The best and worst of everything from March Madness Day 3

The thing about the first weekend of the NCAA tournament is that it consumes you wholly. There are so many games, so many highlights, so many storylines all going on at once, that it’s truly impossible to process everything that’s happening with any degree of accuracy while you’re still in the eye of the storm.

This also makes endeavors like ranking the best opening weekends in March Madness history equally impracticable. Too many things from too many years wound up being forgotten. Also, there’s no set criteria for that sort of thing. Some people value upsets, some value buzzer-beaters, some emphasize quality games, and some want it all.

All that being true, let me say this: If this hasn’t been the greatest opening weekend in the history of the NCAA tournament, it has to be damn close.

Thursday-Saturday has given us:

—The biggest upset in March Madness history.

—Two No. 13 seeds advancing out of the first round in the same year for the first time since 2008.

—Sister Jean.

—A pair of last second game-winners from a double-digit seed out of the Missouri Valley.

—Some remarkable individual performances (shoutout to Rob Gray).

—One of the best legitimate buzzer-beaters in recent tournament history.

All of this has been just the absolute best, and we still have one full day of games to go.

But before we get on with that, let’s relive all of the best and worst things that happened during Saturday’s helping of second round action.

1. (11) Loyola-Chicago 63, (3) Tennessee 62 (South)

For the second time in as many games, Loyola-Chicago advanced in the NCAA tournament by taking out a single-digit seed from a power conference with a clutch shot in the closing seconds.

On Thursday, it was Donte Ingram breaking the collective heart of the Miami Hurricanes. On Saturday, it was Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year Clayton Custer doing the same thing to third-seeded Tennessee.

CLAYTONIONS!

The Ramblers had to play catchup to be in a position to win the game against Miami. That wasn’t the case on Saturday. Loyola was superior to Tennessee from start to finish, and it took a furious rally from the Volunteers in the game’s final three minutes for heroics to be necessary.

Now Loyola not only finds itself in the Sweet 16, but in the Sweet 16 of the tournament’s most bonkers region. At this point, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Sister Jean’s boys win a couple more.

2. (3) Michigan 64, (6) Houston 63 (West)

There’s no question that Michigan-Houston gave us the best finish of the entire tournament, but a great finish alone doesn’t constitute a great game. The Wolverines and Cougars played a highly competitive contest, but there were long stretches of clunky play, and it also featured some of the poorest officiating we’ve seen through the first three days of the Big Dance.

Still ... this:

Houston had a number of failed opportunities to put the game away in the final minute, most notably the two missed free-throws by senior forward Devin Davis with 3.9 seconds to go that set the stage for Jordan Poole’s heroics. Davis was 8 for 8 from the free-throw line in the first 39:35 of Saturday’s game. Unfortunately he was just 1 for 4 in the last 25 seconds, and 0 for 2 with under four seconds.

More on that to come.

This will be Michigan’s second straight trip to the NCAA tournament and the fourth time since 2013 that the Wolverines have made it to the second weekend of the Big Dance.

John Beilein in March.

(3) Texas Tech 69, (6) Florida 66 (East)

While the finishes were better in the first two games, the two most aesthetically pleasing games of Saturday were this one and Gonzaga-Ohio State.

Texas Tech-Florida was a matchup of dark-horse Final Four that seemed to get a similar amount of love in the days between Selection Sunday and the start of the tournament. The main difference here was that the Red Raiders had Keenan Evans — who is now a certified March Madness star — and Florida didn’t. Evans made every key play in the game’s most crucial moments, and the Gators ultimately couldn’t find a response strong enough to keep their season alive.

1. Villanova

Virginia’s loss to UMBC Friday night revived the hot January talking point that “there are no great teams in college basketball this season” and that “this is the most wide open tournament ever.”

Villanova would like all of you continuing to spread this nonsense to kindly have a seat.

The Wildcats certainly looked “great” on Saturday, raining a school-tournament record 17 three-pointers on Alabama during a dominant 81-58 win. Nova carried a lead of just 32-27 with it into the locker room at halftime, but opened the second half on an 18-1 run that put to bed any hope of an upset for the Crimson Tide.

