We’re still in somewhat sunny St. Louis, and we fully intend on watching a  ton of basketball today (there’s a huge gap between wrestling sessions in the afternoon; we might even go to the Bowling Hall of Fame. Woo hoo!)  In any event, here is Jon to get  you set for that hot, hot hoops action:

Yesterday, I wondered if somehow the era of the upset at the NCAA Tournament was over. After all, 2007 was an incredibly boring year, and 2008 was shaping up the same way, with only one (extremely mild) upset on Thursday.

And then came Tampa. Thank goodness for Tampa. Things went berserk at the St. Pete Times Forum on Friday, as two #4 seeds and two #5 seeds went down in the greatest display of upset-ery ever showcased in one city at the NCAA Tournament. It’s the first time in tournament history that four lower seeds have won in the same arena on the same day, and about the only thing that went wrong is that the ever-annoying Tim Brando was there to call the games.

Even better, we got upsets of every stripe. We had Siena beating Vanderbilt in an absolute butt-kicking, possibly the least-entertaining but most-embarrassing type of upset. We had Villanova’s near-unwatchable upset of Clemson, highlighted by the teams combining to make exactly four field goals in the final ten minutes. (We also had Clemson freshman Terrence Oglesby, who made a three-pointer early in the first half, then decided that he would carry his team — despite the fact that he bricked seven consecutive attempts from then on, six in the second half, in one of the worst tournament performances I can remember. You may want to stop shooting, there, Terrence.)

But we also were privileged to watch two overtime classics. San Diego didn’t belong on the same floor as UConn, talent-wise, but the Toreros kept hanging around and hitting mid-range jumpers and getting clutch buckets. And even after USD’s two best players fouled out, when Rob Jones got the basketball, drove to his right, and pulled up for a jumper with less than five seconds to go - you knew it was going in. It had to. San Diego deserved it.

And then there was Western Kentucky and Drake. The Hilltoppers took a huge lead, Drake chipped away down the stretch from the free-throw line, both teams rained three-pointers (70 were attempted in the game) — just a classic 5-vs-12 matchup between two evenly-matched teams. It came down to the final seconds in overtime. Of course it did. And Drake junior Jonathan Cox hit two free throws with 5.7 seconds left to put his team up one, and suddenly Western Kentucky needed a miracle. Which it got. Learn the name Ty Rogers now; he takes his rightful place with Bryce Drew in the annals of tournament upsets.

So: deep breath. The first two days of the tournament are over — and now, it’s less about excitement and upsets and Madness, and more about basketball. Thanks to the upsets above, at least two Cinderellas will be with us for the regional semifinals — but because of solid second-round wins, not because of huge upsets.

Here’s today’s local broadcast schedule:
1:10 - Duke vs. West Virginia
3:20 - Kansas State vs. Wisconsin
5:45 - Marquette vs. Stanford
8:10 - Michigan State vs. Pittsburgh

Unlike the past two days, you won’t have to sneak out of work or call in sick to see these. I encourage you to sit back and enjoy. Eight teams are headed to the Sweet Sixteen today; what more excitement could you want?

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