I always thought that getting a one seed in the NCAA Tournament is a double-edged sword. Sure, it's great to receive a de facto bye in the first round, but you also have to actually go out there and, you know, win the game. And you have to do so while facing all of that darned history (a 120-0 record for top seeds, if we want to get all analytical), knowing that if you're the one that slips up, the game will always be a part of history for all of the wrong reasons. On the rare occasions that the underdog can keep things interesting — Southern's bid against Gonzaga in 2013 is our last example — the one seed generally plays tighter than a fresh Beverly Hills facelift.

Fortunately for Villanova, they have a lot more talent than Lafayette, and they did what most one seeds do to open the tourney. The Wildcats jumped on their overmatched opponents right away. They hit 3s, got out in transition, pounded the ball down low, and pretty much whatever else they wanted against the Patriot League champs:

Sitting on a 49-26 halftime lead, Jay Wright went where pretty much no coach before him has dared to go: He admitted his general satisfaction with how the game had played out during the halftime interview. What a novel concept! Against alum Fran O'Hanlon's Leopards, Villanova was able to get their feet wet in the tourney and continue to build some momentum. They ended up winning the game by a final tally of 93-52. For the Wildcats, the real work starts on Saturday against NC State.

No. 4 North Carolina escapes No. 13 Harvard

For the third consecutive year, Harvard was in striking distance down the stretch of their opening round game, but this time they couldn't close the deal. Let's pour one out for all of the "Revenge of the Nerds" headlines that different publications and websites recycled over the past couple of years to commemorate the Crimson's last two upsets:

Despite trailing for most of the game, Harvard admittedly showed a lot of mental fortitude in fighting back against frankly a more talented UNC team. With a little over a minute left, they even took the lead on Siyani Chambers' 4-point play. This was  a "WOAH!" moment across America:

Unfortunately for Tommy Amaker's crew, UNC's Justin Jackson responded with a floater to tie the game up. Then after Chambers missed a three on the other end, Jackson got a fastbreak layup to give UNC a two-point lead. Harvard ended up getting two more cracks at game-winning threes (one was open, the other was contested), but both times they came up empty. The Tar Heels escaped with a win.

"Roy Williams, you just defeated the Ivy League champions with a bunch of McDonald's All-Americans! How do you feel?"

No. 8 Cincinnati outlasts No. 9 Purdue

Ah, the battle to see who gets the honor of taking a drubbing at the hands of Kentucky. This one got a little bit feisty! Cincy's Octavius "Prime" Ellis lost his cool for a moment and gave Purdue's A.J. Hammons a forearm shiver to the throat. In the Bad Boys Pistons Era of the NBA, maybe that play results in a common foul. Nowadays, it earned the Bearcats' leading scorer a Flagrant 2 and an ejection:

The fans who paid for both sessions in Louisville certainly got their money's worth. Three games, three nailbiters. In this one, the Boilermakers actually had a seven-point lead with 48 seconds remaining. After that, Matt Painter's team followed what seems to be NCAA protocol and missed a couple of critical free throws to give the Bearcats some life. Cincy's Troy Caupain took advantage at the buzzer. Take it away, Verne:

In the overtime session, both teams traded buckets before Purdue's Vince Edwards took the game's do-or-die shot at the buzzer. It was a good look, but the shot was just long. Cincy claimed a one-point victory and the Big East continued to flex its muscles on the first full day of the tournament:

No. 5 Utah turns back No. 12 Stephen F. Austin

This was a pretty sloppy game overall, and that style played much more into the Utes' hands than the high-scoring Fighting Jeremiah Trotters'. Jakob Poetl has been on the radar of NBA scouts all year (20th-ranked 2015 prospect per Draft Express), and he showed why against the Lumberjacks. The 7-foot Utah freshman is from Vienna, and if he sticks in the NBA, we can only hope somebody comes up with the Austrian nickname equivalent of "The Polish Hammer." Poetl shot a perfect 7-7 from the field for 18 points, and he took advantage of a team whose tallest starter is only 6'6". On this night, the Lumberjacks weren't able to (*puts sunglasses on*) cut down the big tree:

Utah has to feel pretty good that they were able to get out of the scary 5-12 game despite receiving a poor performance from their star. Delon Wright, who is the brother of NBA player Dorell, shot 2-7 from the field and committed six turnovers, but he did manage to do this:

A possible early second rounder come June, Delon would fit right in with the Sixers. 