The first nine of those 18 points came on successive three-pointers from Mikal Bridges, who finished a game-high 23 points. Donte DiVincenzo, whose hot shooting was the only thing keeping the Villanova offense afloat early in the game, chipped in 18 points of his own.

If those two guys are hitting from the outside the way they were on Saturday, nobody’s beating Villanova.

2. Duke

You could have turned on the Duke-Rhode Island during any five minute stretch on Saturday afternoon and it would have been apparent that the Blue Devils are in a different class than the Rams. There was no point when it appeared as though Coach K’s team was going to run into trouble in the same round and situation (7 vs. 2) that got them bounced a year ago.

We don’t need to get too deep into particulars here. In fact, I bet there is at least one person reading this who didn’t see a second of the game and hasn’t looked at the box score, but can give the basic gist of what went down. Bagley put up numbers (yup), the Devils dominated inside (double yup), Gary Trent and Grayson Allen hit some threes (yup and yup), and the team America loves to hate rolled.

The competition obviously takes a fairly massive step up next weekend, but Duke looked scary good in both its first and second round wins.

3. Kentucky

It’s easy to say that Kentucky beating up on Davidson and Buffalo wasn’t impressive because, well, they were beating up on Davidson and Buffalo. The reality is, January Kentucky would have gotten the shit scared out of it by Buffalo, and it probably would have lost to Davidson. I’m serious. Go back and just watch a highlight video from any one of the Wildcats’ losses in January or early February. It looks like a completely different team. There’s no confidence, there’s no sense that the players have a firm understanding of their roles; everything looks different than it has for the past three weeks.

In January, John Calipari lost four straight games for the first time in his career. Two months later, he’s just a pair of wins — in a region that is suddenly wide open for his team — from a fifth trip to the Final Four with the Wildcats.

1/2. Alabama/Rhode Island

I’m not disappointed that you lost to teams that are clearly better than you are. I’m disappointed because you couldn’t even keep things interesting.

The afternoon of the tournament’s first Saturday is when the realization sets in that we’re not going to have four games being played simultaneously again until next year. It’s a harsh reality, and all we ask is that those first two stand-alone games do their best to keep our interest. Instead, Alabama and Rhode Island helped ensure that they would be the two least competitive games of the entire day.

For shame, guys.

3. Tennessee

You were one of only two teams going up against a double-digit seed on Saturday. The other team handled its business by 20 points. You lost on a last second shot. We both knew right then that this is where you’d end up.

Angel Delgado, Seton Hall

In his final college game, Delgado did everything he could possibly do to try and help his team pull an upset of Kansas. He finished with 24 points and 23 rebounds, marking just the fourth time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams that a player has had a 20-point, 20-rebound game. Delgado’s 23 rebounds were the third most by any player in a tournament game since 1973.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kentucky

Kentucky’s most consistent performer all season long, Gilgeous-Alexander was once again a rock for John Calipari when his team was being threatened early by Buffalo. Gilgeous-Alexander hit 10 of 12 shots, finishing with a game-high 27 points to go with a game-high six assists and six rebounds.

Zach Norvell Jr., Gonzaga

The freshman may have saved Gonzaga’s season with his ice-cold trey in the closing seconds of Thursday’s first round game against UNCG. All he did for an encore on Saturday was his six threes, score 28 points, grab a game-high 12 rebounds, and hand out four assists.

Malik Newman, Kansas

The enigmatic sophomore guard continued his March surge with arguably the best overall performance in his first season as a Jayhawk. Newman scored 28 points, made all eight of his free-throw attempts, and was the biggest reason KU was able to survive a scare from Seton Hall.

Keenan Evans, Texas Tech

If Texas Tech wins two more games and plays its way to the Final Four (and possibly beyond), it will likely be because Evans is in the midst of some type of Kemba Walker-esque March run. He set the stage for such an occurrence on Saturday, scoring 22 points and making every key play down the stretch for the Red Raiders.

