Marquette continued the bad start for the Big East with a surprisingly bad first half against Alabama. They battled back but were not able to seal the deal. Think Steve Novak will be seeing that missed wide open 3 in his sleep for the next week, month or year? Now, with all apologies to our friends at Cracked Sidewalks, and I know I should close ranks with BE teams…

But there was some small, venal part of me smirking at the fact that Marquette lost to a team they were better than, because one opposing player took over the game, made his shot seemingly at will, and was clutch. Jean Felix will not be a name thought well of in Milwaukee. The Big East is off to a bad start.

Winthrop was unable to pull of the semi-upset of the overseeded Tennessee Volunteers. Last minute, off-balance, 9.5 on degree of difficulty shot gave Tennessee the win.

Good news for Pitt, a 5-12 upset occurred today as Nevada went down hard to the Montana, uh, Plains(?)

Florida started slow then blew out South Alabama.

UCLA similarly mistreated Belmont, only the slow start ended sooner and the blowout was bigger.

LSU had a huge second half to make it look like a laugher against Iona. LSU fans had to be sweating a bit.

UNC-Wilmington fell short in getting over on GW. Not that it really matters. The reward is to be sacrificed to Duke.

Sean Miller and Xavier looked like they were going to get the upset over Gonzaga. Then Adam Morrison went off, and started getting the NBA star treatment from the refs early.

Illinois let Air Force stay close, but never really had the game in doubt.

Never really in doubt, still Duke never seemed to fully put away Southern.

Syracuse was doomed versus Texas A&M when McNamara’s groin gave.

San Diego St. snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against Indiana. They had the game then gave it away on some dumb plays at the end.

Washington handled Utah St. Most people (including me) were sleeping by then.