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Who impressed most in March Madness first round: Upsets, buzzer-beaters and beatdowns
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- Who impressed most in March Madness first round: Upsets, buzzer-beaters and beatdowns
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After weeks of anticipation, the most exciting two days in American sports have drawn to a close.
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The first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament is a beautiful symphony of chaos, with 32 games crammed into a 36-hour window. Those highlight reels of buzzer-beaters, massive upsets and emotionally charged moments that air throughout March and into early April? A solid chunk of them take place in those first two full days of action, when millions of people across the country are skirting personal and professional obligations to soak in all the madness that March has to offer.
As it does almost every year, the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament delivered. There were surprising results in thrilling games, with High Point knocking off Wisconsin in the time-honored 12-over-5 upset. There were furious comebacks, with VCU rebounding from a 19-point deficit to beat North Carolina. There were buzzer-beaters, with Kentucky's Otega Oweh burying a prayer of a shot to get the Wildcats to overtime against Santa Clara. And whether it was High Point's Flynn Clayman or VCU's Phil Martelli Jr., there were post-game interviews that immediately went viral.
REQUIRED READING: March Madness scores: See the big shots, moments, highlights in today's first round
What stood out the most from an eventful couple of days? What teams, players and coaches were the most impressive in the win-or-go-home crucible of March?
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Here are the 12 most impressive performances from the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament:
March Madness first round biggest winners
Saint Louis
In 2024, a 28-6 Indiana State team that had captivated much of the country with its best season since Larry Bird was on campus ended up being one of the first four teams left out of the NCAA tournament. Two years later, at a different blue-and-white school in the midwest, the coach and star player from that team showed us all what we missed with the Sycamores' exclusion.
No team turned in a more impressive first-round performance than Saint Louis, which continued its breakthrough 2025-26 season under coach Josh Schertz and stellar big man Robbie Avila. In a 102-77 dismantling of Georgia, the Billikens shot 58% from the field, had 27 assists on 42 made baskets, had eight players score at least nine points and persistently embarrassed a power-conference foe which had wins over the likes of Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and Texas this season. In the process, they became just the second team in tournament history to be seeded ninth or worse to score at least 100 points in a game and win by at least 25, joining the famous 1989-90 Loyola Marymount team.
After winning 24 of its first 25 games this season, Saint Louis limped into the tournament, going just 4-4 in its final eight regular-season games. If the win against the Bulldogs is any indication, it's moved way past whatever was ailing it.
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High Point…and its coach
In an event that has a wonderful habit of making once-anonymous coaches, players and schools national celebrities overnight, it took only the fourth game of the first full day of action to get our first Cinderella story.
No. 12 seed High Point entered its game against No. 5 seed Wisconsin as a 10-point underdog, trailed for 34 of 40 minutes, never led by more than three and was down by four with 56 seconds remaining, but was able to pull off the upset after getting a fast-break layup from Chase Johnston with 11 seconds remaining for an 83-82 win. The result was only a small part of the Panthers' charm. Johnston's winning basket was his first made 2-pointer of the season, as each of his 68 previous made shots were from 3-point range. Immediately after the win, first-year head coach Flynn Clayman gave one of the most memorable post-game interviews in years, sticking up for mid-majors like his own that have difficulty scheduling non-conference games against teams from the sport's major conferences.
"It looks pretty obvious to me that high-majors need to play mid-majors during the season," Clayman said . "They said we ain't played nobody — we played somebody now."
High Point doesn't perfectly fit the bill as a plucky little upstart. The Panthers' roster is reportedly worth more than the rest of the Big South Conference combined and the university itself is perhaps most famous on social media for having a steakhouse on campus. But on one afternoon, High Point reminded us all why we love March Madness underdogs so much.
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VCU
With 15 minutes remaining in regulation in its first-round game on March 19, VCU trailed North Carolina by 19. The Rams were a popular 11-over-6 upset pick, but in that moment, the Atlantic 10 tournament champions looked to be just about finished. Then, in an instant, everything changed. VCU outscored the Tar Heels 19-4 in the final 6:11 of regulation, forcing overtime and ultimately pulling out an improbable 82-78 victory.
Though much of the attention after the game has focused on North Carolina's collapse, and what it might mean for coach Hubert Davis' future, the Rams deserve more than a sizable share of credit for the result. Terrence Hill Jr. was brilliant, scoring a career-high 34 points while making 13 of his 23 shots, including seven of his 10 3s. Twenty-three of those points came in the second half and overtime. The Rams continued their giant-killing ways, knocking off North Carolina as a No. 11 seed after having done the same to Duke and Kansas earlier this century. Then, after the game, first-year VCU head coach Phil Martelli Jr. took a moment to heap praise on the student reporters who have been covering his team throughout the season.
