Day One of March Madness Lives Up to Billing

The NCAA Tournament is called March Madness for a reason as absolute mayhem ruled day one.
Day One of March Madness Lives Up to Billing
Murray State's Danero Thomas sank Vanderbilt with no time left on the clock on Thursday at the HP Pavillion in San Jose. (Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)
3/18/2010
Updated:
3/18/2010
<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/Murray-State-Danero-Thomas-97834501_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/Murray-State-Danero-Thomas-97834501_medium.jpg" alt="Murray State's Danero Thomas sank Vanderbilt with no time left on the clock on Thursday at the HP Pavillion in San Jose. (Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)" title="Murray State's Danero Thomas sank Vanderbilt with no time left on the clock on Thursday at the HP Pavillion in San Jose. (Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-101886"/></a>
Murray State's Danero Thomas sank Vanderbilt with no time left on the clock on Thursday at the HP Pavillion in San Jose. (Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)
The NCAA Tournament is called March Madness for a reason as absolute mayhem ruled day one.

At the time of writing, the following games were still in progress: No. 16 Lehigh vs. No. 1 Kansas, No. 9 Wake Forest vs. No. 8 Texas, No. 11 San Diego State vs. No. 6 Tennessee, No. 14 Montana vs. No. 3 New Mexico.

Winning your office pool clearly depends on how many times you are on the right side of a close game. If you happened to pick Marquette, UNLV, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Sam Houston State, Robert Morris, and Florida then I feel your pain.

Out of 12 afternoon and early evening games, seven went down to the final minute or extended past regulation. Who is sitting atop your pool right now comes down to who flipped the coin the right way.

No. 2 Villanova nearly became the first high seed to lose as No. 15 Robert Morris pushed the Wildcats into overtime. No. 10 Florida had chances to end the game in regulation and the first overtime but could not capitalize as No. 7 BYU pulled away in the second overtime.

In fact, only No. 1 Kentucky, No. 2 Kansas State, and No. 14 Ohio showed any type of authority in dominating their opponents for two halves. Huh, Ohio? Yes, you read that correctly.

<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/Armon-Bassett-Ohio-Bobcats-97839670_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/Armon-Bassett-Ohio-Bobcats-97839670_medium.jpg" alt="Armon Bassett and the No. 14 seed Ohio Bobcats beat the No. 3 seed Georgetown Hoyas 97-83 in Providence on Thursday. (Jim Rogash/Getty Images )" title="Armon Bassett and the No. 14 seed Ohio Bobcats beat the No. 3 seed Georgetown Hoyas 97-83 in Providence on Thursday. (Jim Rogash/Getty Images )" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-101887"/></a>
Armon Bassett and the No. 14 seed Ohio Bobcats beat the No. 3 seed Georgetown Hoyas 97-83 in Providence on Thursday. (Jim Rogash/Getty Images )
Ohio demolished No. 3 Georgetown by 14 points in a game where they built a double-digit lead in the first half. The Hoyas sleepwalked from beginning to end and put zero effort into the loss.

The Big East, after all the adulation and vaunting, went 1–4 on Thursday. Only Villanova survived the blitz—barely. The Big 12, with seven teams in the field, was 2–2 in the afternoon games.

What is March Madness without some buzzer beaters? No. 13 Murray State’s Danero Thomas gave us our first one with a fadeaway jumper as time expired to knock off No. 4 Vanderbilt.

The Pac-10 only managed to get two teams into the field, but conference champion No. 11 Washington managed to squeeze itself into the second round with a surprise victory over No. 6 Marquette from the Big East.

After being down by 15 points with 13 minutes remaining, the Huskies turned it up a notch and fought valiantly in the comeback. They outrebounded the Golden Eagles and gave themselves several key second and third chance opportunities.

With as many close games as Marquette has played this season, you would think that they would be the more experienced team down the stretch. Instead, the Huskies showed poise as Quincy Pondexter drove into the lane for the game-winning layup off the glass with 1.7 seconds remaining.

You want a crazy 3-pointer that wins the game? You got it. No. 9 Northern Iowa’s Ali Farokhmanesh drained a 25-footer with 4.9 seconds remaining to break a tie with No. 8 UNLV.

The best performance of the day came from BYU’s Jimmer Fredette, one of the best scoring guards in the nation, who finished with 37 points to tie a school record for an NCAA tournament game.

Kentucky’s Eric Bledsoe wasn’t far behind after sinking eight of nine 3-pointers to finish with 29 points while setting a new Kentucky record for made 3-pointers in an NCAA tournament game.

Perhaps individual records won’t be the only thing breaking in the big dance. Maybe your computer shattering is the sound you'll be hearing as more buzzer beaters and coin flips bust your bracket.