Round of 64 and 32 in Review

Alright kiddos, John and I are here, combo-posting our way to ideal procrastination by recapping the long weekend of college basketball.

MVPs
East - Derrick Byars, Vanderbilt: helped romp GW in the opening round, and lead Vandy to upset the 2nd highest seed to lose thus far in the tourney (though Wazzou was the weakest #3)
West -
Midwest - Wendell White, UNLV: we're really getting lazy here, apparently John didn't watch as much of the tourney as I thought he did . White scored well, sank most of his FTs (as a 66% shooter), and his play elevated the Rebels out of John's doghouse
South - Mike Conley, OSU: Conley did his best Eric Maynor impersonation and took over with Greg Oden on the bench in OT (with a special bonus point being awarded to Lewis for getting them to OT after Oden's bonehead foul)

MDPs (D is for disappointing)
East - Dominic James, Marquette: John: "everyone thought he was all that and a bag of chips at the beginning of the season, but apparently he can't carry his team past the first round" Ryan: "well, he did kinda get the shaft, playing essentially what should be a 5-seed in the first round"
West - Derek Raivio, Gonzaga: 39 mins: 12 pts, 4 asts, 2 to's, 2 fta's, really, what gives? maybe he ate his pregame meal (cheese pizza with mushrooms) with his good buddy Josh.
Midwest - Luke Harangody, Notre Dame: the KenPom poserboy (this is a play on words with the word poster, like posterboy) pulled down an astonishing 1 rebound in 37 chances, that's just plain bad
South - Dane Watts, Creighton: the question is apparent, how did Creighton lose this game? They're really a better team outside of Fazekas, I was to pin the loss on ball hog point guard Nate Funk, but he did shoot nearly 50%, which is better than the team average, and he isn't known for his assists. So the finger gets pointed at poor Dane Watts. 1-12 from the field, 0-8 from 3 point land, if you just hit ONE of those 8 shots, Creighton wins, poor time for a cold hand Dane.

Surprise Team (Good and Bad)
East
Good - USC: edges out Vandy here, the Trojan's one monster game ekes out Vandy's 2 solid ones
Bad - GW: how about putting up a fight? how about living up to the Cinderella #11 seed expectations? the committee obviously thought you were gonna get NBDL All-Star Game MVP Pops Mensah-Bonsu back on loan from the Fort Worth Flyers
West
Good - VCU: now, GW, this is how its done, performing up to the lofty expectations of an 11-seed, the Rams upset Duke and then took Pitt to the wire, bravo Eric Maynor, bravo
Bad - Duke: we all knew you deserved a 7 seed, but you played like a 12 seed. Duke is a better team than they showed here (usually the opposite on opening weekend) but VCU's guard penetration really undid them
Midwest
Good - Butler: I've succumbed to John's call for the Butler Bulldogs as the "good" team, I don't think beating a poor-rebounding Maryland team with a 7 guard lineup qualifies, but whatever, email John with questions (or email me, I'll give you his IM)
Bad - Wisconsin: losing to John's personal favorite team number 70-something in KenPom UNLV, along with sputtering against #15 Texas A&M CC. I mean, we all knew you were the weakest 2 seed, especially playing without Butch, but really folks, come on.
South
Good - Texas A&M: they beat a strong Louisville side essentially on the road, way to go Acie, way to go.
Bad - Stanford: they had to play on the road too, but their performance was far from exemplary, they were never in a game that they should have had a shot at winning, damn Cardinal.

Best Sweet 16 Matchup(s)
Memphis v. Texas A&M - The Aggies get the homecourt advantage they had to play against Louisville, playing in San Antonion should give them an edge over Memphis.
Florida v. Butler - again, email John with questions, I personally think this will be a comfortable win for Florida (Butler relies on OR% to power their offense, while Florida is 10th in the nation at stopping opponents from ORing)
Best Elite 8 Matchup (that won't happen since John and I suck at picking brackets)
UNC v. Georgetown - should be a great clash of styles between two of the best offensive teams in the nation