The first day of March Madness is in the books and oh what a day it was.
We had comebacks, upsets and emerging Cinderellas. We had top teams face a scare they didn’t see coming in the first round. We had brilliant performances and brackets that got busted. Everything you could want from an opening day of 16 games of basketball.
Below we break down some of the winners and losers from the first day of the men’s NCAA tournament.
WINNER: Nebraska basketball
Coming into the tournament, the Cornhuskers had an all-time men’s NCAA tournament record of 0–8. While Nebraska has historically been a football school rather than a basketball school, it was still shocking that such a powerful sports program had yet to pull off a tournament win. It was the last power-conference program to win a game in the tournament.
On Thursday, No. 4 Nebraska finally broke through, taking down No. 13 Troy in the first round with a comfortable 76–47 win. The biggest highlight of the night came not on the court, but on the sideline, where Kent Pavelka, who has been calling Cornhusker sports for four decades, brought plenty of emotion and pride into his call of the final seconds of the game.
WINNER: Two-point field goals from three-point shooters
Undoubtedly my favorite story of the first day of March Madness is that of No. 12 High Point sharpshooter Chase Johnston.
Johnston entered Thursday shooting 64 of 132 from three and 0 of 4 from two, serving in a Duncan Robinson–esque role for the Panthers. But Johnston decided to finally hit his first two-point shot of the season at just the right moment for High Point, cutting free for a fast break bucket that secured the upset win over No. 5 Wisconsin.
Johnston had several huge threes in the game as well, but it’s his simple lay-in that will be the endearing image from this game.
It was High Point’s first NCAA tournament win, and its first win over a power-conference program.
WINNER: Mid-majors
High Point’s win was the, well, high point of what was a pretty great day for mid-majors.
Beyond High Point, several other mid-major schools represented themselves well, both in victory and defeat. In victory, it was No. 11 VCU of the Atlantic 10, pulling off the biggest comeback in the history of the first round of the NCAA tournament to erase a 19-point deficit to No. 6 North Carolina and secure a win in overtime. In defeat, it was No. 16 Siena of the MAAC, who took a double-digit lead into halftime against No. 1 Duke, and pushed the Blue Devils to the absolute brink before ultimately falling 71–65.
Really, the day taught us what many of us already knew—mid-majors are what make March Madness great.
LOSER: High-majors afraid to schedule mid-majors
Panthers coach Flynn Clayman offered a fiery defense of mid-major programs making the tournament field after the win, explaining that his team, like Miami (Ohio) had been doubted because of their weak schedule, despite attempting to set games with tougher opponents.
“It looks pretty obvious to me that high-majors need to play mid-majors during the season because they said we ain’t played nobody. We played somebody now,” Clayman said.
“I knew how good of a team we had. But nobody would play us. Just like they wouldn’t play Miami (Ohio). But they gotta play us in this tournament.”
Clayman was referencing comments from RedHawks coach Travis Steele, who said after his team’s win in the First Four and throughout the season that he had made several overtures attempting to set up games against high-major schools, only to be rebuffed.
An open plea to those in charge of the schedules of high-major programs—this isn’t college football where a single loss makes or breaks your season. You may think that there’s more harm than good that can come from playing a mid-major program, but if you want to win anything that matters in college basketball, you have to beat every type of team. No sense in putting off what’s coming anyway.
WINNER: Nos. 16 Siena and Howard, despite losing
We touched on No. 16 Siena giving No. 1 Duke the sweat of a lifetime a little bit above, but it’s worth stressing again just how close this tournament was to going completely off the rails just a few games into the bracket. The Saints’ double-digit lead at halftime did not feel fluky—they were outplaying the Blue Devils on both sides of the ball, and outhustling them play after play.
Duke was dazed, and though it woke up in the second half, had Siena not gone ice cold from shooting late in the second half as all five of its starters approached 40 minutes of playing time, the Blue Devils might have been the third name on the NCAA tournament’s most notorious list.
Kudos to you Siena.
Additionally, while the final score didn’t reflect it, No. 16 Howard came out swinging against No. 1 Michigan, taking a four-point deficit at a score of 50–46 into halftime. While it’s now a miracle we’ve seen on two occasions, no one comes into a No. 1 vs. No. 16 matchup believing an upset is really possible, but two 16-seeds had us all dreaming on Thursday.
WINNER: Escaping what could have been a disastrous halftime quote
Speaking of that Duke game, it was important for the Blue Devils to come back, as forward Maliq Brown offered a stunning quote to CBS’s Tracy Wolfson with the team down 11 at halftime.
“I feel like a lot of us were nervous. We just got punched first,” Brown told Wolfson en route to the locker room. “We thought it was going to be a cakewalk going into this game. Now we know what it is. We’ve just got to respond back the way we usually do.”
First and foremost, credit to Brown for offering an honest, unguarded answer here. That said, he has to be extremely relieved that Duke pulled out the win. Had the Blue Devils lost, there would have been several questions Brown, his coach and his teammates would all have to answer and they would be citing Brown’s halftime quote.
WINNER: Siena band leader, VCU flutist
LOSER: My bracket
Listen, I don’t need to get into the details here, but I produced a relatively cowardly bracket this year believing we were trending toward some more chalk like we got last year, and things are not looking great.
The one upset pick I had, Troy, fell flat, and despite literally writing an article about how this was the year to pick a few No. 11 vs. No. 6 upsets, I didn’t follow my own advice. When Duke, my eventual champion, was down at halftime, I was ready to light the bracket on fire. It remains unlit for now, but I’ll be keeping a matchbook on me tomorrow.
More March Madness from Sports Illustrated
- ‘Fins Up’: Long Island University Sharks Are the NCAA Tournament’s Feel-Good Team
- Eight Standout Performances From the First Round of the NCAA Tournament
- Tar Heels’ March Madness Meltdown Caps a Colossal Year of Failure for Carolina Way
- The Biggest Comeback in Every Round of the NCAA Men's Tournament
This article was originally published on www.si.com as March Madness Day 1 Winners and Losers: Cinderella Keeps Dancing in Men’s NCAA Tournament.
