No Cinderella, No Problem

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

The first weekend of the most chaotic and entertaining sporting event in America has come and gone, yet something is missing.

There is only one team with a seed lower than No. 5 still remaining, but they, too, hail from a power conference.

Where is this year's George Mason or Davidson?

Ben Woodside, who put up a ridiculous 37 points on Kansas, had a chance to lead his team to the second weekend, yet North Dakota State's No. 14 proved to be too low to overcome a powerful Jayhawk squad led by Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich.

In fact, only two teams that were in the committee's top sixteen failed to make it to the Sweet 16. It is uncharacteristic for the tournament to produce a second weekend such as this, but the same could be said for last year's Final Four, in which all four No. 1 seeds advanced to the semifinals.

With or without a Cinderella though, March Madness will go on. It will still be a great tournament filled with surprises and disappointments. There is still a reason for fans to watch, even if they can't unify to root for the underdog.

As I did last year, I plan to hand out some awards to recognize those with superb performances in the first two rounds of play. I should mention that it is not a requirement for that player to play in both rounds.

The Stephen Curry Award: This award was renamed after last year's remarkable performance by the now-famous Davidson sharpshooter. Before that, it was named in honor of Petey Sessoms, but I will confess that I did not come up with the idea for this award. The credit goes to a fellow sports writer from FanNation.

The award is given to the relatively-unknown player from a mid-major school who does extremely well when he arrives at the NCAA Tournament. This year, Ben Woodside would have been the obvious pick, but he had already received plenty of recognition for his 60-point outburst earlier this year at the hands of Stephen F. Austin.

Ronald Moore, the Siena guard who delivered not one, but two clutch three-pointers in the overtimes against Ohio State, was another good choice given his 10-assist, four-steal performance against Louisville in the second round.

However, it was hard to justify not giving it to the man with averages of 18 points,  five rebounds, and six and one-half assists. He led his team to a comeback in a variety of ways. The 2009 Curry Award goes to Orlando Mendez-Valdez of Western Kentucky.

The Best Individual Battle:

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?