SI:AM | March Recaptures Its Madness on Tournament’s Opening Day

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I really hope today’s tournament games (including the opening day on the women’s side) can keep up yesterday’s momentum.

In today’s SI:AM:
😮‍💨 Duke survives
😬 UNC collapses
👏 High Point reaches new heights

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What a first day

Last year’s exceptionally chalky men’s NCAA tournament (in which all four No. 1 seeds reached the Final Four for just the second time) inspired all sorts of handwringing about whether, in this new era of college sports, March had lost its madness. After the opening day of this year’s tournament, it’s safe to say the answer is no.

Thursday’s opening-round games gave us enough upsets, near-upsets, comebacks and clutch shots to remind us that while college basketball is undoubtedly experiencing increased stratification, it can still be prone to chaos.

By my count, nine of the 16 games were interesting in one way or another:

No. 16 Siena became the first 16-seed to lead a one-seed at halftime and gave No. 1 Duke everything it could handle before falling, 71–65.
No. 16 Howard, trailing by just four at halftime, also gave No. 1 Michigan a scare. The Wolverines pulled away midway through the second half en route to a 101–80 win. Michigan entered the game ranked first in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency rating, but the Bison’s 80 points were tied for the third most that Michigan allowed in a regulation game this season.
No. 9 TCU beat No. 8 Ohio State, 66–64, on a layup by junior forward Xavier Edmonds with 4.3 seconds left.
No. 5 Wisconsin and No. 12 High Point played a back-and-forth second half that ended in an upset victory for the Panthers on a fast-break layup by Chase Johnston, the seventh-year senior’s first two-point basket of the season.
No. 11 VCU mounted the largest comeback in first round history, erasing a 19-point second-half deficit against No. 6 North Carolina to win in overtime, 82–78.
No. 6 Louisville hung on to beat No. 11 South Florida after building a 22-point lead midway through the second half, only to see the Bulls cut it to four in the final seconds.
No. 11 Texas got by No. 6 BYU in a tight one, 79–71, highlighted by presumptive NBA lottery pick AJ Dybantsa’s 35 points for the Cougars.
No. 9 Saint Louis demolished No. 8 Georgia, 102–77, becoming the first Atlantic 10 team to score 100 points in a tournament game since 1982.
No. 14 Kennesaw State kept it close the whole way against No. 3 Gonzaga, but the Bulldogs won, 73–64.

By sheer number of upsets, Thursday wasn’t totally out of the ordinary. Four double-digit seeds won their opening games: No. 12 High Point, No. 11 VCU, No. 11 Texas and No. 10 Texas A&M. That’s generally on par with previous years. The record for wins by teams seeded 10th or lower on the opening day of the tournament is six (in 1991) and the median number is three.

The fact that two of the “upset” winners were SEC teams undercuts any proclamation about the current state of Cinderella teams, but there’s no denying that the opening day of this year’s tournament was more entertaining than last year. Seven games on Thursday were decided by nine points or fewer. Only once in the previous 10 years have there been more games decided by single digits on the first Thursday of the tournament. Last year, there were only five such games.

March Madness is often judged by the number and magnitude of the upsets, and while we may never again reach the heights of the 2016 tournament, when a record 10 double-digit seeds won in the first round (eight of them mid-major programs), what fans really want to see above all is a good basketball game. Last year’s opening round was fairly dull, but Thursday’s certainly wasn’t. We can only hope that Friday is more of the same.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Siena players react during their game against Duke — Siena’s bench played a total of eight seconds in the Saints’ upset bid against Duke. | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Bryan Fischer was in Greenville, S.C., where he saw Duke’s illusion of invincibility vanish in a battle with lowly Siena. Later, the Blue Devils’ Tobacco Road rivals, North Carolina, had their failure of a season end with a historic collapse.
Siena coach Gerry McNamara made the stunning decision not to use his bench at all in the Saints’ upset bid against Duke. Kevin Sweeney explains why it was a smarter decision than you might realize.
Pat Forde has more on Chase Johnston, the hero for High Point who secured an upset win with his first two-point basket of the season.
Ryan Phillips lists the eight most impressive individual performances from the opening day of March Madness.
Meanwhile, in the NBA, Luka Dončić dropped 60 points against the Heat. Tom Dierberger compiled a list of the most amazing stats from Luka’s big game.
I really enjoyed Albert Breer’s profile of NFL draft prospect Ernest Hausmann, who opened up about a mental health diagnosis and discussed why he returned to football after initially walking away.
Iran has said it intends to participate in this summer’s World Cup, but plans to boycott the United States. Grey Whitebloom examines whether FIFA could move the team’s games to Mexico.

The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:
5. The moment Canadian broadcaster TSN cut away from the UNC-VCU game with the score tied and two seconds on the clock to show… curling.
4. The High Point student radio call of the play that clinched the Panthers’ upset over Wisconsin.
3. The Spanish-language call of Fernando Gorriarán’s stoppage-time goal for Tigres UANL to beat FC Cincinnati in the Concacaf Champions League.
2. TCU forward David Punch’s assist on Xavier Edmonds’s game-winning shot.
1. Terrence Hill Jr.’s step-back three to give VCU the lead over UNC in overtime.

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