Tampa turned out to be home of the upset
This is madness
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Anything can happen in the NCAA tournament at the St. Petersburg Times Forum. It seemed as though the favorites were falling from the sky Friday.
First it was Drake, the No. 5 seed who swept the Missouri Valley regular season and tournament titles. Fourth-seeded UConn, a team that some considered as a potential Final Four club, bowed out a couple hours later.
That set up a second-round Sunday matchup between No. 12 Western Kentucky and No. 13 San Diego with a Sweet 16 berth on the line.
Siena pulled off the trifecta. Vanderbilt, a No. 4 seed in the Midwest bracket, became the third consecutive heavy favorite to go down, when the No. 13 Saints breezed to a victory over the Commodores.
Villanova coach Jay Wright, whose team faced No. 5 Clemson in the nightcap, was following it all.
"Every time a team won, we were like, 'Damn,'" Wright said. "What are the chances of there being four upsets at one place?"
But the Wildcats, the final team that made the field as a No. 12 seed, put an exclamation point on a wild day with an 18-point comeback victory over No. 5 Clemson.
"I've never seen anything like it," Wright said. "Never."
That's because it's never happened.
It marked the first time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 that four teams seeded 12th or lower won at the same venue in the first round. In fact, a site had never even had three teams seeded 12th or lower pull it off.
It began what seemed like an eternity ago with an NCAA-record 70 shots from beyond the 3-point arc by Drake and Western Kentucky. After Drake erased a 16-point deficit, the Hilltoppers got a buzzer-beater from Ty Rogers in overtime.
"It's indescribable," Rogers said after hitting the shot.
UConn was up next, and there's no way that San Diego would keep it going, right?
Wrong.
The Huskies lost their starting point guard, A.J. Price, to a knee injury, and then lost the game in a second consecutive overtime when Toreros wing De'Jon Jackson knocked down a game-winning 17-footer with 1.2 seconds left.
Whew.
But it wasn't over. Fran McCaffery's Siena club has 10 freshmen and sophomores and wasn't even supposed to be in this position. This is the same coach who watched two of his most talented players transfer out of the program — Jack McClinton to Miami and Kojo Mensah to Duquesne.
McClinton put 38 on Saint Mary's in a first-round win earlier in the day, and Mensah averaged 16.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists as a freshman before leaving.
McCaffery got 30 points from junior wing Kenny Hansbrouck. Tiny senior guard Tay Fisher, who wasn't recruited by virtually anyone, made all six of his 3-point attempts and finished with 19 points in the 83-62 victory.
Siena wasn't even challenged by the Commodores.
"Actually, we wanted to be the first upset of the day," Hasbrouck said. "But it just shows that there isn't much of a separation between mid-majors."
It wasn't the first major upset for the Saints, who shocked No. 3 Stanford in the first round back in 1989 — also as a No. 14 seed.
Siena held its own on the glass, and sophomore forward Edwin Ubiles held SEC Player of the Year Shan Foster to just 13 points and a single 3-pointer.
"I really don't consider it as an upset," said the 5-foot-9 Fisher. "I know we can hang with anyone in the country."
It was an upset. So was Western Kentucky's buzzer-beating win against Drake and San Diego's last-second victory over UConn.
But Tampa wasn't quite done.
Clemson jumped on Villanova early, and it appeared the glass slippers were finally out of stock in Tampa. This was an ACC team that had advanced to its tournament championship against a team that many felt shouldn't have even been included in the field.
It was getting ugly in the first round, and 'Nova looked completely outclassed.
Then Wright's Wildcats came back with a vengeance in the second half, setting up a second matchup of No. 12s vs. No. 13s on Sunday when they will face Siena.
That's what the Big Dance is all about.
"Lower seeds are hungrier," Ubiles said. "The higher seeds come out expecting to win. We come out wanting to win."
McCaffrey didn't buy into the thinking that his players thought that, after watching two straight upsets, they would go into their game against Vandy with even more confidence.
"That's what this tournament is — 65 very good teams," he said. "Everybody is 0-0."
Well, not anymore.
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