Yesterday was a good day (for me anyway) bracketwise.  I went 12-3 which is a lot better than my usual 106 or 9-7. The best part is none of the first round upsets have killed my bracket long term. So even though three teams that I picked didn't win (Duke, George Washington and Gonzaga) I didn't have any of those teams moving on to the third round.

Things that I noticed yesterday:

• The Big Ten may be a better league than people give it credit for.  While Ohio State was an obvious no brainer, Indiana was very impressive and Michigan State played well.  I think the Big Ten will lose two game today with weak sisters Purdue and Illinois getting the boot.
  
• Vanderbilt may also be better than people thing and may sneak into the sweet sixteen.  Outside of Florida and possibly Tennessee, I don't see a huge SEC presence in this tournament.
  
• Marquette and George Washington get the train wreck awards from yesterday.  How can you work all year to get to the Big Dance and then lay an egg like you did yesterday?  If they played each other in the first round, they would still be in a scoreless tie.  Yes, their opponents played well, but their poor play made their opponents look a lot better that they probably are.
• VCU beating Duke is not a shock.  A surprise maybe but not a shock.
  
• Maryland has a better chance to go farther since they were the only big dog that survived a scare in the first round.
• We'll see what kind of swagger Louisville has left after they meet Texas A&M in round two.
• Best players I wasn't all the familiar with yesterday: Eric Maynor, VCU and Stephen Curry, Davidson.
• I guess in the grand scheme of things, feeling bad for Belmont or Eastern Kentucky or Central Connecticut is in order because they teams lack the height, speed and depth to compete with Georgetown, North Carolina or Central Connecticut.  This is why you need 1AA Basketball.

I love the sportswriters cycle in this country.  First, a coach comes to university and takes on the impossible task of rebuilding a moribund program.  The media hails it as "an uphill challenge."  If the guy is an unknown assistant, we get the "who is this guy" stories" and if it is an established guy there is a period of hero worship followed by a prolonged period of sucking up.

Then, when the guy turns the program around and wins it all for the first time, he's a hero, a legend, a great coach.  Then, after raising the bar at his university and making the standard a trip to the sweet sixteen and the elite eight every year, the coach is considered an arrogant jerk and is lambasted if his team goes out in the first round.

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Coach K.  I don't know what he did to Mike Freeman, but apparently it was something evil.  By the way, Mr. Freeman's style, in my opinion, is similar to that of Skip Clueless.  All hat and no cattle.

Lightning Round Dept: 

• Sorry to hear about Bowie Kuhn.  I thought he always had the best interests of the game in mind, even if he did superserve his employers (the owners) and underserve the players.  If Bowie had acted more on his own and less as a tool of the owners, it may have slowed down a lot of the big contracts in the '70's. .

• .John Danks continues to impress in Arizona.  Brian Anderson seems to be hot with the bat again.  I have not ordered my "2007 World Series Champion" merch yet, believe me.