No. 8 North Carolina State nips No. 9 LSU at buzzer

I feel like we say this every year, but from a sheer excitement standpoint, nothing in sports will top this day of basketball. In fact, today might've been the most compelling tourney day in history. As I'm writing this, Ernie Johnson mentioned that there has never been five one-point games on the same day in the history of the NCAA Tournament. Ernie is a reputable source, so we can trust him on that.

So how did we get to five? NC State 66, LSU 65, with Wolfpack sophomore center BeeJay Anya doing the honors:

I'm not sure the shot was clutch more than fortuitous, but give a ton of credit to Anya for not panicking when he got the basketball. Guard Trevor Lacey got stuck in the air and placed his big man in a terrible spot. Anya took his time and made a confident move, which is more than most centers would accomplish is such a tight spot. NC State now earns a date with Villanova on Saturday.

Congrats to the Wolfpack, but this was an pretty big giveaway by LSU. Up 14 points with nine minutes to play, they didn't convert a field goal in the game's last 10:25. They managed only one point in that game's last five minutes. They missed six free throws down the stretch. They're college kids and they messed up in a big spot, which unfortunately is always a major part of this great sporting event. Hopefully people can have some perspective when judging them. 

By the way, Lacey's smile after he tried to wipe his sweat off Dana Jacobson's blazer was excellent:

EDIT: DID WE HAVE A GOALTENDING CONTROVERSY HERE AS WELL?

No. 5 Arkansas holds off No. 12 Wofford

My bracket is bloody, man. Four one-point losses and now a three-point defeat for one of my upset picks. More than any opening day I can remember, today had an incredible number of toss-up games. Just as easily, it could be Harvard-Wofford instead of UNC-Arkansas in Jacksonville on Saturday. The Terriers (Wofford's nickname, in case you were wondering) played the Hogs dead even for the entire game, but Arkansas just made a few more plays down the stretch.

By this point, I bet you've picked up on my affinity for Vine. Six second videos are the shat, my friends. I especially like Vine because I like dunks, so Michael Qualls is right up my alley. His Twitter handle is "@MR_WALKONAIR," and I have to say, it's pretty fitting name. You don't see this type of athleticism every day in college hoops:

No. 1 Kentucky throttles No. 16 Hampton

Due to all of the craziness going on elsewhere, this was the one game I didn't pay much attention to. Judging from my Twitter timeline, there seemed to be a theme in how the game was announced:

I'm not sure it was a great experience for the Hampton players. They were able to keep the final score somewhat respectable at 79-56, but playing against Kentucky's ginormous frontline composed exclusively of future NBA players can't exactly be a walk in the park. Future Sixer Karl-Anthony Towns had 21 points for the Wildcats as they improved to 35-0.

No. 4 Georgetown defeats No. 13 Eastern Washington

How about the Big East? Somewhat maligned throughout the season, the conference went 4-0 on the first day of the tourney. Not only that, all four wins were of the convincing variety on a day where most games went right down to the wire. The Hoyas and John Thompson III shook off past first-round woes to defeat the Eagles 84-74 in a game that probably wasn't as close as the score indicated.

Rachel Nichols offered a pretty cool nugget on the broadcast that will make the "Philly = Toughness" crowd go crazy. She said that our city's own Jabril Trawick, an Abington Friends product, "is the only kid on this Georgetown team tough enough to play on the Hoyas of the 1980s," according to Big John Thompson, JT3's father and the legendary coach of those teams. Trawick put together a nifty 10-3-2-2-1 line, and as you might be able to tell, he affected the game in many ways.