First Round Review

We've made it through our first 33 games. Here's a recap of how I did with predicting exciting games in this first round.

• Arizona vs. Purdue This wasn't the best 8/9 matchup -- that title fell to the 2-point Xavier win over BYU.


• Butler vs. Old Dominion ODU didn't upset, but I guess with no 12 seed upsets in the tournament this year, I could still claim that this was the most likely.


• Maryland vs. Davidson Again, no 13s upset 4s, but this was a good game for 35 minutes, until Maryland finally pulled away.


• Notre Dame vs. Winthrop Winthrop delivered! This was a fun game to watch.


• Nevada vs. Creighton Surprisingly, all the 7 seeds won their games. This was the most exciting, though, as the only overtime game in the first round.


• Texas A&M vs. Penn My Aggies, unfortunately, delivered on a stressful game to watch, even allowing those Quakers to take the lead for a while. I was quaking in my shoes (I'm trying to be a sports writer or commentator, using lame lines). Thankfully, I have good breath-holding skills these days, so I was able to will them to win.

I missed that the Duke beating by VCU would be the most exciting upset game of the tournament. I picked VCU to win, but I didn't know it would be such a hotly contested game. Overall, not a bad take, considering that these were the games that I felt were basically tossups. I did alright in my picks. I tried a new system this year, and I'll just have to see how that plays out. In my old system, I finished the first round with a 30 and 3 record. In the new system I'm 26 and 7. I guess the old system's pretty good, but likely means I will be slaughtered in the next round or two. It's virtually impossible to keep that sort of streak going.