March madness update

NCAA College Basketball Scores

Michigan St. is the first #1 seed to fall, and they fell hard by scoring only 44 points - and even that paltry 44 number overstates their offensive production. They were down 46-33 with six minutes to play. They shot 28% from the field. Louisville just plain skunked 'em.

Syracuse almost fell, but hung on for a one point victory over Wisconsin. The Badgers held a 59-56 lead, but were outscored 8-4 in the home stretch. Wisconsin went 0-for-5 on threes in that final stretch, after going an unbelievable 14-for-22 before that. A connection on any one of those five shots would have sealed the game.

Cincinnati held it together against OSU for 30 minutes. After getting swamped in the first half, Cincy came roaring back to take a 52-51 lead with ten to play. Unfortunately for them, OSU then remembered that they were OSU and went on a 30-12 romp. End of story.

It wasn't a good night for the state of Wisconsin. Marquette joined the Badgers in defeat. They could muster no offense against the red-hot Florida Gators, who held Marquette to 20-for-65 from the field. Then again, Marquette scored 58, which is actually pretty good against the Gators. Florida allowed only 153 points in their first three games. That's the third-best effort of the shot-clock era. The Gators, a #7 seed, are the lowest-seeded team to reach the elite eight so far. The night's other three winners were seeded 1-2-4.

(Tomorrow there will be three Cinderellas trying to get to the ball: a 10, an 11 and a 13. The bookies are not optimistic about their chances. The lines on those games range from 6 to 10.5, with Xavier supposedly having the best chance to win, and Ohio being the longest of long shots.)