Missing madness: NCAA Tournament first round bereft of buzzer-beaters and major upsets

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/03/2025 (231 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The calendar says it’s March. Most of the madness has been missing so far.

There certainly have been upsets. Just ask the owners of the 99.9956% of brackets with at least one blemish.

But with the first round of the NCAA Tournament complete, the bracket was bereft of the buzzer-beaters and major upsets that have become ubiquitous during March Madness.

No Fairleigh Dickinson over top-seeded Purdue or UMBC taking down No. 1 Virginia. Not even a Princeton over No. 2 seed Arizona or Saint Peter’s chopping down blueblood Kentucky.

The top four seeds went a combined 16-0 in the first round for the first time since 2017 and the sixth time since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The top two seeds won by an average of nearly 26 points.

The best the bracket has for upsets so far is a pair of No. 12 seeds over 5s. That’s become almost expected — occurring at 35% clip, according to the NCAA — and one of them wasn’t even an upset. Colorado State was favored by 2 1/2 points over short-handed Memphis, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, and the Rams won 78-70.

No. 12 seed McNeese was the other winner, outlasting Clemson 69-67 after nearly blowing a 12-point lead the final minute.

No. 11 seed Drake also had a mild first-round surprise, taking down No. 6 seed Missouri 67-57, but 11 over 6 is even more common than a 12 beating a 5, occurring 39% of the time.

“I would be lying if I didn’t say I didn’t expect it,” Drake coach Ben McCollum said. “I expected it. That’s what I expected. I expected exactly this.”

Just like college basketball fans expect buzzer-beaters in March.

We’re still waiting.

Amarr Knox had the closest thing to a buzzer-beater, scoring on a layup with a second left in Alabama State’s 70-68 win over Saint Francis in the First Four on Tuesday. It wasn’t exactly Grant Hill to Christian Laettner; instead, it was more of a tip drill on a length-of-the-court pass that dropped into Knox’s hands.

“You just said it: March Madness,” said Alabama State coach Tony Madlock said.

Vanderbilt nearly had its one shining moment, only to see Devin McGlockton’s 3-point attempt clang off the back rim in a 59-56 loss to Saint Mary’s. No. 10 seed New Mexico had the only upset among the late games on Friday, taking down seventh-seeded Marquette 75-66.

So, does that mean the bracket has been boring? No chance the spectacle of the NCAA Tournament would ever be called that.

There just hasn’t been a whole lot of madness in March — at least not yet.

___

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.