We have seen the craziness of the NCAA tournament time and time again. We have witnessed shocking upsets that crush brackets across the nation year after year (I went 10 games into the tourney this year before giving up on my bracket after watching one of my upset picks in North Carolina St. somehow blow a game after leading by 8 points with 1:41 remaining. Never trust Mark Gottfried no matter what you do. Trust him less than Larry Drew, which is saying something. It is, however, longer than I went last year when I gave up on my pool after a whopping two games when Butler beat my upset pick in Bucknell). March Madness has been the home to unthinkable finishes and seemingly implausible moments ever since the field expanded to 64 teams all the way back in 1985. Honestly, the tournament has more twists and turns than an episode of The Walking Dead and everybody, including Rick Grimes, has come to expect the madness.
Just look at last year's tournament as a snapshot of the insanity that is inherent in the big dance. Florida Gulf Coast, a school that was established less than 25 years ago, beat Georgetown, a program that has been to the Final Four 5 times (3 times in a 4-year stretch during the days of Patrick Ewing) and then went on to become the first 15 seed to reach the sweet 16 after beating San Diego St. in the next round. It was the second time in tournament history that a 15 seed (Florida Gulf Coast), a 14 seed (Harvard), a 13 seed (La Salle), at least one 12 seed (Ole Miss, Cal, and Oregon), and at least one 11 seed (Minnesota) all won a game in the big dance (the only other time was in 1991 when Richmond, Xavier, Penn St., Eastern Michigan, UConn/Creighton got the victories as double digit seeds). For just the 4th time ever, there was only one team along the top
three seed lines in the Final Four (the other years were 1980 with Louisville, Iowa, Purdue, and UCLA,
2000 with Michigan St., Florida, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, and 2011 with UConn, Kentucky, Butler, and VCU). Wichita St. also became the first 9 seed to reach the Final Four since the field expanded in 1985 and the second 9 seed to reach the National Semifinals since the NCAA began to seed in 1978, joining the Penn team from 1979 that lost to eventual champions Michigan St. and Magic Johnson.
With all this in mind, you know things have to be nothing short of outrageous when the first two days of the tournament can totally surprise fans, even those that have grown accustomed to the madness of march. That is no hyperbole either, as this was the greatest slate of opening games in the history of March Madness.
We saw a little bit of everything from the 2nd round of the tourney. There were shocking upsets all over the place in the four regions. Mercer, a team playing in its third ever NCAA tournament game, beat Duke, a school that has won four National Championships. It was Mercer's first ever win in the big dance, topping a Duke program that has won 99 tournament games, the third most all-time in postseason history, only behind Kentucky's 111 and North Carolina's 109. The Bears won the game despite the fact that the Blue Devils made 15 three pointers (the record for threes in an NCAA tournament game is 21 by Loyola Marymount in 1990 against Michigan). Who would have thought that Duke would lose to a 14 seed or lower in two of the last three NCAA tournaments (Coach K is turning into John Thompson III). Saint Louis was the only 5 seed to move on to the third round, as Harvard beat Cincinnati (nothing like Harvard kids ruining perfect brackets and taking a billion dollars away from others), North Dakota St. topped Oklahoma (the best thing that has probably ever happened in North Dakota), and Stephen F. Austin stunned VCU in 5-12 match-ups. It was the just the fourth time in tournament history that three different 12 seeds won a game in the tourney along with 2002 (Missouri, Tulsa, and Creighton), 2009 (Western Kentucky, Arizona, Wisconsin), and last year (Oregon, California, and Ole Miss).
Upsets were so rampant that there was an extended period of time in the Virginia-Coastal Carolina game where it looked very possible that a 16 seed could finally beat a 1 seed for the first time in 120 attempts before the Cavaliers pulled away in the latter stages of the second half (Virginia was down 5 at half). Mark my words: in the next 10 years a 16 seed will beat a 1 seed. We have already had seven 15 seeds knock off 2 seeds (Richmond in 1991, Santa Clara in 1993, Coppin St. in 1997, Hampton in 2001, Norfolk St. in 2012, Lehigh in the same year, and Florida Gulf Coast last year) and as 16 seeds Princeton and East Tennessee St. got within one point of a victory in 1989 and the next year Murray St. took top seeded Michigan St. to overtime before losing by 4. A 16 seed will win against a 1 seed before the Cubs win the World Series (which isn't saying a lot). Ok, how bout this: it will happen before the Nets get under the salary cap again or before the Cleveland Browns have the same starting quarterback for an entire season.
However, there are always upsets in the big dance, and the opening two days of this tournament had a whole lot more than that.
