No dull moments in March

It’s March, and the NCAA mens basketball tournament has definitely lived up to the madness. The first weekend of the tournament has been highlighted with plenty of close games and unforgettable upsets.

The most memorable had to be the 14th-seeded Mercer Bears taking down the third-seeded Duke Blue Devils 78-71 Friday in the second round of the Midwest Regional. That was definitely a bracket destroyer for most people I am sure.

There were plenty of other upsets, including three No. 12 seeds over five seeds.

North Dakota State beat Oklahoma, Harvard defeated Cincinnati and Stephen F. Austin advanced to the Round of 32 by beating Virginia Commonwealth.

Stephen F. Austin beat VCU 77-75 in overtime after SFU’s Desmond Haymon tied the game after completing a four-point play with 3.6 seconds left in the second half.

It should not have been that big of a surprise that the Lumberjacks found a way to win with only two losses on the season and an 18-0 record in the Southland Conference.

While the SFU-VCU game may have been the most exciting, the Dayton-Syracuse Round of 32 game may have been the most bizarre.

If you are a fan of defense, it was a game for you with the halftime score 20-18 in favor of the Flyers. The way that game was going, the first team to score 40 points was going to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Dayton ended up upsetting the Orange 55-53.

Besides upsets, overtime games seemed to be the other theme of the first weekend of the tournament. On Thursday, four overtime games occurred, the most overtime games in one day at the NCAA tournament.

After working through all of the messy upsets and overtime games, most of the powerhouses still remain.

Florida, one of the most consistent teams all season long, won its first two games to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. I have the Gators advancing to the national championship game in one of my two brackets.

No. 4 seeds Louisville and Michigan State, who are probably better than the average four seed, are still quietly hanging around.

Second-seeded Michigan is in the Sweet Sixteen as well. I am secretly hoping for a Michigan-Michigan State national championship matchup. The two schools are separated by 65 miles and are conference rivals.

As of early Sunday morning, the lowest seed to clinch a Sweet Sixteen spot is No. 11 seed Dayton, and the Flyers can still make some noise in the tournament.

So far, the Flyers have upset sixth-seeded Ohio State by one point and third-seeded Syracuse by two.

Dayton’s win over Syracuse busted my bracket a bit and so did the seventh-seeded Connecticut Huskies’ 77-65 victory over second-seeded Villanova in the Round of 32.

I am a little disappointed that second-seeded Wisconsin beat seventh-seeded Oregon in the Round of 32 because I picked Oregon to go to the Sweet Sixteen in one of my brackets and the Elite Eight in my other one.

I selected the Ducks to go a long way in the tournament because they score a lot of points. Plus, it’s pretty cool that former NIC player Jalil Abdul-Bassit is on the team.