If N. Iowa is not the shocker team of the tournament, then it is no doubt Cornell. Playing the A-10 champion Temple Owls in the first round, Cornell ran them out of the building. Then they come around two days later and do the same thing to the Wisconsin Badgers; a week later and Cornell is an awfully intriguing matchup for lottery pick filled Kentucky in the Carrier Dome. To score 78 points on Temple and 87 on Wisconsin, two teams who give up around 57 ppg on the season, is pretty amazing.
I can't decide if this logo is cute or angry...
But whoever thinks Cornell has done it with threes is sadly mistaken. The Big Red averages 38.5% of its points to come from threes, but through the first two games of the tournament, only 31% of its 165 points have come from the long ball. Cornell's success has come inside the three point line, they are shooting 67% inside the arc including 72% (18/25) vs. Wisconsin. Kentucky likes to speed it up and get out and dunk on your cranium while Cornell is very professional in their sets and likes to milk the clock. But if the Big Red were to win, it could be the second greatest upset in this tournament history.
Bring it on bitches!
The weakest conference in the history of conferences was the 2010 Pac-10. They made in only two schools to the tourney, Washington and Cal, and the Huskies only made it because they won the title game. Meanwhile, the Big East made eight schools into the dance. This made for a lopsided matchup for a Marquette vs. Washington game, at least on paper. The Huskies held the Golden Eagles' three balls in check and took them out. Next in line for Washington stood whatever conference dominator New Mexico, who no one really knew what to expect from. Well, Washington smoked them in a blowout and advanced to the Sweet 16 as a #11 seed to play West Virginia.
Stunned?
West Virginia was down 10-1 in the first half against #15 Morgan St., and everybody freaked out because the Big East (Georgetown, Marquette, Notre Dame, etc.) had been losing games like hot cakes. Well no, the Mounties finished the game on a 76-40 run and moved on. West Virginia struggled a little with Missou in the next round; it seemed as though the quick style of play gave the Mountaineers some trouble up until the end of the game and they pulled it out. Seeing as the athletic, pressing D of the Tigers challenged West Virginia, Washington may have upset potential here. Mounties' fans will travel better to Syracuse but Lorenzo Romar is a beast, and they have Isaiah Thomas for goodness sakes...
It might be incredibly psycho, but he always makes me think of Carl Krauser. Yikes.
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