We had a buzzer-beater from Texas, courtesy of Cameron Ridley, in their 87-85 victory over Arizona St. in the Midwest Region, which is always a much needed necessity. Although it will certainly not go in video montages forever like the Laettner shot against Kentucky from 1992, the 1983 Lorenzo Charles dunk against Houston, or the Bryce Drew jumper vs Ole Miss from 1988, it was the first loose ball, scramble on the floor, layup buzzer-beater I've ever seen in my life. It was also the first ever buzzer beater from somebody that is as big as Prince Fielder.
There were five overtime games in the first two days of the tournament with UConn and Saint Joseph's, North Dakota St. and Oklahoma, NCST and Saint Louis, San Diego St. and New Mexico St., and VCU and Stephen. F Austin, which set the record for the most overtime games in the round of 64 (Iowa and Tennessee also played a overtime game in their first four game). It makes up for the last two years, each of which only had one nail-biting, overtime game (North Carolina vs Ohio in 2012 in the sweet 16 and Kansas vs Michigan in 2013 in the regional semifinals as well).
The first two days of the tournament also featured one of the wildest endings to a basketball game that you will ever see (I'm talking USA-USSR 1972 Olympic Gold Medal game crazy). It had everything a great comeback needs (ask the 2007 Phillies or the 2011 Rays): an impressive resurgence (1992 Bills like), a terrible collapse (Jean Van de Velde 1999 British Open bad), and a crazy sequence of events at the end of the game (think fifth down game) that made people question if this is real life or if this is actually a dream state where Leonardo DiCaprio is coming to save us all (if that joke didn't make sense it goes perfectly with the plot of Inception). I'm referring to the madness that was the VCU-Stephen F. Austin game, which broke twitter much more than any Ellen DeGeneres selfie. After staying close for the majority of the game despite coughing the ball up 17 times against a VCU defense that was the best in the nation in forcing turnovers during the regular season, Stephen F. Austin had to come back from 10 down with 3 minutes to go, and they did just that. Although the Lumberjacks got some help from VCU's very poor shooting from the free throw, they still remained down by 4 points with 10 seconds left and Jordan Burgress on the foul line for VCU. What occured next was so crazy that it made Project X look docile. Not only did Burgress, nearly a 70 percent free throw shooter, miss both free throws, but Desmond Haymond for Stephen F. Austin then nailed a three and got fouled. Why JaQuan Lewis got anywhere near a Stephen F. Austin player taking a three when the Rams were up four will be one of sport's biggest mysteries along with if the immaculate reception was really a legal catch, did Michael Jordan retire because of gambling in 1993, did Geoff Hurst goal really go in against West Germany in 1966, and did David Stern fix the 1985 NBA draft so that the Knicks could get Patrick Ewing (so I guess it's not as big of a question as those, but still, why did he get anywhere near a shooter up by four points in the waning seconds of the game). The Lumberjacks went on to win the crazy game in overtime, in a much better finish than the ending of The Sopranos.
You know the first two days are just something else when I haven't even mentioned Kansas escaping against 15th seeded Eastern Kentucky (the game was tied with 8 minutes to go), Louisville likewise narrowly beating Manhattan (the Cardinals needed two Luke Hancock threes to top the Jaspers by 6), Bryce Cotton breaking his back from nearly carrying Providence over North Carolina (the First Team All-Big East guard had 36 points, 8 assists, and 5 rebounds in the two point loss), or Adreian Payne setting a Michigan St. postseason record of 41 points against Delaware (he was 17 for 17 from the charity strike, breaking Bill Bradley and Fennis Dembo's free throw record without a miss). It wasn't an oversight on my part that I didn't mention the Gonzaga-Oklahoma St. because in a great two days of basketball that game had more whistles than the theme song of The Andy Griffith Show.
We can only hope that the rest of the tournament can come somewhere close to the greatest of the first two days and it certainly has the potential to do so. Every big tourney needs its fair share of giants, and this one is no different with Florida, Syracuse, Kansas, Michigan St., Arizona, Louisville, and Michigan amongst the favorites for the National Championship. We also have the storyline of Kentucky trying to bring all of their ridiculous talent together for a deep run in the dance (I don't see it because I just don't think they will get consistent enough guard play from the Harrison brothers). Not to mention the fact that Wichita St. is trying to become the 8th team to finish a season undefeated with a National Championship at the end of it (they would join Bill Russell's 1956 San Francisco team, Lennie Rosenbluth's 1957 North Carolina club, Gail Goodrich's 1964 UCLA squad, Lew Alcindor's 1967 UCLA club, Bill Walton's 1972 and 1973 UCLA teams, and Scott May's 1976 Indiana squad to have a perfect, title winning season).
I think it is safe to say that even the Russian judge loves March Madness.
Funny dude
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