Winners & losers from the NCAA Tournament's opening rounds

Wow.  Simply wow. No. 1 seeds were 135-0 against No. 16 seeds in the NCAA tournament. In fact, only 5 of those 135 games were decided by five points or less. UMBC only got in the tournament by Jarius Lyles' three pointer in the final seconds of the America East championship win over Vermont. Lyles' was brilliant in this one as well, scoring 28 points but he was not alone. The Retrievers hit 12 threes and hit 54% of their shots against Virginia's vaunted defense. This is the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history.

Also winners -- blue bloods like North Carolina, Duke, Kansas and Kentucky that are glad the first time didn't happen to them.  

How did this happen? Virginia played flat against UMBC, recording only five assists and shooting only 41%. They were out-everythinged by the Retrievers. The classy Tony Bennett stated that this game won't define his players ... but it will. It may be another 20 years until a No. 16 beats a No. 1 seed. We will always be reminded of what happened on Friday night as long as the NCAA tournament has been played. In every argument a Virginia fan has about basketball, the opponent will bring this up. This will hurt forever.

And what about Bennett's Cavaliers? This isn't the first time Virginia has been upset in the tournament (though not on this level). Is their system great for the regular season but ineffective in the tournament? Virginia is now 12-6 as a No. 1 seed which is the worst for any program that's played at least ten games as that seed. This will sting for a long, long time.

When the brackets were unveiled last Sunday, there were quite a few Kentucky fans voicing their displeasure about where they were seeded. Not only did they feel the SEC tournament champion was mis-seeded as a No. 5, they weren't pleased that their path to another Final Four would likely go through Arizona and Virginia. Well, everyone else has cleared the path for another Kentucky run. Buffalo pounded Arizona while UMBC pulled the ultimate upset over top seeded Virginia on Thursday. On Saturday, Loyola-Chicago beat No. 3 seed Tennessee in the second round and on Sunday, No. 2 seed Cincinnati collapsed in their loss to Nevada. That means Kentucky's path to a ninth championship goes through Buffalo (who they beat), Kansas State and the Nevada-Loyola Chicago winner. What?

There were many Kentucky fans in Big Blue Nation who were bummed after the Wildcats' first round win over Davidson (yes, I said "win"). In that game, Kentucky did not make a three point shot which broke a streak that began in 1988. The Wildcats had made at least one three point shot in the last 1,047 games and that streak (which the players knew nothing about) has a lot of Kentucky fans on Twitter ranting about how disappointing this win was. Kentucky was not a great three point shooting team at all this year and nearly had the streak snapped a couple of times this season.

Not only did Loyola-Chicago make its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1985, but they won their first game since that year. The Ramblers star wasn't Donte Ingram, who hit the game-winning three with 0.3 seconds left but the school's 98-year old chaplain Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt. This isn't just some stunt either. Sister Jean emails the players and coaches positive messages throughout the season and prays with them prior to games. Her shining moment came in the postgame interview when she broke down what the team needed to do to beat Miami. Sister Jean and the Ramblers are off to the Sweet 16 after beating Tennessee.

The Pac-12 put only three of its teams in the NCAA Tournament -- the lowest of any of the power six conferences. Two of those three teams played in the First Four round and both of them lost. UCLA was shown the door by St. Bonaventure on Tuesday and then Arizona State lost to Syracuse on Wednesday. The biggest surprise was on Thursday when Arizona, one of the names on the short list of championship favorites, were blown out at the hands of Buffalo. The Pac-12 played just three games in the 2018 NCAA tournament and lost all three. 

The Houston Cougars found themselves in a battle taking on San Diego State. Gray carried the Cougars down the stretch hitting big shot after big shot. With the score tied at 65, Gray broke down his man and made an acrobatic layup with just enough spin on it to crawl over the rim for the game winner. Gray, who had to sit out a game this season because he played in a church league that someone else paid his $5 entry fee, scored a career high 39 points against the Aztecs becoming one of the stars of the first round. His 23 point-10 rebound effort against Michigan was barely not enough, at least we know that the senior Gray left everything on the floor.

Not only is he his usual I-don't-know-much-about-college-basketball self on the CBS/Turner studio shows, but his Auburn Tigers got completely spanked by Clemson in a battle for Tigers. At one point, Clemson led 70-29 as just coasted the rest of the way. I do appreciate Barkley's love for Auburn's season as it is refreshing to see that kind of school love for an exceptional season, especially alongside Kenny Smith's gloating of North Carolina's history. Win or lose. But now that Auburn is out of the tournament, Barkley's use (aside from the normal comic relief) has largely shrunk. 

While you weren't looking, the Nevada Wolf Pack have become a darling of the tournament. They came back from down 14 to beat Texas in overtime in the first round. In the second round, they were down 22 to Cincinnati before taking their first lead with 9.1 seconds remaining and a shocked everyone with the comeback win. They have a legit star in Caleb Martin and a team that feels like they are never out of a game. With a wide open South Region bracket, Nevada has their eyes set on their first Final Four.

Nevada's thrilling overtime win over Texas in the first round certainly had the attention of a lot of college hoops fans watching on TBS. Nevada's coach, Eric Musselman is fiery, so maybe the decision the televise the Wolf Pack's locker room celebration live was a bad idea. TBS never broke after the game ended and cameras followed Musselman into the locker room with his team where he fired off four live f-bombs ... and one in particular was loud and right into the camera. Look, I have no problem with him saying it (when the broadcast went back to the studio, Greg Gumbel apologized for the "colorful language") but you know you are taking a risk when you take a live camera into the sanctuary of the locker room. Then after the Wolf Pack stunned Cincinnati, Musselman went shirtless during the locker room celebration.

