The first week of the NCAA tournament is behind us—and what a week it was. The Big Dance was in full force as buzzer beaters, last minute comebacks, questionable officiating, and countless upsets led the Tribune sports editors and many others to tear-up their brackets in shock, awe, and disgust. The unpredictability of the past week was vintage March Madness and the amazing roller coaster ride will continue over the next two basketball-packed weeks.

THE BIG LEAST

The Big East Conference set an NCAA record by sending 11 teams to the Big Dance. Unfortunately for them, it looks like all 11 teams will be eliminated in near-record time—only two are still standing. The Big East’s top three teams, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, and Syracuse, choked in the second round, getting upset by Butler, Florida State, and Marquette, respectively. Not to be outdone, St. John’s, Louisville, and Georgetown were all upset in the first. UConn and Marquette are the Big East’s last hopes for redemption, but don’t expect much from them as this year’s Big East seems to be a case of quantity over quality. Big East? More like Big Least.

RELATIVE BRILLIANCE

How many times have you cursed out a player, through your television, for making a boneheaded, idiotic play that cost you a bet, your bracket or your sanity? Well, I’m done with that. After watching the countless errors and miscues that separate the amateurs in the NCAA from the seasoned pros in the NBA, and gesticulating foully at my computer as the numbskulls murdered my bracket (there’s so much red on there I could fight a bull with it), I’ve finally realized that nobody’s perfect. This comes on the heels of an intramural basketball game in which my team had the ball in the frontcourt, up one with 30 seconds remaining. In the proceeding seconds, we managed to turn over the ball twice, once directly underneath our own basket, and capped it off by sending one of the other team’s players to the line with 0.3 seconds remaining. At least compared to my team, every play in the tournament so far has been a shining example of basketball genius.

CANADIAN CONTENT

There are higher than normal levels of flannel, maple syrup, and beaver pelt at this year’s NCAA tournament. Tristan Thompson of Brampton, Ontario and Corey Joseph of Ajax, Ontario were headlining the show-down in Texas before refereeing errors and late-game mistakes derailed their run against Arizona.

Robert Sacre of Vancouver had the Gonzaga Bulldogs poised for a long, upset-ridden run after toppling the red hot St. John’s Red Storm in the first round, but the team got Jimmered in the secound round. Still, Sacre must have impressed scouts. Standing at 7’0″ and 260, he’s got an NBA body already, and moves with a rare fluidity for players his size. Factor in good free-throw shooting and Sacre seems like he has the tools to compete at an NBA level already.

2011 NBA DRAFTEES

Speaking of the NBA, there are a ton of players still in the tournament who are currently slated for the lottery in what’s supposed to be an incredibly weak draft.

There’s little in the way of expert consensus, with as many as eight different players being touted as potential first-overall selections.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

“I never had time to look back. But now I get the chance to, so, I’m going to miss it. I mean, Morehead is now my second home. I’m going to miss each and every last person that came out and supported us. I’m going to miss my teammates, playing with them, having a great time. … I’m going to miss being coached as hard as I was by Coach Tyndall. Even though it was hard, it helped me.”

— Kenneth Faried, Morehead State Senior forward and all-time NCAA rebounding leader, on being eliminated from the tournament and playing his final college game.

“I don’t know. It’s tough. You know, I want to win and … I’m a competitor, man. I just wanted to win the game, I don’t care about a scoring record or anything else, man. I wanted to get to the Final Four and I didn’t get a chance to do that.”  

—Jacob Pullen, Kansas State Senior, fighting back tears after scoring 38 points and setting his school’s all-time scoring record but missing a crucial game-tying free throw in the  final seconds.