Dancin': Day Two

The important stuff:

• Player of the Day: Chris Wright, Dayton. Wright had 27 and 10 as he led the Flyers to a dominant win over West Virginia (the only Big East team to lose in the first round). His scoring also included some sick dunks to keep the momentum going. Runners-up: Ronald Moore, Siena; Ben Woodside, North Dakota State.
• Game of the Day: (tie) Wisconsin-Florida State and Siena-Ohio State. There were no great games on the first day and only one (the high-flying, fast-paced Tennessee-Oklahoma St) through the first three sets of games on Friday. Then all hell broke loose with Cleveland State's dismantling of former #1 team (and my Elite Eight team) Wake Forest and these two dandies. Siena battled back from a defecit to send the game to overtime. The aforementioned Ronald Moore nailed a three to send the game to double overtime, then nailed another (his only two threes of the game) with seconds left to win the game. In the other, Florida State held a twelve-point halftime lead until Wisconsin turned up the defensive pressure and started nailing threes. They sent the game into overtime and won it there, again in the last seconds, with a big three-pointer and then a big three-point play.
• Team That Most Surprised Me: Cleveland State. It's one thing for a 13-seed to beat an ACC team. It's another when that team jumps out 29-12 and never looks back.
• Team I Think Can Surprise on Sunday: Oklahoma State. They looked high-powered (if sloppy defensively), while Pittsburgh had a much tougher game then expected with 16-seeded East Tennessee State.
• My Record in the First Round: A sorry 23-9. As for as double-digit seeds, I hit on Western Kentucky and Maryland, while barely missing out on Utah State and VCU.
• My New Sweet 16: Since CBS has a round-by-round picks challenge, I'll give my Sweet 16, based on the teams there. Going out on a limb, a little, I'd say: Louisville, Cleveland State, Kansas, Michigan State, Connecticut, Washington, Missouri, Memphis, Pittsburgh, Xavier, Villanova, Texas, Carolina, Western Kentucky, Syracuse, and Oklahoma.