In my last post, I made an attempt to dismantle the NCAA tournament's automatic bid system, claiming that it was illogical to award a spot in the tournament field to a team that pulled it all together for a few consecutive days to win their conference tournament. As opposed to a team that dominated conference play all throughout the season, but slipped up when it really mattered. I wrote that piece before the tournament had started and I still stand by it strongly. But, as the second weekend of the tournament has come to a close, I think it's appropriate to give some credit to the teams I may have targeted that ended up exceeding expectations.

Holy Cross, the only team that I mentioned by name, won a tournament game, their first since 1953. Granted, it was only a play-in game, but against a heavily favored Southern Jaguars squad nonetheless. In their second and final game, they even played Oregon tough for about 10-15 minutes, until the Ducks turned it on and showed why the selection committee awarded them a number one seed. Ignoring the inevitable loss, this tournament was a huge step forward for Holy Cross, who finished the regular season ninth out of 10 in the Patriot League standings.

A lot of pundits raised their eyebrows when Northern Iowa won the Missouri Valley conference tournament in mildly surprising fashion as the number four seed. Mostly because Wichita State, the number one seed, was largely seen as a write-in for the NCAA Tournament field. Wichita State still made the field, as did Northern Iowa, who earned the conference's automatic bid by winning the conference tournament. They won their first game in a 6-over-11 upset of Texas in dramatic fashion with a last-second half-court desperation heave that miraculously banked square off the glass and into the net. In my opinion, it was the best game of that entire round. But, as incredible as that win was, the magnitude of their loss in the next round was much worse. Northern Iowa somehow squandered a 12 point lead in the last 30 seconds of the game to fall at the hands of number three seed Texas A&M in one of the most unbelievable 30-second sequences of college basketball that I've ever seen. Despite the fashion of their incredibly gut-wrenching loss, Northern Iowa proved a lot of severely overlooking doubters, who thought that they didn't even belong in the field without winning their conference title, wrong.

A similar scenario existed in the West Coast Conference. St. Mary's, the number one seed that was thought to have had a good enough resume to earn an automatic bid, regardless of their performance in the conference tournament, ended up falling to number two seed Gonzaga in the championship game. St. Mary's ended up not being selected to the field, which honestly surprised me a bit, but Gonzaga's performance in the NCAA tournament surprised me even more. As an number 11 seed, they were underdogs in every single one of their matchups. First, they were paired with the Midwest region's number six seed, Seton Hall, who had recently defeated one of the best teams in the country, Villanova, to win the Big East title. I figured Seton Hall would handily beat the Zags, but it turns out I had the roles reversed. In their second game, they drew number three seed Utah, who I was also pretty high on, but it turns out that was wrong too. Gonzaga absolutely had their way with the Utes, winning by a 23 point margin in one of the more surprising defeats of the tournament. Gonzaga then came extremely close to defeating Syracuse and advancing to the Elite Eight, but had their potential game-winning shot blocked with only a few seconds remaining. Gonzaga definitely turned some heads during this tournament, nearly making the Elite Eight as a number 11 seed, despite many analysts believing they weren't even good enough to make the tournament in the first place.

While each of these teams were undoubtedly surprise guests at the big dance this year, none may have been more surprising than the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders, who earned an automatic bid as the number two seed from Conference USA. The favorites, number one UAB, surprisingly bowed out in their first game against Western Kentucky - opening the door for the Blue Raiders to win the conference and subsequently pull off one of the most shocking upsets in NCAA Tournament history. Middle Tennessee, a number 15 seed, drew number two seed Michigan State, who many pundits believed the committee snubbed of a number one seed. Michigan State had just won the Big Ten conference tournament and had been on a roll leading up to the tournament. So they were overwhelming favorites to advance all the way to the Final Four under the guidance of their Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo. However, the "little guy" didn't quite get the memo. Not only did Middle Tennessee win rather convincingly by a 90-81 margin, but Michigan State didn't even hold the lead for a single second of the game. It was truly a case of David vs. Goliath, and that game will go down in history as one of the best upsets in NCAA Tournament history. Of course, I had Michigan State advancing to the Final Four, but that doesn't impede on Middle Tennessee's groundbreaking accomplishment. The Blue Raiders should be trending upwards next season.

I'm not sure what it is, but something about the month of March creates an atmosphere where crazy occurrences in the world of college basketball are widely expected - even though they may seem completely outlandish on paper. I reckon that's part of where the "Madness" in March Madness comes from. I've been an avid follower of the annual tournament for years now, and time and time again I see this phenomena in action. Yet I, and plenty of other followers nationwide, still can't seem to completely accept the fact that it's March and we should expect literally anything to happen. The spontaneity of the dance is what makes it beautiful, and I respect that, while holding to my beliefs on the subject covered in my last post. Teams like the aforementioned are the captivating reasons why March Madness is just that, madness.

With that being said, these guys really messed up my bracket this year, so at least I can still hold that against them. No hard feelings, though.