NCAA Tournament's First Two Rounds Filled with Surprises

#14 Ohio over #3 Georgetown. #13 Murray State over #4 Vanderbilt. #12 Cornell over #5 Temple. #11 Old Dominion over #6 Notre Dame. These were just some of the bigger upsets during the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The first round of the tournament saw a total of 10 lower seeds advance. In the 2^nd round of the tournament, we've already seen #10 Saint Mary's (California) upset #2 Villanova, and #9 Northern Iowa upset the top seed in the whole tournament, Kansas. #12 Cornell's first round over Temple might have been regarded by some as a fluke. They more than likely silenced any doubters with their 18 point victory over a very good #4 Wisconsin team.

Can we get a mulligan on our brackets people? My bracket would have turned out better if I would have just picked which team's mascot I liked more. It looks like there won't be too many brackets (if any at this point) that will be correct. The West bracket is looking like it should, with the higher seeds all advancing to the Sweet 16. While everyone's brackets may be in shambles, we still have the Sweet 16, the Elite 8, the Final 4, and the championship game to look forward to. Maybe with the evidence we've been given in the first two rounds, we will be able to make some better predictions for the final 16 teams left in the tournament.

One thing we can certainly expect is to expect the unexpected. I doubt too many people had Northern Iowa beating Kansas in the 2^nd round. If they did you may want to take them with you to Vegas next time you're betting, because apparently they have some supernatural power. Speaking of supernatural, how about these surprise teams coming from smaller conferences? Northern Iowa, Cornell, and Saint Mary's (California) are all small conference teams that are surprising people all over. (Because Washington is from the Pac 10, I'm reluctant to classify them with the previous three schools.) Here's a quick look at the 4 "Cinderella" teams of the tournament, and the chances they have of making it any further.

Midwest Bracket - Northern Iowa

How about these guys? It might be a fact that's flown under the radar throughout the course of the tournament (just ask Kansas), but these guys were ranked as high as 20^th at one point in the season. Their conference, the Missouri Valley Conference, is a strong conference containing Wichita State and Creighton, two teams who have been known to afflict some bigger teams with the upset bug. Northern Iowa is a very balanced team, who during the season rallied behind big man Jordan Eglesder (12.0 pts/gm, 7.3 rebs/gm). Lately, they've been rallying behind senior guard Ali Farokhmanesh, who has averaged an impressive 16.5 points/gm so far in the tournament. Their Sweet 16 matchup is against #5 Michigan State, so a win could very well be within reach; after all, what's a number #5 seed from the Big Ten when you've just knocked off the #1 seed in the whole tournament?

East Bracket - Cornell and Washington

# 12 Cornell and #11 Washington are two very interesting teams. Washington squeaked by in the 1^st round with a 2 point win over Marquette, but their 2^nd round blowout of #3 New Mexico (82-64) has raised some eyebrows. My main knock on Washington is their inconsistency. When Quincy Pondexter (19.7 pts/gm, 7.5 rebs/gm) play well, so does the team. Unfortunately for Washington, this seems to work the other way against them too. All their work has been overshadowed though it seems by another team in their region. Cornell beat #5 Temple in the 1^st round, but this isn't too much of a shocker, as the "#12 over #5" phenomenon still continues. What was more of a shocker was their convincing win over #4 Wisconsin, 87-69. Cornell however, has the inconvenience of meeting up with #1 Kentucky (averaging 95 points in 2 games so far) in the Sweet 16. It looks like for this Cinderella, the shoe just isn't going to fit.

West Bracket - Saint Mary's College (California)

Saint Mary's 1^st round win over Richmond didn't seem all too impressive, as most people haven't really heard much about Richmond, and it was only a #10 over a #7. Saint Mary's win over #2 Villanova is what has caused some waves. Saint Mary's benefits from the play of C Omar Samhan, who averages 21.5 points/gm and 10.9 rebs/gm. This guy is a good looking NBA prospect. It's also worth mentioning the Saint Mary's team also has four other players averaging over 10 points per game. The two people may know the most about are Mickey McConnell and Matthew Dellavedova, both of whom hit clutch shots in the upset over Big East bullies Villanova. A nice little fun fact about this Saint Mary's team is the influence of Australian players, as the team is populated with 5 Aussies.

Which team do I think has the best chance to make it to the next round? It's really hard to say and even harder to choose between the four outstanding candidates, but I would say Saint Mary's matches up very well with a Baylor team that had trouble beating Old Dominion. Northern Iowa also looks like a hot pick to beat Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans. It's hard for me to pick Cornell to do much more because of their Sweet 16 matchup with Kentucky, and Washington has the misfortune of meeting up with #2 West Virginia, a team that many thought was a #1 seed snub.

This tournament has shown us we can expect upsets. But that's what March Madness is all about. Everyone loves seeing a Cinderella team have a magical run deep into the tournament. This year, we're very lucky to witness four Cinderella candidates all vie for the big prize.

All stats provided by espn.go.com