Day one of the Big East tourney is in the books, and I'm starting to realize the color scheme I picked for my bracket probably wasn't a good choice.
So far, my prognosticating was almost spot-on, so I head into Day 2 with only one blemish. And I don't think anyone was expecting DePaul to pull that one out. Even the perpetually glum Jerry Wainwright seemed pretty shocked by it. But there's no other way to make yourself feel better about an 18-game winning losing streak than shattering any last hope a bubble team had at a NCAA Tournament bid! And at the same time, DePaul ruined Providence's chance of adding another quality win to its iffy tourney resume.
Also impressive is that somehow the ultimate underdog Blue Demons have turned usually scrappy, spunky Providence into Goliath for their second-round match. Although DePaul will likely get blown out, at least their win adds a little spice to a tournament I think most expected to be dominated by the conference's top teams. They still probably will, but it's still a nice early twist.
In other first-round action, I'm pretty pleased that my lack of faith in Georgetown came through. And there weren't too many surprises in the nightcap, so I added another two wins after Notre Dame and Seton Hall handled their respective opponents pretty easily (although USF led the Pirates by two at the half).
The Hall's win has some relevance to UConn fans, as they will now take on Syracuse for the right to play the Huskies in the quarterfinals. Although that's only a minor technicality, so you should probably start getting your hate faces on for Thursday. And by that I mean break out those Coach Cal head-on-a-sticks they passed out against Notre Dame.