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March Madness: Top takeaways from 2019 NCAA Tournament Round of 64

By Brian Rauf

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 22: Evan Leonard #14 of the UC Irvine Anteaters celebrates a three-point shot with Max Hazzard #2 in the second half against the Kansas State Wildcats during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at SAP Center on March 22, 2019 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Yong Teck Lim/Getty Images)
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 22: Evan Leonard #14 of the UC Irvine Anteaters celebrates a three-point shot with Max Hazzard #2 in the second half against the Kansas State Wildcats during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at SAP Center on March 22, 2019 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Yong Teck Lim/Getty Images) /
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COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: Zion Williamson #1 of the Duke Blue Devils is defended by Rocky Kreuser #34 of the North Dakota State Bison in the first half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: Zion Williamson #1 of the Duke Blue Devils is defended by Rocky Kreuser #34 of the North Dakota State Bison in the first half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

The first round of March Madness is complete and Day Two brought about a number of upsets. Here are the biggest takeaways from the action.

Hard to believe that the first round of March Madness is already in the books, but here we are after a Friday that provided everything we love about the NCAA Tournament.

We got the upsets we didn’t get on Thursday, we got more moments of drama, and we saw top teams continue to prove themselves. We also saw Zion Williamson and Duke take the court one day after Ja Morant became the star of the tournament, and he countered their individual duel several mind-numbing highlights.

Duke and Murray State (and Williamson and Morant) would not face off unless both schools made the Final Four – and we’d all be OK with that, right?

Friday was a special day for several programs (UC Irvine, Liberty, UCF) that got their first-ever NCAA Tournament win. It also was for Ohio State’s Chris Holtmann as he guided the Buckeyes to a 62-59 victory over Iowa State, marking the fifth straight year in which he has won a game in the Big Dance.

In the end, the second round is shaping up to have an abundance of great games between quality teams. There is only one matchup between two double-digit seeds, a few major-vs.-mid-major showdowns

What did Friday’s results and performances tell us about what we should expect in the second round this weekend? Here are the biggest takeaways from Day Two of the first round in this new Rauf Report:

(for the biggest takeaways from Thursday’s games, click here)

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