Weekend one wrap up: The Road to the Sweet 16

Where to begin?  Though there were a lack of upsets and close games on Thursday, this weekend's action brought all of that and more, and the past three days made this opening round the most exciting in recent memory.  Two-seeds fell (twice), we saw 16-point comebacks, coaches were ejected, top seeds were tested, last second shots fell, and a buzzer-beater for the ages all marked an incredible three days of college hoops.

In a sign of things to come, tenth-seeded Davidson began Friday by upsetting Gonzaga 82-76 behind an incredible 40 point performance from sophomore stud Stephen Curry.

But Curry was just the opening act for the barn-burner that followed between #5 Drake and #12 Western Kentucky.  With Western Kentucky trailing by 1 in the closing seconds of overtime, Ty Rogers  made an inbounds pass to Tyrone Brazelton and sprinted up court to a position along the left-wing, where Brazelton found him.  From a spot so far behind the arc he was almost out of bounds, Rogers took a contested shot that found nothing but net as the horn sounded .

On Saturday the tournament picked up right where it had left off, with #7 West Virginia knocking off vulnerable #2 Duke 73-67 behind 22 points from junior Joe Alexander.  Duke, which had barely survived an upset bid from #15 Belmont two days prior, went 5-22 from the three-point line and had no consistent scoring option.

In the afternoon game, #3 Stanford squared off against #6 Marquette, and after Stanford scored the first seven points of the game it was back-and-fouth the rest of the way.  In an odd move with potentially disastrous effects for his team, Cardinal coach Trent Johnson was ejected for arguing a foul call against Lawrence Hill.  With Stanford assistant Doug Oliver leading, the Cardinal forced an overtime when Robin Lopez grabbed point guard Mitch Johnson's missed layup, was fouled and hit one of two free throws.  In overtime, Marquette shooter Jerel McNeal hit three triples to power the Golden Eagles to a one-point advantage with ten seconds remaining.

Stanford's set play went to center Brook Lopez , who had scored six of the Cardinal's nine overtime points.  Lopez grabbed the entry pass, spun to his left and hit an off-the-charts degree of difficulty shot that touched every part of the rim before falling with 1.3 seconds remaining.  Stanford batted away Marquette's desperation heave and sealed their entry into the sweet 16.

In the evening game fellow Pac-10 team and #1 seed UCLA found itself in a battle with Texas A&M.  At one point in the second half they were down by ten to the Aggies.  But as UCLA has done so frequently this season, they found a way to win in the end, this time it was freshman Kevin Love who powered the Bruins to victory.  With 11 rebounds, seven blocked shots and 19 points - four of those coming in do-or-die situations - the big center willed UCLA to a 51-49 victory and onto the next round.

UCLA wasn't the only top seed pushed to the brink this weekend.  Memphis was given all it could handle by Mississippi State, beating them 77-74.  But the Bulldogs may have exposed the Tiger's weakness: free throw shooting.  Mississippi State nearly pulled off a comeback victory when Memphis couldn't hit game icing free throws.

So far the player of the tournament is, without question, the Davidson guard Curry .  He led his Wildcats to a 74-70 upset over #2 Georgetown by scoring 30

points, 25 of those in the second half.  Other surprise entrants into the sweet 16 include twelve seeds Villanova and Western Kentucky.  March Madness takes a break until next Thursday, when the process to find the Final Four begins.  If it contains half the excitement this opening weekend did, we're in for a treat.

--Cody Cassidy