According to script

First day of the NCAA tournament exposed, eliminated the pretenders

Florida's Billy Donovan surrendered -- right after the Gators tossed in the towel against Manhattan. AP NCAA Tournament Closer Looks Day 2 • Mark Beech: Pacific sticks to its guns • Phil Taylor: Bynum saves Yellow Jackets • Gene Menez: Vandy rides defense to victory • Gene Menez: Chalmers makes Muskies go Day 1 • John O'Keefe: Nelson revives St. Joe's • Grant Wahl: 'Bama can't rest after close call • Alexander Wolff: Manhattan could win again • Kelli Anderson: Mac keeps Syracuse alive SI Writers • Stewart Mandel: Now the fun starts • Stewart Mandel: Day 1 exposes pretenders • Seth Davis: Gonzaga will cut down the nets • Experts' Brackets: Our panel of writers' picks Second-round previews • Mike Jarvis's Game Plans: Saturday • Luke Winn: Second-round Pickoff More from SI.com • Printable brackets: Men | Women • E-mail Alerts | Hoops Bracket Challenge • Complete coverage | Daily schedule

Boy, were there a lot of surprises on the first day of the NCAA tournament.

Manhattan beating emotionally challenged Florida? Who would have seen that coming?

Oh, yeah, pretty much everyone who filled out a bracket.

But how about unheralded Nevada toppling mighty Michigan State? Who would have guessed that after failing to beat a soul outside the Big Ten the Spartans would ... fall to a good team outside the Big Ten? Right.

Arizona blowing a 14-point lead against Seton Hall? The ACC going 4-0? You can't make that kind of stuff up. Unless, of course, you watched basketball this season.

Wait a minute. You're telling me the NCAA tournament, a staple of unpredictability, basically went to form Thursday?

Yeah, pretty much. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

If there was one common theme to emerge from the tourney's first 12 hours of competition, it's that the pretenders were eliminated. Though Nevada beating Michigan State might qualify as a mild surprise, the much bigger surprise would have been if the Spartans, after underachieving all season, suddenly got hot and reached the Elite Eight or Final Four.

Ditto the Gators, an oft-maligned team that went all year without finding an identity. Or 'Zona, which managed to sleepwalk its way into the dance without  beating either of the other tourney teams in its conference, Stanford and Washington.

None of these teams were headed on one of their magical runs of old, and the tourney won't be any worse off without them.

However, we sure could have used an upset or two.

Manhattan and Nevada were the only double-digit seeds to win Thursday, which was relatively tame by tourney standards. There was no Hampton or Coppin State moment. Heck, the only last-second game-winner happened in an 8 vs. 9 game in which the big-conference team, Alabama, was the one playing spoiler.

Not that we didn't come close.

UTEP looked for a while like it might knock off recent ACC tournament champ Maryland before falling 86-83. Defending national champ Syracuse would have been sent home by BYU in the first round if not for a superhuman effort by Gerry McNamara. And VCU gave trendy Final Four pick Wake Forest everything it had -- causing those of us who made said trendy pick to start cursing the uniquely named Domonic Jones as he hit what seemed like 27 shots in a row down the stretch for the Rams -- before falling 79-78.

Air Force even got our hopes up, leading North Carolina by six midway through the second half before plunging into a cold stretch uglier than Roy Williams' jacket.

But that's the difference between contenders like the Terps, Orangemen, Deacons and Tar Heels -- well-versed by now in pressure situations -- and pretenders like the Spartans, Gators and Wildcats. When the going got tough, no one stepped up in the clutch for the pretenders. Michigan State star Paul Davis committed a silly fifth foul with the game on the line. Florida's David Lee disappeared on offense. Arizona's Salim Stoudamire stopped making 3-pointers.

Typical of their seasons as a whole.

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Conversely, after UTEP went up 76-75 with 2:45 remaining, with the suddenly Miner-friendly crowd smelling the upset, Maryland's John Gilchrist stepped up, just like he did throughout the ACC tournament, with a 3-pointer and three-point play on consecutive possessions. Wake's steady freshman point guard Chris Paul made a perfect pass to Jamal Levy for the go-ahead dunk.

And what can you say about McNamara? All the Syracuse star has done in his past two NCAA tournament games is hit six 3-pointers in the first half of the national championship game and score 43 points on nine 3s to help his team survive BYU.

If Tom Izzo, Billy Donovan or Lute Olson had anyone like that on their squads, maybe they'd be thinking about the Final Four right now rather than hitting the recruiting trail.

Alas, those teams bowed out while others with less overall talent survived.

Normally, you might view close calls like the ones Wake and Maryland endured as signs of vulnerability. Not in the NCAA tournament.

Every team has to survive one at some point, and in fact sometimes a first-round scare can lead to a tournament tear. On its way to the title last season, Syracuse first had to escape a serious upset bid from Manhattan. And Florida needed a last-second Mike Miller lay-in to beat Butler before advancing all the way to the 2000 title game.

Those were the good old days for the Gators, who have now bowed out the first weekend of the tournament four consecutive seasons.

Back then, Florida caught people off guard by reaching the title game. On Thursday, the Gators lost to Manhattan, and it wasn't even a surprise.

Stewart Mandel covers college sports for SI.com.