It is not quite March--thanks to the extra day this year--but the madness has already begun in conference tournament play as the second and third seeds in the Big South, Coastal Carolina and Campbell, were knocked off in quarterfinal play by double digits by VMI and Winthrop. Don't care about the Big South? Well if you have any interest in a March Madness rotisserie, you had better pay attention to the doings this week in Asheville.
Thanks to the "First Four" games that open the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday of the opening week, teams that normally would have been of little consideration got the huge boost of a potential extra game. VCU got the lion's share of attention last year, and for good reason, but the actual star of week one was little=known UNC-Asheville guard Matt Dickey who scored 43 points as Asheville beat Arkansas-Little Rock on Tuesday in OT before losing to Pittsburgh on Thursday. And so despite going home before close to half of the tournament actually played a game, Asheville had greatly effected scoring leagues. Dickey's 43 was more than or equal to the points tallied by eight of the players selected in our 19-man first round including the top two selections (Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler of Duke). Running mate J.P. Primm added 36. Those are very good totals and you will see players like those two (or those two as they lead Asheville again this year) moving up draft boards.
So have fun watching the Big East and Big Ten games this weekend, but the guys to beat in your tournament will be scouting the Big South title game this Saturday at noon Eastern on ESPN2.
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