Wild Day of Upsets Leads to an Interesting Slate of Matchups for Sunday

Culture

Today was something, wasn't it.  Five double digit seeds won including a 15 (Florida Gulf Coast).  Here is a full recap of everything that happened today:

No. 2 Duke defeats No. 15 Albany 73-61 and No. 7 Creighton defeated No. 10 Cincinnati 67-63.  They will face off on Sunday.

No. 12 Ole Miss defeats No. 5 Wisconsin 57-46 in a game that I am very happy I did not watch.  In the second game of the session, No. 13 La Salle (a First Four participant) defeated No. 4 Kansas State 63-61 in Kansas City.  This 12-13 match-up means at least one double digit seed will make it into the Sweet 16.

No. 9 Temple defeats No. 8 NC State 76-72 after leading by 18 at one point.  They will face No. 1 Indiana, who defeated No. 16 James Madison 83-62.

No. 2 Miami defeated No. 15 Pacific 78-49 in Austin, Texas.  They will face No. 7 Illinois, who defeated No. 10 Colorado 57-49.  The Fighting Illini, who had their 16 point halftime lead cut to 3 at one point, were able to hold on after going on a run of their own in the closing minutes.

In far and away the biggest upset of the day, No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast knocks off No. 2 Georgetown 78-68.  They will take on No. 7 San Diego State who defeated No. 10 Oklahoma 70-55 in Philadelphia.

No. 2 Ohio State puts up the biggest number of the day with a 95-70 win over No. 15 Iona.  They will take on No. 10 Iowa State, who knocked off No. 7 Notre Dame with a convincing 76-58 win in Dayton, Ohio.

Down at the half, No. 1 Kansas narrowly avoided being the first ever one-seed to lose to a 16-seed by defeating No. 16 Western Kentucky 64-57.  They take on No. 8 UNC, who defeated No. 9 Villanova 78-71.  This sets up a match-up of Roy Williams with his old team.  Williams, who recorded his 700th win this evening, recorded a 418-101 record while at Kansas, coaching them to four Final Fours and two championship games; however, never won a title while there.

After a slow start, No. 3 Florida defeated the NCAA's highest scoring team, No. 14 Northwestern State, 79-47.  A game like this shows how dominant Florida can be, but also shows how vulnerable they are at times.  They take on No. 11 Minnesota, who won their first NCAA Tournament game under Tubby Smith, knocking off No. 6 UCLA 83-63 on the strength of 28 points and 9 rebounds from Andre Hollins.

If today was any indicator of what this tournament will look like, then we are in for a wild ride for the next two weeks.