1. The dark side of a March moment

There’s a bleak side to every legendary March moment. We typically try our best to push that dispiriting underbelly out of our thoughts so that we can soak up the goodness of a last second buzzer beater or a back and forth tournament classic.

Sometimes that’s harder to do than it usually is.

Everyone will remember Jordan Poole’s shot from Saturday night. A lot of people will remember Devin Davis’ missed free-throws too.

If Davis’ name rings a bell with you and you can’t quite remember why, it’s probably because of something that happened to him while he was a player at Indiana. On Nov. 1, 2014, Davis was struck by a car driven by teammate Emmitt Holt. Both players had been drinking underage. Davis suffered a serious head injury and was in a coma for several days. He wound up redshirting the 2014-15 season.

After that season, Davis was caught with a small amount of marijuana and was subsequently dismissed from the team. The controversial move was seen by many as then-head coach Tom Crean attempting to appease the portion of his fan base that had been clamoring for more discipline. It’s a decision that still doesn’t sit well with some Indiana fans.

Davis wound up at Odessa Junior College, resigned to work harder than he’d ever worked before and get another shot at the Division-I level. When Kelvin Sampson and Houston came calling, he promised he wouldn’t let them down.

Still, there was more adversity coming.

Davis’ junior season was derailed by a pair of fluke injuries. The first was when an opposing player’s fingernail sliced through one of Davis’ fingers during a game, causing tendon damage that required surgery. As he was attempting to come back from that injury, Davis also tore a muscle in the bottom of his foot.

“I think Devin started going down that road where he thought he was never going to get a break,” Sampson said at the time.

But then there was this season. His senior season. Davis established a reputation for himself as one of the hardest-working players in the American Athletic Conference. He averaged 10.7 points and 6.2 rebounds for a Houston team that became the first since 1984 to win a game in the NCAA tournament.

That last paragraph is what is supposed to trump everything else. It’s supposed to be the realization of the happy conclusion everyone was hoping for during the middle of a tumultuous story.

March is also cruel.

2. The Saturday/Sunday schedule

I don’t understand it. I’ll never understand it.

Just two games back-to-back for the first five hours of the day. No games going on at the same time. And then BAM, we’ve got six games hurled at us during the evening session.

There’s no reason to have second round games on Saturday and Sunday wrapping up after midnight on the East Coast. It’s an easy fix, and it blows my mind that it hasn’t happened yet.

3. Candace Parker’s documented agony

We’ve all been through what Candace Parker went through while watching the final moments of Loyola-Tennessee. The difference is we didn’t immediately have our despair thrown on national television for the entire world to see.

Brutal.

4. Sister Jean’s lack of faith in Loyola

This actually might be my favorite story of the entire tournament, but it has to go in the jeers section out of respect for the Ramblers. We also have too many “cheers” tidbits already.

Sister Jean is America’s sweetheart in large part because we love the fact that she tells it like it is. In keeping with that tradition, Sister Jean filled out a full NCAA tournament bracket earlier this week and had her Loyola team advancing to the Sweet 16 ... but no further.

She also ducked questions about the bracket after the team’s win over Tennessee like a straight pro.

“Just one game at a time.”

Let Sister Jean’s example be a lesson to all of us: There’s no shame in siding with your head over your heart in March. Don’t let any fans shame you into feeling differently.

5. Rob Gray’s tournament being over

Gray did everything he could once again for the Cougars on Saturday night, finishing with 23 points and 10 rebounds. The Houston star’s tournament is now finished after scoring 72 points in two games. He’s the first player to eclipse the 70-point mark in the tournament’s opening weekend since Stephen Curry did it for Davidson in 2008.

Man bun forever.

1. Moe Wagner

We talked about Devin Davis at length above. Look at this move from Wagner when he sees Davis watching with despair as the Michigan players celebrate Jordan Poole’s game-winner.

What an incredibly genuine moment.

Wagner is in the midst of one of the most euphoric moments of his young life, but he stops dead in his tracks when he comes face to face with the realization that his joy means someone else is suffering. He could have put off coming back and saying something to Davis until after he’d celebrated adequately with his boys, but it was instinctual for him to turn off what mattered to himself, at least for a brief moment.

