(note: I wrote most of this Sunday morning before games were played. I’ll address today’s games, including State’s upset of UConn later.)
This is gonna be a quick update, so I won’t have time to go into all the ways I’m disappointed in Wake Forest. Like I said all season, their defense just wasn’t Final Four caliber. I was wrong. It wasn’t Sweet Sixteen caliber. It was fitting that they gave up 111 points in the game that they lost. Yeah, it went to two overtimes, but that’s only two minutes longer than NBA games and NBA games have 24-second shot clocks. Last night, one NBA team scored as many as 111 points in regulation.
West Virginia scored on seven of their last eight possessions in regulation. They scored on eight of ten possessions in the first overtime. The Mountaineers then scored (or missed two free throws) on ten of twelve possessions in the second overtime.
The Deacs deserved to lose.

The other games of note so far were the upsets of Kansas and Syracuse by Bucknell and Vermont. I gotta tell you, seeing Cuse lose in the first round was great. It was like meeting an old friend again after not seeing him for several years. If only Arizona had joined the reunion…
OK, enough commentary. Now some stats. Here is a basic table running down major conference performance so far in the NCAA Tournament. I added the NIT as well, to include all teams in the postseason, giving conferences more of a chance to display their depth.
Postseason performance through 3/19/2005: