Mad Marchness Moves On

So the Cards looked passive in their dismantling of Morehead State. I am still alittle worried about their (Cards) match up with Siena tomorrow night. That put a side for later, here our some thoughts I had about Mad Marchness so far....

- I knew the ACC was a top heavy conference but damn were they exposed in the first two days. I liked Cleveland State to beat Wake Forest, so that didn't surprise me. I liked Florida State (I had them losing in second round anyway) and didn't see them losing to a average at best Wisconsin team.

- If you told me James Harden would go 1-8 for 9 points and the Sun Devils were still going to cruise past Temple, I would have asked you to pack the next one up. Harden isn't going to have to many games like that. Temple's match up zone did a good job of keeping the ball out of Hardens hands, so when he did get any kind of halfway descent look he took it. Resulting in a 1-8 shooting day. Harden has only been held under ten points 3 times this season before the Temple game. He responded with 30, 24, and 15 points performances in the next games.

- Watch out Oklahoma!! Coach John Beilein knows how to knock off number 2 seeded teams with a 10 seeded underdog. Manny Harris is a beast and I can't wait to watch him go head to head with talented Freshman Willie Warren. If Beilein's pesky changing zones (1-3-1 is his favorite) can limit Griffin's touches while forcing the Sooners guards to turn the ball over (OU averages 14 assists to 13 turnovers a game), while knocking down their three's, it might be all she wrote for Oklahoma.

- I want Western Kentucky to beat Gonzaga tonight but I don't know if they have enough to do it. The Zags are deeper then the Hilltoppers and while I am a fan of the talents of WKU's back court (Mendez-Valdez & Slaughter) but can they survive against a deep and just as talented Bulldog back court. One positive to our millions of loyal readers in Bowling Green....Western (despite giving up 72 to Illinois) is a very good defensive team and do a great job of limiting their opponents to second chance shots, they only gave up 4 offensive rebounds to Illinois. Gonzaga averages 10 offensive rebounds a game. Western must control the tempo, force a half court game and win the battle of the backboards if they are going to pull off the upset.