Before you be anything else, be kind.

2. Coach K

Duke’s win over Rhode Island was the 1,099th of Mike Krzyzewski’s coaching career. That moved him past Tennessee legend Pat Summit for the most all-time in Division I basketball.

After the game, Krzyzewski called passing Summit “an honor,” but also noted that “Pat would have won a lot more” had her coaching career not been cut short by an early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2012. She died in 2016 at the age of 64.

3. The Michigan locker room celebration water war.

This might be the best new March tradition.

4. Loyola

For years, people have been wondering why college basketball in the state of Illinois hasn’t been better. There’s a ridiculous amount of talent in the area, there’s a passion for the sport, there’s deep history with a few of these programs, and three of them — Northwestern, Illinois and DePaul — play in a power conference.

Turns out the state of college hoops in the Land of Lincoln is just fine.

Loyola has more NCAA tournament wins in the last three days than Northwestern has in the history of its program. The Ramblers also have as many Big Dance victories in the last 72 hours as the Wildcats, DePaul and Illinois have combined since 2013.

Toss in Sister Jean, the fact that their school colors make them look like Gryffindor fans, their hard-nosed style of play, and these thrilling last seconds March victories, and it’s clear that Loyola is the state of Illinois’ current college basketball king.

I say if the Ramblers make the Final Four, they get to claim DePaul’s brand new arena for themselves. It’s only fair.

5. Lawson Schaffer’s behind the back pass

This pass by the walk-on fan favorite in the closing moments of Alabama’s loss to Villanova was pretty much the only cool thing the Crimson Tide did on Saturday.

1. Zhaire Smith, Texas Tech

You figured the high-flyer was going to give us at least one “One Shining Moment” worthy dunk at some point during this tournament. He’s now given us two.

2. Hamidou Diallo, Kentucky

Three weeks ago, Diallo was a lost man with a diminishing role on this Kentucky team. Now he’s playing the best basketball of his season and dunking on everyone.

Part II:

3. Jordan Bowden, Tennessee

It wasn’t a great day for dunks. I’m not gonna sit here and lie to you guys.

1. It’s going to be hard for anyone to snap an agony/ecstasy shot that tops the one the TBS cameras were able to capture Saturday night.

2. This was Duke-Rhode Island for 40 minutes.

3. The crowd in Boise was against Kentucky. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had to let them know he didn’t care.

4. Pure, unbridled joy.

5. Let ‘em know (every team should have a script jersey).

1. “I am a little speechless right now. I’m trying to just appreciate the moment of what just happened.” — Michigan coach John Beilein’s opening statement

2. “I could give two craps.” — Rhode Island head coach Danny Hurley when asked about his name coming up as a candidate for other jobs

3. “Three is more than two.’’ — Villanova’s Collin Gillespie summing up why the Wildcats went with an outside attack against Alabama

4. “That guy has an overdose of swag.” — Michigan coach John Beilein on Jordan Poole

5. “It’s great to get some exposure for our school and our fans. And on the national stage, we know there’s so many loyal fans that have come up to us, that have been fans since `63, the national championship team, and they’re so proud of us.” — Loyola senior Ben Richardson

Last day of the best sports weekend of the year. Can’t hold anything back.

Region: East
Location: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit
Time: 12:10 p.m.
Channel: CBS

Region: Midwest
Location: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit
Time: 2:40 p.m.
Channel: CBS

Region: West
Location: Spectrum Center, Charlotte
Time: 5:15 p.m.
Channel: CBS

Region: South
Location: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville
Time: 6:10 p.m.
Channel: TNT

Region: Midwest
Location: Viejas Arena, San Diego
Time: 7:10 p.m.
Channel: TBS

Region: South
Location: Spectrum Center, Charlotte
Time: 7:45 p.m.
Channel: truTV

Region: West
Location: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville
Time: 8:40 p.m.
Channel: TNT

Region: East
Location: Viejas Arena, San Diego
Time: 9:40 p.m.
Channel: TBS