Keith Cawley’s loss was his wife’s gain Saturday afternoon.
Because the WRCB-TV sports anchor is an Ohio University graduate, he had to endure wife Rachel Withers gently celebrating her Tennessee Vols’ 83-68 victory over his Bobcats in the second round of the NCAA basketball Midwest Regional.
“She was actually very nice about it,” said Cawley, whose green attire didn’t bring the same good luck it had during 14th-seeded Ohio’s stunning Thursday upset of No. 3 seed Georgetown.
“All she said at the end was, ‘Yeah, I’m a winner.’ She’s even going to take me out to dinner to celebrate the Georgetown game.”
The Vols are unexpectedly dining at the Sweet 16 for the third time in four years as a No. 6 seed. Then again, there may never have been a better tournament to be the underdog than this one.
Ten lower seeds won in the opening round. More impressive, five of those upsets were won by teams seeded at least five spots lower than the team they beat, Ohio’s upset of Georgetown being the most dramatic. Following close behind, 13th-seeded Murray shocked No. 4 seed Vanderbilt in the opening round of the West Regional.
But nothing could top Saturday, when ninth -seeded Northern Iowa knocked off overall No. 1 seed Kansas in the Midwest, an eye-opener that may well pave the way for UT to reach its first Final Four in school history.
Now through to Friday’s Sweet 16 in St. Louis against today’s Ohio State-Georgia Tech winner, the Vols suddenly look like they could make a prophet of ESPN analyst and three-time national championship coach Robert Montgomery Knight, who tabbed them a Final Four dark horse before the tourney began.
Yet it wasn’t just Northern Iowa’s disciplined, determined Panthers who made a mockery of the seeding process. Washington’s Huskies, seeded 11th in the East, followed up Thursday’s major upset of Marquette with an even more surprising (by seeding only) rout of third-seeded New Mexico on Saturday.
Coupled with fellow Pac-10 member California’s humbling of Louisville on Friday night, one can’t help but wonder if the Pac-10 was as bad all season as we made it out to be.
In fact, the whole Left Coast looks pretty impressive after South No. 10 seed St. Mary’s knocked off No. 2 seed Villanova on Saturday.
Of course, Villanova and New Mexico also give further ammunition to all those who believe the tourney selection committee got it all wrong to start with, since New Mexico really didn’t beat anybody much and ‘Nova had unraveled down the stretch, losing six of its final 10 games.
And what of the Big (L)east? Fawned over all season, the nation’s largest league was but 4-4 in the first round with Villanova falling in round two. West Virginia, Syracuse and Pitt all attempt to stop the bleeding today.
Yet the favorites’ fall from grace also has been a joy for all those big dreamers who so seldom get to celebrate past the tourney’s Selection Sunday.
WRCB-TV new anchor Cindy Sexton is a Murray State grad who spent much of Thursday afternoon huddled around a television in the studio cheering on the Racers’ first NCAA win since 1988.
She and husband Gil Gilbert had a prior engagement during Saturday’s heartbreaking 54-52 loss to usual Cinderella team Butler, but Sexton said, “We’re planning to keep up with it on Gil’s i-phone.”
Then there were Signal Mountain residents Frank and Laurel Zahrobsky. Frank grew up in Ohio, Laurel in Chattanooga, graduating from GPS.
But at 3:30 Saturday afternoon they were both in front of a television cheering for their beloved Bobcats to try to reach the Sweet 16.
“We will be planning our children’s naps accordingly,” Frank said with a chuckle earlier in the day.
As Kansas proved against Northern Iowa, if you nap for just a moment in this tournament, you can quickly wind up in a nightmare.
But Cawley was refreshingly philosophical about Ohio’s exit.
“I can’t ever before remember seeing the Bobcats on the cover of USA Today, which they were on Friday,” he said. “So I’ll be happy with that, even after a 15-point loss to Tennessee.”
Especially when the winning side also buys you dinner.