It's always special when you see an event live and know instantly that what just happened is something you're going to be seeing replays of for, pretty much, the rest of your existence. There's no way to get to each and every noteworthy item from perhaps the most insanely beautiful day the tournament has ever given us, but let's try our damnedest.
The expectations for the tournament seem to grow more and more gargantuan every year, so it was pretty special to see a day that not only met, but exceeded the mammoth standards of both the casual fan and college hoops diehards. Friday gave us one buzzer-beater around the rim, one buzzer-beater from halfcourt, one near buzzer-beater that was waved off by the narrowest of margins, six games that were decided by five points or fewer and arguably the single greatest upset in the history of March Madness.Īt the risk of sounding hyperbolic yet again, Friday was pretty much everything that we love about this time of year packed into one 13-hour span. The 13 first-round wins for lower-seeded teams ties the NCAA Tournament record set in 2001. In 2015, that happened five times on the tournament's opening Thursday and Friday combined. The worse-seeded team won six times on Friday and seven times on Thursday. 11 or worse have advanced into the second round, the highest such number in NCAA Tournament history. For the first time in NCAA Tournament history, 10 double digit seeds won a first-round game. 15 seed have won a tournament game on the same way. It was also, as you might have guessed, the first time a No. 4 seed have lost first-round games on the same day. Friday was the first time in NCAA Tournament history that a No.
You might immediately want to chalk that statement up as hyperbole or the product of a recency bias, but here's my evidence in support of it: There's really no other way to start this other than coming right out and saying it: Friday was the best day of first round NCAA Tournament basketball ever.
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