Lots and lots of articles in the locals the last couple days. I’m crunched on free time, so here’s the rundown.

Scouting reports and info on the actual team and their style of play. UCF sold their allotment of tickets for the game.

UCF playing with house money, beware the upset articles are typical fare. They are true, but they are also predictable works.

Notebook piece leads with more comments about how the seeding is not important. Page has said his ankle feels fine and he will play. I just hope Dixon limits his minutes. Get Graves and Demetrius in there for him a little more in the first game. Brandin Knight gave him a call the other day. Knight also spoke to the team yesterday and watched them practice.

A look at the “pod” where Pitt is playing reveals that it’s all about defense.

Guess what? Pitt’s bench will be important. Whoa. Too much information.

Pitt great, Jerome Lane, likes this Pitt team better than the ones he played on in the 80s. It’s interesting to read because of the harsh words he has for his former Pitt coach Paul Evans, ” now a real estate salesman in Annapolis, Md., did not respond to requests to talk about his days at Pitt or this year’s team.”

Long column on Jamie Dixon and how he prepared to become a head coach — his note taking is apparently the stuff of legends.

Mike Pirusta of the Trib is hedging on Pitt’s chances, looking at all their potential opponents to get to the Final Four. Eh, really it’s just one more game than expected that is going to be difficult. Even as a #2 seed, Pitt would have had someone like OSU to face. Now, it’s just a matter of doing it.

Cook cribs my notes for his column today. From my game notes on the BET Championship game.

Cook today:

The shot total was so astonishing for a point guard that it staggered even Carl Krauser.

“I shot it 18 times? I didn’t know that,” Krauser said after Pitt’s semifinal win against Boston College in the Big East tournament last week.

Krauser took 42 shots in the three games at Madison Square Garden. That wasn’t just the most on the Pitt team. It was more than Chris Taft’s and Chevon Troutman’s combined total of 38.

And you wonder why the Pitt offense is struggling?
…
Krauser has the ability to get the ball to Taft and Troutman down low. They’re both good enough passers that they can find the other when the defense sags or hit Brown slashing to the basket or get the ball back outside to Krauser or Julius Page for an open shot. “A lot of things can work through your big guys,” Krauser acknowledged. “When you’ve got a great interior passing team like we do, it makes the game a lot easier.”

This isn’t all on Krauser to share the ball more. Taft and Troutman need to do a better job demanding it.

I only pointed it out in a conclusory paragraph. He makes it a whole column.

In papers outside of Pittsburgh.

The idea of an upset win for UCF has people in Orlando dreaming of it making UCF a known team. Up there with other teams that have done it like Cleveland State. The columnist pulls a lot of stuff from the Pittsburgh papers to show how know one is respecting UCF. The respect issue is mentioned again in a notebook piece about the match-up in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. There was also this.

Seconds after the Pittsburgh players took the court for practice Thursday, a Wisconsin fan clearly anticipating the second-round showdown began taunting the Panthers. “Wis-CON-sin!”

Wouldn’t that guy feel really stupid if Richmond beat the Badgers.

UCF also plays a half-court, deliberate offense so that won’t be much of an adjustment for them. A notebook column sounds a little bitter in one part about how UCF didn’t get invited to join the Big East, while USF did; and t-shirt wars.

Both Pittsburgh and UCF showed up with new t-shirts to mark their NCAA appearances.

The Panthers went through Thursday’s practice with the slogan “We all we got” on the backs of their shirts.

“It’s one of a bunch of mottos they have,” Pittsburgh Coach Jamie Dixon said. “That’s the only one we could get on a shirt.”

UCF shirts were suggested by assistant coach Craig Brown. They have a school logo on the front. On the back: “March Madness” and “Dancing in 2004!”

Oh, and in light of the whole seeding issue and late conference championship games that cost Wisconsin at least one spot in seedings, the Big Eleven wants to talk to CBS about the times for the conference championship game (no doubt, so does the Big XII).