Wichita State left the Missouri Valley Conference for the American Athletic Conference last summer with seeding in the NCAA tournament as one of the factors for the move. It worked, as the Shockers received a No. 4 seed this year. What didn't work was the matchup as Wichita State lost to Marshall in the first round prompting Illinois State's coach Dan Muller to take a few jabs at Wichita's decision to desert the MVC. Muller tweeted, "I guess switching conferences doesn't magically make things better. Valley teams advance in the Dance." That tweet set off a polite response from the Shockers. MVC member Loyola-Chicago advanced to the Sweet 16 by beating Miami and Tennessee.

Buffalo, Marshall, Texas Southern, Radford and UMBC won their first tournament game ever. Loyola Chicago won their first game in the tournament since 1985. Houston won their first tournament game since the 1984 Final Four. St. Bonaventure won their first game since 1970. It has been refreshing to see schools advancing in the tournament that we haven't seen in quite some time. 

Middle Tennessee State was controversially left out of the NCAA tournament this year and that has Conference USA coaches upset. C-USA member Marshall upset Wichita State which marks the fourth straight year the conference has won a game in the tournament. UAB upset Iowa State in 2015, Middle Tennessee beat Michigan State in 2016 and Minnesota in 2017 and now Marshall advanced to the second round. I know the Conference USA has gone through a dramatic change over the last 20 years but this is still a good league with some really good players and teams capable of winning in this tournament. Instead of letting lackluster teams from the power leagues hog up the bids, throw one out to guys like Middle Tennessee State.

Look, I support using replay in sports and I'm all for getting calls right but the amount of time spent at the replay monitor is ridiculous. First, they go to the monitor for to check timing situations early in the half. Who really cares. Then when they get there and spend way too much time looking through replays. If it isn't obvious in, say, a minute or two let's just go with the call on the floor and move on. It's basketball, there will be some bang-bang calls that get missed, yet they had a replay to check to see if there should be a reset of the shot clock due to change of possession, yet the player's foot never went out of bounds. The worst was the end of the Marshall-Wichita State game that took forever due to constant replays. For all the great drama in these games, the officials are killing it with these replays.

Syracuse is totally playing with house money. Many were absolutely shocked to see Syracuse's name pop up during that weird NCAA Tournament selection show. Even Jim Boeheim knows this team is what it is, lacking offensively and employing their usual tough zone. But here they are in the Sweet 16 after beating Arizona State, TCU and Michigan State. The Orange just keep trucking along and get to face old foe Duke this week who, interestingly, are using more zone this year (Mike Krzyzewski learned it from Boeheim during their USA Basketball days).  

Yeah, Virginia's loss knocked out a ton of brackets, but is it really any different than, say, Villanova losing in the 2nd round last year? Yeah, Xavier, North Carolina, Cincinnati, Michigan State and Arizona all lost early on in the dance but it wasn't as if those schools were true favorites to win the whole thing either. Sure, the South Region is bananas, but it isn't that weird anywhere else. The right side of the bracket still has Villanova, Kansas, Duke, Purdue, Texas Tech and Clemson. Outside of the South, really only Syracuse, Florida State and Texas A&M are shocking and, really, not that shocking. A lot of brackets are still in good shape. 

Look, the NCAA Tournament is honestly a marathon of watching a bunch of games you really don't have a rooting interest while waiting for your team to play. So buzzer beaters are a treat when you get them. Michigan's amazing buzzer beater to beat Houston will be replayed for years and years. So will Loyola Chicago's shot to beat Miami in the first round (oh, and Loyola's shot to beat Tennessee in the 2nd round). We have also had more overtime games this year than all of last tournament. There's nothing like watching these kids come through in the clutch. 

There have been 52 teams that lost last week with more than a few facing some issues regarding their head coaching positions. Whether it is Arizona and Auburn facing some troubling issues involving possible violations in their program or Xavier's Chris Mack who will be a hot candidate for some big jobs. Rhode Island's Danny Hurley has been connected to the open UConn gig and St. Bonaventure's Mark Schmidt's name has been thrown out there. Guys like Cincinnati's Mick Cronin, Providence's Ed Cooley, Virginia Tech's Buzz Williams and Wichita State's Gregg Marshall have been rumored to be targets for the Louisville opening.

Okay, Virginia ... the team that went 20-1 against conference competition ... was the victim of the mother of all upsets and North Carolina looked dead against Texas A&M. Despite those two upsets, the ACC still have four teams in the Sweet 16. Duke and Clemson just blew through the first weekend of the tournament, Florida State knocked off No. 1 seed Xavier and Syracuse just keeps winning. There is a bit more normality in the Big 12. Kansas, Texas Tech, West Virginia and Kansas State move along. Two conferences comprise half of the Sweet 16. Interestingly enough, only one Sweet 16 features teams from both leagues (Kansas vs Clemson).

A controversy rose up right at the beginning of the tournament as the only two Historically Black Colleges and Universities faced off in a First Four game. The SWAC's Texas Southern beat the MEAC's North Carolina Central in the first game of the tournament. Some felt it hurt the HBCUs by having one eliminate the other right off the bat instead of giving both of them a shot to win their own games.