March Madness: Upset Drought
Day one of March Madness is always a fun day. The anticipation turns into excitement right as the ref throws up the first tip. Everybody has their upset pick and brings passion to their bracket, especially if money is involved. Every player, coach, referee, fan, even broadcasters feel the intensity of the NCAA tournament stage. This is just the beginning to, what should be, a fun March.
Who made the upset?
Every year, and I mean every year, there are big upsets in the first round of the tournament. There are plenty of teams who come in hungry for a win or are just happy to be there. Unknown teams take big-name teams by surprise and turn out to beat the higher seed. However, today was not filled with many upsets.
Only two lower-seeded teams came away with victories today. Middle Tennessee, 12-seed, beat Minnesota, five-seed, and Xavier, 11-seed, beat Maryland, six-seed. The shortage of upsets on day one is unheard of. Last season, eight lower seeds came away with a day-one victory. Upsets are inevitable in this tournament so watch for plenty of upsets on day two of the tournament to even things out.
Buzzer Beaters
One common scenario occurred in the games today. Plenty of late-game one-possession scenarios. No better time to see one today came in the very first game on the schedule between Princeton, 12-seed, and Notre Dame, five-seed. Notre Dame led the majority of the ballgame, but the pesky Princeton Tigers, out of the Ivy league, stuck around with the Irish all game. Princeton trailed 59-54 with 1:10 remaining when they went on a quick 4-0 run to bring it back to a one-point game. The Irish let Princeton back in after two empty possessions which ended in a missed jumper and a miss at the free-throw line. Princeton trailed by one with 19 seconds remaining after Pete Miller tipped in a missed shot. They were forced to foul the Irish and Matt Farrell, Notre Dame’s guard, went to the stripe and split the two. Princeton grabbed the rebound after the second shot missed and went down and chucked up a long three for the win. Devin Cannady, a Princeton guard, barely missed the shot. Notre Dame grabbed the rebound and went on to win.
Here are all the final moments. Look how close Princeton was to winning.
So many NCAA tournaments come down to the wire like this, which is what makes this tournament must-see TV. Usually, the team who can perform the best in these moments goes on to win championships. Notre Dame showed why making free throws down the stretch can make or break you as well. They went to the line twice with the chance to close out Princeton and came away with one point. That opened the door for Princeton but Notre Dame went on to dodge a bullet. That’s why they say the tournament is really just about surviving more than anything. Congrats to Notre Dame for staying alive.
Only one other game came down to a buzzer-beater scenario. The always tough to call eight versus nine seed game between Vanderbilt and Northwestern found themselves in this situation. Vanderbilt trailed by one with 17 seconds when Riley LaChance, Vanderbilt guard made a driving layup to give the Commodores a one-point lead. Northwestern in-bounded the ball to head down the other end of the court for a last-second shot. Right then, Matthew Fisher-Davis, Vanderbilt guard, fouled Bryant McIntosh, Northwestern guard, which sent him to the free-throw line. The foul was a major mistake by the Vanderbilt guard since Northwestern found a chance to take the lead on the free-throw line instead of making a tough shot. McIntosh then made both free throws which led to Vanderbilt getting a chance to win the game on a buzzer beater. LaChance ended up taking a three for the Commodores but missed. Northwestern went on to win 68-66. The foul by Fisher-Davis looms over as the cause for the unfortunate result for Vanderbilt.
Another example of crunch time plays dictating the result of a game.
Moving On
Since there weren’t many upsets, many big name teams are moving on to the second round. Teams such as Iowa State, Gonzaga, Purdue, Arizona, Purdue, Florida, Butler, Wisconsin all won, fairly easy, by double-digits. Some teams had to battle it out all day and still came away with a solid victory such as West Virginia, Florida, and Virginia. All of these teams are high seeds and will provide great matchups down the road of this tournament.
Another full order of March Madness is in-store tomorrow. Expect more than two upsets on day two.