NCAA Scores 2015: Biggest Takeaways from Day 1 of First Round

On Tuesday, madness took hold.

If Day 1 of the first round is any sign, the 2015 Big Dance guarantees to mimic those before it with upsets, gritty team-based performances and contests that come down to the wire.

Sure, the two-game slate featured a duel for the right to face Kentucky and two teams that perhaps shouldn't have been in play-in games in the first place. But still, the four programs involved put on a show that speaks to how the rest of the round and beyond will unfold.

Key Tournament Information

Dates: March 17–April 6

Channels: CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV

Live Stream: March Madness Live

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Result	Score
No. 16 Hampton def. No. 16 Manhattan	74-64
No. 11 Ole Miss def. No. 11 BYU	94-90

1st Round Day 1 Takeaways 

Hobbled Hampton Won't Go Away

Skip Peterson/Associated Press

Look, the Hampton Pirates out of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference won't beat the Kentucky Wildcats.

Sometimes, winning is just not the point—well, not for every team that faces Kentucky, anyway.

Coach Edward Joyner's team is the definition of gritty. By all accounts, it wasn't supposed to beat Manhattan Tuesday night.

The Manhattan Jaspers ranked 169th in ESPN's RPI rankings. Hampton? A humble 255th. The Pirates were also without leading scorer Dwight Meikle, who averages 13.0 points per game.

No matter. Reginald Johnson scored 15 points and Quinton Chievous was on fire with a 7-of-12 mark from the field for 15 of his own. As a whole, the Pirates shot 49.1 percent from the floor and—best of all—had fun doing it with a smooth Major League reference:

The odds stack against Hampton in the next round.

Ask advanced metrics, per ESPN Stats & Info:

Or even survey the general outlook, as Matt Jones of KentuckySportsRadio.com does:

Heck, ask Joyner himself, who was perhaps a bit too honest Monday about the chances of his team encountering the Wildcats, per USA Today's Nicole Auerbach:

At the end of the day, Hampton has had a season to remember. As ESPN Stats & Information notes, the Pirates are just the eighth team in history to enter the Big Dance with a losing record and tally a victory.

From the looks of it, the Pirates won't just throw in the towel against Kentucky, either.

Xavier Has a Problem 

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Entering Tuesday night, the Xavier Musketeers were already one of the hottest trending upset picks. 

So it goes for a No. 6 seed, but even more so for a No. 6 seed tasked with encountering a team from a play-in game that already knew Xavier was the next opponent and has shaken off the butterflies and established momentum.

As it turns out, the team is the Ole Miss Rebels after a 94-90 triumph against BYU in Tuesday's late contest.

There, guard Stefan Moody led the way with 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting, and the team as a whole shot 45 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from deep.

Most impressive of all, the Rebels came out of halftime determined to meet Xavier and scored an eye-popping 62 points in the second half to secure the win.

It should go without saying that Ole Miss isn't a pushover despite the questionable seed. The Rebels rank 57th in RPI and are just 7-5 in their last 12, sure, but as Tuesday's result shows, Moody and Co. can get hot when it matters most and play with any team.

This includes Xavier, as some, such as Bill Reiter of FOX Sports, have been quick to point out, per FOX Sports Live:

"

"I like their chances" - @sportsreiter on No. 11 Ole Miss possibly beating No. 6 Xavier in the 2nd round. #FSLive

— FOX Sports Live (@FOXSportsLive) March 18, 2015"

Xavier isn't such a lock going into the second round. Chris Mack's team is just 7-5 over the course of its last 12 and just .500 in its last six. A 30th slot in the RPI rankings is nice, but a 4-4 mark against the RPI Top 25 and just two games above .500 against the RPI Top 100 speaks to the up-and-down nature of the Musketeers.

If Xavier is to avoid the upset bug, it needs senior center Matt Stainbrook, who leads the team in points (12.0) and rebounds (6.8), to put on a show underneath the rim to counteract the explosive potential that Moody and the Rebels bring to the court.

Thanks to Tuesday's thriller, Xavier's showdown with Ole Miss will be one of the more interesting case studies for how the play-in format impacts performances in the second round.

Stats and info are courtesy of ESPN unless otherwise specified.