Friday ended the end of the 1st round of the tournament and there were more blowouts than close games throughout the day. All three number one seeds playing cruised as Duke, Kansas, and Ohio State won by a combined 90 points over their competition. The most exciting action on the day were the Villanova-George Mason and Washington-Georgia games. Villanova and Mason were back and forth the whole day and Nova held the lead into most of the second half before Mason went on a crucial 8-0 run to take the lead. The game inevitably came down to the wire due to the Law of Gus. Villanova had a chance to win it but missed their last shot and George Mason got an emphatic dunk to cap the game with 0.3 seconds left to win 61-57. Washington and Georgia came down to the last shot despite Washington controlling the game throughout but Georgia was unable to make a 3 to send it to overtime. The minute Isaiah Thomas in size not stature had a huge tap to interfere with the first pass.

Other games that had some flair to them were the Texas-Oakland matchup, Arizona-Memphis, and Florida State-Texas A&M. Texas narrowly defeated the Golden Grizzlies 85-81. Arizona hung on over Memphis to win by 2. Florida State played a tough defensive game and won by 7 over the Aggies.

The other double digit winners on the day were Virginia Commonwealth, Marquette, Syracuse, North Carolina, Purdue, Notre Dame, Michigan, and Illinois. The two teams I wanted to highlight were the VCU Rams who played in the First Four game against USC on Wednesday night to get the opportunity to play Georgetown. They used that opportunity to destroy the Hoyas, 74-56, and it sets up a second round showdown with Purdue. North Carolina was the only team to put up 100 in the first round winning 102-87 over Long Island. Three players (Tyler Zeller, John Henson, and my boy Harrison Barnes) scored a combined 84 points. Barnes finished with with 24 points, 16 boards, 3 assists, and 2 steals.

After Round 1 including First Four
Power 6 Scorecard:
ACC: 4-1
Big East: 7-4
SEC: 2-3
Pac 10: 3-1
Big 10: 5-2
Big 12: 3-2

Others of note:
Mountain West: 2-1
Atlantic 10: 2-1
CAA: 3-1
Conference USA: 0-2