It was kind of a boring Christmas overall, as there were only a few close games and no upsets pulled off by a 13 seed or higher. Nevertheless, there were still some smaller upsets and great storylines to emerge from the tournament’s first two days (i.e. D-II Drake, McNeese’s rapping manager, Amir Aura Khan). Let’s now rank the games from best to worst and compare how my pre-tourney intrigue rankings compare to how the games actually played out.

	Ranking the NCAA First Round Games (Postgame)	Pre-Tourney Rank	Difference
1	(5) Clemson vs. (12) McNeese State (Th- 3:15)- TruTV (246)	9	8
2	(6) Missouri vs. (11) Drake (Th- 7:35)- TruTV (246)	4	2
3	(7) Saint Mary’s vs. (10) Vanderbilt (Fri- 3:15)- TruTV (246)	22	19
4	(5) Memphis vs. (12) Colorado State (Fri- 2:00)- TBS (247)	13	9
5	(5) Michigan vs. (12) UC San Diego (Th- 10:00)- TBS (247)	3	-1
6	(8) Mississippi State vs. (9) Baylor (Fri- 12:15)- CBS (5)	26	20
7	(7) Kansas vs. (10) Arkansas (Th- 7:10)- CBS (5)	10	7
8	(2) Alabama vs. (15) Robert Morris (Fri- 12:40)- TruTV (246)	27	19
9	(6) Ole Miss vs. (11) North Carolina (Fri- 4:05)- TNT (245)	19	10
10	(7) Marquette vs. (10) New Mexico (Fri- 7:25)- TBS (247)	20	10
11	(8) UConn vs. (3) Oklahoma (Fri- 9:25)- TNT (245)	28	17
12	(4) Texas A & M vs. (13) Yale (Th- 7:25)- TBS (247)	15	3
13	(6) BYU vs. (11) VCU (Th- 4:05)- TNT (245)	8	-5
14	(3) Texas Tech vs. (14) UNCW (Th- 10:10)- TruTV (246)	1	-13
15	(4) Purdue vs. (13) High Point (Th- 12:40)- TruTV (246)	5	-10
16	(6) Illinois vs. (11) Xavier (Fri- 9:45)- CBS (5)	21	5
17	(2) Tennessee vs. (15) Wofford (Th- 6:50)- TNT (245)	16	-1
18	(3) Kentucky vs. (14) Troy (Fri- 7:10)- CBS (5)	2	-16
19	(3) Wisconsin vs. (14) Montana (Th- 1:30)- TNT (245)	12	-7
20	(8) Louisville vs. (9) Creighton (Th- 12:15)- CBS (5)	14	-6
21	(1) Auburn vs. (16) Alabama State (Th- 2:50)- CBS (5)	31	10
22	(2) Michigan State vs. (15) Bryant (Fri- 10:00)- TBS (247)	25	3
23	(3) Iowa State vs. (14) Lipscomb (Fri- 1:30)- TNT (245)	23	0
24	(2) St John’s vs. (15) Omaha (Th- 9:45)- CBS (5)	18	-6
25	(8) Gonzaga vs. (9) Georgia (Th- 4:35)- TBS (247)	17	-8
26	(7) UCLA vs. (10) Utah State (Th- 9:25)- TNT (245)	29	3
27	(4) Arizona vs. (13) Akron (Fri- 7:35)- Tru TV (246)	6	-21
28	(5) Oregon vs. (12) Liberty (Fri- 10:10)- TruTV (246)	7	-21
29	(4) Maryland vs. (13) Grand Canyon (Fri- 4:35)- TBS (247)	11	-18
30	(1) Florida vs. (16) Norfolk State (Fri – 6:50)- TNT (245)	32	2
31	(1) Houston vs. (16) SIU-Edwardsville (Th- 2:00)- TBS (247)	24	-7
32	(1) Duke vs. (16) Mt. St. Mary’s (Fri- 2:50)- CBS (5)	30	-2