This year, the first two rounds of the NCAA March Madness tournament marked the triumph of the underdogs. Number 12 VCU beat number five Wichita State, number 10 Purdue beat number seven St. Mary's, number 12 Southern Florida beat number five Temple, and number 13 Ohio beat number four Michigan. However, there are only three matches that people will be talking about for years to come.
1. No.1 Syracuse vs. No. 16 NCAsheville: The game that almost made history. NC-Asheville ended the first half with four points ahead of Syracuse, something only seven other No. 16 seeds have been able to do in the history of the tournament. Syracuse managed to take back the lead in the second half, only to fight for it once more due to the amazing threepoint shooting from NC-Asheville. Of course, that game was also marred with controversy - the missed goaltending foul call on Syracuse and why the officials gave the ball back to Syracuse when they had knocked it out of bounds. Some claim that NCAsheville only made it to the tournament because they won the Big South conference championship, but they played well and almost made history. 2. No. 2 Missouri vs. No. 15 Norfolk State: Amazing what can happen in the first round of the tournament, isn't it? Norfolk State managed to win their game, sending a number two ranked team back home for the first time since Harvard in 2001. Unlike the Syracuse game, the higher ranked team was not favored in terms of foul shots.
3. No. 2 Duke vs. No. 15 Lehigh: Lightning struck twice three hours later in the tournament when number fifteen Lehigh beat number two Duke - startling the entire country and breaking several brackets along the way. One has to wonder how the teams were ranked and if Duke was given the higher rank due to the team's history?
Now that the Final Four has been determined, with a stream of broken hearts and broken brackets in its wake, one has to admit that this NCAA March Madness tournament has been one of the most exciting. It would have been cool if VCU made it as far as last year, or if a lower ranked team had made it farther into the tournament, but the tournament has still been exciting nonetheless.
