Dancin': Day One

The important stuff:

• Player of the Day: Quincy Pondexter, Washington. It would be easy to go with Blake Griffin, but he was playing a bunch of chumps. Mississippi State won the SEC and they were a trendy upset pick. UW ran them right off the floor and, while guard Isaiah Thomas and center John Brockman were also dominant, Pondexter scored 15 in the first half and the Huskies basically coasted from there.
• Game of the Day: (tie) VCU-UCLA and Michigan-Clemson. They accounted for two of my three losses (Butler-LSU, another close one, was the other). Clemson was down big and came back to have a three at the buzzer to tie, which fell very short. VCU came from down double digits as well and Eric Maynor had a shot to win at the end, but he was defended well. No buzzer beaters today, but some solid games. A lot of the joy was in the low seeds that gave the big teams a run for their money, most notably American and Cal State-Northridge.
• Ass of the Day: Brandon Lang, who made four predictions on the Junkies this morning. One, that Mississippi State would win outright (as mentioned before, it wasn't close). Two, that Northern Iowa would win outright (they didn't, though they made it sort of close at the end). Three, that Memphis would easily cover (they didn't and were trailing with five minutes to go). Four, that Gonzaga would easily cover (nope).
• Team That Most Surprised Me: Maryland. They dominated their game with Cal.
• Team I Think Can Surprise on Saturday: Texas. Duke may have some serious issues with the Longhorns' size.