After the first weekend of action, the NCAA tournament bracket is settling down just as Sip & Savor predicted - into a Big East tournament.
The Big East has five of its seven tournament teams in the Sweet Sixteen. The Big 12 made a good showing as well with three of its six teams making it to the Sweet Sixteen. The Big Ten and ACC – well, you talk a good game (especially the ACC), you play a different one. Only two of seven teams from each of these conferences remain. As for the SEC - well, stick to football fellas.
Sip & Savor's bracket is looking good. Only one of our Elite Eight is out – Marquette just missed pulling off its upset yesterday. Louisville, Michigan State, UConn, Pitt, Villanova, North Carolina and Oklahoma remain. And our Final Four is not just in good shape but looking strong: Louisville, UConn, Pitt and Oklahoma.
As for our first round upset picks? Well, we picked seven upsets and four were correct. Not bad. We correctly picked Wisconsin over Florida State, Michigan over Clemson, USC over BC and Maryland over Cal. Our fun flier looked close for a while, but Kansas eventually held off North Dakota State.
Finally, have you noticed a trend in watching first round games? It seems every year, the late, late games on Friday night are just incredible thrillers. This year was no different as both late night games went into overtime, and well beyond midnight, before being decided at the buzzer: Siena over Ohio State and the Badgers over the Seminoles.
It was certainly a fun first weekend of tournament basketball. Here's to some more great games this weekend.