There was not a single thing to dislike about this game. A nip and tuck first half that featured slick play and hard defense. The underdog pulling away while the favorites watched in horror and protested in waste. A mid-major star who is about one win away from crossing from underhyped to overhyped. And the full result - Davidson 73, Wisconsin 56, and the little #10 seed that could is one win away from wiping George Mason off the maps.

On the flip side, Wisconsin … and Big Ten basketball by extension (given Michigan State’s paltry performance) … got knocked on its ass, and we couldn’t be happier. Wisc plays a style of basketball that would better be described as “football”, since they rely almost entirely on post play, penetration, and beating the ever loving bejesus out of each and every opponent. Elbows, butt rams, subtle shoves, blatent shoves - this is Big Ten basketball, and it’s thoroughly unfun to watch. Unfortunately, it has also been successful in tournaments past - in fact, Davidson’s win was the final blow struck to our brackets, since we had Wisconsin in the Final Four. We’ll gladly forfeit our measly entry fee to see a fun team like Davidson advance instead.

We know that three other games happened tonight - all were, for the most part, boring blowouts and unworthy to report. (Stanford tried to keep it close with UT, but apparently, putting together a program with 1/6 the money of Texas means you get the Lopez twins, but no discernable offense.) So we head to bed tonight with visions of another double digit seed making the dance … and, since they are playing a Bill Self coached team, you have to like their chances, right?

What? All the good names that sound like “blog” have been taken already.

Some people are saying O.J. Mayo plans on declaring for the NBA draft. We disagree. We think he plans on eating a delicious BLT, washing it down with a frosty cold glass of juice, then showing up at the Clippers shoot-around this afternoon. We’re dead serious. We have no beef with Mayo, and in fact think he may be onto something with his “Fuck it, if it’s all about image anyway, I’m gonna control mine instead of letting the NCAA do it for me” attitude. And we think he’s smooth enough that he might just convince a catatonic Mike Dunleavy that he’s already on the team. (HT: Bryan)

Bruins Nation gets its mancrush on. We enjoy the way Kevin Love plays, but … honestly, this post made us feel a little awkward. That said, Love is like the anti-Hansbrough in the Machiavellian world of big men - while Pyscho T leads his charges with the ever-present threat of cannibalism, Kevin Love effectively walks the streets of the people handing out coinage, candy, and offensive rebounds.

Whelliston provides the stats on the money differences between the Sweet 16 teams this year. Most of the information isn’t terribly surprising or newsworthy, unless you are the type who is still surprised to learn that the Wisconsin athletic department budget could fund the entire SoCon. The one that shocked us, though - Texas spends over six times as much on its college basketball program as Stanford does.

Orange and Blue Hue states the obvious, but with some barebone facts - more people watch the first weekend when there are more upsets. We’re curious what the effect for the second weekend is - our hunch is that fans return to normal and want chalk, but we could be wrong.

Finally, gotta give Gate 21 some credit for putting lipstick on the pig today after their Vols got depantsed by Louisville. We’re not sure whether we are jealous of their good attitude, or scornful of their low expectations. We’re leaning towards the latter, if only because last weekend’s losses still hurt.

THE GAME EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT

Atlantic 10 Claims Victory; Usage of Name “Big East”
Xavier 79, West Virginia 75 (OT)

This was the game of the night, but it wasn’t terribly fun to watch. Each team spent one half on fire at both ends of the court, and each team spent one half flailing about like a two-year-old in the ball room at Chuck E. Cheese. (We like this concept - five enormous gentleman crammed into a clown car-esque space, throwing balls wildly at one another while clumsily shuffling around and giggling in delirium.)

We talked about this more in our liveblog last night, but Xavier was able to win down the stretch entirely thanks to their long-range shooting abilities (11 of 19 overall, 3 of 3 in OT) and in spite of their free throw shooting abilities (12 of 21 overall, 2 of 6 in OT). This isn’t a good recipe for Saturday, when UCLA and their “we’re the best team when we feel like it” squad come to town.

TWO OTHER STORYLINES, JUST FOR KICKS

Even Better Than Free Laundry

So, the administration of Davidson picked up the tab for any student who wanted to travel to Detroit for their game against Wisconsin tonight. And, while we rarely recommend going to Detwaah for any reason, we have spent many nights in Davidson, N.C. Wildcat faithful, we hope all of your asses are on these buses just for the excitement of a venue change. (Seriously, guys, don’t worry - we promise that if you leave a note to UPS on your whiteboard, they’ll leave your latest J.Crew shipment at your door and you can rock your new chinos on Monday.)

Basketball: Now With Risk of Crippling Injury!

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