Randall's Ramblings

With 16 teams left, anything possible for many

The first weekend of the NCAA Tournament started out rather slowly but quickly turned into one of the finest opening weekends of all time.

The first game of the tournament pitted the No. 2 seed in the Austin regional the Kentucky Wildcats against their neighbor 20 miles away in the Eastern Kentucky Colonels. A two seed has lost to a 15 seed four times and EKU had the chance to pull the upset multiple times throughout the game but could never quite get over the hump. Kentucky escaped with a 72-64 victory over the upstart Colonels.

The first day of the tournament continued that way for many of the top seeds. With virtually no upsets on the first day, the lower seeds made the games quite competitive but were not able to post any big upsets. Friday, on the other hand, led to lots of drama. First was the No. 13 seed Vermont Catamounts and their retiring coach Tom Brennan defeated the No. 4 seed, and Big East Tournament champions, Syracuse Orangemen in overtime, knocking Syracuse out of the tournament on their first day and ending the hopes of the second final four in three seasons for Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim.

In the nightcap of games, No. 14 seed Bucknell knocked off preseason No. 1 Kansas, the No. 3 seed in the Syracuse regional, 64-63. These games led to more surprises in round two of the tournament, including the N.C. State Wolfpack and embattled coach Herb Sendek defeating the defending national champions Connecticut Huskies 65-62.

In the game of the tournament so far, the second seeded Kentucky Wildcats faced the seventh seeded Cincinnati Bearcats. The two schools - separated by a mere 80 miles but hadn’t played since 1990 - played a highly intense game with a Final Four flair to it. Kentucky quickly jumped out to an 11-0 lead but Cincinnati fought back and eventually took the lead at halftime 35-33. Kentucky jumped out to the lead early in the second half and never trailed again as they continually withstood challenges by the Bearcats and defeated Cincinnati 69-60 before over 40,000 fans at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, the largest crowd ever to see a first or second round NCAA Tournament game.

I have Illinois defeating UW-Milwaukee and Oklahoma State defeating Arizona in the Chicago regional.

In the Albuquerque regional I have Louisville and Texas Tech facing off. North Carolina will face North Carolina State in the Elite 8 in the Syracuse regional and Duke and Kentucky will play another thriller in the regional finals of the Austin regional.

My final four - as I have said since the beginning of the tournament - is Illinois, North Carolina, Kentucky and Louisville, and I’m sticking by it right now.