NCAA Tournament 2014: Stephen F. Austin stuns VCU in OT thriller

The Round of 64 has wrapped up. Virginia became the final No. 1 seed to advance, Wildcat defeated Wildcat and Iowa State dominated.

There wasn’t any one moment for Iowa State that put the game on ice. The Cyclones started building their lead in the last several minutes of the first half, then blew the game open in the second half. ISU Head Coach Fred Hoiberg didn’t dig deep into his bench, playing only seven players despite building a 20-point lead with less than eight minutes remaining.

And then one of the craziest endings you’ll ever see at the NCAA Tournament happened. Here’s how:

Here are some moving pictures to help make sure of this:

The Big Dance kept moving along, with Wichita State advancing and North Carolina and Memphis both playing with fire without getting burned. VCU on the other hand, got scorched.

Both VCU and Stephen F. Austin are known for creating havoc, and the game between the two definitely lived up to it, with the end of regulation being the most March ending of the tournament.

Stephen F. Austin trailed VCU by six with a minute left .But VCU didn’t hit their free throws, and some quick runs up and down the court cut the lead lead to four with 10 seconds left.

But being down four with 10 seconds left? You’re still going to lose. Unless ... UNLESS ...

Yes, you can get a technical for dunking a basketball in the NCAA, if you do it before the game. Observe:

Kansas State is assessed with a technical foul -- it doesn’t count as a personal or team foul -- and Kentucky gets to shoot two free throws before the game starts. Weird, right. You probably have questions.

Craig Sager as the most ... well, the MOST wardrobe in the United States of America. For every occasion, he has a flashy, preposterous garment.

And the NCAA Tournament is no exception:

Cotton led the way for Providence, scoring a career-high 36 points. He made 13 of 23 shots and caught fire during Providence’s run in the second half. He did miss a huge opportunity late, however, when McAdoo missed his second-free throw attempt. Cotton was there for the rebound, but the ball bounced off his hands and out of bounds, sealing the game for the Tar Heels.

The Friars came up just short of their first NCAA Tournament win since 1997. They were able to hang with North Carolina despite the frantic pace and playing just six players in the game. North Carolina dominated the boards, coming down with 21 offensive rebounds. That included two by McAdoo in the final seconds, which helped North Carolina advance.

Wiggins’ slam with less than a minute remaining served as the final breaking point for the Colonels.

Kansas will face Stanford on Sunday in the Round of 32.

Andrew Wiggins’ college days are numbered. Enjoy them while you can.

UPDATE: Another one!

Yesterday, we met New Mexico State’s Sim Bhullar, who is 7’5, 360 pounds. This is enormous, because, well, 7 feet, 5 inches.

Today, we met Louisiana-Lafayette’s J.J. Davenport:

After a wild day of upsets on Thursday, top-seeded Arizona avoided the upset bug as the Wildcats battled for a 68-59 victory over Weber State. The ‘Cats started the game on the wrong side of a 7-0 run, but Sean Miller’s boys started to really dig in on the defensive end before blowing the game open.

Here is a look back at all of the early session games from Friday, as well as an updated look at the bracket:

The very best plays don’t need to be overly complicated. If the defense demonstrates a fatal flaw and show no sign of actually fixing it, there’s nothing wrong with continuing to attack it. Don’t needlessly complicate things, especially when you’re coaching college kids.

That was Mercer’s strategy in upsetting mighty Duke. Throughout the game, the Blue Devils failed to defend the simplest of plays: the high pick-and-roll. Mercer’s guards were able to create openings, and Duke’s big men were consistently late to close those up. Toss in a few diversions that prevented Duke from keying in on the simple action, and Mercer got whatever it wanted.

I WAS GONNA WRITE A POST ABOUT MERCER. I SWEAR. LOOK, HERE’S THE EMAIL I SENT MY BOSSES:

BUT INSTEAD, I WROTE ABOUT NDSU, STEPHEN F. AUSTIN, NC CENTRAL, AND NEW MEXICO STATE.

Most of us wanted Mercer to upset Duke, but we didn’t even know how much we wanted it. Forget the plucky-underdog-taking-down-hated-basketball-powerhouse storyline. That doesn’t even matter. THE DANCING MATTERS. This guy doing the Nae Nae matters, and Mercer’s Anthony White Jr. doing the robot behind coach Bob Hoffman’s postgame interview matters just as much. ROBOPHOTOBOMB:

For the uninitiated, that is a TEXTBOOK imitation of the robot guy from Chappelle’s Show:

Duke seemed to fire up a three-pointer any time there was an inch of space. They would hit 15-of-37 but shot just 35 percent overall from the floor.

With the win, Mercer will face the winner of Friday’s tilt between UMass and Tennessee. Tipoff will come on Sunday afternoon.

Duke lost, Mercer won, and everything we could ever dream of just happened:

This is us right now. This is the whole Duke-hating world right now. Mercer’s Kevin Canevari is all of us.

The night session was even better. Connecticut got it all started with an overtime win over St. Joseph’s. St. Louis used a wild final-minute comeback to force overtime against North Carolina State, and the Billikens took care of business from there. North Dakota State pulled the second 12-5 upset of the day by defeating Oklahoma in overtime. Texas beat Arizona State on a final-second put-back. Louisville survived a scare from Manhattan, while San Diego State needed overtime to hold off New Mexico State.

There were four overtime games in total after we only needed two in the past two tournaments combined. And now we get to do it all over again on Friday.

A busy day of college basketball is in store Friday as the round of 64 comes to a conclusion in the 2014 NCAA Tournament.

Duke and Mercer kick things off at noon, while Baylor and Nebraska tip off a half hour later. Creighton, Kansas, Arizona, Wichita State and Villanova all play their first games of hopeful tournament runs, and the most interesting matchup of the day may be a 7:15 matchup between VCU and Stephen F. Austin.

Three of the four No. 1 seeds will be in action on Friday as the 2014 NCAA Tournament rolls into its second day. Thursday featured three marquee upsets by double-digit seeds, setting the tone for what’s sure to be a wild conclusion to the round of 64.

Meanwhile, No. 1 seeds Virginia, Arizona and Wichita State begin their 2014 tournament runs.