Boom Goes the Dynamite: Regional Semifinals Day One
Posted by rtmsf on March 26th, 2009
Hello everyone, it’s been a long four days since the last games ended on Sunday evening, but we’re back in earnest and ready for what should be a tremendous set of regional semifinals over the next two nights. Out of the top sixteen teams entering this Tournament, only two have been dismissed. The “upstarts” are Big 10 Tournament champion Purdue and a little school from the desert you might have heard from before, Arizona. We’ll be providing you with all the coverage as the weekend progresses… here’s tonight’s schedule:
7:07 pm. #5 Purdue vs. #1 Connecticut
7:27 pm. #4 Xavier vs. #1 Pittsburgh
9:37 pm. #3 Missouri vs. #2 Memphis
9:57 pm. #3 Villanova vs. #2 Duke
9:07 pm. Apologies to everyone, but real world got in the way and we’re just now getting to where we can start the BGTD tonight. Hopefully you’ll join us for the rest of the evening.
9:08 pm. What have we missed. Two good games, apparently. UConn-Purdue is nearing the finish line, and it appears the Huskies are going to advance. We thought there was a possibility of an upset there, but Hasheem showed up tonight for 15/15 and when he puts up those kinds of numbers, there are only a handful of teams in America that can compete with UConn. Pitt has been fighting off Xavier all night long, only recently getting the lead back for the first time in a while. From what we’ve seen so far, Pitt continues to shoot threes (not their strong suit and miss FTs. Xavier is doing enough to pull this upset if they can continue to keep Blair in check (8 pts).
9:14 pm. Jamie Dixon was right to complain about that shot clock violation there – it was still in XU’s hand when the clock turned to zero. But what is going on with Pitt’s shot selection? A fadeaway 18-footer from the corner is NOT their strength…
9:17 pm. And then a timeout on the throw-in… this team appears out of sync to us. UConn is finishing off Purdue on the other channel.
9:19 pm. Blair got the putback tip to go in there, but can you believe he’d miss such a point-blank shot; and then Jermaine Dixon barely drew iron on a dunk attempt?!? My God, if Pitt survives this game, it’ll be miraculous.
9:21 pm. Wow, these two teams are hitting 20% and 25% this half (Pitt higher). SCORCHING.
