always at sporting events. I wish he made better music, but I would trade in my artistic credibility for Grant and free tickets.

Terrible call on Beasley - the first awful call I've seen in the tourney so far. That is a huge foul for the Wildcats.

5:29 - Kids came home, Abby did not want to nap, repair man showed up...talk about killing the mood. I didn't get to see the end of the Kentucky game, but both my upset picks (Baylor being the other) came up empty. Joe Crawford was having a whale of a game when I was taken away.

As for Baylor, they looked like they were just happy to be there.

We're off for a family walk before the night session. See you then.

3:28 - Big shot before the half for Marquette. Kentucky forced them to go to the fourth option on that set...that is what it is like to play in March.

Tom Crean = Clark Kent?

Is the play-by-play guy for this game Mike Adamle from American Gladiators? He sounds like it to me. I had a thing for Lace back in the day. I was just hitting puberty and really wanted to break through and conquer her.

Baylor is falling behind and so is Oral Roberts. Not good for the God guys. I'm a few minutes away from making some sacrilegious jokes.

3:21 - Baylor's uniforms are brutal. Green and yellow is just a bad color combo unless you are the Green Bay Packers. Oregon and Baylor both look ridiculous.

Speaking of crazy Christian universities, Oral Roberts is up early against Pitt. Could be trouble for secular institutions this afternoon.

Kentucky has a little more bounce in its step as we head to the end of the 1st half. Would anyone have guessed Marquette vs. Kentucky is the most-played tournament game? I would have guessed UCLA as one of the teams.

3:10 - I've got Baylor/Purdue ready to go on the laptop with UK/Marquette on the TV. Not a bad day. I'm not feeling great about my Kentucky pick right now. The Golden Eagles look sharp in the opening part of the half. The scoring will be in the 50s/60s, which helps Kentucky.

Marquette has already gone to a similar look offensively several times where the ball is driven from the wing towards the baseline for a pass to the opposite corner or wing. They are going to try to exploit Kentucky's help defense by sucking them in to kick it out.

2:38 - I was right about the Dawgs - they ran out of gas in the final minutes. I'm 3-3 on my bracket so far with Michigan State's win. Kentucky and Baylor are two of my upset picks coming up right now. Can't believe I'm pulling for the Kats and Baptists. That truly is Madness.

2:23 - What about spiritual fatigue? Could the Dawgs be suffering from an internal exhaustion of the soul?

The SEC tournament was four days ago...the fatigue storyline is just silly. Gaines is tired because he has played a ton of minutes against aggressive defense. And "packed them in" at Georgia Tech? Did you watch any of the games? The arena was 2/3 empty. I'm getting annoyed with the announcers and we are in the first game of the tournament.

On a different note, the referees are doing a fine job in this one. There was a good article on ESPN yesterday about how what a rough year the refs have had, but they are off to a good start here. Just about every close call has been right (Bliss's block looked pretty clean) and they are letting the guys determine the winner.

Dawgs down 3 at the timeout. I don't think they have enough gas or offensive firepower to overcome Xavier's excellent defense, but I also don't want to count them out after what they did last weekend.

2:07 - Xavier up 3; UGA timeout. The Dawgs lack discipline - Sundiata Gaines jumped at a half-hearted shot fake to give up an easy look for three. I noticed the lack of discipline in the SEC tourney as well, but they overcame it then. They waste too many possessions with silly turnovers - no discipline. Several guys are on the verge of getting technical fouls - no discipline. We'll see if it costs them today.

Does anyone know if Bliss is related to Coach Bliss who was disgraced at Baylor? I love his competitiveness, but he freaks out at every call.

1:51 - Here comes Xavier! The game is getting pretty physical at this point, which I think helps Georgia. If I'm Sean Miller, I keep the ball in Lavender's hands as much as possible. If I'm Dennis Felton, I feed Billy Humphrey. I love that guy's jumper.

1:42 - Still all Dawgs right now. How did these guys only win 4 SEC games?

I thought Temple would give Michigan State a tougher time than they have thus far.

I spent too much of the first half trying to make an antenna out of a coat hanger so I could watch games from my deck in the beautiful Tennessee sun. No luck. If anyone has a clue about creating your own antenna, let me know.

1:00 - Georgia looks every bit as good as Xavier in the first 10 minutes, if not better. They are really playing with some confidence right now. I'm wishing I'd picked this as an upset, but it is still early (19-15 Dawgs right now).