News & Notes from Day 1 of March Madness

• I'm assuming that you saw Duke's Gerald Henderson take the ball coast-to-coast with about 20 seconds left in the 4th quarter and the Blue Devils trailing 15-seed Belmont? Shades of UCLA's Tyus Edney going 94 feet against Missouri back in 1995? That's the very first thing I thought of when I saw that happen.
• Dammit, I DEMAND to know who snuck into my Yahoo account and changed my Purdue-Baylor pick? I never, EVER would have actually picked Baylor, would I?! And whoever you are, Anonymous Vandal, did you have to really have Baylor going to the Elite 8? That wasn't cool. What did I ever do to you?
  
• I thought it was very sportsmanlike and generous of Marquette coach Tom Crean to decide not to study any film whatsoever of Kentucky guard Joe Crawford. It seemed to me that the kid was left completely uncovered and absolutely torched Marquette - he had, ironically, a very Dwyane-Wade-esque line of: 35 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists. The last time a guy had that unfair of an advantage on a basketball court, Billy Madison was playing on a 6-foot hoop against 3rd-graders.

• I should at least *mention* that, even with Crawford earning himself ten years worth of NBA paychecks with that one first-round game in the NCAAs, that Marquette still managed to hold off Kentucky. So maybe Tom Crean's strategy to not guard the opponent's best player paid off in the end, yes?
• Hey, Phil Martelli?! Frankenstein called, he wants his skull back.
• For all of you people who picked Georgia and thought you were so smart for about 39 minutes on Thursday when the Dawgs were rolling over Xavier, how now Brown Cow? It serves you right for picking a team that finished in LAST PLACE in the SEC this season, but got hot and put it all together for three days during the SEC tournament. Even Gerry McNamara and the Syracuse Orangemen of 2006 are mocking you.

STATITUDES:

• 11: This would have been UCLA's margin of victory over Miss. Valley State if they had not taken a single shot in the second half. They could have scored ZERO points after halftime and still won by eleven.
  
• 11: Winthrop scored 11 points in the second half against Washington State. They were tied 29-29 at halftime, and Winthrop finished the game with just 40 - not only that, but they needed a late 3-pointer just to get those 11 second-half points. Are the Cougs for real?
  
• 1946: That was the year that a team last scored only 29 points in an NCAA tournament game, like the Miss. Valley State Delta Devils did against UCLA on Thursday.