Basketball On The Internet.

 BOB'S CORNER: Our man on the spot in the USA, BOB CRAVEN is raring to go for the first full weekend of The Dance, always the most fun as usually there are some mind-boggling upsets involved, although this year, the women seemed to avoid them, but the men most certainly did not.

The Men's draw

THE first big upset on the men's side of things occurred in the first round of the East Regional where the "brainiacs" of Yale in the Ivy League, seeded 13th, took down 4th seeded Auburn 78-76.

It was the second straight year the Ivy League took out one of the pre-Tourney favourites.  Last year, it was Princeton taking down Arizona and going all the way to the Sweet 16. 

The next upset occurred almost immediately when 11th seeded Duquesne edged No.6 Brigham Young 71-67.

The first round in the West Regional saw No.12 Grand Canyon eliminate No.5 Saint Mary's 75-66, while in the South Regional, No.12 James Madison sent No.5 Wisconsin home early 72-61. 

Also in the South, No.11 North Carolina State defeated No.6 Texas Tech 80-67, No.10 Colorado edged No.7 Florida 102-100 on a baseline jumper with less than two seconds left, and in the biggest upset of the day, little Oakland, a No.14 seed, took down No.3 Kentucky 80-76 behind a near-record 10 three-pointers by Jack Gohlke. 

Oakland's Cinderella run ended in the second round to NC State in OT and Gohlke had six more threes in that game.  If they had won, they would have become the first No.14 seed to reach the Sweet Sixteen in almost 30 years.

Last year, in one of the biggest upsets in tournament history, a No.1 seed, Purdue with big guy Zach Edey (224cm and 136kg) were stunned in the first round by No.16 seed Florida Dominion, only the second time ever that a No.1 seed lost in the first round of the Tourney. 

Purdue was a No.1 seed again this year, but they easily won their first game, avoiding a second unprecedented disaster.  Edey led the way with 30 points and 21 boards.

The final upset in the men's first round saw 11th seeded Oregon continue its late season surge by taking out 6th seeded South Carolina 87-73.  Unfortunately for the Ducks, their season ended two nights later against third seeded Creighton in the best game of the tournament so far, 86-73 in two overtimes. 

Forced by multiple injuries to play a two-man game on offence, the Ducks just ran out of gas in the second OT.  Jermaine Couisnard, who had 40 points in the Ducks' first round win, added 32 more in the double OT loss, and big man N'Faly Dante dominated inside with 28 points and 20 rebounds.

There were 14 lead changes and nine ties before the second OT ended it.

There easily could have been/should have been another big upset in the men's first round, but big underdog and 13th seeded Samford "lost" to No.4 Kansas 93-89. 

Samford had the game stolen from them by the officials.  As the game was ending, a Kansas player drove to basket, with the Samford defender called for a foul on the shot. 

Replays clearly showed that the Samford defender made no body contact with the shooter, and that his block on the shot was all ball. 

Samford, up by one, should have taken the win, but Kansas made both foul shots, then made more as Samford had to foul in an attempt to get the ball back. Game over.

Favourites did much better in the second round, and all eight teams seeded either No.1 or No.2 made it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in 45 years. 

Purdue's Edey added 23 points and 14 rebounds in their 106-67 second round destruction of Utah State.  He became the first player since Lew Alcindor in 1968 (prior to his name change) with at least 50 points, 35 rebounds and a field goal percentage of at least 65.0 thru the first two rounds of the Tourney.

Women's Draw

IN direct contrast to the multiple upsets in the men's draw, there was only one first round upset for the women: No.11 Middle Tennessee State squeaked by No. 6 Louisville 71-69. 

All other higher seeds in the first two rounds won their games, although last year's champion LSU was very sloppy in its win. 

Undefeated South Carolina barely broke a sweat in its 91-39 destruction of Presbyterian and stars Caitlin Clark of Iowa and Paige Bueckers of UConn were big in their teams' first round wins. 

And ditto for both of them in their teams' second-round wins, as they both led their teams with 32 points and on to the Sweet Sixteen. 

Undefeated and overall No. 1, South Carolina, and defending champions LSU are waiting for them.

The most newsworthy individual effort in the first round was by first year player Audi Crooks of Iowa State in their 93-86 win over Maryland ... and they had to come from 20 points behind to do it. 

That 20-point comeback win is the second largest all-time in a tournament game.  Rookie Crooks scored 40 points in the win on an incredible 18-of-20 shooting. 

She joined Bill Walton in the 1973 title game as the only players in Tournament history to score 40 points on at least 90 percent shooting.

A few hoops anniversaries from the last week:

1897—Yale beats Pennsylvania 32-10 at Yale in the very first intercollegiate basketball game.
1939—The University of Oregon defeated Ohio State 46-33 in the title game of the very first NCAA national basketball tournament. Because of their overall team size for back in the day, East Coast media dubbed them "The Tall Firs", and also fell in love with their "fast break basketball".
1954—In the first televised NCAA championship game, LaSalle, behind its star big Tom Gola, defeats Bradley 92-76 and also sets a record for most points in a title game.
1973—Bill Walton of UCLA leads them to their 7th NCAA title with an 87-66 win over Memphis State.  Walton set a record for FG accuracy by going 21-of-22 from the field in that game.
1979—In the 41st NCAA Men's Basketball championship title game, Michigan State beats Indiana State 75-64. The game marks the start of the friendly rivalry between  Magic Johnson and Larry Legend (was that really 45 years ago???) This is still the highest-rated game in the history of televised college basketball.
2013—Florida Gulf Coast U. goes from shocking the men's basketball world to downright impressing it. They win their second straight Tournament game 81-71 against San Diego State, becoming the first ever No.15 seed to reach the Sweet Sixteen.