Now that blogspot is finally working properly, I can run through all of Day 2's results and look at the 2nd round matchups, which begin this afternoon. It took until the last games of the first round, but we finally got our first Tournament classics, along with our first real big upset.

Midwest Region:
(1) Louisville over (16) Morehead St., 74-54
(2) Michigan St. over (15) Robert Morris, 77-62
(3) Kansas over (14) North Dakota St., 84-74
(9) Siena over (8) Ohio St., 74-72 in 2OT
(10) USC over (7) Boston College, 72-55
(11) Dayton over (6) West Virginia, 68-60
(12) Arizona over (5) Utah, 84-71
(13) Cleveland St. over (4) Wake Forest, 84-69

West Region:
(3) Missouri over (14) Cornell, 78-59
(6) Marquette over (11) Utah St., 58-57

East Region:
(1) Pittsburgh over (16) E. Tennessee St., 72-62
(4) Xavier over (13) Portland St., 77-59
(8) Oklahoma St. over (9) Tennessee, 77-75
(12) Wisconsin over (5) Florida St., 61-59 in OT

South Region:
(3) Syracuse over (14) Stephen F. Austin, 59-44
(6) Arizona St. over (11) Temple, 66-57

1st Round Trends:
- The 12/5 matchup continues to be the upset to pick each year as this is the 7th time in the past 8 years that at least one of the 12's has advanced. 3 of the 4 won their first round games this year.
- #1 seeds are now 100-0 all time vs. #16 seeds, but the average margin of victory for #1's in the 2nd round is only 7 points.
- Power Conference Records in the 1st Round: ACC (3-4), Big 10 (4-3), Big 12 (6-0), Big East (6-1), Pac 10 (5-1)

Bracket Challenge Standings:
Amanda - 23/32, Devin - 22/32, Scott - 22/32

8 games on tap today as the 2nd round gets under way and if all goes to plan I should have coverage throughout the day again. Here's the list of who is playing and the scheduled start times.

1:05pm Start:
(6) UCLA vs. (3) Villanova

3:20pm-3:35pm Starts:
(10) Maryland vs. (2) Memphis
(9) Texas A&M vs. (1) UConn

5:40pm-5:50pm Starts:
(5) Purdue vs. (4) Washington
(8) LSU vs. (1) UNC
(10) Michigan vs. (2) Oklahoma

8:10pm-8:15pm Starts:
(12) Western Kentucky vs. (4) Gonzaga
(7) Texas vs. (2) Duke

2:08pm
- Villanova leads UCLA 44-31 at the half. The Wildcats have pretty much been scoring at will so far and the Bruins just began to show some signs of life late in the half. Villanova has dominated on the glass with 18 rebounds to UCLA's 9, including 8 on the offensive head. That, combined with some physical defense have lead to the healthy lead.

3:24pm
- Villanova ended up finishing off UCLA by the score of 89-69 and looked extremely impressive in the process. 6 players ended up in double figures and the Wildcats had 15 offensive rebounds to help them coast to the Sweet 16. They will face the winner of tonight's Duke/Texas matchup in the next round.
- (2) Memphis vs. (10) Maryland has just gotten under way, and (1) UConn will be taking on (9) Texas A&M in about 15 minutes or so.

6:12pm
- Blogspot is being miserable to me today, so some quick hits on today's action. So far blowouts by the top seeds have been the order of the day as both Memphis and UConn matched Villanova's early performance, winning by 19 and 26 respectively.
- UNC and Oklahoma look to continue the trend, as they both lead their games in the middle of the first half. Ty Lawson is back in action for the Tar Heels.
- (5) Purdue is trying to build on an early lead against (4) Washington, as they are up 29-21, with 5:28 to go in the first.

8:00pm
- Purdue let Washington sneak back into the game and made it close down the stretch, but the Boilermakers held on to win 76-74. The Huskies had 3 players with 20+ points, including a 20 point, 17 rebound performance from Jon Brockman, but it wasn't enough. Next up for Purdue is the red hot UConn Huskies.
- (1) UNC got a scare from (8) LSU for a bit, but Ty Lawson returned to form quickly and propelled the Tar Heels to the 84-70 win. Lawson and Wayne Ellington each finished with 23 to counter LSU's Marcus Thornton who scored 25. They'll face the winner of tonight's Gonzaga/W. Kentucky matchup.
- (2) Oklahoma had their hands full with (10) Michigan for much of the game, but went on to the 10 point win, 73-63. As usual Blake Griffin was a force for the Sooners with 33 points and 17 rebounds. The Sooners will have to wait until tomorrow to find out if they get Syracuse or Arizona St. in the Sweet 16.

9:14pm
- (2) Duke has played well, but Texas keeps battling, as the Blue Devils lead at the half, 36-29. Gerald Henderson hasn't shot the ball well as of yet, but still leads Duke with 11 points, while A.J. Abrams has 9 for the Longhorns. Duke has been taking more shots off the dribble than usual and has relatively few 3 point attempts compared to their normal style, it will be interesting to see if they continue with this in the 2nd half.
- (12) Western Kentucky is proving my selection of them to move to the Sweet 16 wise so far, as they lead (4) Gonzaga 37-35 at the half. Orlando Mendez-Valdez has 5 threes already, and 17 points on the game. Both teams are shooting the ball at over 50% so far and this one looks like it will be a battle right down to the wire.

11:46pm
- A couple more fantastic finishes ended the night, as Western Kentucky had a complete mental lapse and let Gonzaga's Demetri Goodson go the length of the floor and get an almost uncontested layup with .9 seconds left, moments after tying the game up. Gonzaga moves on to the Sweet 16 after the 83-81 win. Gonzaga's next opponent will be the top seeded UNC Tar Heels.
- Duke lead by as many as 10 at various times in the second half against Texas, but the Longhorns tied it up with 1:44 left. Duke was able to seal the game at the foul line however and secured the 74-69 win to move to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 3 years. The free throws truly made the difference in this one as Texas struggled, shooting just 64% from the charity stripe, while Duke was solid at 78%. The Blue Devils also shot 50% from 3 point land, going 7-14 compared to Texas' 3-12 effort. Duke faces a rejuvenated Villanova team in the next round in what should be a great battle of similar styled teams.