Ohio State was the first to earn a trip to the Sweet 16 Sunday in Milwaukee, holding off a late Georgia Tech rally for a 75-66 victory at the Bradley Center. Later in the day, Xavier earned its third straight trip out of the second round, holding off Pittsburgh, 71-68.
It was quiet outside the Bradley Center on Saturday. The bars settled down, parking lots were barren and fans rested up after a long night of celebration -- or mourning. Inside the arena, players worked out in preparation for Sunday's Second Round games.
The place to be in Milwaukee today is the Bradley Center, where hoop dreams are living and dying in the first round of the NCAA Tournament's West Regional. OnMilwaukee.com sports scribes Drew Olson and Andrew Wagner are on the scene to provide updates, notes, and quotes.
Sure, official documents may call it the Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory, but ask a local where that is and you'll get a blank stare. However, everyone knows -- and loves -- The Domes!
If you win your March Madness office pool, you stand to take home a few bucks. But Milwaukee will make more than a little money from hosting the first two rounds of the men's basketball NCAA tournament. VISIT Milwaukee, the city's convention and visitors' bureau, conservatively estimates that the area will reap $2.2 from this weekend of hoops.
Few things in sports can warp a college hoops fan's perspective more quickly than an NCAA tournament loss. Marquette's final game was a doozy. The sixth-seeded Golden Eagles coughed up a 15-point lead in the second half and then dropped a game when they couldn't prevent Washington's Quincy Pondexter from scoring in the final seconds.