Busting Brackets
Fansided

March Madness: Top takeaways from the first day of the 2019 NCAA Tournament

By Brian Rauf

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT - MARCH 21: Ja Morant #12 of the Murray State Racers celebrates scoring at the end of the first half during the first round game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Marquette Golden Eagles at XL Center on March 21, 2019 in Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT - MARCH 21: Ja Morant #12 of the Murray State Racers celebrates scoring at the end of the first half during the first round game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Marquette Golden Eagles at XL Center on March 21, 2019 in Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 9
Next
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA – MARCH 21: Fletcher Magee #3 of the Wofford Terriers reacts in the second half against the Seton Hall Pirates during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena on March 21, 2019 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA – MARCH 21: Fletcher Magee #3 of the Wofford Terriers reacts in the second half against the Seton Hall Pirates during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena on March 21, 2019 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /

The first day of March Madness was filled with close games, a few upsets, and historic performances. Here are the biggest takeaways from the action in today’s Rauf Report.

The first day of the 2019 NCAA Tournament is in the books and it provided a few of the special moments March Madness typically provides.

There were a few upsets, namely Murray State’s thrashing of Marquette, but the higher seeds mostly held serve. Only three lower-seeded teams advanced to the second round and two of them (Florida, Minnesota) were power conference schools that were No. 10 seeds, leaving the Racers as the only real Cinderella.

Wofford is the only other mid-major to join Murray State in the second round thanks to another outstanding performance from Fletcher Magee, who became the NCAA career leader in three-pointers made.

It was a day that was mostly void of drama and those close buzzer-beater type games (which we’ll hopefully get on Friday), but Auburn and New Mexico State gave us one of the wackiest endings to a tournament game in recent memory.

The winners of today’s games will be fighting for eight bids to the Sweet 16 this weekend, so what did we learn from Thursday’s games? Here are the eight biggest takeaways from the first day of the first round in today’s Rauf Report:

Home/March Madness