Syzdekistan

Today in the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament, UNLV (seeded 7th) beat Wisconsin (seeded 2nd) 74-68 (New York Times link, Sports Illustrated “Meet the New Rebels“). The Rebels will advance to the Sweet Sixteen round and will face the University of Oregon. I had planned on watching the 11:30 A.M. when we returned from church. However, we skipped church today (we all got up late) and decided to rid the household of stale bread by throwing it in Lake Mead. After feeding the carp and ducks, we were able to watch the second half of the game at Mel’s Diner (picture) in Boulder City. The Rebel’s had a comfortable 13 point lead when we arrived and while we enjoyed our lunch, Wisconsin got hot and managed to get a 5 point lead. Then the Rebels came roaring back with a 13-1 run and Kevin Kruger (son of the coach who followed his father from Arizona State) hitting three three-pointers and three free throws. The Rebels played great even when the momentum shifted against them and pulled off a great victory.

So far this is the biggest “upset” of the tournament. In my opinion, UNLV should have been seeded far higher than number 7. So this really isn’t that much of an upset. They beat several ranked teams (Nevada #20, Air Force #14, BYU #23) this year and won the Mountain West tournament. I just wonder if their extremely poor seeding is retribution from the NCAA from when Jerry Tarkarnian criticized the policies of the NCAA in the 1990s.

Technorati Tags: NCAA Basketball