And We're Dancin'
- Zach
- Mar 17, 2018
- 5 min read
The First Round of March Madness is officially in the books. Full of close contests, fiery upsets, threatened top seeds, and surprisingly strong low seeds.
What the **** just happened? That's probably what a lot of you were thinking after this crazy first round. We don't blame you. That was one of the craziest starts to the tourney in history. Here are our bracket results from the Round of 64, our takeaways and explanations of the first round, and our analysis and predictions for the Round of 32.
Wildest Upsets and Takeaways
Wow. W-O-W. The first round of the tournament has been historic. It had already lit the world alight from two 13 seeds, Buffalo and Marshall, overcoming 4 seeds Arizona and Wichita State. Then the unexpected happened: for the first time in NCAA history a 16 seed beat a 1 seed, as UMBC overcame Virginia in dominant fashion. Yes you read that right, the University of Maryland- Baltimore County, one of the most obscure teams in the tournament defeated top 1 seed Virginia, and the top rated defense in D1 by a whopping 20 points. Virginia was advertised as this stout shutdown defense that had yet to give up 70+ points all season long and then UMBC came out of nowhere, caught Virginia lacking, and dropped 74 points on Virginia all the while dominating them in literally just about every statistical category. Many may chalk this loss, as well as those of Arizona, Wichita State, and Loyola-Chicago, up to the failure of the top seeds to prepare. However for those who watched these games, it was clear that the low seeds did not act like traditional low seeds; they carried themselves with confidence and composure despite a lack of tournament experience and played like they deserved to be there. UMBC and Buffalo absolutely dominated their competition, each winning by at least 20 points, whereas other upsets led by Marshall, Loyola-Chicago, Syracuse, and Butler were a bit closer, but they all had the common theme of the victor playing with confidence, composure, heart, and showing that they deserved to be there through their play.
That, in fact, is the biggest takeaway of this all: the college playing field is progressively getting more and more competitive and even as teams are proving that teamwork, hustle, and effort are more important than having the top recruits and participating in the so-called power conferences. Ultimately this shows that each and every one of these teams deserved to be there, even Syracuse, which was criticized for its selection but has succeeded against Arizona State in the First Four In and now TCU. This should prove for an exciting continuation to the tournament as these results have proved that no team is safe. Additionally it shows that the success of teams and players in lower conferences is not to be looked, such as Marshall's Jon Elmore, who averaged 20 PPG, 6.0 RPG, and 6.9 APG this season. With a total of of 9 first round upsets, this will be an exciting and hopefully historic tournament for the ages.
What we got right:
Kentucky beat Davidson
Loyola-Chicago beat Miami
Tennessee beat Wright State
Cincinnati beat Georgia State
Xavier beat Texas Southern
Florida State beat Missouri
Ohio State beat South Dakota State
Gonzaga beat UNC-Greenwich
Houston beat San Diego State
Michigan beat Montana
UNC beat Lipscomb
Villanova beat Radford
Alabama beat Virginia Tech
West Virginia beat Murray State
Butler beat Arkansas
Purdue beat CSU Fullerton
Kansas beat Penn
Seton Hall beat NC State
Clemson beat New Mexico State
Auburn beat Charleston
Syracuse beat TCU
Michigan State beat Bucknell
Duke beat Iona
What we missed:
UMBC beat Virginia
Kansas State beat Creighton
Buffalo beat Arizona
Nevada beat Texas
Texas A&M beat Providence
Marshall beat Wichita State
Florida beat St. Bonaventure
Texas Tech beat SF Austin
First Round Score: 24/32
Rapid Fire Readjustments for Round of 32:
UMBC will beat Kansas State off their surge of confidence from overcoming Virginia, their evidently gritty defense, and their three point shooting as they're 22 in D1 in three pointers made per game and are clearly hot as they shot 50% from deep against the top defense Virginia.
Kentucky will beat Buffalo due to Calipari's tournament experience, the team's excellent zone team, and improved shooting.
Loyola-Chicago will beat Tennessee in a defense versus defense affair that should be low scoring, slow paced, and come down to the wire, with the Ramblers' shooting helping them over the inefficient Vols.
Cincinnati will beat Nevada in a close contest due to their absolute shutdown defense and evidently strong offense in what should be a tight-knit clash of a defensive titan and an offensive titan.
Xavier will beat Florida State through prolific team play by ultimately outgunning the significantly younger and less experienced FSU.
Gonzaga will beat Ohio State in a close matchup between two shaky first round warriors, as they'll come on top with experience and precise execution.
Michigan will beat Houston by shutting down Rob Gray, who had 39 points in the first round, and by riding a surge of energy and defense led by the hustle play of Moritz Wagner.
UNC will beat Texas A&M in a close matchup of experience against athleticism by limiting the play of their top forwards D.J. Hogg and Robert Williams.
Villanova will beat Alabama with their rigid execution on both ends of the ball against a sloppy team that relied on Collin Sexton, John Petty, and Donta' Hall to continuously save them in the first round.
West Virginia will beat Marshall in yet another clash of defensive supremacy and offensive proficiency by shutting down their shooters, defending the paint, maintaining a slow pace, and controlling the boards.
Texas Tech will beat Florida with their athletic, controlling defense, breakneck fast break play, and overall dominance on both sides of the ball led by freshman Zhaire Smith.
Butler will beat Purdue by riding their first round surge against an injury stricken team that will be relying on an unproven big to fill the shoes of their star center, Isaac Haas, who fractured his elbow in the first round.
Kansas will beat Seton Hall comfortably by controlling both sides of the ball and fighting a vicious battle on the boards led by Silvio De Sousa and Angel Delgado respectively.
Clemson will beat Auburn in a Tigers versus Tigers matchup that'll pit two extremely similar experienced squads against each other in a battle to the wire.
Michigan State will beat Syracuse while being challenged by the length of a squad whose average height is 6'8", but will overcome that length with
Duke will beat URI as they continue to click on all cylinders just as they did in their dominant first round matchup as they look like the most in form team.
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