2010 NCAA Tournament: The Madness Has Already Begun!

The madness is less than five hours old and almost all the games have come down to the very end. If you had to work or were in a coma, here is a recap of the early action.

It started with the second leading scorer in Notre Dame history letting his team down.

Luke Harangody, senior leader, was a master in the art of bricklaying. He got into foul trouble early and never recovered. Shooting two-for-nine is bad enough, but considering one of the two makes was as time expired and his team down three, it makes it all the more painful for the Irish. Must of been the St. Patrick's Day hangover.

Final: (11) Old Dominion 51, (6) Notre Dame 50.

Old Dominion was clearly the inferior team. But they used a two-three zone in the second half to keep the game close. And in the end it was the mid-major team that made the big shots against the team from the alleged best conference in America.

Then it was (7) BYU wearing out (10) Florida 99-92 in double OT. A game BYU had in hand, Florida continued to make timely threes in the clutch. In fact it was the Gators that had the oppertunity to seal the deal at the end of regulation and the first overtime.

But the Stormin' Mormons got stops when they needed them most and Jimmer Fredette made the big shots and free throws in the overtimes. He finished with a total of 37 points on 13-of-26 shooting. First tournament win for BYU since 1992.

(2) Villanova got the scare of a lifetime against (15) Robert Morris. One would think the Wildcats would have learned their lesson after being down 14 to 15th-seeded American last year. But once again they found themselves down late in the game. This time it was eight points with three minutes to go.

But once again it was the late game heroics of senior Scottie Reynolds that saved Nova from the ultimate embarrassment as the Wildcats prevailed in 73-70 in OT. 

Three games, three nail bitters.

Then the (4) Vanderbilt Commodores squared off against (13) Murray State. A back-in-forth battle that smelled like a buzz-beater waiting to happen. And it did not disappoint.

After a barriage of Murray State threes to go up by two, Vandy battled back with the inside play of their taller, more physical players. Both teams were abysmal from the line—Murray State shot 52% while Vandy shot 58%. But after two clutch Commodore free throws, Murray State found themselves down one with 12 seconds to go.

After a missed shot, the ball bounced off Vanderbilt and gave Murray State four seconds as they inbounded under their basket.

The next is history.

Danero Thomas hit a spectacular fade-away 15-footer as the buzzer sounded over the defender and Murray State stunned Vanderbilt, 66-65.

It had been 24 years since the Racers had won a game in the big dance. The whole team swarmed Thomas and the Vandy sideline was stunned. March madness at it's finest!

Then (3) Baylor had to sweat out a 68-59 win over (14) Sam Houston State. The final score does not indicate how close this game really was.

So there have been a few blowouts since then. (2) Kansas State crushed (15) North Texas, 82-62, and (10) Saint Mary's handled (7) Richmond, 80-71.

One can only hope the rest of the tournament will be exciting as the first slate of games. How can you not love this tournament. And why are they talking about messing with the formula again?

It's awesome, baby!