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Good morning! One more day until brackets lock.
Brackets Brackets Brackets: We are sort of officially underway
We had real, live men’s NCAA Tournament basketball last night. Quickly:
- Colorado State claimed its No. 10 seed with a 67-42 beatdown of offense-challenged Virginia, who put up one of the worst showings I can remember. The Cavaliers had 14 points at halftime. What a slog. The Rams get No. 7 seed Texas on Friday.
- Wagner survived a late charge from Howard in a battle of No. 16 seeds, winning 71-68 to earn a chance to play No. 1 seed North Carolina. This is Wagner’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2003, and the Seahawks surprised everyone by winning the NEC tourney after being 13-15 at one point.
And now let’s talk women’s NCAA Tournament upsets, as we promised yesterday. Two I found intriguing:
No. 6 Syracuse vs. No. 11 Auburn or No. 11 Arizona
Upset chance, according to our number-crunchers: 38.2 percent or 57.4 percent
This is wild. Auburn and Arizona play each other tomorrow night in a First Four game, and our model identified either as having a great chance to upset the Orange. The Wildcats might be favored to win…