Eastern Elites

And It Begins

by Eric Berkenpas

Day 1 is over of the 2013 March Madness tournament and there is already so much to talk about. My focus throughout the remainder of the tournament will be on the group of teams comprising the East Quadrant of the bracket. There was a lot of action already; an upset, a big time upset scare and a 47 point blowout victory. #1 seeded Indiana has yet to play but should be able to take care of business against James Madison today. Miami also tips off today and should also have no trouble in their game against Pacific but don't sleep on the Tigers as they are led by a coach who has some tournament experience and is looking to finish his coaching career strong. Anywho, let's jump into yesterday's action.

UNLV / California

Photo cred yahoo.com

This game was a great rematch game from December 9th that Cal lost in the last second 76-75. They were looking for revenge led by Jr. guards Justin Cobbs and Allen Crabbe. The game was tight the whole time and you really got the feel that it was going to come down to there very last second again. While Cobbs and Crabbe did most of the work, Sr. forward Robert Thurman who averaged only 4.8 PPG during the season erupted for 12 points off the bench and tacked on 5 rebounds. UNLV didn't seem to have an answer for Solomon or Thurman in the paint as they were able to score some easy baskets and combined for 23 points. Thurman in a post game interview had this to say when asked about being the 3rd leading scorer for his team; "Justin and Allen, they are fast guys and are hard to contain and I just made myself available and I just did what I do best; and that's dunk". And that he did as all 12 points were scored off dunks. UNLV also did not have an answer for Cal's zone defense that they switched to part way through the game. Freshman forward Anthony Bennett was about the only one able to get any kind of consistent game going against the zone. In the end, the story of this game was missed free throws. UNLV missed 9 of their 26 free throws and Cal hit an abysmal 43.8% of their free throws, missing 5 of 9 down the stretch when they could have easily closed out the game. In the end though, Cal was victorious and made the record books with Oregon as the first time ever two 12 seeds from the same conference won on the same day. Next up? Syracuse Orange.

Photo cred yahoo.com

Syracuse / Montana

So far, this was the biggest blowout of the tournament as the Syracuse Orange steamrolled the Grizzlies by 47 points, more than doubling their score. In fact, Syracuse could have just stopped playing after the first have because their 38 points would have beaten Montana's end game total of 34! Despite these numbers, I think the result came as little surprise to anyone. Montana had themselves a great season in the Big Sky conference, but were severely outmatched on every single inch of the floor by the beasts from the Big East. Brandon Triche led the Orange with 20 pts 4 assists and only 2 turnovers, nailing both 3's he took and DaJuan Coleman provided some good help off the bench with 12 pts and 6 rebounds. Southerland and Carter-Williams were pretty silent but didn't really need to make any changes offensively because it didn't take more than 2 minutes into the game to know who was going to win this one. Syracuse will face off against the California Golden Bears tomorrow and will definitely be much more tested. Many think Syracuse may be the surprise team to come out of the East and after yesterday's game, you gotta feel at least pretty good about them going forward.

Butler / Bucknell

Photo cred yahoo.com

Unfortunately, I was at work while this game was being played and I missed a pretty good one. It didn't come down the wire but it was hard fought and close the whole time with several lead changes. Butler never really grabbed the reigns in this game until the final 5-10 minutes. There was a point where Bucknell, down 11, went on a big run and took a 6 point lead and it looked like the Bulldogs were not going to recover and would find themselves headed back home come the end of the game. Lucky for them, Sr. guard Rotnei Clarke was not ready to end his collegiate basketball career and scored 11 of his 17 points in the final 8 minutes of the game. Andrew Smith finished the game with a double-double, scoring 14 points and adding a career best 16 rebounds. Despite Bucknell Sr. forward Joe Willman's career high 20 pts, the rest of his team couldn't rally behind him as no other player entered double digit scoring. Bucknell also did not play a very disciplined game as they surrendered 28 free throws to the Bulldogs who hit 25 of them. After this victory, Butler can relax for a day before they take on the Marquette Golden Eagles tomorrow.

Photo cred yahoo.com

Marquette/Davidson
Last time Davidson was in the tournament, Steph Curry lit it up and really emerged as a legitimate talent as he lead the Wildcats to the elite 8, losing by only 2 to the #1 seeded Kansas Jayhawks. Well this year they were back, this time as a #14 seed but with the same grit and attitude. They led Marquette almost the entire game, coming up short as Vander Blue scored a layup with seconds left in the game to give the Golden Eagles the victory. Davidson killed themselves at the free throw line making only 64% of their shots which, in a close game like this one was, makes all the difference. Jake Cohen scored 20 pts in the loss. This would have been the first major upset of the tournament and would have left Marquette speechless. They will now move on to face the Butler Bulldogs tomorrow. Look for another close game in that one.


Drop some comments and let us know how these games effected your bracket!