March Madness Review: Day 2

If you're bracket wasn't significantly harmed after Thursday's upsets, Friday should have done the trick. While it wasn't upset city like Thursday, yesterday's games started out with a score that left people's jaws open. The mighty Duke Blue Devils went out in the first round to Mercer. Duke, a 3-seed, was a popular dark horse to make the Final Four. The game's aftermath gave us some great moments: a player photobombing his coach's interview by doing the robot, another player doing the "nae nae" on the floor in front of the Mercer bench, and Coach K going to the Mercer locker room to personally congratulate the scrappy bunch that had just beat his team.

There was only one other major upset on the day: Stephen F. Austin over VCU. VCU found itself in a reverse role this Tournament. In the past, they were the double-digit seed that shocked the world and made it to the Final Four. Now, they found themselves as the Vegas favorites over a team with nothing to lose and a lot to prove. Regulation in this game ended with the greatest sin in basketball: contesting a three-pointer while up by 4 with less than five seconds to play. JaQuan Lewis of VCU was the guilty party, and sure enough the shot went in, the foul was called, SFA's Jordan Burgess made the free throw, and we went to overtime. VCU had plenty of other chances to put the game away, but again poor free throw shooting cost another team in the Dance.

Tennessee's win over UMass was an upset according to the seeding, but Vegas had the Volunteers as a 6 to 7 point favorite over the minutemen. Vegas gets the win over the selsction committee there. The Vols barely made the Tournament, but now Mercer is the only thing standing between tham and the Sweet Sixteen. That would come as welcome news to UT AD Dave Hart, who took criticism from fans for keeping Cuonzo Martin as coach instead of re-hiring Bruce Pearl. Pearl is now at Auburn. Also, with Kentucky's win over Kansas State last night, the SEC went 3 for 3 in the opening round of the Tournament. Not bad for the worst basketball conference ever. I'm sure the ACC would like a do over.

The best game of the night was probably a back-and-forth contest between North Carolina and Providence. This isn't Roy Williams' most talented Tar Heel team, but they will not be an easy out for the rest of the Tournament.

The rest of the day provided some scares, but no more major upsets. Arizona, Kansas and Virginia all remembered who they were in the second half and destroyed their opponents at the end. Wichita State might have been the most impressive 1-seed so far, absolutely annihilating Cal Poly.

If you didn't stay up until 3 in the morning to get all the scores, we happily provide them to you now:

(14) Mercer 78
(3) Duke 71

(6) Baylor 74
(11) Nebraska 60

(10) Stanford 58
(7) New Mexico 53

(1) Arizona 68
(16) Weber State 59

(11) Tennessee 86
(6) Massachusetts 67

(3) Creighton 76
(14) Louisiana-Lafayette 66

(2) Kansas 80
(15) Eastern Kentucky 69

(8) Gonzaga 85
(9) Oklahoma State 77

(8) Memphis 71
(9) George Washington 66

(6) North Carolina 79
(11) Providence 77

(1) Wichita State 64
(16) Cal Poly 37