King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Bradley leads an underdog brigade that says, "Believe the hype!" Plus: A Sweet 16 thoughts on the NCAA Tournament's first four days.
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March 20, 2006 | Is there any event that so consistently lives up to its reputation as the NCAA Tournament?
With all the buildup, you'd think the thing would have to disappoint more often than not. There are years when the would-be buzzer-beaters all seem to clank off the rim and the underdogs all seem to fall short, but not many of them.
And certainly not this year. This year, the Tournament had six first-round upsets, not counting 9-over-8 or 10-over-7 wins.
Two 11-seeds beat 6-seeds, George Mason over Michigan State and Wisconsin-Milwaukee over Oklahoma. Two 12s beat 5s, Montana over Nevada and Texas A&M over Syracuse. No. 13 Bradley beat No. 4 Kansas and, in a classic Tournament moment, No. 14 Northwestern State stunned No. 3 Iowa on a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
But it didn't stop there.
The second round is usually the beat-down round, where order is restored and Cinderella runs come skidding to a halt. But there was Bradley, doing it again, this time to No. 5 Pittsburgh. George Mason pulled off a shocker, beating 3-seed North Carolina.
And the Shockers did it too, No. 7 Wichita State beating No. 2 Tennessee, though the way Tennessee has been playing lately, especially in its first-round escape against No. 15 Winthrop, that Shockers shocker was hardly shocking.
Georgetown, a seventh seed, knocked off No. 2 Ohio State with what looked like relative ease.
And with that, the Big Ten was gone, its half-dozen teams winning three games, six fewer than they were supposed to win, based on seeding. Meanwhile, the much-maligned Missouri Valley Conference, seeded to win one game, won four.
It was a grand four days of basketball. And the great thing is the next round won't be the beat-down round either. Two of the four living underdogs, George Mason and Wichita State, play each other, so at least one will get to the Elite Eight. Georgetown gets Florida, which is hardly an overwhelming matchup for the Hoyas, though Bradley will have its hands full against Memphis.
In honor of the Sweet 16 teams that have emerged from these great first four days, here are a Sweet 16 thoughts on the Tournament so far.
One: Dumbest thought about sports fandom: A car commercial with a Tournament tie-in begins with the voice-over announcer saying, "For true fans, the whole year comes down to just one weekend, the 2006 NCAA men's Final Four."
I'd say that's the exact opposite of how "true fans" feel. True fans are glued to their TV sets at midnight on a December Tuesday as UC-Santa Barbara and Long Beach State tussle in the ESPN2 late game. It's dilettantes and casual fans for whom "the whole year comes down to just one weekend."
Two: In George Washington's second-round loss to Duke, coach Karl Hobbs sat Pops Mensah-Bonsu when he got his second foul with 4:25 to go in the first half, with Duke on a run and leading 35-20. Mensah-Bonsu isn't as good a player as his publicity would have you believe, but he's an important guy for the Colonials, their third leading scorer, second leading rebounder and most dynamic player.
Mensah-Bonsu sat the rest of the half.