NCAA Tournament: Day 1 Highlights

Yesterday marked the start of everyone slacking off at work and school. It is the time of the year when everyone becomes a college basketball fan. The time of the year when that cinderella team makes a run deep into the tournament and ruins millions of brackets.

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The biggest story of the "second round" was Harvard upsetting New Mexico to get their first tournament win in school history. Third-seeded New Mexico was heavily favored and picked by many to make a run in this years tournament, but failed to get out of the round of 64 for the second straight year. Harvard led and controlled much of the game, making New Mexico force tough shots. Wesley Saunders led Harvard with 18 points and four rebounds in 39 minutes. Harvard will try to be this years cinderella team and will face sixth-seeded Arizona on Saturday.

Another big surprise was the success of the Pac-12 Conference. Arizona, Oregon, and California all won their games yesterday to advance to the next round. Oregon, powered by Damyean Dotson and Arsalan Kazemi, defeated Oklahoma State convincingly 68-55. Arizona proved the critics wrong and shut down popular upset pick Belmont. California upset UNLV 64-61in a game that ended with multiple missed free throws by both teams.

VCU and Syracuse looked like championship caliber teams in their opening games. VCU beat 12th-seeded Akron by 46. The Rams forced 21 turnovers and only allowed Akron to make one shot from beyond the arc. Syracuse dominated Montana 81-34 to continue their momentum that they gained from a successful Big East Tournament. They will face California in the next round on Saturday.

One thing that many people forget while watching the tournament is that these players are only college kids. Some of them are playing in the last game of their career. Pittsburgh guard Tray Woodall reminded us of that yesterday in his emotional post game press conference. See video below.

Nate Robinson's HUGE dunk vs. Portland (video)

With the NCCA Tournament kicking off yesterday, Nate Robinson did his best to direct the attention back to the NBA for a moment. The 5'9" guard split the Portland defense with a nifty move and absolutely threw the ball down with authority. Chicago ended up losing the game, but Robinson provided us with the spectacular highlight.

Miami wins 23rd straight; LeBron steals the show (video)

The Miami Heat escaped by the Boston Celtics on Monday night to win their 23rd consecutive game. Miami now owns the second longest winning streak in NBA history, after Lebron James hit what proved to be the game winner in the closing seconds of the game. James finished the game with 37 points, 12 assists, and seven rebounds. Jeff Green led the Celtics and all scorers with a surprising 43 points, a career-high. 

Miami's win streak may not have been the biggest story of the game. In the second quarter, LeBron caught an alley-oop from Norris Cole and for some reason Jason Terry thought it would be a good idea to try and block the dunk. LeBron almost jumped over Terry and completely embarrassed him. He even took it as far as to stand over Terry while he laid helpless on the ground. 

The Heat will try for 24 straight wins Wednesday night when they visit the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

Chris Mason...where you at? (video)

Last night, the Vancouver Canucks and Nashville Predators game went into a shootout. With the Canucks already leading 5-4, Henrik Sedin added another goal on a nifty move against Nashville goalie Chris Mason. Not only did he beat Mason, he made him look like an absolute fool. (See video below).

Hilarious Jeff Gordon Pepsi MAX Commercial (video)

There has been a lot of buzz over the internet about a recent Pepsi MAX commercial featuring veteran NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon. The commercial has Gordon dress up like an everyday person going to a Chevy dealership to test drive a car. Pepsi put cameras in and outside of the car to get the reaction of the salesperson. Some people are saying that it is fake, but it is still awesome. We'll let you decide.