Duke Lost, And Other Thoughts from the First Weekend of the 2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament

I figured I'd wait until after the first 2 rounds of the men's NCAA tournament before I'd do an update. I know a lot of people did quick and sudden reactions to each game, but I like to let the first weekend, at least, marinate in my brain for a night's sleep. I will say, if anyone is out there looking for instant takes, go listen to the podcast "T'd Up" on the Ringer podcast network. I have been listening to it everyday, it is one of my new favorite podcasts, I'm a big Mark Titus and Tate Frazier fan, and their instant takes have been poignant and often hilarious. But, for me personally, I like to think about all 48 games over the past 4 days for one full day.

My instant take away, at least from the first round, it was pretty much what was expected to happen. Sure, there was a Middle Tennessee "upset" over Minnesota, I think the majority of the country saw that happening, including the prognosticating geniuses at the X Millennial Man Podcast, and yeah, Creighton got bested by Rhode Island, but see the Minnesota-MTSU outcome. Xavier was an 11, and they beat Maryland, who was a 6, but after watching that game, the seeding should have been switched. I believe that Xavier was favored in that game actually. Other than that, it was all chalk. You can call Wichita State over Dayton an upset, but I think we all knew that Wichita State was the better team.

With it being chalk for the most part, there were still a few good, close games. The game to open the tournament, Notre Dame-Princeton went right down to the wire, with ND squeaking by by 2 points. St. Mary's and VCU played a very competitive first round game, before St. Mary's iced it with free throws. Arkansas got away with a terrible intentional foul call that turned into a technical foul that all but put away Seton Hall. Vanderbilt had one player who did not know the situation, and unfortunately for him, he essentially gave Northwestern their first round win, and continued the run of insufferable Northwestern fans for a few more days. USC-SMU was a very, very good game, that USC came away with a close fought victory. The fact that Semi Oguleye didn't even touch the ball in the final 2 possessions for SMU was a critical error on their part.

The game of the first round for me, and a lot of others for that matter, was Michigan-Oklahoma State. If you like defense, this game wasn't for you. But, both teams kept going back and forth. Michigan would hit a three, then Oklahoma State would get 2 quick layups. I think in the end there were about 20 lead changes and 15 ties, before Michigan and DJ Wilson went up 4 with 3 seconds left in the game. Yeah, the Oklahoma State guard hit a three at the end, to make the final score 92-91, but it was already over no matter what. Maybe it is my personal bias, maybe not, but this was the game of the first round. Derrick Walton was great, but so was Oklahoma State's point guard. It was a great matchup.

Oh yeah, all number one seeds, even with Gonzaga and Villanova struggling in the first half of their opening games, ended up crushing their 16 seeded opponents. Still no 16 over 1's yet.

Then, we got to round 2. This was where the "madness" began. Again, ND faced off in the opening game of the day, this time against West Virginia, and WVU pressed the hell out of them and controlled, even more so, dominated the tempo of the game. This game was never really in question. WVU was the better team, and they proved it.

In the second game of the day on Saturday, we had our first big time upset. Yes, Wisconsin was criminally under seeded, but Villanova was the overall number one seed and the defending champs. On Saturday though, they just didn't have it. They shot poorly and Wisconsin kept making big shots. Even with Villanova up 6 late in the game, I assumed Wisconsin would win, and they did. That move Nigel Hayes made at the end to win the game was awesome.

As for the other Saturday games, Xavier blew the doors off FSU, as did Florida to Virginia. That Florida-Virginia game was disgusting if you are a Virginia fan. 38 points! In a tournament game! That is atrocious Virginia. Gonzaga, even though all the new Northwestern fans will claim the goal tending, and yes it was one hundred percent a goal tend, but I do not think that would have changed the outcome, lost it for them, proved they were the better team. Gonzaga controlled that game, even with the late Northwestern run. Butler also smoked MTSU, as expected.

