March 18, 2022 was the first round of the NCAA tournament. March is here and madness is already coming. March Madness is the best tournament to watch upsets, and intensity matchups. The amount of teams competing on a high level to advance to the next round is unbelievable. 

Upset of day 1

#15 seed Saint Peter's Peacocks defeated #2 seed Kentucky Wildcats. The game was intense from the tip off. It was a back and forth game. Both teams played their hearts out. Saint Peters was led by #5 Daryl Banks III with 27 points and #25 Doug Edert with 20 points coming off the bench. St Peter’s came into the game as the underdogs and played with confidence from the jump. St Peter’s didn’t let the Kentucky name intimate them. They made a serious statement by beating the Kentucky Wildcats. That win alone messed up millions of brackets. 

Teams dominating their matchup

#9 seed North Carolina beat #8 Marquette Golden Eagles 95-63. UNC was led by Brady Manek with 28 points shooting 10-15 from the field. and Calab Love with 23 shooting 6-15 from the field. Also, UNC had contributions with Armando Bacot with 17 points shooting 6-13 from the field and Puff Johnson with 11 points shooting 5-7 from the field. UNC defense was able to hold Marquette leading scorer Justin Lewis to 6 points shooting 2-15 for the field and 2-7 from three. UNC showed great momentum throughout the game and Marquette wasn’t able to get UNC off their rhythm.  

#1 seed Baylor dominated their matchup with #16 seed Norfolk State 85-49. Baylor showed their dominance on the defensive end by holding Norfolk State to 31.6% from the field and 22.7% from three. Baylor was led by Mattew Mayer with 22 points shooting 8-12 from the field and 4-7 from three. Baylor is trying to repeat what they did last year which is winning the national championship. Their next matchup against #8 seed UNC will be one for the ages. It will be the battle of backcourts. 

#3 seed Tennessee defeated the #14 seed Longwood 88-58. Tennessee was led by point guard Kennedy Chandler. Chandler had 13 points shooting 4-8 from the field and 3-4 from three. Chandler is showing out to be one of the best point guards in college basketball. Chandler led his team to the SEC championship beating Texas A&M. The defense of Tennessee held the team to 38.5% from the field and 31.8% percent from three. Tennessee will play the Michigan Wolverines Saturday March 19 and the winner will advance to the sweet 16.

#1 seed Kansas dominates #16 seed Texas Southern 83-56. Kansas showed great momentum after winning the Big 12 regular season and tournament champs. Kansas held Texas Southern to 32.8% from the field and 21.4% from the three. Kansas was led by a balance of scoring from the starting five. Remy Martin, a transfer from Arizona State came off the bench scoring 15 points. Kansas is a team that could make it far in the tournament and their toughness and being battle tested will help them advancing to the next round.

Now that Kentucky is out of March, the East bracket is wide open. You have North Carolina, Baylor, UCLA, Murray State, Saint Mary’s, Texas, Virginia Tech, Purdue and Yale and Saint Peter’s. Any one in that bracket can come out of that bracket as the best of the best. UCLA are the favorites to come out of the bracket. North Carolina is the darkhorse in the bracket coming off the momentum of the regular season. Virginia Tech could be a dark house as well coming off the ACC title beating Clemson, Notre Dame, North Carolina and Duke in the tournament. 

The best thing about March Madness is seeing teams that nobody thinks about winning wins the game. March Madness gives teams chances to shake the bracket up. A lot of things happened in just Day 1 of March Madness and it's only the beginning of the tournament.