By Josh Cook
The second day of the men's NCAA Tournament might not have had the drama of Thursday, but Friday was more than fine.
Here is a quick look at the good, the bad and the ugly of Day 2 of the NCAA Tournament.
Good
Cornell: The Big Red gave the Ivy League a rare win in the Big Dance by beating Temple 78-65.
Jordan Crawford: The Indiana University transfer, who was the infamous college player who dunked on NBA superstar LeBron James at a summer camp, scored 28 points to lead Xavier over Minnesota. His team's victory improved IU transfers to 3-0 in the Big Dance after Armon Bassett (Ohio) and Ben Allen (St. Mary's, Calif.) won first-round games Thursday.
Rakeem Buckles: The lone bright spot for the University of Louisville in its 77-62 loss to California was the freshman forward from Miami. Buckles scored a career-high 20 points, hitting 10 of 11 shots, and grabbing nine rebounds for the Cardinals.
JaJuan Johnson: The junior center scored 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to lead Purdue, a team many predicted would lose its opening game, to a comeback win over Siena.
Bad
West Virginia's start: The Mountaineers quickly fell behind Morgan State (who?!) 10-0 in their first-round before outscoring the Bears 77-40 the rest of the way.
The comments of New Mexico State junior guard Jahmar Young: After his team's three-point loss to Michigan State, Young all but blamed the officials.
"They took the air out of the game," he said. "The refs...they did their jobs I guess, but (that's) not NCAA basketball."
Granted a suspect technical foul call on Young, as well as a late lane violation call, didn't help the Aggies, but officials' calls are part of the game. A part, no matter how good or bad, that both teams have to accept.
Ugly
UofL's start and finish: There was nothing pretty about the way the Cards fell behind 22-4 against Cal, or the way they ended the game (being outscored 12-2 after UofL had pulled within five points with 6:36 to play). The comeback in between wasn't bad, but the Cards' ugly start and ugly finish led to the end of their season.
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