There were a lot of close games, but not a lot of surprises in Day 1. Only two games were upsets, insofar, as the lower seed advanced. Neither was much of a “bracket buster” style upset.

Upsets
#10 Nevada beat #7 Michigan St. Michigan St. blew a 9 point halftime lead, and could only score 23 points in the second half.

#12 Manhattan beat #5 Florida. Every year a 12 beats a 5. This was the one, most expected. Manhattan is better than a #12, with its talent and experience. Florida has been on a downward spiral, but surged to the SEC Championship game to get such a high spot. The real surprise, was the way Florida quit in the game.

Piece of Cake
The #1 seeds had no problems. St. Joe’s blew the game open against Liberty early and coasted from there. Duke mauled Alabama St. Same for Stanford against Texas-San Antonio.

#2 UConn started slow, but won with ease against #15 Vermont. The same thing for Gonzaga against Valpo.

Second Half Runs
#3 Texas found itself behind after the first half against #14 Princeton. To start the second half, led by Brandon Mouton, Texas went on a 24-8 run and held on from there. Texas could not miss at the 3-point line (11-15), with two guys combining to go 9-10.

#6 North Carolina had its own big second half run to beat #11 Air Force. Air Force held a 6 point lead with 13 minutes left in the game, but had two extended scoring droughts that allowed UNC to pull away.

Texas and UNC face each other on Saturday. Can we just skip the first half?

The 8/9 Surprise
You really can’t go wrong picking the #9 seed over the #8 seed. The #9 seed had a 42-34 edge on #8 seeds in games heading into this year. I let my personal biases decide these games, because it’s mostly harmless. The next opponent is the #1 seed, so it’s not a bracket buster if wrong. Today, the #8 seed won both games played. Texas Tech held off Charlotte, to actually let Bobby Knight into the second round in a few years.

Seton Hall came back to beat Arizona. Arizona’s disappointing season gets an exclamation point.

The #9 seed I was sure would win was Southern Illinois. They stormed back from a 10 point halftime deficit to take the lead with less than 20 seconds. Of course, they allow Alabama to run right down the court and retake the lead and win 65-64.

A stunning 3-0 day for the #8 seeds. It’ll be up to UAB to prevent the sweep.

The “If Only” Games
Three teams not really expected to have trouble in the opening round, but did. They survived, but it wasn’t pretty. The kind of game where the other side looks back at certain plays and says, “If only…”

#4 Wake Forest, playing in Raleigh, North Carolina needed a score in the last minute and defensive stops to beat #13 Virginia Commonwealth, 79-78.

The other ACC #4 team, Maryland, really looked liked they were getting gassed by the end of their match-up with University of Texas-El Paso. They surrendered the lead late, but got it back and held on to win 86-83. For the Terps, you have to wonder how much they have left after their ACC Tournament run.

#5 Syracuse was expected to take apart #12 BYU. Syracuse’s 2-3 zone, and banging style was to be too much for BYU to handle. Syracuse had to abandon the zone for man-to-man after BYU kept shredding it, and the Mormons were able to bang around on the inside. Syracuse won because Gerry McNamara had a career game. He had 43 points, with 9 3-pointers. His only blemish was a subpar (for him freethrow shooting game of only 12-16).

Both Maryland and Syracuse survived similar 1st round scares in their runs to the national championship the previous 2 years. Maryland and Syracuse play each other on Saturday.

Last Man Standing
Last game of the night turned out to be a double overtime piece of ugly. This was no instant classic. This was brutal to watch. #7 DePaul against #10 Dayton. This game had it all in the negative.

Bad shooting. Poor freethrow shooting. Bad officiating. Bad decisions on the court.

The numbers are staggering. Dayton shot 34.2%, and was a pathetic 3-20 from 3-point land. Their free throw shooting was a stunning 52% (12-23). DePaul was only marginally better. They shot 40.7% and made 23-40 free throws. DePaul had one player go 10-10 at the line, and another who was 0-10. By the start of the second overtime, both teams were just shambling up and down the court.

I will be shocked if DePaul has anything left to throw at UConn on Saturday.