Like many of you, no doubt, I have just come off of a four day weekend spent in large part most part watching the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments. These four days every March offer a truly unique bacchanalia of sports viewing pleasure.
This applies to me, but the highlight of the weekend was the terrific showing that Robert Morris put up against second seeded Alabama in the opening round on Friday, losing 90-81, a score that didn't reflect the close nature of the game overall, as shown in this screenshot from late in the second half:
It was great showing by the team, and one in which everyone connected with the University can take pride, as reflected by this photo released by the school in its social platforms later that evening:
Under circumstances that used to exist in college athletics, the future would look very bright for the RMU hoopsters, but in this age of NIL and the transfer portal, who knows? Foremost question: the team's two best players, Alvaro Folguieras and Amarion Dickerson have eligibility remaining, but after seeing how they performed over the course of the season and post-season, they are prime candidates to be poached by bigger programs. Good for them, but tough on the fans, but that's life in a mid-major conference.
Otherwise, the tourney offered no real Cinderella Stories, other than a #10 seed Arkansas knocking out #2 seed St. John's, but can you really label any team coached by John Calipari a "Cinderella"? Of the sixteen teams remaining twelve of them were seeded 1 through 4 in their regions. All four #1's remain, along with three #2's, two #3's, three #4's, one #5, two #6's, and the aforementioned #10 Arkansas Calaparis.
Watching all of the various conference tournaments prior to the main event, I thought Florida was the best team that I saw, but watching Duke dismantle Baylor yesterday, I think that I am changing my mind. They are scarey good, and it's not just because of Cooper Flagg. At this point, I will call for a Duke win over Florida for the championship come April 7.
Speaking of Florida, I took great delight in seeing them beat Connecticut in a terrific second round game yesterday, if only because it has knocked Danny Hurley out of the tournament. His profane sore loser comments afterward only cemented my great dislike for him.
And the last game that I saw before heading to bed last night was the Colorado State-Maryland game. In case you missed, Colorado State snatched victory away from Maryland when Jalen Lake hit a three pointer to take a 71-70 lead with :06.1 remaining, only to see Maryland snatch said victory away from them when Derik Queen hit a floater with time expiring to win it for the terms 72-71. In the space of six seconds of game time, BOTH teams experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. If you missed it, HERE is how it played out.
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