Two Major Upsets Saturday with One Big 12 Team Advancing to Final Four

Big upset! The Kansas Jayhawks, number one seed overall, lost Saturday evening to Villanova 64 - 59. No, we did not play well. We struggled the whole game. Villanova had a good game. They did what they needed to do to advance to the Final Four.

The early game, Oklahoma won and advanced. Leaving only one Big 12 team in the Final Four. Sure, we were hopeful that there would be at least two Big 12 teams playing in the Final Four after Saturday evening, but it did not happen. Oklahoma played very well against Oregon knocking off the first number one seed of the tournament.

Today, four teams play all of which are from the ACC. No doubt that at least one team in the championship game a week from Monday will be from the ACC. Hopeful that the other team that plays is Oklahoma to represent the Big 12.

Kansas did not play well. Perry Ellis was non-existent throughout the game. Not the time to lose one of your best players. Sure, Villanova had a lot to do with taking Ellis out of the game. They had a lot to do with 6 of 22 from behind the three point line. Even though we were playing horrible the entire game, some how, we were still in the game down to the end.

We never got Perry involved in first half and Ellis didn't get himself engaged. --Bill Self

Congrats to Villanova! They played well and did what was needed to advance. Congrats to Kansas on a great season. No, it is not where we wanted to end the season.

All of my tournament brackets are now broken. Even the second chance bracket is gone with the majority of my selections going towards Kansas as did most of the country. Pulling for Oklahoma at this point and look forward to watching the games today and next weekend.

The Field is Set with Busted Brackets and Sixteen Teams Hoping for More

What a great four day weekend! I took off work Thursday and Friday to stay home and watch basketball. That's exactly what I did, not leaving the house at all those two days. Saturday and Sunday, was more basketball, but I did leave the house a few times. There were some great games! I sit here watching the end of the Oregon vs St Joseph's game which is another close game.

The forth day of the start of March Madness resulted in more exciting games! It is going to be tough to go back to work tomorrow after enjoying all of this basketball and only thinking basketball the past four days.

There was at least one upset for the day with Wisconsin beating Xavier. Overall, it was a good day to watch basketball and enjoy the great time of the year!

Oh our brackets! Yes, I remember filling out my brackets under a week ago thinking this is the time I fill it out 100% right. Yeah right! I filled out a number of brackets on ESPN and the only one that I have that is over 50% is at 54%. I am not alone though as the majority of the other entries are just as bad. It is not as though I had Michigan State winning it all of necessarily going to the Final Four in all of my brackets, there were simply some major upsets (see post from Saturday).

My favorite from the weekend was when Carrie, my wife, commented following a game ending around 6 or 6:30 today asking me if it was the last game of the day. No, still more games tonight! Best time of the year!

A NCAA game ends… @carrieloulou asks me if it is the last one of the day and that I have been watching for four days straight. Oh dear! 😀

— John Haverty (@havertyj) March 21, 2016

Carrie enjoys basketball, but only prefers the last five minutes of the game and only really watches one team because I watch them. She spent most of her time this weekend on her phone watching Netflix. Sorry Carrie!

The last game of the weekend is over with Oregon winning. The field of sixteen is set. We now wait for Thursday to roll around so we can cheer again.

First Day of Second Round Done with Two Upsets... One Seeds Advance

First day of the Second round is done and there were a few upsets. The largest upset of the day being  (5) Indiana beating (4 ) Kentucky this after Coach John Calipari was complaining on Sunday about only being ranked a 4 seed. Apparently, Kentucky needed to be much lower because they could not handle Indiana. The other upset was (11) Gonzaga beating (3) Utah, but then it seems Gonzaga is in the hunt every year. 

He might have been joking, but still, it seemed he was upset about the seeding. He can be upset, but Kentucky still lost.

The one seeds for Saturday all won and advanced leaving only Oregon to play (8) Saint Joseph. It was another fun day of basketball with two teams coming back from huge deficits to make the games interesting. Wichita State (vs. Miami) and Yale (vs. Duke) both got down early in each of their respective games by a large margin. Both games appeared to be over shortly after they started... unfortunately both teams came up short and lost to the higher seed. I was hoping Yale would beat  Duke, but that did not happen. I was pulling for Wichita State to beat Miami. Neither of which would have helped my brackets, but would rather see the upset.

Both Big 12 teams (Iowa State and Kansas) moved on to the sweet 16 that played today with one left tomorrow. The last team left from the Big 12 to play Sunday is Oklahoma who will play #10 VCU. Not being sure what to expect from today, I am happy that Kansas advanced to the sweet sixteen. Waiting to hear when Kansas will play on Thursday.

It has been a fun four day weekend with more basketball to go Sunday. My bracket(s) are busted, but still the greatest time of year!

Enjoy the Sunday games and enjoy the "March" Madness!