Duke's loss hardly a shock; Marquette had poor finish

	Without the benefit of a set play, from a time-out, VCU guard Eric Maynor calmly drained the game-winning jumper vs. Duke. Rick Stewart/Getty Images
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SI.com caught up with Seth Davis, who's serving as a CBS studio analyst during the tournament, to get his impressions of today's tournament action.

SI.com: What do you think the most surprising storyline of the day was?

Seth Davis: Honestly, I can't say I'm surprised at anything. Obviously, the biggest story was Duke losing. I picked them to win, but I can't say I'm surprised they lost. It was really a microcosm of their season. They won a lot of games that were close and then lost a lot of games that were close. I thought they played well, but they couldn't hit free throws, and they were 3-of-11 from 3-point range. I though Josh McRoberts played terrific, and Greg Paulus probably played his best game -- he really picked them up and carried them in the second half; but they lost to a good team.

SI.com: Staying with that game, can you talk a bit about Rams guard Eric Maynor?

SD: You know what, that was a classic example of a team with great guards. My buddy, Grant Wahl, doesn't agree with the convention that you need good guards to win, but Duke had the best big man out there. McRoberts dominated on the inside, but those VCU guards were dominant on both sides. That kid Maynor is so aggressive. I was talking to coach Anthony Grant a couple of weeks ago about [Maynor]. He's only a sophomore, and they're a pretty experienced team. I wanted to know if he's as good in the locker room as he is in on the court, and Anthony said he's 10-times better. He's a great example off the court, a real vocal leader.

You know, one thing I really liked -- and Coach K did this, too -- is they didn't call time out at the end of the game. DeMarcus Nelson gets that ball, comes right down and scores for Duke. Then Maynor takes the ball up, they don't call time out, where else would you want the ball? He hits that shot. He's really just an MVP in every sense.

SI.com: Who else impressed you with their first round performance?

SD: Drew Lavender from Xavier. We talked about him the other day. You know, he had 15 of his 17 points in the second half. He's another good example of a kid who's really come into his own. That Xavier-BYU game may have been the best game of the day, and if it wasn't that, it was Maryland-Davidson. Stephen Curry was terrific. Another guy who stood out in that game was Maryland's Bambale Osby. He came into the game when Ekene Ibekwe went out with foul trouble and gave them some good relief time; and that's the kind of thing you need when you have to win a tough game.

SI.com: Talk a little bit about how the brackets are shaping up. Aside from Duke and Xavier, things pretty much went the way the tournament committee said they would.

SD: That surprised me a little bit, but it's a double-edged sword. A lot of times you'll get good upsets in the first round, but then those little teams don't perform well in the second round. We've got some great second-round games coming up here. UCLA-Indiana should be an excellent one; BC-Pitt is another great one. What more could you ask for than Ohio State-Xavier? That's a terrific marquee game between two schools that are both in Ohio, but don't play each other, and you have Thad Matta, who used to coach at Xavier.

I also thought Louisville looked really good today, although it's hard not to look good when you're up by 40. I think that Louisville-Texas A&M game is going to be a good example of a pure contrast in style. A&M will try to slow it down, Louisville is going to speed up the game and they're kind of rolling. I think they're a lot to handle. They're long, athletic and David Padgett has given them a post scorer and rebounder. A&M was really underwhelming today, and they basically have to face Louisville at home.

SI.com: Looking forward to tomorrow, what games are you most excited for?

SD: There are a lot of good games on the board. I think Nevada-Creighton is going to be similar in style and level of competition to that BYU-Xavier game. Those are two good offensive teams that are really smart and competitive. I think Notre Dame-Winthrop is going to be tomorrow's Maryland-Davidson. It's two high-octane teams who can really score. Notre Dame has the bigs inside, so you have to like them; but they're going to have to play well to win. I think Memphis and North Texas should be a good one. North Texas, first of all, has the best nickname in the tournament -- the Mean Green. They're really entertaining. They have this 6-foot-5 guard Calvin Watson who flicks threes like they're layups. Memphis likes to play that style, too. The problem is it's hard to see North Texas out-Memphising Memphis. Of course, there's Kansas and seeing if they can get out of the first round this year. Niagara is not your typical 16-seed. It could have popped up as a 14 and no one would have batted an eye.

SI.com: How about the day's biggest disappointment?

SD: I'd say that would have to be Marquette. It was missing Jerel McNeal and that was a problem, but they really didn't play well down the stretch at all. They have had scoring problems all year and their 3-point percentage was just horrible. They've had to do it with dribble drives and getting offense out of their defense. When you lose one of your top guys, that's hard. Michigan State just jumped on them and clamped them down.