Although it seems counterintuitive to call it “March” madness since games are played up until early April, but the hysteria starts in March. Buzzer beaters, upsets, surprising finishes, the list is endless. So while you enjoy the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, the madness can either be enjoyable, or make you want to burn your brackets.
In the end, experts in bracketology still are unable to decipher who will win and advance, and who will be packing their bags early. The first round saw the atypical 5-12 seed upset, when Richmond send Vanderbilt packing in the first round for the second consecutive year, Morehead State from the Ohio Valley sent four-seed Louisville and Rick Pitino home early. This was the first real bracket buster, but should not be surprising since 13-seed Murray State beat Vanderbilt on a buzzer beater last March. De ja vue at the hands of the OVC. 11-seed Marquette took care of Xavier, and 11-seed Gonzaga dominated the senior-laden St. John’s squad. And so I make my top five list of the best first-round games of 2011. March madness lived up to its name this year…again.
5. 12-seed Richmond stuns 5-seed Vanderbilt 69-66:
No video for this one, but Richmond has already made a reputation for pulling off the upset. In 1991, they beat Syracuse as a 15-seed, and won as a 14-seed in 1998. What we also know is that Vanderbilt likes to lose in the first round. Okay maybe not like, but tends to follow a trend. Last year, 13-seed Murray State knocked off 4-seed Vanderbilt on a buzzer beater. This time it was a floater by the Spiders’ Kevin Anderson with 18.7 seconds remaining that sealed the Commodores’ fate…again. So if you see Vanderbilt as a four or five seed next year, expect an upset. That’s the moral of the story.
4. 13-seed Morehead State reps the OVC in a thriller over 4-seed Louisville 62-61:
Morehead State’s Demonte Sharper hit a three-pointer with 5.4 seconds remaining to give the Eagles a 62-61 lead. Louisville had a chance to win it, but Morehead State center Kenneth Faried blocked Mike Marra’s three point attempt as time expired to seal the shocking upset. Instead, that other Kentucky team from Morehead prevailed over the atypical perennial power Louisville.
3. 4-seed Kentucky survives a scare from the Ivy League: Kentucky 59-Princeton 57
Kentucky faced Ivy Leaguer Princeton in the first round, but the Tigers but on quite the scare. It was 57-55 Kentucky before the Tigers’ Dan Mavraides hit a step-back jumper with 36 seconds to go to tie the game up at 57. Freshman dandy Brandon Knight then took it upon himself to make a driving layup with two seconds to go to escape another upset. The Tigers are most notably known for their first round upset in 1996 over the defending NCAA champion UCLA Bruins.
The Tigers journey to the dance was quite memorable when they tied Harvard for the Ivy League title and were forced to play a one-game playoff to determine who would receive the Ivy League’s automatic bid. A Douglas Davis buzzer beater locked their bid to the tournament for the first time since 2004 in dramatic fashion, a week after losing to Harvard in Cambridge, Mass. in a game that would have clinched the Ivy League title. Harvard also had the opportunity to head to the tourney for the first time since 1946, but instead the shot by Davis extended that tourney drought.
Either way, the Tigers could not prevail, and Kentucky held out for a hero. Knight’s only two points of the game proved to be the most important.
Kentucky has a \’Knight\’ in shining armor
2. 7-seed Temple wins on an off-balance jumper over 10-seed Penn State 66-64:
Penn State trailed Temple 64-61, but Taylor Battle’s three-pointer from 30 feet out tied the game at 64 with 16 seconds remaining. The saying goes that one great shot deserves another, as Fernandez hit a tough off-balance jumper off numerous pump fakes with 0.4 remaining to knock the Nittany Lions out of the tourney. The Nittany Lions were in the tournament for the first time since 2001, earning an at-large bid mostly because of their surprise run to the Big 10 Tournament final.
Temple escapes the wrath of the Penn
But the win also ended Temple coach Fran Dumphry’s NCAA Tournament record 11-game losing streak. Temple’s last tournament win last came in 2001, and fittingly enough against Penn State.
1. 8-seed Butler prevails over 9-seed Old Dominion on a bit of luck on St. Patrick’s Day 60-58:
It was the luck of the irish for the er…Bulldogs in a first round match-up in the nation’s capital. Matt Howard’s tip-in at the buzzer propelled the Bulldogs into the second round albeit a play that was in the least bit well-crafted. Guard Shawn Vanzant was driving to the basket when he lost his balance and threw the ball toward the basket, the ball was hit up against the backboard, and right to Howard for the tip-in at the buzzer.
While you can almost guarantee that Butler coach Brad Stevens did not draw that play up, Butler escaped a first-round thriller, starting a spiraling process of down-to-the-wire games in another year of the madness that ensues during the month of March.