MOTSAG Pretend March Madness (East Region) by Scott Halasz

No. 1 Dayton 91, No. 16 Robert Morris 50

Obi Toppin and Jalen Crutcher are too much for Robert Morris, which is still gassed from its double overtime win in the First Four, ironically on Dayton’s home court.

No. 8 Colorado 65, No. 9 Florida 59

Not sure why the committee placed Colorado in the same bracket as Dayton since they played earlier this year. But the Flyers get a chance for revenge in round two.

No. 12 Richmond 70, No. 5 Butler 68, OT

The Butler didn’t do it. The Spiders did. They bit the Bulldogs as a sexy upset pick coming out of the First Four. Blake Francis looked like Steve Francis, scoring 30 points.

No. 4 Maryland 90, No. 13 Akron 56

The Terps pulled away in the second half to cruise to an easy win. Anthony Cowan Jr., was a one-man wrecking crew, scoring 18 points, while dishing out 11 assists and grabbing 14 rebounds to go with 10 steals. He was six fouls away from a quintuple double and was only in the game to see if he would be allowed to commit 10 fouls.

No. 6 Penn State 56, No. 11 NC State 50

In one of the uglier tournament games in recent history, the teams combined for 45 turnovers and 35 fouls.

No. 3 Villanova 72, No. 14 Hofstra 70

Desure Buie had a last-second shot go off the back of the rim and Villanova escaped with a hard-fought win. Neither team led by more than four points and the Pride opted to go for the win at the end after calling a timeout to set up a play.

No. 10 Utah State 81, No. 7 West Virginia 74

The game wasn’t as close as the score indicates as four Aggies scored in double figures. Utah State led by as many as 20 in the second half before a late flurry of WVU garbage buckets made it respectable.

No. 2 Florida State 91, No. 15 Northern Kentucky 75

NKU gave the Seminoles fits early but they eventually pulled away as Malik Osborne scores a game-high 17 points.

Stay tuned to MOTSAG next week for the results of the 2nd Round Matchups in the South Region. Matchups are as follows:

  • #1 Dayton vs. #8 Colorado
  • #12 Richmond vs. #4 Maryland
  • #6 Penn State vs. #3 Villanova
  • #10 Utah State vs. #2 Florida State

We will ask for your opinions in Twitter polls soon so again stay tuned into MOTSAG.

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