NCAA Tournament Bracket Recap

Depending on your faith in the Big East, and if you happen to be an alumni of Virginia Commonwealth, your bracket is either lining the bottom of a big cage or already hanging in a frame on your wall.

The first three rounds of the NCAA Tournament haven’t disappointed fans of thrilling finishes and shocking upsets. But how many people were gutsy enough – or clueless enough – to take teams like Richmond, VCU, and Florida State to the Sweet 16?

Many college basketball bracketologists watched their Southwest Regional crumble with Morehead State’s upset over Louisville on Thursday. The Eagles cleaned the glass and kept the Cardinals on their heels, winning 62-61 as 9-point betting underdogs.

And if your Southwest side of the bracket manage to survive that upset, Notre Dame’s loss to Florida State on Sunday definitely left many putting a big “X” through that entire regional. The Irish couldn’t breathe under the Seminoles’ smothering defense and was ice-cold from outside, losing 71-57 as 4.5-point favorites.

Adding to the madness in the Southwest are the VCU Rams and Richmond Spiders. The Rams have had to take down USC, Georgetown and, most notably, Purdue to advance to the Sweet 16. No. 11 Virginia Commonwealth shocked the No. 3 Boilermakers with a 94-76 beating Sunday, covering as a 9.5-point underdog.

Richmond shocked Vanderbilt in the second round, then took care of Morehead State, covering the spread in both contests. The Spiders face No. 1 Kansas in the Sweet 16, which remains most brackets’ saving grace in the Southwest, taking care of Boston U and Illinois to advance.

The Southeast Regional was rocked by Butler’s thrilling and somewhat dumbfounding victory over No. 1 Pitt on Saturday night. After edging Old Dominion in the second round, the Bulldogs showed their tournament chops by going tit-for-tat with the Panthers.

Butler thought it had shot its Sweet-16 chances in the foot when Shelvin Mack committed a careless foul with 1.4 seconds remaining, which allowed Pitt to tie the game. But Gilbert Brown missed the second free throw, which was rebounded by Matt Howard.

Howard desperately heaved the ball from under his own rim as the clock wound down and, to the shock of everyone watching, was fouled by Nasir Robinson. Howard went to the line, banged home both free throws and gave the 2011 NCAA Tournament its craziest finish in years.

In the West Regional, the Arizona Wildcats are trying on Cinderella’s slipper after taking down No. 4 Texas on Sunday. The Wildcats got some timely 3-pointers and thrived off turnovers, setting up a date with the defending national champ, Duke, in the Sweet 16.
Marquette offset the balance in the East Regional by picking up its second win over Syracuse this season in the Round of 32 on Sunday. The Golden Eagles turned 18 turnovers into 23 points and got big buckets from Darius Johnson-Odom, knocking off their Big East rivals 66-62 as 4.5-point underdogs.