Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
BY: SAMUEL WEILERT; STAFF WRITER
Through the opening two rounds of the 2026 men’s March Madness tournament, us fans have been treated to many classic games and moments after a 2025 season where it felt like the magic of the madness may have been dying.
The first day of the Round of 64 opened with a bang in the No. 8 and No. 9 seed matchup of Ohio State vs. TCU. TCU started off hot with a 15-point lead going into halftime. However, Ohio State stormed back and even took the lead for a short period late in the second half.
Unfortunately for their fans, the Buckeyes’ luck eventually ran out when TCU Junior Xavier Edmonds hit a tough layup over two defenders with 4.3 seconds remaining to win the game 66-64.
The next fantastic game of the day came in the matchup between No. 5 seed Wisconsin and No. 12 seed High Point. The Badgers were favored by 12.5 points going into the game, as they had just gotten off of an impressive Big Ten Tournament appearance and were looking to make a deep March Madness run.
However, their game against the High Point Panthers ended up being a great back-and-forth affair with neither team ever leading by more than 10 points. With one minute left, High Point was trailing 82-78 when senior Chase Johnston hit a clutch three to cut the lead down to one. Both teams failed to score in their next possession following that, leading to Wisconsin having the ball with 16 seconds left.
Superstar senior Nick Boyd of the Badgers took a driving layup and missed, leading to a High Point rebound and cross-court outlet pass to Johnston, who scored the game-winning layup for his first 2-point field goal of the entire year. This game was the biggest upset of the first round, as Wisconsin was the only top 5 seed to not make it to the Round of 32.
Two other great games during the opening Saturday were the matchup between No. 1 seed Duke and No. 16 seed Siena and the game between No. 6 seed North Carolina and No. 11 seed VCU.
The Siena Saints almost pulled off the biggest upset in NCAA tournament history. Unfortunately, after an early 13-point lead, their starters, who had to play all 40 minutes against the Blue Devils, were too tired to hold onto the victory.
The VCU Rams, however, were able to pull off the upset in a crazy comeback from down 19 points to stun the Tar Heels in overtime.
The next day of the tournament, there was only really one notable game, as nearly every other contest was a blowout in which the team that was favored won convincingly.
Luckily for fans, though, that one notable game was the absolute classic game between No. 7 seed Kentucky and No. 10 seed Santa Clara.
The entire game was a close back-and-forth affair where the final 10 seconds of regulation will live in college basketball fans’ memories forever.
Kentucky senior Otega Oweh tied the game up 70-70 with nine seconds on the clock, which was then followed by a miraculous lead-taking 3-pointer by Santa Clara’s Allen Graves with 2 seconds on the clock, which was then followed by an even more miraculous 32-foot game-tying buzzer beater by Oweh to send the game to overtime.
Unfortunately, overtime wasn’t nearly as exciting as Kentucky ended up pulling away, winning the game 89-84.
The Saturday slate of games similarly had many blowouts and uncompetitive affairs, but one of the highlights was No. 11 seed Texas upsetting No. 3 seed Gonzaga. Texas Junior Camden Hedie drained a clutch three with 14 seconds left to ice the game and complete the upset.
Unfortunately, in a year without many major upsets, Texas is the only double-digit seeded team to make it to the Sweet 16.
Another great game on Saturday was the matchup between No. 4 seed Nebraska and No. 5 seed Vanderbilt. This was another classic back-and-forth game where no team led by more than ten.
With 58 seconds left in the game, Vanderbilt superstar sophomore Tyler Tanner scored a layup to take the lead 72-70. 20 seconds later, Nebraska senior Rienk Mast snagged an offensive rebound and scored to make it back to a tie game.
Vanderbilt’s ensuing possession ended in a missed shot, leading to a Nebraska fast break where Freshman Braden Frager hit a super tough contested layup with two seconds left to take the lead.
On the final possession of the game, the Commodores got the ball back to Tanner, but his 49-foot prayer just barely rimmed out in what would’ve been one of the craziest March Madness buzzer beaters ever.
The final day of the Round of 32, Sunday, also had two more crazy games that will be talked about for many years to come.
The first was the matchup between No. 4 seed Kansas and No. 5 seed St. John’s. This was a game that St. John’s was controlling for the great majority of the game, but a late Kansas comeback had them trailing 65-63 with 13 seconds left.
Freshman Darryn Peterson of Kansas, a projected top three NBA Draft prospect, got fouled and went to the free throw line and drained them both, tying it up at 65. Kansas’ defense then smartly played the fouling game to bring the clock down to 3.9 seconds left.
When St. John’s finally got to get a possession in, junior Dylan Darling etched his name into March Madness history with a heavily contested buzzer-beating layup.
The final legendary game of the opening weekend came between 1-seed Florida and 9-seed Iowa. All three other one-seeds in the bracket convincingly won their second-round matchups, but that wasn’t the case for the defending champ Gators.
Florida never looked comfortable early on in the first half, and by halfway through the second half they found themselves down 12-points to the Hawkeyes.
However, they stormed back and with eight seconds left on the clock, sophomore Isaiah Brown hit a free throw to make the score 72-70 in favor of the Gators. On the ensuing possession, Iowa ran right down the court and found Junior Alvaro Folgueiras open in the corner for a three-pointer that he splashed in to win the game and complete the massive upset.
Overall, while the tournament has been unfortunately chalky in terms of which teams have advanced to the Sweet 16, it has produced some amazing games through its first two rounds. Hopefully, it will produce even more buzzer beaters and shocking comebacks that will make it a March to remember.
