Earl's thoughts on the NCAA Tournament's first weekend

What a first weekend we had to the NCAA Tournament. It is without question the best time of the year as we watch these teams fight and scratch with all their might to get through to the Sweet 16. As we get ready for the Regional semifinals on Thursday and Friday, here are a few of my thoughts on the first weekend of the tournament.

*Mid-Majors get big: There are five teams from the six non-BCS football
conferences who are in the Sweet 16. Xavier, Cornell, St. Mary's,
Northern Iowa and Butler are through to the third round. They are not
there by accident. They have excellent teams with excellent coaches.
These guys can play. One thing these schools have in common is that they
have quality big men, so they can match up with the big boys.
Xavier's big man up front is 6'9" 265-pound Jason Love, who can score
and rebound with power. He teams with 6'8" Jamal McLean and 7'0" Kenny
Frease to give the Musketeers plenty of beef up front. Northern Iowa has
7'0" 290-pound senior Justin Egleseder and 6'9" senior Adam Koch to lead
their front line. St. Mary's has a dominant big man in 6'11" senior Omar
Samhan and 6'11" senior Ben Allen to power their front line while
Cornell's great group of 3-point shooters is anchored by 7'0" senior
Jeff Foote in the middle. Butler is back in the Sweet 16 with crafty
6'8" Gordon Hayward and versatile 6'9" Matt Howard on the front line.
Good guard play is the key to postseason success, but when you have
quality bigs, you can play with anybody. These teams have them and here
they are.



*Who would have thought that the Big Ten Conference would have the most
teams represented in the Sweet 16. Ohio State, Michigan State and Purdue
are still alive. A lot of credit to Michigan State and Purdue, who have
battled through some tough injuries to get where they are. Michigan
State lost star point guard Kalin Lucas to an injury in the first half
of their second-round game against Maryland, but his back-up Korie
Lucious hit a dramatic 3-pointer as time expired to give the Spartans
the victory. Purdue was left for dead after losing forward Robbie Hummel
to a season-ending knee injury in February, but the Boilermakers battled
past Siena and Texas A&M in overtime to punch their ticket to the Sweet
16.



*Former SLU Billiken coaches Lorenzo Romar and Randy Bennett still have
their teams alive in the tournament. Romar's Washington Huskies will
face West Virginia in the East Regional while Bennett's St. Mary's Gaels
will face Baylor in the South Regional. Romar was SLU's head coach and
Bennett was his top assistant before moving on to St. Mary's.



*Local players still left in the tournament include Washington High's
Scott Suggs (Washington), Normandy's Anthony James (Northern Iowa) and
St. Charles' Josh Harrelson (Kentucky). Also, Lucas O'Rear from nearby
Nashville, Ill. is playing for Northern Iowa.



*Xavier's Jordan Crawford is putting on a show in the tournament. In the
Musketeers' two victories, Crawford has displayed his entire offensive
arsenal and it has been spectacular. I've seen it first hand at the
Chaifetz Arena against my Billikens. Now, the entire country is watching
it. As for Xavier, they are a major league program. Anybody who feels
otherwise is not paying attention. The Musketeers advanced to the Elite
Eight in 2008. They graduated top players Drew Lavender, Stanley Burrell
and Josh Duncan from that team, but went back to the Sweet 16 in 2009.
That team lost C.J. Anderson and B.J. Raymond to graduation while top
player Derrick Brown turned pro early. Still, the Muskies are back in
the Sweet 16 for the third consecutive year.


*Ohio U.'s upset of Georgetown in the first round is one of the biggest
upsets in tournament history. Ohio U. finished in ninth place in the
Mid-American Conference with a 7-9 league record, yet they throttled the
Hoyas, who were the Big East Tournament runners-up.


*The Wisconsin Badgers have had some bad experiences with mid-major
programs over the years in the tournament. In 1999, Missouri State
defeated the Badgers in the second round and held Wisconsin to less than
30 points. Two seasons ago, the Badgers were clobbered by Stephen Curry
and Davidson in the regional semifinals. Last Sunday, Wisconsin ran into
another mid-major buzz-saw in a hot-shooting Cornell team, which
resulted in another blowout exit from the tournament. Wisconsin has done
some great things in the tournament over the years, but those mid-majors
have provided some very unpleasant memories.



*Congrats to the Mizzou Tigers on a 23-10 season and advancement to the
second round of the East Regional. The Tigers' season ended with a
hard-fought loss to No. 2 seed to West Virginia. This was a transition
year for the Tigers after losing quality bigs DeMarre Carroll and Leo
Lyons from last year's Elite Eight team. It was good to see them get a
victory in the tournament. Mike Anderson has proven to be an excellent
tournament coach at UAB and Mizzou. If the Tigers can obtain a little
more quality size to go along with their tremendous array of perimeter
players, they will be back in business once again.


*This weekend's Midwest Regional in St. Louis should be quite
interesting with No. 6 seed Tennesse going against No. 2 seed Ohio
State, followed by No. 5 Michigan State against No. 9 Northern Iowa,
which toppled the overall No. 1 seed Kansas in the second round. The
first game with Tennessee and Ohio State should be an entertaining
up-tempo affair, while the Michigan State-Northern Iowa game should be
an ol' fashioned rugby scrum.