12 best performances from March Madness’ first round: Upsets, buzzer-beaters and beatdowns

After weeks of anticipation, the most exciting two days in American sports have drawn to a close.

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.

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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?

Here are the 12 most impressive performances from the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament:

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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.”