Friday was essentially 100% chalk. The two upsets were 9-8 victories, which barely count as surprises. Moreover, I checked the betting lines and Vegas predicted victories for both Utah State and Iowa. Chalk all around.

The Madness gets its name because of upsets, which are fun also must be rare by definition. Thursday brought us High Point, a classic upset that will long be remembered. Friday gave us UK-Santa Clara. Sure, the Blue Blood won, but endings like that don't come around very often. [Editor's Note: Santa Clara coach Herb Sendek will be happy to tell you that his team would have won if the refs had acknowledged the timeout he was signaling. Fair. But it's also reasonable to point out that his players shouldn't have gotten so caught up in celebrating that they forgot to guard - or preferably foul - Otega. There are myriad reasons that the final 15 seconds of regulation shouldn't have happened. Which is the reason it was magical. Back to the Notes.]

What I'm hinting at is this: has the NIL era killed the upset and by extension the tournament? In the first round, a bunch of high major schools scored over 100 points in games that were over soon after they began, which is not so fun. One of those teams appeared to be Kansas, which then tried to gift the game to Cal Baptist in the second half. That was compelling. As was TCU's upset of UNC. Siena, Wright State, Hofstra and McNeese State all lost but made fans of the higher seeded teams pretty nervous (looking at you Duke supporters like Debbie). Plus the High Point and Otega-Tron instant classics. Some of the games that weren't so close featured truly extraordinary individual performances. 

My take is that the game and tournament are as good as ever. Paying players means that we keep some of the talent in college for an extra year or two before they head off the to Association. If that means we get a few more first round blow-outs, so be it. That's another reason to not, under any circumstances, expand the field. That was the chalkiest first round I can remember, and it was still loads of fun. The recent changes in college sports are all for the better. March Madness ain't broke, please don't try to fix it.

I got on here to move the Day 2 posts off the main page. Somehow I spewed out 400+ words before the Saturday games even started. After being nailed to my couch for 13 hours yesterday. Something is seriously wrong with me. I'll be back soon with thoughts on...

Michigan's Aday Mara, a Spaniard, is limited athletically. But he's 7'3" with long arms. Physical gifts he knows how to exploit. St. Louis had no answer for him on either end.  He had 4(plus) blocks but altered a bunch more, ruling the paint.

Let's pause here to acknwledge an amazing play from the first half. Lindeborg threw a perfect 3/4 court alley-oop pass to Mara for a reverse dunk. I've literally never seen that before.

The Billiken's Robbie Avila's first name is Roberto. His father is of Mexican descent. Avila has expressed interest in playing for Team Mexico in the Olympics. 

Avila picked up two fouls less than two minutes into the game. St. Louis let it ride. They finally took him out and the Billikens immediately went on a 9-0 run to take a 1-point lead. 

St Louis runs the Princeton offense. They sure love back door cuts, initiated by Avila in the high post. They run some really nice sets. Coach Josh Schertz knows what he's doing.

Michigan's Aday Mara, a Spaniard, is limited athletically. But he's 7'3" with long arms. Physical gifts he knows how to exploit. St. Louis had no answer for him on either end.  

St Louis Brady Dunlap hit the threes until he didn't.

Billikens down 9 at the break. Six blocks.

St Louis came out of the locker room and it started raining 3s.

Michigan's Elliot Cadeau is partially deaf in one ear and partially blind in one eye.

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