NCAA men's tournament off to typical, thrilling start

The NCAA basketball tournament once again is up to its delicious, upset-filled ways -- much to the delight of college hoops junkies everywhere who take delight in rooting for the underdog.

But, while there are major surprises every season, this year's opening round of play featured some of the biggest shockers ever.

For only the fifth time, teams seeded 13th and 14th both won on the same day. That took place Friday when No. 14 Bucknell beat No. 3 Kansas and No. 13 Vermont defeated No. 4 Syracuse.

Throw in No. 12 Wisconsin-Milwaukee's thumping of No. 5 Alabama on Thursday, and it was certainly a crazy start to the proceedings.

And things didn't settle down much Saturday, led by Wisconsin-Milwaukee's victory over No. 4 Boston College, as the Panthers became the first truly major surprise to reach the round of 16. In addition, two No. 6 seeds -- Utah and Texas Tech -- advanced by knocking off two No. 3s in Oklahoma and Gonzaga.

Even if the upsets calm down a bit today -- and who's to say they will -- we're guaranteed to have several more huge underdogs scaring the life out of heavy favorites, along with great games galore.

After all, it's the NCAA tournament -- what a spectacle.

* Southern Illinois, which as a No. 7 seed was a slight favorite to beat No. 10 St. Mary's, still picked up an impressive victory.

The casual fan might not realize it, but St. Mary's is an excellent team -- and quite a few of the so-called experts had predicted the Gaels would knock of the Salukis.

SIU faces a major uphill battle in today's second round, facing No. 2 seed Oklahoma State in Oklahoma City -- which just about amounts to a home game for the Cowboys.

While it would take some kind of a performance to upset the Cowboys, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the Salukis take things to the wire -- and if that is the case, then who knows what might happen.

* I'm sure Missouri basketball fans shed no tears over the fact Kansas -- I've met very few Tigers fans who don't hate the Jayhawks -- stunningly lost in the first round.

* There is no question Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball was a bit down overall this year, but Eastern Kentucky sure made a strong showing before falling to Kentucky 72-64 in the opening round.

Most people -- myself included -- expected a big-time blowout, but the No. 15 seed Colonels made the No. 2 Wildcats sweat until the final minutes.

* Congratulations to several regional high school basketball teams who reached the state's final four in Columbia this past weekend, although all fell short of championships.

St. Vincent placed second in Class 2, Charleston was second in Class 3 and Bell City finished fourth in Class 1.

Without a doubt the most surprising group among that trio was St. Vincent, which had never even previously reached the state quarterfinals before breaking through this year, with most of the Indians also being members of the football team that captured the school's first state title in that sport this past fall.

I had the privilege of covering the Indians' dramatic quarterfinal game against South Pemiscot when senior guard Alex Armbruster nailed a 3-point shot from about 28 feet at the buzzer to provide a one-point victory. It will probably continue sending chills down my spine for quite some time.

I was especially happy for St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy, who I have known since I first moved to Cape more than 20 years ago, when he was attending Southeast Missouri State and I spent plenty of time on campus playing basketball with him. (By the way, he was pretty good, particularly on the boards, where he was a strong and tenacious rebounder.)

* Also kudos to the Poplar Bluff boys, who captured their second consecutive Class 5 state title last weekend with a surprisingly dominating 72-56 victory over Vashon, which had been ranked No. 1 in the nation and carried a 60-game winning streak into the championship contest.

Poplar Bluff's Tyler Hansbrough will go down as one of the best players -- if not the absolute best -- that the region has ever produced. It's going to be interesting for fans to track his college career at North Carolina, and also a potential professional career that certainly appears to be within his grasp if he stays healthy.

* Miles Smith didn't reach his goal of making the finals and earning All-American honors, but what an incredible indoor track season it was for the Southeast sophomore.

Smith, Southeast's only qualifier for last weekend's NCAA indoor nationals, posted the nation's 13th-best 400-meter time during the regular season, a school-record 46.42 seconds.

Competing in a loaded field at the University of Arkansas, Smith had the 11th-fastest time among the 16 runners who competed in the preliminaries, but he failed to make the finals cut of eight.

But just how stacked was the 400-meters at nationals? Well, Florida sophomore Kerron Clement stunningly broke the world record in the finals. Clement happened to finish first in Smith's four-man heat in the prelims.

Southeast coach Joey Haines believes plenty of future national success is in store for Smith, and he doesn't rule out the St. Louis native some day challenging for a national title.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.