The Odd Stat of (Last) Week

Issue: Baseball yet?

Short Answer: Not quite.  But, it will be coming soon.  For now, let's stick to basketball.

Reasoning: So far, the NCAA tournament has been played through the first two rounds.  I don't care that the NCAA, and ESPN, continue to claim there have been three rounds played so far.  Adding three teams (remember, the field has been 65 for a few years now) to the tournament does not change a thing, except how much money the NCAA is making.  It will be the same reasoning they use when they expand the tournament to 96 teams and perhaps allow the UConn, Tennessee, Stanford, and Baylor women's teams in.

All that aside, with 68 teams in the tournament, there were quite a few games that, on paper, looked like blowouts - all of the #1 seeds over the #16 seeds included.  No one, and I mean no one, saw any of the #8 vs. #9 matchups as being possible blowout games.  Yet, two of them (Illinois v. UNLV and Michigan v. Tennessee) turned into laughers.  In fact, Michigan's 75-45 victory was the second biggest blowout of the entire first round (yeah, I said it, FIRST round - Oh, and the biggest blowout was Duke beating Hampton by 42).  So, is Michigan's 30 point victory the biggest ever by a #8 seed?  I bet it is, but, I really have no idea.  If you want to look it up and let me know, that would be great.  Although, I really don't care.  So, save your time.

Michigan did make history in that game against Tennessee though.  It is the type of history you will not believe, and, the type of history that makes for a great "Odd Stat of the Week."  Most of the time when "never before" stats arise in the NCAA tournament there is an asterisk stating "since the tournament expanded to 64 teams (1985)."  Not this time.  The Michigan Wolverines became the first team EVER, to win a tournament game, without making a single free throw.  I will give you a chance to digest that fact.  Done?  Not only did Michigan not make a single free throw, they only attempted one.  A single free throw attempted, a single free throw missed, a 30-point victory.  Some of this can be accounted to Tennessee's Athletic Director, who, just days before the game, said on the radio that head coach Bruce Pearl may or may not return next year.  Add that with Michigan's quick start, and, it looked like most of the Vols simply quit.  And, when players don't play hard, fouls don't happen.  Then again, if the Vols had fouled, they may have lost by 50.

Runner-up for Odd Stat of (Last) Week - Ohio State, Cincinnati, Xavier, Louisville, and Kentucky all went to the Big Dance, in the same year, for the first time since.............1961.  Wow.