Men's NCAA Tournament winners, losers: Miami (Ohio) misses its chance; St. John's rolls

The NCAA men's tournament continued on Friday with the conclusion of the first round, and it was a day dominated by chalk. Most of the favorites and higher seeds did what was expected, but there were still some great finishes, big moments and big storylines.

Let's take a look at some of the biggest winners and losers from the day. 

Winner: No. 9 seeds

When you are filling out your bracket, the No. 8 vs. 9 matchups are probably the toughest ones to choose, which makes sense. They are, in theory, the most evenly matched teams and the games that should be the closest. Sometimes they can be coin-flip games.

In this year's men's tournament, the No. 9 seed won each of the four meetings, with Saint Louis, TCU, Utah State and Iowa all advancing to the round of 32. 

Loser: Miami (Ohio)

The most polarizing team in the tournament had a chance to deliver a big statement on Friday and show that it was not only worthy of being included in the field, but that it also should have received a higher seed than a No. 11 that had to get through a play-in game just to reach the field of 64. It did not deliver that statement.

The RedHawks lost by 22 points to No. 6 Tennessee in a game that was never really competitive. Perhaps Miami (Ohio) was still disrespected with its placement, but this was not a good showing in a big moment and is a disappointing end to an otherwise great season. 

Winner: Kentucky-Santa Clara finish

On a day that mostly followed the chalk, and with a lot of blowouts, the Kentucky-Santa Clara game gave us a taste of what fans love about March Madness. 

Not only did Kentucky survive the upset bid with an 89-84 win, but the end to regulation was absolutely sensational with two last-second three-pointers, including a game-tying, season-saving bank-shot from Kentucky's Otega Oweh to send the game to overtime.