The first round of the men’s 2021 NCAA Tournament has concluded and the madness is certainly underway.
Dominant performances, upsets, Cinderella stories, drama, and hungry young hoopers; this is why we watch and this is what we are being treated to already. The men’s 2021 NCAA March Madness Tournament is underway and the first round did not disappoint.
Part of the “madness” is due to the sheer number of contests being played, especially in the early rounds. That is certainly part of the fun. The other part comes from dramatic finishes and surprising upsets - we got those too. In fact, this is the first time that four teams seeded 13th or worse are moving on to play in the Round of 32.
In 2018, Virginia became the first 1-seed to lose in the first round, dropping their game to UMBC. This year was not that bad, though the 4-seed Cavaliers did make an early exit with a loss to 13-seed Ohio.
A bigger upset came in the form of Abilene Christian (14-seed) toppling a Texas team (3-seed) that was supposed to lead the Longhorns back to basketball prominence. Instead, it will be North Texas representing the Lone Star State as a 13-seed taking down Purdue (4-seed). (Okay, Texas Tech is also moving on, but we are trying to get in on the drama as well)
The largest upset seeding-wise was 15-seed Oral Roberts knocking off 2-seed Ohio State. Oral Roberts will play Florida and Yanders Law alum, Tyree Applebee tonight at 6:45 pm central time. A few other smaller upsets were sprinkled in for good measure: Rutgers over Clemson, Syracuse over San Diego State, Oregon State over Tennessee, Wisconsin over North Carolina, and Maryland over UConn.
Mizzou lost a heartbreaker to Oklahoma by four and Creighton narrowly escaped a loss to UCSB by one point. Gonzaga remains undefeated and still has the looks of the team to beat in this year’s tourney. Really, all the 1-seeds still look very strong with Iowa (2-seed) and Kansas (3-seed) also playing nice ball.
Oregon moves on to the Round of 32 due to unfortunate circumstances, as VCU had to forfeit due to issues with COVID-19. Tough way to go out for those guys.
That should have you caught up through the first round! Don’t blink, as the Round of 32 starts today. The women’s tourney kicks off as well, so keep an eye out as we update you on both. Keep checking back here as we keep up with the movement!