The 10 Best Moments Of The First Week Of March Madness
Bryan Altman, CBS Local Sports
Ladies and gentlemen... That's a wrap. The first week of the 2016 NCAA Tournament is in the books and boy was it a memorable one. As per usual with March Madness, we saw plenty of buzzer-beating victories and crushing defeats. We saw Davids take down Goliaths. We saw monstrous dunks, lights-out shooting performances and smothering defenses. We pretty much saw everything you could ever hope to see in one action-packed, four-day, basketball binge-watching extravaganza.
Let's relive some of the best moments of the past few days.
No. 15 Middle Tennessee beats No. 2 Michigan State
No. 15 seeds have beaten No. 2 seeds before, but not like this. In the eyes of almost everyone, Michigan State was a No. 1. This was one of the biggest upsets in tournament history.
Paul Jesperson's half-court prayer is answered
No. 11 Northern Iowa and No. 6 Texas are tied at 72-72 and there's only 2.7 seconds left. Overtime, right? Nope. Paul Jesperson made sure of that.
No. 14 Stephen F. Austin Downs No. 3 West Virginia
Thomas Walkup took center stage and the unknown Lumberjacks took a hacksaw to Americans' brackets.
No. 12 Yale wins their first ever NCAA Tournament game again No. 5 Baylor
Makai Mason's 31-point showing - and his entire team's performance for that matter - won't soon be forgotten.
Neither will Taurean Prince's epic post game presser for completely different reasons.
No. 13 Hawaii Beats No. 4 California
It wasn't always pretty and it didn't attract the fanfare of the other major upsets, but Hawaii definitely rattled some brackets with their big win over their neighbors across the Pacific.
Josh Hagins and No. 12 Arkansas-Little Rock stun No. 5 Purdue
Many people had Purdue making a deep tournament run after their strong showing against Michigan State in the Big 10 Championship. So much for that.
No. 3 Texas A&M goes on 14-2 run in 44 seconds to stun No. 11 UNI
This actually happened, right? I still don't think I believe it.
No. 8 St. Josephs barely survives No. 9 Cincinnati
This. Close.
Buddy Hield goes off for 29 in the second half
Hield is one of four finalists for Player of the Year for a very good reason. Because he can drop points on you like nobody else in college basketball.
Rex Pflueger wins it for Notre Dame
Pflueger hadn't scored a single point since March 3. He sure picked a heck of a time to get a bucket. Needless to say, his teammates were psyched.
And-1:
Bronson Koenig drains deep-corner three for the win
The only thing I hate about this is that Koenig and Wisconsin broke Bill Murray's heart. Otherwise, what a shot and what a game.
What a wild weekend. And to think, we've got four more days of college basketball just three short days away. Viva la Madness.
Bryan Altman is, for some reason, an unabashed fan of the Rangers, Jets and Mets. If he absolutely had to pick a basketball team it would be the Knicks, but he'd gladly trade them for just one championship for any of his other three teams.
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