The Tournament, Day 1

A view from a couch: Three buzzer beaters highlight a day of underdogs hanging around, and sometimes winning.

By King Kaufman

Mar 16, 2001 | I've laid in groceries and appeased my couch-potato conscience with a 7:30 a.m. run, and now I'm ready for 12 hours of NCAA Tournament basketball, the first of four consecutive days of enough hoops to choke Dick Vitale. If I were half the man I am, I'd be half-dead halfway through it.

The day starts, of course, with the pregame show, "The Road to the Final Four." I'm generally not big on pregame and halftime studio shows, but I have to admit that Greg Gumbel and Clark Kellogg are pretty good together. They do have a certain ... well, I guess I'd call it a certain ... a certain ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Huh! I'm awake! Let's go.

I've filled out a bracket, but I'm not in any pools, so I can safely root for the guys in the road uniforms, the lower seeds, the underdogs. Rooting for the underdog, as noted in Salon Thursday by Andrew Leonard, is what the opening rounds of the Tournament are all about.

So I'm a Holy Cross Crusader! The Tournament kicks off with the 15th-seeded boys from Worcester, Mass., looking for an East Regional upset over No. 2 Kentucky in front of a lot of empty seats at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. The Crusaders hang around for a while -- I notice the numbers on their uniforms are in the same font as Kansas', and every time the announcers mention point guard Ryan Serravalle, I think of former Salon columnist Sarah Vowell -- but the Wildcats go on a 9-0 run to lead 21-14, and it looks like Holy Cross is overmatched.

But wait! Here they come! The Crusaders pull to within three before the Wildcats do that thing good teams do: They go on a run at the end of the half without even seeming to, and at the buzzer they have their biggest lead of the game, 36-27. Oh well.

Hang on just a second. Holy Cross gets back into it in the second half. Despite up-and-down, full-court action that would seem to favor Kentucky, the Crusaders pull to within five. Meanwhile, Utah State is hanging around with favored Ohio State in another East Regional, this one in Greensboro, N.C. Dang, I had Georgia State as the upset of the morning, in the West, but Wisconsin's pounding them.

With about seven minutes to go Holy Cross rallies to within 58-56, and the crowd, which has filled in, is now wildly behind them, as am I. The game goes to the wire. Kentucky leads by five but Sarah Vowell cans a three with 12 seconds left! I mean Serravalle! I'm so hungry! When am I supposed to eat?

Not yet. Kentucky hangs on for a 72-68 win, and CBS switches immediately to Ohio State-Utah State. They're starting overtime tied 60-60. It's a 5 seed vs. 12 seed game. Every year, at least one of those games is an upset. And this year, this is one of them. Utah State -- hate those uniforms, with the sleeves -- dominates the O.T. With less than a minute to go we switch again, to Wisconsin-Georgia State in Boise, Idaho. Look! Georgia State's up by one with 12 seconds to play! Wisconsin's Mark Vershaw misses two free throws with three seconds to go. Georgia State misses free throws too, but the Panthers hold on! The first upset of the Tournament (finishing seconds ahead of Utah State-Ohio State), and King called it! Hoop genius! Time to make a sandwich or something!

Next Page: The rising and falling, like the tides, like life

• View blog reactions