The first 8 games of the day have all gone to the favorites. And Iowa kicked off the evening games comfortably ahead of Grand Canyon. So, it was questionable if anyone would stop the chalk from advancing today.

Fortunately, the other double digit seeds playing tonight had other plans (well, at least for those of us rooting for the underdog to win). I hate to admit it, but after watching Purdue go down, I am kind of in the “misery loves company” phase of my recovery.

Ohio and Maryland were happy to help. First, Ohio managed to take the lead with about 7 minutes to play against Virginia as Ben Vander Plas hit two three pointers to put the Bobcats up 45-40. Virginia made a late run – as Jay Huff made a couple of baskets around the rim and Trey Murphy III hit a three to cut the lead late to 2. But Ohio stayed calm and Mark Sears and Lunden McDay hit both of their free throws to help keep Ohio ahead for a 62-58 win. It is a little a shame for Virginia – you have to wonder how much testing positive for COVID during the ACC Tournament and having to not arrive in Indy until Friday influenced them. That being said, you can’t take anything away from the MAC Tournament Champion – they played a strong game.

Maryland was more of a start-to-finish type thing. The Terrapins jumped out to a 33-22 lead at halftime against Connecticut and never really looked back. The Huskies did get the lead to as close as 5 with about 3 minutes to play, but Maryland hit 4 consecutive free throws to make sure Connecticut never got close – on way to the 63-54 victory.

So, Saturday finally saw an underdog win – #13 Ohio and #10 Maryland advance. UCLA has started off ahead of BYU – but it is early. That being said, I have completely jinxed the Cougars by changing my pick to them – so that probably bodes poorly for them.