My basketball day started when I watched the KU game at my desk. I’ve got a double monitor, so I had the game going on one screen, while I worked on the other. After a few minutes, I just kept the corner of my eye on what was obviously gonna be a KU victory. Looks like their next match-up will be against UNLV on Saturday.

Otherwise, I just kept track of the afternoon scores. And then went to work out.

By the time I got home. . .

The KState Beasleys were pulling away from USC in the second half. They ended up with a convincing enough victory, in which Beasley scored his 27th double-double of the season. His brilliance in the service of the Wildcat Nation is futile, though. I’d advise Wildcat fans not too read too much into this win.While watching the Michael Beasley show, we’d been keeping track of the Duke game via the helpful little score-trackers at the top of the screen, and the big news was that Duke was in a neck-and-neck nailbiter with Belmont. Once the Wildcats had their game in hand, CBS switched to the Duke/Belmont game.

You may remember that I have a little bias against Duke, which is pretty much in proportion to the media bias FOR Duke. So I was really pulling for the underdog Belmont Whatevers, (even though I picked Duke in my brackets as a practical matter).

Wouldn’t it just be the case that Duke would pull it out, though. That darn Gerald Henderson got himself a coast-to-coast drive at the end o the game. The Other Guys had the same opportunity, but couldn’t pull it off. They got the big game heebie-jeebies.

The Duke win is good for my brackets, but bad for my sense of righteousness.

THEN: UCLA destroyed Mississippi Valley State. When UCLA was up by 37-12, I swear I heard Greg Gumbel say “If UCLA holds on and wins this game, they’ll face Texas A&M on Saturday” ????????? Well, hold on, they did. The final score was 70-29. How is it even possible to only score 29 points in the NCAA tournament?

Don’t answer that. . .

George Mason got beat by Notre Dame. The Mason loss messed me up a little bit in the brackets, and that’s what I get for trying to pick an upset. My usual policy is to stay away from upset picks, but GM had a little recent history going for them in this regard. I think I’ll stick with my policy next year.

Early in the second half, Cal-State Fullerton was rolling right along with Wisconsin, in a nip-and-tuck game. The KState Wildcats were on site, scouting. And praying that Wisconsin bites the dust. The Badgers (what a mascot) widened the gap to 10 points, though, with about 12 minutes to go, and managed to keep a healthy distance for the rest of the game. Bummer for the Travelling Beasleys.

The West Virginia Mountaineers beat the Arizona wildcats, 75-65. They’ll move on to play the Duke Blue Devils. My bracket says Duke will survive another one and then go down at the hands of Xavier in the third round.

As I wrap up this post, I’ll just note that the local Kansas City CBS station is treating us to the very unlovely sight of about a MILLION drunk KState Fans celebrating their victory by screaming and jumping around some bar. How excited they all are! They’re talking about how they want another match-up with KU in the Elite 8. But, hello? Did you all forget you’re in the NCAA tournament? Wisconsin and Georgetown are there to play. Let’s worry about one game at a time, Kitties. Meow.