Busting Brackets
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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) /
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HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT – MARCH 21: Markus Howard #0 of the Marquette Golden Eagles high fives teammate Joey Hauser #22 as he leaves the game at the end of the second half against the Murray State Racers during the first round game of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at XL Center on March 21, 2019 in Hartford, Connecticut. Murray State defeated Marquette 83-64. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT – MARCH 21: Markus Howard #0 of the Marquette Golden Eagles high fives teammate Joey Hauser #22 as he leaves the game at the end of the second half against the Murray State Racers during the first round game of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at XL Center on March 21, 2019 in Hartford, Connecticut. Murray State defeated Marquette 83-64. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

6) Bad days for the Big East

The Big East got four teams into the NCAA Tournament and, halfway through the first round, they only have one remaining in Villanova – and the road to get to this point hasn’t been pretty.

St. John’s got the party (if you can call it that) started on Wednesday night in their First Four loss to Arizona State. The Johnnies looked downright terrible, shooting below 32 percent from the field while turning it over 16 times in a game that was never really close.

But, that could be expected given the fact that St. John’s was the last team in the tournament field.

Marquette’s performance was much more disappointing. The second-best team in the Big East was absolutely manhandled by Morant and Murray State. Markus Howard put up his numbers but was extremely inefficient and Sam Hauser was the only other player who scored in double figures. They also never led at any point during the final 27 minutes as Murray State’s lead ballooned to over 20.

Seton Hall showed some fight against Wofford and erased a 16-point deficit, yet still lost by that margin after allowing the Terriers to close the game on a 17-2 run.

We all expected the Pac-12 to be the conference that completely collapsed once games began, but the Big East is the current leader in the clubhouse when it comes to the worst conference performance.

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