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Arguably the best sporting event of the year is currently in its early stages as March Madness got started on Tuesday night with the First Four, and then the first round got started on Thursday. The First Four gave us an early taste of the tournament and there were some great matchups, but Thursday was March Madness at its finest. The first day is always one of the best as there are 16 games going from noon all the way until around midnight ET. We saw a lot of great action on day one, and now, college basketball fans are ready to do it all again on Friday. It's the most wonderful time of the year.
There is so much to love about March Madness, and the first week of the tournament is one of the best stretches in all of sports. Basketball begins at noon and there are countless good games all day and into the night. College basketball fans are currently setting up multiple TVs to be able to take in as much March Madness action at once as humanly possible. It doesn't get much better than this weekend when it comes to sport.
Another great part of March Madness are the historic performances put on by individual players. Every so often we will see a player completely take over a game and put their team on their back, and they sometimes carry their squad all the way to a national title. It's always fun to watch. When it gets to the later stages of the tournament, everyone knows that player is getting the ball, and still, no one can stop him. We saw some of that yesterday, but we'll get to that later.
The upsets are always special as well. It seems like every season there is at least one underdog team that captures America's heart and makes a surprise deep run in March Madness. For example, #16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson took down #1 seed Purdue last year and ended up putting up a good fight in the second round too. They lost to Florida Atlantic, however. Then, #9 said Florida Atlantic turned into the cinderella team as they marched all the way to the Final Four. Upsets are one of the best parts of college basketball, and something about March Madness brings them out. We now have a cinderella team to root for after some great upsets took place during day one of the tournament.
Day one of March Madness did not disappoint. There were a ton of good games, and as always, perhaps the best part of the day was seeing the upsets. On Thursday, five lower seeded teams knocked off their higher seeded opponent as nine seed Michigan State took down eight seed Mississippi State, all three 11 seeds that played took down the six seeds yesterday as Duquesne beat BYU, NC State beat Texas Tech and Oregon beat South Carolina. Last, but certainly not least, 14 seed Oakland took down three seed Kentucky behind Jack Gohlke and his legendary performance. It was a great day of college basketball.
Kentucky was a popular pick to make a deep run in March Madness, but they are now already eliminated from the tournament. The Wildcats have struggled a lot in recent trips to the NCAA Tournament, and those woes continued on Thursday.
It's only been one day, but we have already seen some good upsets, and there is sure to be more as the tournament continues into Friday (#6 Clemson should be shaking knowing they're the only six seed left). There were a lot of good upsets on day one to discuss, and here were the best three.
#3: #11 NC State over #6 Texas Tech
Getting a six seed in March Madness seems like a punishment these days. Recent years have not been kind to six seeds and yesterday was one of the worst showings for the seed of all time as all three went down to 11 seeds. There were a lot of good upsets on the day, so they can't all make the list, but the third best upset of the day was NC State taking down Texas Tech.
How about the Wolfpack? NC State came out of nowhere last week to win the ACC Tournament as the 10 seed in the conference, and now they are headed to the round of 32 of March Madness after upsetting Texas Tech. It's safe to say that this team has found their stride.
The Red Raiders came into this game favored by 4.5, and it was close for awhile. However, the Wolfpack pulled away in the later stages of the game and won 80-67. NC State is one of the hottest teams on the bracket right now, and they are looking to pull off some more upsets.
#2: #11 Duquesne over #6 BYU
The other 11 seed that made the cut here is Duquesne as they pulled off a great upset win over BYU. Sorry, Oregon, but you were actually favored by 2.5, and the Dukes here were 9.5-point underdogs.
What a win for Duquesne. The Dukes got out to an early 9-0 lead in this one, but they could never really shake the Cougars for good. Duquesne got out to multiple big leads in the game, and BYU came back every time. However, they couldn't complete the comeback at the end, and the Dukes are moving on to the round of 32 to take on three seed Illinois. Can they pull off another upset there?
#1: #14 Oakland over #3 Kentucky
Here it is. This is why we love March Madness. The best upset of the day was Jack Gohlke and 14 seed Oakland taking down the big bad three seeded Kentucky Wildcats. The Grizzlies were 13.5-point underdogs, but they led for the most of the game and outlasted Kentucky to win a thriller, and Gohlke had the performance of a lifetime.
Remember how we were talking about the legendary March Madness players who put their team on their back and carry them to victory? That is what Jack Gohlke did, and a new March legend was born as the Twitter world couldn't get enough of him. Gohlke finished the game with 32 points as he buried 10 triples and attempted zero two-point shots. Legend.
What a win for Oakland, and pure heartbreak for Kentucky. That was easily the best upset of the day, and the Grizzlies are moving on to take on 11 seed NC State. One of those teams will be in the Sweet 16.
Thursday was awesome. Now let's do it all again.