Then Sunday happened. Again, Michigan opened the day with Louisville, and after the first half, I thought my team was done. But, they adjusted, fed the German kid Wagner, DJ Wilson made some big free throws, and even though he had a rough shooting game, Derrick Walton hit one clutch three and a very big contested lay up at the end. Michigan beat Louisville, busting a lot of people's brackets, mine included. I did not care. I did not think I could get much happier, but something I will hit on in a minute made me grin even more yesterday. I'll get to that in a few.

After the Michigan-Louisville game, I thought we already had our great game of the day, but Kentucky-Wichita State was highly competitive, with Kentucky prevailing. Unfortunately for me, the one thing I remember from that game will be Greg Marshall's drunken wife swearing at Kentucky fans. UNC survived a scare from Arkansas to pull away late for a win. Purdue and Matt Painter did everything they could to blow their game, but Caleb Swanigan would not let that happen, and they prevailed over Iowa State. KU, after a close first half, blew the doors off of Michigan State, ending all the talk of Tom Izzo being a genius in March. Baylor-USC was very close throughout, but Baylor was very un Baylor like, and they pulled out a close win late, hitting clutch free throws and clutch shots. Oregon had to come back from double digits in what I considered one of the better games of the day, and they pulled out a 3 point win over Rhode Island. That game was close and tightly contested for pretty much the full 40 minutes. UCLA easily beat down on Cincinnati, but I honestly did not watch one second of that game because of the doubled upon euphoria I was feeling from the early Michigan win, and South Carolina beating Duke.

I could not believe what I saw South Carolina do to Duke in that second half. I was in and out during the first half. I saw Duke had a 10 point lead at one point, so I kind of checked out, but when I went back a half an hour later, South Carolina was up by 10 all of the sudden. They did not stop. Whenever Duke made a shot, or shot one of their almost 40 free throws, South Carolina came right back and scored on them. They scored so many points in the second half. In fact, they scored 65 points in the half. Let me repeat that. 65 POINTS IN A HALF! AGAINST THE TEAM EVERYONE ASSUMED WAS THE NATIONAL TITLE FAVORITE! Maybe there is some justice in this unjust world we live in right now. I kid you not, this South Carolina win actually gives me a little sliver of hope for the future of this country. If a team filled with scumbags like Grayson Allen, and coached by the ultimate scum bag can get beat this early in the tournament, maybe our country will wake the hell up and see what a mess we are right now. But, I digress. Anytime Duke loses this early, even if it destroys my bracket and makes my picks on the podcast sound stupid, I feel like we, the United States, wins. This almost makes up for the Falcons blowing a 25 point lead. Almost.

Looking at the 16 teams we have left, 15 of them are from power 5 conferences, and the other is Gonzaga, who is a national power. The breakdown by conference goes as such; 3 Big 12 teams, 3 SEC teams, 3 Big Ten teams, 3 Pac 12 teams, 2 Big East teams, 1 West Coast Conference team and 1 ACC team. That's right, the almighty ACC, who many thought should have gotten 11 teams in the tournament, ended up with 9, only has one team left. The same conference that dumbass Seth Davis made a plea on national television for, and all but assured us that Duke would win it all, I say again, has one team left. That is the same amount as the WCC. Good for you ACC.

I have watched more college basketball the past four days than I have all year, and I have to say, for how much crap I give men's college basketball, I still think it is very watered down, it has been a lot of fun. I'm excited to see where we go from here, If I had to pick a new Final Four, since I had Duke on the podcast, right now I'd go with who ever wins the Florida-Wisconsin game in the East, I'm sticking with Gonzaga in the West, I want to pick Michigan so bad in the Midwest, but I am going to stick with KU, especially after how they demolished MSU, and I'm staying with UCLA in the South. I also still have Gonzaga and KU in the title game, and KU winning it all. I just hope the rest of the tournament is as fun as these first four days were.

And one more thing. Duke lost in the second round. I just had to repeat that.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He coaches kids basketball and has had to have his wife removed from the game a few times. After a couple pours from the wine box, she can get salty with the opposing team. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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