5 Thoughts On Day 2 Of The NCAA Tournament (Non-Tennessee, Non-Maryland related)

As the title notes, none of these will be Maryland related or Tennessee related. Those bases have already been covered.

1) Baylor almost embarrassed itself more than Tennessee did. That's not to say that the Bears would have stolen all the back page headlines had they lost, but the embarrassment would have likely been greater, because, I mean...no 15 seed has ever beaten a 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. Ever. Hell, it's only happened four times in the men's game, which has much more parity. Most don't even come close, just look at yesterday (and Texas A&M today) and just look at the 2/15 games from the men's tournament, but the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners came as close as anyone else ever has on the women's side, literally. No 15 has ever come closer than 5 points, which is exactly the number by which UTSA fell short tonight, 87-82 in overtime. Furthermore, no 15 had ever forced OT before tonight, so at least the Roadrunners made some positive history there. Baylor, the 2 seed who avoided the ultimate humiliation, was lackluster for pretty much the entire evening. UTSA opened the second half with a shock 15-3 run to go up 46-39 with over 16 minutes to go. They'd lead until the 9:24 mark, when the Bears reclaimed the lead and it was a battle through the rest of regulation. UTSA's Jordan Stark hit a pair of free throws before a Baylor buzzer beater got rim to force the extra 5 minutes and the entering in to uncharted waters. Credit the Bears for finally, finally stepping up their game as the added frame wore on, but the fact that they were even there in the first place tells me that they weren't ready to play tonight. You can speculate whether or not they're the same team without Danielle Wilson and you can speculate whether or not Kim Mulkey's hospitalization for kidney stones just hours before the game affected the outcome and performance. But one thing is for sure: this is just yet another example of parity increasing in women's college basketball and it's great to see. Unfortunately, the Roadrunners couldn't pull off the monumental upset. Oh well, they gave it an amazing run, better than any of their 63 other 15th-seeded peers were able to come up with.

2) Forget UConn. Iowa State. South Dakota State. 3 point shooting contest for the national title. Make it happen. How about the single game tournament record for three point field goals being tied not once but twice on the same evening by two teams playing in the same time slot? What were the odds on that one, one billion to one? Well whatever the odds were, the Cyclones and Jackrabbits beat them. Both hit 16 threes en route to blowout victories over East Tennessee State and TCU, respectively. And yet, this is like the third most noteworthy thing of tonight's tournament action. Unbelievable. But seriously, if both these teams keep playing like this, they'll be threats to go deep, deep in to March. The Clones were led by Alison Lacey's six triples and the Rabbits were carried by Jill Young's five treys. What amazing performances by both individuals and both teams. Maybe this is why Tennessee, who would have faced ISU in round 2, lost tonight and why Baylor, who faces SDSU, almost lost? Not really, but still, crazy, crazy stuff. Was there even women's basketball played outside of Lubbock and Bowling Green today? Boy, did people who went to those two subregionals get their money's worth today.

3) South Dakota State 90, TCU 55. That might be one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. Uh, wanna just all pretend I DIDN'T have the Horned Frogs in my Sweet 16, upsetting the Jackrabbits and Baylor to get there? Geez la wheez. Boy was I wrong and was I wrong in spectacular fashion. The popular internet meme "epic fail" was created for predictions such as that one. My goodness. But seriously, how about SDSU shutting up any and all doubters and how about the Jackrabbits sticking it to the committee for giving them a seed that wasn't befitting to their 31-2 mark and # 15 national ranking? And not only all that, this was their first ever NCAA tournament game. Talk about making a first impression. Even if they play half as good as they did tonight and Baylor plays twice as well as it did tonight, the Bears could be in for an absolute WORLD of trouble on Tuesday night. Immediately this game shoots to the top of my "most intriguing second round games" list. And hopefully I won't be as wrong about that list as I was about my "most intriguing first round games" list, which TCU/SDSU topped. And as for the Horned Frogs...wow, looks like they were just a team who fluked in to two victories over solid competition that wasn't quite as elite as it thought it was (Cal) or that it eventually became (Maryland.) 10 losses in a mid major league certainly isn't spectacular and it was their entire body of work that I should have judged them on, not two outlier performances. Oops.

4) Game of the Day: Michigan State 60, Fighting Alysha Clarks 59. Middle Tennessee got 34 of its 59 points from its superstar 5'10 guard who is the nation's leading scorer, but it wasn't enough. She didn't score a single point in the final 11 minutes plus change and fouled out with 90 seconds to go. Perhaps that was why the Blue Raiders didn't even get a shot on their final possession. That resulted in a 15 point first half lead being completely blown as the Spartans stormed back on their home floor to set up a second round matchup with their old coach, Joanne P. McCallie, and her new team, the Duke Blue Devils. I wrote in my pick for this game that MSU was in poor form and for most of the first half they were. But they started to turn it around near the end of the first 20 minutes and continued the surge early in the second half, leading to a final fourth of the game that was a back-and-forth battle. When it came down to crunch time, though, there was no Alysha Clark and that meant a Middle Tennessee loss. Too bad for the Blue Raiders but she'll be back next year. Look for them as the hot mid major team going in to next season. By the way, great, GREAT crowd at the Breslin Center for this one. I know someone who goes to MSU and isn't the biggest of women's college basketball fans but went and vouched for how fun it was and how great the atmosphere was. This, along with stuff like the LSU men's football and basketball coaches buying up tickets for students to get in to today's game against Wisconsin-Green Bay for free, is a reason why it's a good thing to have first and second round games on campus sites with home teams playing at those campus sites in order to maximize attendance and create the best, most positive atmospheres that can make the game and the tournament grow.

5) Home court advantage apparently doesn't mean THAT much to everybody. Remember how San Diego State, Rutgers, and Ohio State took advantage of playing on their home floors yesterday? Apparently they forwarded that "how to do" memo to LSU, Maryland, UConn (not that the Huskies or Terps needed it), and Michigan State (but the Spartans didn't receive it until the second half) but forgot to include Iowa and Notre Dame in the CC. The Hawkeyes were never really competitive against Georgia Tech in Iowa City, falling 76-62 and the Irish couldn't withstand a red-hot Minnesota start, failing to complete a comeback and succumbing by the count of 79-71. So yes, it IS possible for teams to lose on their home floors in round 1, even to perceived-to-be inferior competition. In the Irish's case especially, I don't know if anyone thought Minnesota was going to be competitive with Notre Dame, even on a neutral floor. An extremely disappoining loss for Muffet McGraw's girls. But then again, with the way the Gophers got out shooting 11 for 13 to start the game, it was going to be a long road back. This is just the story of the Irish season though; from a # 4 ranking on January 13 to a first round exit on their home floor as a 7 seed. What a disappointment. But good for the Gophers. They can add this road scalp to their Ohio State one earlier this year. They'll get Texas A&M in round 2 and if they can shoot like they did today, they'll have a puncher's chance.