Dave Thurman (11:54 pm)

First, an apology for the lack of updates as Drew is finishing his last semester of college, and has been busy playing spring golf, in his final weeks of eligibility.  Don't feel bad for him, though, as he spent the weekend in Arizona! Of course next year he'll have to pay to play like the rest of us. He will be back in normal form later this week.

As for me, I spent this first weekend of spring watching NCAA hoops on TV only because there was no football to be found. Here are my brief musings from the first weekend of March Madness:

Ohio State played pretty well and was rather unlucky as Ronald Moore of Siena hit not one but two threes as time expired.  The first sent the game to a second overtime and his second trey sent the Bucks packing.  Now everyone waits to see what Mullens, Turner and Buford will do.  My guess is Mullens is the only one who goes pro, and if that's the case OSU should be better next year with the return of Lighty.

The Big East came out the big winner as all three of their number one seeds advanced and Syracuse and Villanova looked pretty awesome as three seeds.  Marquette almost gave them six of the sweet sixteen.  Of course seeding has something to do with all of this as each of the five who advanced played lower seeds in both games.  Pittsburgh and Louisville both looked beatable and had to dig deep to advance.

The Big Ten did quite well with Michigan State and Purdue moving on, but both of them will have tough matchups and must improve if they are to move into the elite eight.

And, Ohio teams were a big story of the weekend, with Cleveland State pulling a huge upset of Wake Forest out of the ACC, Dayton sneaking by Bob (T)Huggins' Mountaineers, and Xavier making it to the sweet sixteen.  Props to the X-men out of Cincy who keep winnign no matter who prowls the sideline.

Personally, I think seeding determines so much of what happens.  For instance, LSU of the much maligned SEC is a pretty good club but drew an 8 seed.  They had to play Butler (an unenviable task - just ask Xavier), and then got North Carolina in round two.  Had they been a 5 or 6 they might well have advacned, and people wouldn't be dogging the SEC quite as much. 

Truth is, Ohio State probably deserved their #8 seed, but when I saw that the opponent was Siena I knew it would be an uphill battle, because the Saints had tons of experience and had tasted success in last year's tournament.  Of course any time you draw an 8 it means a tough first game, and then the prospect of playing a #1.  So, here's hoping the Bucks can win a few more next year and get a higher seed.  And here's also hoping we get a little more pigskin news out of Columbus the next few weeks!

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