Championship Week diaries: Day 1

OK, so I'm going to try and write something about every title game, every day, of Championship Week. This is probably going to last until Tuesday, so enjoy it while you can. But for now...

Overall impressions

--Three tourneys decided yesterday, three total blowouts. The closest of the three was Winthrop's demolition of Asheville, which was a seven-point game with, oh, eight minutes to go but had been decided by the final TV timeout. The bad: I doubt many casual fans were still tuning in by the closing whistles. The good: if you believe scoring margin is the truest mark of a good team, well, you have to like the NCAA chances of the teams that won yesterday a little better than before.

Frankly, as a lover of exciting hoops first and foremost, yesterday left me a little cold.

--The other good news: all four auto-bids handed out so far have gone to the best possible NCAA representative from that respective conference. Three (Cornell-duh-Austin Peay, and Belmont) went to the 1-seed and let's face it, solid as they are, Asheville just isn't the threat Winthrop is. Experience, explosiveness, tourney-quality defense ... the Eagles got it, the Bulldog's don't.

Anyways, the point is that this this is a good start for a loaded bottom half of the bracket, much like we saw in 2006 when, if you're recall, Oral Roberts became the first-ever 16 seed to be taken seriously and Northwestern St. finally grabbed another one of those 14-over-3 upsets that had been dormant for so long. Let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

Big South

--On the one hand, Kenny George was kind of underwhelming. Winthrop (as the announcing team pointed out ad nauseum) shoved him far enough away from the basket that he had to go to the hook, and it just wasn't falling. But he really didn't get a lot of help from his teammates--again and again he'd fight for position and get a pass thrown just low enough for Taj MaCullough or the like to swoop in and swat it away. And of course, it's not like the Bulldogs ever made Winthrop pay for focusing so much defensive attention on George; Smithson and Garland combined to shoot--ye gods!--4-of-25.

--When this blog kicked off, it took a few good shots at WU's Michael Jenkins, who as an underclassman tended to be the guy who made up for any lost time on the bench by firing at will the moment he stepped on the court. The result was a series of "1-5, 2 pts., 10 min." lines that didn't really help the team, I thought. But yesterday ... Man, has he come a long way. He was, obviously, sensational (11-of-19 for 33). Winthrop's upset chances basically hinge on Jenkins alone: you know the defense is going to be there, you know Gaynor (I imagine the rest of the conference is finalizing their party plans as we speak now that he's finally exhausted his eligibility)is going to keep things on an even keel, you know Macullough and the Eagles' effort will keep things at least moderately close on the glass ... it's just a matter of whether the shots fall. And that falls on Jenkins.

Ohio Valley

--I'll give Tennessee St. credit for one thing: those team-wide mohawks were friggin' sweet. Too bad after their fast start they decided to play jack-a-three and their alleged star (Bruce Price) started literally walking around the court when he wasn't getting the ball. I'm not the sort to credit very much to the spectre of "mental toughness," but, um, they really didn't show a whole lot mental toughness. Guess that's why even though they clearly had the talent to play with the league champs Peay (who they'd beaten in the regular season) they only ended up the No. 6 seed.

--As for Peay, they had a pretty easy time of it in the second half, but I was still pretty impressed--they looked like a much, much stronger champion than last year's OVC representative (a wishy-washy-looking Eastern Kentucky squad). Wright's a solid PG, Babington gives them a hell of a sniper, and you had to like the way they attacked the offensive glass. But ... yeah, I think if they wind up a 15 or 16 they're still going to get killed on the boards. Just not enough beef. But hey, f Babington gets really hot ... who knows?

Atlantic Sun

--When it comes to Jacksonville, I hate to make ridiculously pronounced judgments about a team like "Well, that's what happens when you go from 1-26 to a conference championship game in two seasons," but, well, that's what happens when you go from 1-26 to a conference championship game in two seasons. The Bruins came out hot--think it helped this was their third time around this particular block?--and the Dolphins just weren't ready for a hot Belmont at all. So it goes.

--So, is this the year Belmont actually makes a high seed work for their dinner after rolling over for UCLA and Georgetown the last two years? Honestly ... I'm not seeing it. I know they knocked off Cincinnati and I know another lights-out performance from behind the arc could make things interesting, but even JU was all over the offensive glass. The image of Roy Hibbert grabbing his own miss, like, 17 consecutive times from last year's first round is still too fresh for me to take the Bruins' chances too seriously. If I'm Belmont, I send all five guys to the defense glass and say screw anything inside the arc that's not a backdoor layup--it's threes galore and pray they all fall.

--Lastly, good-bye to the omnipresent Justin Hare, who seems like he's been starring in the A-Sun longer than Belmont itself.