It’s just after 1 a.m. CDT as I’m writing this. Sunrise will officially begin day one of a two-day period that I look forward to every year as a sports fan. While every other round in the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament can be just as exciting, it’s the first round that always captivates and amazes us.
It is a round that can either bust a lot of our brackets or put us ahead of whatever pool we may be entering (at least until the second round). It is a round that has us flipping channels or surfing through the web to catch final scores of games we didn’t get to see, particularly afternoon games.
Personally, I won’t have to worry about missing daytime scores tomorrow. I’m on spring break, so this will be the first time ever I am able to watch the first games of the tournament from the comforts of my own home—instead of going to CBS Sportsline during some business or English class.
What do we do while we are watching this? We might be pulling our hair out or calling our friends to whine and complain because our brackets are off to a terrible start. Inversely, we could be calling our friends just to rub in their faces that we’ve gotten almost every game right so far.
However, there is one thing that no sports fan can deny happens during this or any other round during the tournament: Drama.
We eagerly await the unthinkable upsets that will occur over these first couple of days.
The first round has seen its share of upsets over the years. It’s already been 10 years since Bryce Drew lifted Valparaiso to a win at the buzzer against Ole Miss. More recently, who can remember 14 seeds Bucknell and Northwestern State upsetting first-round foes Kansas and Iowa, respectively?

bleacherreport.com