NCAA Tournament Opening Night - UNC Asheville, Clemson Advance

It really didn't feel like opening night but technically it was. Two 16 seeds battled for the right to take on Pittsburgh while two 12 seeds squared off to see who would face West Virginia.

In the first game of the night, UNC-Asheville beat Arkansas-Little Rock in OT 81-77. UNCA won despite leading for only 51 seconds in regulation. The game was exciting for their players but the celebrations will be short lived as they now have to take on top seeded Pittsburgh on Thursday. A 16 seed has never beaten a 1 seed. I sense they will have the lead for exactly 0 seconds in that one.

The second game of the tournament featured 12 seeds Clemson and UAB in a game that was never really close. After trailing 4-5 2:18 in, Clemson went on a 13-0 run and didn't lead by less than 8 after that en route to a 70-52 win. It was Clemson's first win in the tourney since 1997. Clemson now faces 5 seed West Virginia in the first game on Thursday. 12v5 is always a tricky match-up. In 19 of the past 21 years at least one 12 seed has beaten a 5 seed. Add to that the fact that Ken Pomeroy's rankings, a notoriously good tournament predictor, has WVU ranked 21 and Clemson 24 and we might be in for an early upset.

Tomorrow night 16 seeds University of Texas-San Antonio and Alabama St. play at 6:30pm with the winner to face overall 1 seed Ohio State on Friday and then at 9pm 11 seeds VCU and USC play to see who will face 6th seed Georgetown. Since we all love to gamble, Pomeroy has UTSA ranked 219 and Alabama St. ranked 295 while he has USC at 44 and VCU 84.

There were also 7 NIT games but no one really cares about the NIT. Watching the NIT is like rooting for your team in the Consolation bracket during fantasy football playoffs. That being said, I will be rooting for Bethune-Cookman to beat Virginia Tech tomorrow night because Tech sucks and it's hilarious that the selection committee keeps leaving them out of the big dance.