It was kind of a decent Christmas overall, as there were several close games and a few small upsets. We also had one of my favorite tournament moments of all-time with the Oweh shot in the Kentucky game. However, I can’t call it a great Christmas because there were once again no upsets pulled off by a 13 seed or higher.  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 Tournament First Round Games (Postgame)	Pre-Tourney Rank	Difference
1	(7) Kentucky vs. (10) Santa Clara (Fri- 12:15)- CBS (5)	1	0
2	(5) Wisconsin vs. (12) High Point (Th- 1:50)- TBS (247)	9	7
3	(6) North Carolina vs. (11) VCU (Th- 6:50)- TNT (245)	8	5
4	(1) Duke vs. (16) Siena (Th- 2:50)- CBS (5)	28	24
5	(8) Ohio State vs. (9) TCU (Th- 12:15)- CBS (5)	21	16
6	(3) Virginia vs. (14) Wright State (Fri- 1:50)- TBS (247)	27	21
7	(6) BYU vs. (11) Texas (Th- 7:25)- TBS (247)	25	18
8	(6) Louisville vs. (11) South Florida (Th- 1:30)- TNT (245)	7	-1
9	(8) Villanova vs. (9) Utah State (Fri- 4:10)- TNT (245)	19	10
10	(4) Nebraska vs. (13) Troy (Th- 12:40)- TruTV (246)	3	-7
11	(2) UConn vs. (15) Furman (Fri- 10:00)- TBS (247)	15	4
12	(3) Gonzaga vs. (14) Kennesaw State (Th- 10:00)- TBS (247)	17	5
13	(4) Kansas vs. (13) Cal Baptist (Fri- 9:45)- CBS (5)	13	0
14	(8) Clemson vs. (9) Iowa (Fri- 6:50)- TNT (245)	32	18
15	(5) Vanderbilt vs. (12) McNeese (Th- 3:15)- TruTV (246)	14	-1
16	(8) Georgia vs. (9) Saint Louis (Th- 9:45)- CBS (5)	10	-6
17	(7) UCLA vs. (10) UCF (Fri- 7:25)- TBS (247)	31	14
18	(1) Michigan vs. (16) Howard (Th- 7:10)- CBS (5)	30	12
19	(7) Miami-FL vs. (10) Missouri (Fri- 10:10)- TruTV (246)	19	10
20	(4) Alabama vs. (13) Hofstra (Fri- 3:15)- TruTV (246)	2	-18
21	(5) Texas Tech vs. (12) Akron (Fri- 12:40)- Tru TV (246)	4	-17
22	(1) Florida vs. (16) Prairie View A & M (Fri- 9:25)- TNT (245)	6	-16
23	(7) Saint Mary’s vs. (10) Texas A & M (Th- 7:35)- TruTV (246)	20	-3
24	(2) Purdue vs. (15) Queens (Fri- 7:35)- TruTV (246)	12	-12
25	(6) Tennessee vs. (11) Miami-OH (Fri- 4:25)- TBS (247)	5	-20
26	(5) St. John’s vs. (12) Northern Iowa (Fri- 7:10)- CBS (5)	11	-15
27	(3) Michigan State vs. (14) North Dakota State (Th- 4:05)- TNT (245)	24	-3
28	(4) Arkansas vs. (13) Hawaii (Th- 4:25)- TBS (247)	16	-12
29	(2) Houston vs. (15) Idaho (Th- 10:10)- TruTV (246)	18	-11
30	(3) Illinois vs. (14) Penn (Th- 9:25)- TNT (245)	22	-8
31	(1) Arizona vs. (16) Long Island (Fri- 1:35)- TNT (245)	26	-5
32	(2) Iowa State vs. (15) Tennessee State (Fri- 2:50)- CBS (5)	23	-9