March Madness: Day One Takeaways and Teams to Watch

March Madness is well under way, with many colleges around the county hopeful that this could be their year to hoist the championship trophy. Unfortunately, for many of those colleges the dream is already over.

(Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

The tournament’s first day is in the books. While it wasn’t as wild or as unexpected as previous years, there were still quite a few aspects to take note of going forward. The round of 32 is halfway set, and it’s already pretty clear what type of March this is going to be.

The Top Seeds (Mostly) Came Out Ahead

In recent years, there have been plenty of upsets on the first day of the tournament. Two one seeds have lost, and several pre-tournament darlings have fallen to much smaller teams. That wasn’t the case this year. This year, the top seeds came prepared.

While there were a few lower seeded victories, by and large there weren’t too many surprises. Houston and Auburn both held their one seed proudly, smashing their opponents with relative ease. The two seeds, Tennessee and St John’s, followed suit.

Out of those four teams, Auburn seemed the most poised

Unlike the other one and two seeds, they faced a bit of adversity during the end of their first half. However, they held their ground, kept their poise, and ended up with an easy victory.

St. John’s, under new leadership from Rick Pitino, also cruised to a thirty point victory. There were many questions about the small school due to its tournament inexperience, but Pitino once again showed why so many consider him one of the best coaches of all time.

All of those teams showed they belonged. It’s hard to tell which of them is most likely to make it all the way to San Antonio, but they all have what it takes to make it to the second weekend.

Lower Seeded Victories

Though the one, two, three, and four seeds all took care of business, it wouldn’t be March Madness without a few surprises. The two biggest of the day were twelfth seed McNeese State taking down fifth seeded Clemson.

There is almost always one such upset in the first round of the tournament, but Clemson is a good team with a lot of talent. Not only that, but they were returning to the Big Dance off of a historic run last year where they took down numerous top seeds.

This year, things weren’t meant to be

The team started out ice cold, missing all of their early threes, and only found their shooting much too late in the contest. While they did come roaring back, their last minute efforts were in vain on the way to a 69-67 loss.

McNeese State played hard, clamped down on defense, and held the line

It’s unlikely they go much further, seeing as they did almost blow a 20+ point lead, but their efforts were enough to get them into the weekend. That’s far above expectations.

The other two low seeds that followed McNeese State into upset territory were tenth seeded Arkansas and 11 seeded Drake.

Both teams came out of the gates hot, and they managed to weather the storm to survive into the round of 32

Drake took down a strong Missouri team, which suggests they may be able to repeat their upset for another game. They are a team to watch if they manage to make it to the Sweet 16.

Strong Programs, Strong Play

While there weren’t many surprises in terms of seeding on day one of the tournament, there were still some teams who went far above expectations.

One of the biggest was Arkansas. Though a few ten and eleven seeds always sneak through the first round, the Razorbacks could make some real noise due to the fact that they are led by John Calipari.

The coach has been around the block, and he knows how to coach a team in March

In fact, he handed Kansas their first round one defeat since 2006. If Arkansas believes in their coach, and they should, there’s no reason they couldn’t punch their ticket to the Sweet 16.

Two other mid-seeded teams worth keeping an eye on are Gonzaga and UCLA.

Both teams have had a lot of success in past tournaments, so it should come as no surprise that they cruised to some of the easiest victories of the day.

Each shot well, played strong defense, and ran their opponents off the court

UCLA finished off Utah State 72-47, while Gonzaga blew out Georgia 89-68. Those numbers, mixed with the schools’ respective pedigrees, make them both prime candidates for Cinderella stories.

If looking for March Madness tournament schedules, matchup breakdowns, and expert picks, head to our March Madness section.