Shanoff’s Wake-Up Call: Belmont Saves the Day

By Dan Shanoff
Today’s Calls: Belmont vs. Chalk, Michael Beasley vs. O.J. Mayo, Gonzaga vs. the Underdog, Bob Huggins vs. Coach K, Celtics vs. Texas, DeAngelo Hall vs. Oakland, John Patterson vs. Adam Wainwright, Freddy Adu vs. David Beckham, Barack Obama vs. John Edwards and More!
The Opening Pitch: Belmont saved the first day of the NCAA Tournament.
Without Belmont’s instant-classic, wire-to-wire-nail-biting, ultimately disappointing one-point loss to the most quintessential college hoops brand of our generation, the day would have been a complete waste.
Instead, Belmont had the nation’s capital -- and the entire nation -- rooting for what was sizing up as the greatest first-round upset in NCAA Tournament history.
It didn’t happen, which was a shame. Not just because it would have been a historic 15-over-2 win. Not just because it would have been an all-time great schadenfreude moment for we Duke-haters.
But, really, because the rest of First Thursday was such a dud. If you merely went chalk, you went 14-2. (Michael Beasley and K-State the exception, and -- come on -- 9 A&M over 8 BYU shouldn’t really count.)
The first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament are about the addictive hit of two things: Upsets and buzzer-beaters.
Without them, it’s just not the same. Without them, it’s just the novelty of breaking up your workday to follow some lame sports results.
Let’s hope for a better second half of the first round and weekend. But on behalf of a grateful nation, I wanted to say: Thank you, Belmont.
The state of my bracket: 12-4. A day of chalk doesn’t really highlight what you got right as much as what you got WRONG:
My most damaging miss: George Mason, who I had going to the Sweet 16. That allowed me to have a quality moment of “What was I THINKING?!” How could I not recognize that Mason’s March mojo was all used up in 2006?
I also missed on Winthrop, USC and Kent State. Thank goodness I backed off my “Kent-will-beat-Kansas” gut reaction from Selection Sunday.
It could have been worse: I could have been one of those poor slobs who were riding the Trojans to San Antonio. Your tournament is over.
(You knew things were going to go bad for USC when O.J. Mayo showed up to play wearing NBA-logo socks. Meanwhile, K-State’s frosh are awesome.)
So: How does YOUR bracket look? Be prepared to answer that question today.
Looking ahead to this afternoon...:
12:15 ET (2) Tennessee over (15) American Short run for NCAA newbie AU. 12:25 (7) Gonzaga over (10) Davidson Zags better as ‘dog than favorite. 12:30 (10) St. Mary’s over (7) Miami More fans nationally picked St. Mary’s. 12:30 (5) Drake over (12) W. Kentucky Chance to watch the Team of the Year.
2:45 (10) South Alabama over (7) Butler USA in Birmingham trumps Butler’s mojo. 2:55 (2) Georgetown over (15) UMBC Like Pitt, Hoyas should be all-biz. 3:00 (2) Texas over (15) Austin Peay The Fly is open: Let’s go... U-T! 3:00 (4) UConn over (13) San Diego Beware the West Coast Conference!
Looking ahead to tonight: Breezy opener for national favorite UNC... I like (11) St. Joe’s over (6) Oklahoma... (13) Siena is tough, but (4) Vandy learned a year ago how to get out of Round 1... Oregon/Miss. St. tonight’s classic 8/9 toss-up... Sampson-centric karmic payback coming for Indiana... Louisville will want to make a statement... Memphis will rock UTSA... Nova-Clemson was my toughest call of the first round.
Sneak-peek at Saturday: Was Duke exposed by Belmont? (Or motivated?) I picked Huggins over K... Beasley & Co. will find Wisconsin a far tougher and more experienced draw than USC... Did Xavier notice that mild-mannered Purdue put up 90?... Ugh: I picked neither Notre Dame nor Wazzu to get this far... How will Marquette handle Stanford’s size?... If Kansas is overlooking UNLV, they will regret it... It probably doesn’t get more rugged than Pitt vs. Michigan State... Famous last
words: I’m not worried about my champ pick UCLA against A&M.
Oh, there was PRO hoops last night? By beating the Mavs, the Celtics didn’t just finish a 3-game sweep on the road in Texas; Boston went 6-0 against the Texas Trio for the season. It was the first time a team had gone 3-0 on the Texas three-step road trip since 2001 (Kings) and 6-0 against the three Texas teams since 2000 (Bucks)... Speaking of big road wins, the Lakers snapped Utah’s 19-game home winning streak...
NFL: Raiders make a deal with DeAngelo Hall for 7Y/$70M: Wow, that seems like a lot of money for a guy who has even more of a rep as a rabble-rousing head-case than he does as a money player. Then again, it IS the Raiders; they love that type.
MLB: Nats release John Patterson. A year ago, the Nats were desperate for any kind of pitching and Patterson started for them on opening day.
Now, the Nats are apparently stocked with enough young arms that they can afford to discard Patterson after an injury-plagued ‘07 and a disappointing spring training.
At the other end, the Cardinals locked up 2006 World Series breakout Adam Wainwright with a 4Y/$15M deal (with an option for 2 more years at $36M). How important is he to the Cards? He could very well be starting on opening day. Call him the anti-Patterson.
Soccer/Olympics: Congrats to the US U-23 team on securing an Olympic bid, behind two free-kick goals from Freddy Adu.
Meanwhile, reports that David Beckham has a clause that would let him buy an MLS team moves the needle even less than him playing in MLS.
Hot NIT Action: Moving on to the “Effete Eight.” Syracuse advances to the quarterfinals behind Jonny Flynn’s 23 points and 7 assists in a win over Maryland... Arizona State joins them; James Harden led the Sun Devils with 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists in a win over So. Ill.... (Tonight’s “Bitter 16” action: Creighton at Florida)
The Last Word: Barack Obama picks UNC. Obama knows and loves his hoops (probably my favorite detail of his biography), and he reflects the national plurality in picking the Tar Heels to win the NCAA Tournament. But you can’t help wonder if this isn’t a slight pander to UNC uber-fan John Edwards. (With that Pennsylvanial primary coming up, picking Pitt would have been a more obvious tell.)
Dan Shanoff writes The Wake-Up Call every weekday morning for SportingNews.com and blogs daily at DanShanoff.com. Got any comments, questions or feedback? Email Dan at shanofftsn-[at]-gmail-[dot]-com.
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