Second round of games here. We’ve got Marquette/Kentucky, Baylor/Purdue, UNLV/Kent State, and Pitt/Oral Roberts. Whoa, that’s a lot of games. Should be a blast.

1:36 – Kentucky/Marquette underway… Let’s go Cats. I’ll keep the rah-rah to a minimum. Promise.

1:45 – I guess the Big Blue Mist didn’t travel for this one. The Anaheim arena is kind of empty… UK is Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford. If these two don’t get off, UK doesn’t score points. .

The other games start near the top of the hour… Good, because this is going to be hard to watch.

1:50 – Kent State/UNLV will on here in KC. I’m guessing the Kansas fans want to do some scouting as well. In other news, UK is on an almost 4-minute scoring drought. Patrick Patterson, where are you?

2:00 – Getting ready to tip. I’ve got Kent State. But it seems any team with a “Kent” in its name can’t score.

Annnnnnnnnnd it looks like I was wrong about Kent State as well. UNLV 9-2… In other news, some one not named “Crawford” or “Bradley” scored for UK. Bradley’s at the line, down by 4.

Hey, they just showed LJ. A Grandmama sighting is always welcome.

Always.

2:05 – Kent State missed a breakaway lay-up. That’s just an incredible sign for their chances. So anyway, here’s the line-up for me: Pitt, UK, and UNLV. I’ll do what I can w/Baylor.

2:08 – Hey, Perry Stevenson can dunk… Kent State finally scored a second basket and Pitt/ORU just tipped. I’m sure Pitt is ahead by 20 already.

2:10 – And I was wrong. ORU is up by 3 and UK is down 4. Unless Kent State actually, you know, makes a shot, UNLV is going to “run” away with this. Yeah, I went there.

2:25 – Why is your best player on the floor, on defense, with 2 fouls and only a minute left in the first? I’m asking you, Billy Gillispie… Kent State apparently stayed in Ohio because UNLV is smacking them around and they’ve only scored 6 points. Meanwhile, the Rebs have scored 25.

2:30 – UK is down 4 at the half. Marquette is scoring just enough to counter UK’s lack of a high-scoring punch. I see Pitt finally showed up and Baylor seems to be proving maybe they didn’t belong.

2:35 – Kent State still doesn’t have double digits… whoops, I stand corrected. They just made their tenth point. That’s the good news. The bad news is they are still down by 19. Purdue and Pitt have double-digit leads. Chalk tournament?

2:44 – NOW Pitt is up 20. 21 actually. And Baylor isn’t in there game either. 7 quick points by Joe Crawford. He’s at the top of this post. 19 for the game.

2:50 – Purdue is beating the sh*t out of Baylor. Why are they here again? At least Oral Roberts won something before they laced it up against Pitt (who leads by 22). And Derrick Jasper just got posterized.

Marquette by 7.

3:00 – Well, Kent State has already got half of their 1st half output… however, they still trail by 22. Right now, UK/Marquette is the only close game, which kinda works in my favor.

3:10 – At the rate this UK/Marquette game is going, all the games are going to be a blow out. Can Baylor mount a comeback against Purdue?

Joe Crawford, the guy at the top of your screen, has 28 of UK’s 49 points. I’m sorry no one else decided to show up with you Joe.

3:15 – In other news, Kent State is scoring, but they aren’t stopping UNLV. Trading baskets is not the way to get back in the game, there, guys. Pitt/ORU and Baylor/Purdue are getting ready to start their respective second halves.

3:22 – The other games are STILL a collective blow with the combine lead being 60 points. Good thing UK plays a grind-it-out style or all these games would be boring.

3:32 – It’s going to be fun covering these blowouts once UK is over… Did these lower-seeded teams not get the memo about this being March?

3:36 – This is turning into the Joe Crawford thread… sorry about that, but Mr. Crawford has 35 of UK’s 63 points. But UK is down by 3 with 38 seconds left. In other news, Baylor has cut Purdue’s lead to 15… I guess that’s something.

3:45 – So many things wrong with Derek Jasper’s turnover when UK was down by 4… It looks like the career of Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley ends on a low note. Marquette hit 7 of 8 free throws to ice the game. Nicely done, Golden Eagles. 74-66.

In other news, Billy Gillispie will have his hands full replacing Bradley and Crawford.

3:50 – UNLV is going to beat Kent State because the Golden Flashes (why do so many mascots have the adjective “Golden” in them?) waited until the 2nd half to score. Purdue is up 15 and Pitt is up 16 and there’s some time left. I guess a comeback is possible… More so by Baylor, I’d say.

4:00 – UNLV wins, 71-58; Purdue is going to win, and win big. After that, it’s Pitt and guess what? They are in control too. Next up is Stanford versus Cornell. Who ya got? I’d say most of the nation picked Stanford to go forward… even the Cornell students.

4:26 – Here in KC, they switched to the local news. During this broadcast, they said the USC/K-State game is supposed to be the best of the first round. Interesting.

4:56 – Stanford, led by Robin Lopez, is pulling away from Cornell, as expected. With that in mind and barring a 3-point barrage from the Big Red, I think we start looking ahead to Stanford/Marquette. From what I’ve seen, Tom Crean’s bunch has no answer for The Cardinal twin attack.

Tags: Final Four, First Round, Kentucky Wildcats, March Madness, National Championship

You Might Also Enjoy:
• Dancing: Day 3 Open Thread
• College Basketball Tournaments Are Awfully Tense
• It’s Time