Albuquerque Regional Recap (Round 1 Day 1)

(8) Pacific 79 - (9) Pittsburgh 71
Bracketology 101. Teams not playing good leading up to the tourney do not live long in the tourney. Pittsburgh was not playing good leading into the tourney and guess what, they're gone. Give Pacific credit they were in control the entire game. Pittsburgh cut it down to 5 late, but never really threatened after that. Nothing special, good first half shooting by Pacific, good defense and poor shooting by Pittsburgh were the difference.

(1) Washington 88 - (16) Montana 77
The game was not as close as the score indicates. Washington was in control early and coasted the rest of the way. 55% + shooting for Washington today. The reason it got close is that Washington got lazy on defense, but they were never threatened.

(2) Wake Forest 70 - (15) UT-Chatanooga 54
The game was closer than it looks for about 28 minutes. There was a sequence when Chatanooga blocked a shot and then Wake Forest gets the rebound and put back the shot. That was the turning point. Wake Forest went up by 4 and never looked back.

(3) Gonzaga 74 - (14) Winthrop 64
Gonzaga almost gets Gonzaga'd (whatever that means) by Winthrop. Two straight 3's when the game was tied at 60 doomed Winthrop.

(7) W Virginia 63 - (10) Creighton 61
Creighton misses a 3 with about 8 seconds left in the game and forgets to get back on defense. W. Virginia scores an open layup with 2 seconds left. Inexcusable. Sad that your entire season ends because you forgot to get back on defense. W. Virginia looked a step slower than they did in the Big East tourney. Give Creighton credit, they took it to W. Virginia the entire game and probably should have won until they went cold at the end. Only 8 points in the last 7 minutes for Creighton. Almost pulled it out with 2 straight 3's with about 2 minutes left, but West Virginia was just too good.

(6) Texas Tech 78 - (11) UCLA 66
While the score was close the entire way you felt that UCLA was never really in the game. Everytime Texas Tech started to roll, and I went to turn to another game, it seemed like UCLA got a 3 to keep them within shouting distance. It was lights out shooting for Texas Tech (just under 60%). I'm not sure how this was only a 12 point victory. The game was not close at all.