And Now, The Main Event: The 2024 NCAA Tournament Gets Started
Hooooooooooooops!
Although there were First Four games Tuesday and Wednesday, most people see Thursday as the real start of the NCAA tournament. That’s when the upsets start coming and you rush to the screen to see how the hell, say, Farleigh Dickinson just beat Purdue.
It’s why it’s called March Madness or, as the medical community calls it, National Vasectomy Recovery Weekend.
On Wednesday, there were two outstanding games as Grambling came back to beat Montana State in overtime, 88-81 and Colorado took out the Boise State Broncos 60-53.
Grambling’s win was particularly thrilling as the Tigers had fallen behind by 14 in the second half. But they came back and put the game in overtime.
The Colorado-Boise State game was fairly close until Colorado pulled away late, ripping off a 15-4 run to close the Broncos out.
For Grambling’s trouble it draws #1 Purdue on Friday. That’s not going to be easy obviously but they’re getting a shot and they understandably seem to relish it. Head coach Donte’ Jackson says that “[t]hey don’t have the No. 1 seed for nothing. They have the best big guy in the country, and we’ve got to come in and play. [I’ll watch] lot of film tonight. I haven’t been sleeping much anyway.”
As for Colorado, the Buffaloes get Florida. That’s an interesting game in some ways. Gators coach Don Golden is a Bruce Pearl disciple and Thad Boyle is a more hard-nosed coach. That’ll be a fun clash of styles.
We said we’d come back to our Colorado-Florida pick. We’ll take the Buffaloes.