March Madness Thoughts, Day 1.0

1. Yesterday, we posted our Sweet 16 picks (as well as Great Eight and Final Four). Eight of our 16 teams played yesterday. Bam! Out went USC, at the hands of K-State. Yes, everyone knows all about Michael Beasley. But how many of you had even heard of teammate Bill Walker? He was a huge name on the prep circuit for what seemed like 10 years. Many of those years he was playing with a kid named O.J. Mayo. Walker lost his senior year in H.S. on some eligibility technicality about playing a few games of varsity ball while still in the 8th grade. So Walker played AAU ball for year and then headed for K-State to play for Bob Huggins. But he tore up his knee, missed his freshman season and then Huggs took off for West Virginia. We pick up the story early this winter when ESPN the Magazine wrote a long piece on him that was, for the most part, less than flattering. It basically questioned two things: Walker's ability to come back from the knee injury, as well as his ability to transition from high school power forward (he is 6'5" with a vertical jump above 40 inches) to D-1 small forward. Well, last night Walker was dominant. With Beasley saddled for much of the first half in foul trouble, Walker was 7-12 from the floor, 5-5 from the foul line and grabbed 5 boards. Oh yeah -- hey ESPN the Rag Mag, he was 3 of 4 from 3-point land.

2. O.J. Mayo. Um...we wonder how his teammates felt last night when he took the floor sporting fancy NBA socks. While even your aunt knows Mayo has always been a one-and-done kid this season, spitting it in the faces of your teammates before the most important game of the year is...let's just say -- in poor taste. Especially when you proceed to go out and play a mediocre game. Yes, Mayo had 20 points. But he shot 6-16 and scored several hoops at the end when the game had long since been decided. Will this effort hurt O.J. Simpson Mayo's stock? Of course not. He is a sure fire top 10 pick. But a word of caution. He reeks of Chauncey Billups, which on the surface is a fantastic thing. The "problem" (a relative thing in this case) is that it took Billups, who also left college after his rookie year, nearly five years to become the star he is today. It will also take Mayo a similar amount of time before he is an NBA star.

3. Not many close games yesterday (and why does that feel like it will become a developing pattern over the next few days?). We warned you yesterday that Duke is simply not that good -- but their draw guaranteed them a trip to the Great Eight. And so it was last night that Belmont (Belmont?!?) was in a position to win, ahead 70-69 with 20 seconds to play. But then they decided to: a. not play any defense and allow Gerald Henderson an uncontested drive and bucket down the lane. b. become scared and feeble on the offensive end. In an unrelated rant, how come Duke point guard Greg Paulus gets to constantly use the two handed shove maneuver on D without getting whistled for fouls?

4. What can we expect today? For starters, Our Bracket says St. Mary's will upset Miami in the 7-10 game. Another 7-10 upset we are forecasting is Davidson over Gonzaga. Everyone Loves Raymond Phil Martelli of St. Joe's. As such, many are predicting the Hawks will upend Oklahoma. We don't see it. And remember when you could guarantee a 5-12 first round upset every year? Some fools think Villanova will "5-12" its way past Clemson today. Our take? The Tigers will coast to a double digit W.

Enjoy the games today!