The day games are complete.
II. Today's NCAA Matchups
Here are my complete bracket picks. All tip times are CT.
--FINAL: (7) Wichita State 86, (10) Seton Hall 66. Which SHU showed up? The bad one. You know, the one that shoots 34% from the field.
--FINAL: (11) UW-Milwaukee 82, (6) Oklahoma 74. My upset picks are off to a better start than last season. The Panthers took this one despite being outshot and outrebounded.
--FINAL: (4) Boston College 88 vs (13) Pacific 76 (2OT). Tigers nearly pulled off a big one. It took took 20+ from both Jared Dudley and Craig Smith to stave off UOP.
--FINAL: (10) Alabama 90, (7) Marquette 85. Despite Bama's best efforts to fritter away yet another game in the waning minutes, this one made me two for two on upset picks!
--FINAL: (2) Tennessee 63, (15) Winthrop 61. Close...VERY close, but Chris Lofton bailed out the Vols with a tough jumper from the corner with 0.4 seconds left.
--FINAL: (3) Florida 76, (14) South Alabama 50. The Jags played the Gators tough for a half, but there was too much Lee Humphrey (6-8 from three) and Al Horford (14 pts, 13 rebs) on this day.
--FINAL: (12) Montana 87, (5) Nevada 79. My first jinx alert was well placed. The Grizzlies led wire to wire and shot 58% from the floor in the upset win.
Tonight's Matchups
--5:05: (2) UCLA vs (15) Belmont. Battle of the Bruins. Take the ones from Cali.
--6.10: (4) LSU vs (13) Iona. Against my better judgement, I picked LSU to win two games. After last year's UAB debacle, I cannot believe I did that. Their talent is off the charts, and that is hard to ignore. Iona is a dangerous club, too. This could be a really nice game.
--6.20: (3) Gonzaga vs (14) Xavier. Morrison is good enough to win this one.
--6.25: (4) Illinois vs (13) Air Force. Not a good matchup for AFA. (Jinx alert II)
--8.30: (1) Duke vs (16) Southern U. Enjoy the moment, Jags.
--8.30: (5) Syracuse vs (12) Texas A&M. For my money, this is the most intriguing game of the day. Does the 'Cuse have anything left? I thought A&M was a tad underseeded.
--8.40: (6) Indiana vs (11) San Diego State. IU of recent games should be good enough here, but they will have to play well to get by SDSU.
--8.45: (5) Washington vs (12) Utah State. Trendy 5/12 upset pick. I stuck with the Huskies here.
II. WKU Bows out at South Carolina, 74-55
The Hilltoppers, minus three of their top eight players, had one good run in them against the stifling South Carolina defense, but it was not enough. The Toppers trailed by as many as sixteen in the first half, but whittled the margin to just six (48-42) with under eight minutes to go. Alas, the Gamecocks found the stroke from long range late in the game and put away the Toppers. WKU won the battle of the boards and did shoot 33% from Three (6-18), but they failed to get 50% of their misses and the turnovers were constant. The Gamecocks scored 35 points off 23 Topper turnovers. That about sums it up. As was often the case this season, WKU struggled in the halfcourt without a true point guard. More on the Toppers' season and ultimate demise after all of the games are over.