What's not to love about this group?
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Otega Oweh
Kentucky's All-SEC guard saved his team's season on more than one occasion on Friday, scoring a career-high 35 points along with eight rebounds and seven assists in the Wildcats' 89-84 victory against Santa Clara. He provided what's likely the highlight of the tournament thus far with a 32-foot 3-poiner that banked off the glass as time expired to send the game to overtime, a shot that came less than three seconds after Santa Clara took a 73-70 lead.
Heading into its second-round game Sunday against No. 2 seed Iowa State, Kentucky has been one of the bigger disappointments in the sport this season, with a 22-13 record despite having a $22 million roster. But with the Wildcats' season on the line, Oweh did everything he could to make sure it kept going.
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Tarris Reed Jr.
The most eye-popping numbers of the first round came in its final game, when the UConn senior had 31 points and 27 (27!!) rebounds in the Huskies' 82-71 victory against Furman on Friday. Reed was efficient on the offensive end, making 12 of his 15 shots. On the glass, he was a different kind of monster, outrebounding the Paladins by himself.
Just how impressive was the Michigan transfer? Reed became the first player in NCAA tournament history with at least 30 points and 25 rebounds in a game while shooting at least 80% from the field.
Nebraska
The Cornhuskers notoriously were the only program from one of college basketball's five major conferences that had never won an NCAA tournament game. All those years of misery came to a halt on one cathartic afternoon, with Nebraska blowing out Troy 76-47 on Thursday. The win continued a magical season for coach Fred Hoiberg's team, which got the season off to a 20-0 start and has now won a program-record 27 games.
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Now, with that ignominious historical qualifier behind it, the Huskers can focus on another first heading into its matchup Saturday against No. 5 seed Vanderbilt: a first-ever trip to the Sweet 16.
Braden Smith
Heading into his team's first-round game against Queens on Friday, the Purdue All-American point guard needed only two assists to break Bobby Hurley's NCAA career record. He managed to do much more than that, dishing out eight dimes to move to 1,083 for his exemplary career.
For good measure, he also scored a game-high 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting.
Texas Tech
With All-American forward JT Toppin sidelined for the remainder of the season, the Red Raiders were on the receiving end of a popular upset pick in their 5-versus-12 matchup against Akron. By the time they were done with the Zips, they made those predictions of an early exit from the tournament look foolish.
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Even without its best player, Texas Tech shot 64% from the field, 55% from 3 and had five players finish with at least 14 points in a 91-71 rout on Friday. Coach Grant McCasland has built one of the toughest programs in the country, one that has enough talent and wherewithal to withstand losing one of the country's most productive stars. After their first-round showing, and given that they're playing an Alabama team likely without its No. 2 scorer, the Red Raiders look poised to make it to the tournament's second week for a second-consecutive season.
David Mirkovic
Though Keaton Wagler has deservedly gotten much of the attention for Illinois this season, his fellow Fighting Illini freshman was the brightest star during their 105-70 rout of Penn and former Big Ten foe Fran McCaffery on Thursday. The 6-foot-9 Montenegro native turned in arguably the most impressive individual performance of the first round, scoring a game-high 29 points on 11-of-17 shooting, along with 17 rebounds. It continued a late-season surge for Mirkovic, who is averaging 21.5 points per game over Illinois' past four contests.
Siena
The Saints weren't able to pull off the third-ever 16-over-1 upset in NCAA men's basketball tournament history, but for the vast majority of their game against Duke on Thursday, it looked like a distinct possibility. They led for 71% of the game against the tournament's No. 1 overall seed and were up by as many as 13 before the Blue Devils eventually pulled away for a 71-65 victory.
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Siena did all of that while coach Gerry McNamara channeled his inner Norman Dale and played only five players, with each of his starters logging a full 40 minutes. After the game, Duke coach Jon Scheyer said that McNamara out-coached him, believing the Saints were "way more ready to play" than the Blue Devils. If McNamara ends up leaving after this season to take over at Syracuse, his alma mater, his brief Siena tenure ended on a high note…even in a loss.
Jacari White
With a Virginia program used to NCAA tournament heartbreak on the ropes against Wright State in a 3-versus-14 matchup Friday, the North Dakota State transfer came up huge for the Cavaliers, coming off the bench to score a game-high 26 points in an 82-73 victory. White sank 10 of his 12 shots, including six of his eight 3s. He scored 15 points in the final 13:20, helping the Hoos outscore the Raiders 32-23 during that time.
Florida
Listen, when you win a game by 59 points, the second-largest margin of victory in NCAA tournament history, you're going to make this list.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Best March Madness performances: Who impressed most in first round
