In sports, everyone is a winner—some people just win better than others. Like anyone who had a few free hours to skip and/or slack off work yesterday, because they were richly rewarded for their non-efforts. (Unless they weren't.)
The first early session of the NCAA tournament was one of the most competitive in recent memory. There were upsets, multiple overtimes and one absolute DAGGER of a game-winner. (Popeye Jones lives!) The later games weren't quite as thrilling, but with the exception of a few of 1- and 2-seed blowouts nearly all of Day 1 was competitive. Sometimes a terrible job of seeding results in some good basketball.
We lost two sixes, a three and a four, and if it wasn't for Scotty Reynolds' forearms and some painful officiating (granted, it was pretty lousy both ways) we might have lost a two seed as well. (And half the Big East.) Bobby Mo, we hardly knew ye, but at least you gave Jay Wright a valuable "teaching point." The lesson? Don't teach lessons in the NCAA tournament.
That just leaves one question: Did we use up our Gus Johnson Quotient for 2010? Let's hope not, because if there's nothing but a long weekend of blowouts and favorites ahead of us, there's not much time left to plan a picnic.
[AP Photo]
Honorable Mention: It's got to be tough growing up in Iowa with a name like Ali Farokhmanesh. You know, because it just doesn't sound right with that Midwest accent.