Wow!

After listening to all the first round snoozers on the radio a day before, I was only hoping for competitive games as we approached the St. Pete Times Forum for yesterday’s quadrupleheader.

We left the venue about twelve hours later having witnessed possibly the greatest first round subregional since they expanded the field to 64 back in 1985.

It had everything that a bracket junkie loves about the NCAA Tournament. It opened with an buzzer beating overtime upset thriller in Drake/Western Kentucky that would have more than paid for the price of admission for the entire day. That one would immediately be followed by yet ANOTHER fantastic finish as San Diego would stun two time national champion Connecticut.

And the evening session would feature two more upsets as MAAC champion Siena would handle fourth seeded Vanderbilt with ease and Villanova would complete the underdog sweep in rallying from an 18 point first half deficit to defeat Clemson.

Four games, four underdog winners. That’s an NCAA tournament first(no site ever produced even three first round upsets).

Another fast fact: The Drake/Western Kentucky game was a long range shootout as the two clubs combined for 30 three point field goals and 70 attempts from behind the arc. Both are records.

What the heck, let’s see the record breaking three pointer again(from a vantage point in the upper deck).

If there is a bit of a downside to this it’s that the second round matchups aren’t very enticing for the average fan. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see a scintillating doubleheader featuring Western Kentucky/San Diego and Siena/Villanova??

Other random notes…..

Tampafan didn’t exactly embrace the event as the upper deck was filled with oceans of empty blue seats. I don’t know what the official count was but I’m guessing about five grand short of a sellout. It’s no wonder why the NCAA keeps coming back to the packed houses in Buffalo on a regular basis.

With the exception of San Diego, the eight schools brought pretty healthy fan support with them. I’m giving Drake and Clemson the nod for largest contingents.

One great thing about a subregional is that it’s a celebration of collegiate sports as everyone is wearing something of their favorite school whether they’re playing hoops or not. I saw apparel of several dozen schools being worn(even a Bona tshirt was spotted). But the winner(or is it loser??) for me went to someone wearing a Jimmy Chitwood Hickory Huskers tshirt.

Thanks to the two overtime games, the afternoon session did not end until roughly 6:15 PM. This significantly cut into the break time between sessions and forced many into grabbing a quick bite to eat, if anything at all before the night session began roughly an hour later.

We left the venue at 12:30 AM knowing that we’d be back just 36 hours later, and that it couldn’t come fast enough.

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