Buzzer-beater, upsets and Curry highlight Madness

No player has shined brighter than Stephen Curry, who scored 30 points to lift Davidson past Georgetown and into the Sweet 16. Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

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After three days spent covering the NCAA tournament in Washington D.C., I finally got a chance to watch the tournament Sunday from the comfort of my couch. What followed was some of the most gripping television since the first season of Real World.

At 4:42 p.m. EST, I looked up at the screen and realized that three separate games -- Tennessee-Butler, Georgetown-Davidson and Western Kentucky-San Diego -- had simultaneously reached two-point margins late in the second half. The Hilltoppers eventually pulled way from the Toreros, but the other two went right down to the wire at the exact same time.

With CBS switching between the two more quickly than I possibly could with my own remote (eventually they stopped bothering with the cutaways and Greg Gumbel intros and just kept flipping the switch), I got to see every dramatic moment of both.

I watched Butler's Willie Veasley tie the game on a tip-in with 35 seconds left in regulation and Tennessee's J.P. Prince nearly give the game away by traveling with 4.1 seconds left. I watched Davidson superhero Stephen Curry weave through the entire Georgetown defense to put his team -- down 17 points earlier in the half -- up 62-60 with 3:51 left, then drain a three-pointer to suddenly give the Wildcats control.

Switching back to Vols-Bulldogs, now in overtime, I watched Tennessee's Chris Lofton and Butler's Mike Green trade threes before A.J. Graves gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the game with 1:46 remaining. Shortly thereafter, Wayne Chism regained the lead for the Vols, then blocked Graves' shot on the other end.

Suddenly it was back to Raleigh, where the Hoyas would cut a seven-point lead to two, 69-67, on a DaJuan Summers dunk with 32 seconds left. Right back to Birmingham, where Julian Betko's missed foul shot with five seconds left in OT finally did in the Bulldogs, just in time to watch Curry hit five of six free throws to send Davidson to the Sweet 16.

Amazingly, these were not even the most dramatic events of the past four days.

The following is not bravado; it's fact. We just witnessed one of the most exciting opening weekends in recent NCAA tournament history.

Just think: A year ago, the most memorable moment of the entire weekend was Ohio State almost losing to Xavier in the second round. This year, we had about 15 "almosts" -- in addition to a slew of actual upsets, game-winning shots and transcendent individual performances that helped send three double-digit seeds (Davidson, Villanova and Western Kentucky) to the Sweet 16 for the first time in six years.

A look back at four days of future Madness memories:

Most memorable shot: The weekend featured two "last-second" shots -- Stanford big man Brook Lopez's sideways rim-rattler to beat Marquette, San Diego guard DeJon Jackson's clutch jumper to beat UConn -- but only one true "buzzer-beater:" Western Kentucky guard Ty Rogers' running three-point heave to beat Drake in overtime. Between the sheer improbability of the shot and Rogers' impromptu dash around the court that followed, you've got to think he'll soon be joining Bryce Drew, Danny Ainge and Tyus Edney in the annals of tourney lore.

Most memorable upset: Davidson over Georgetown. The "David vs. Goliath" analogy is usually cliché -- Jim Nantz uttered it almost as soon as the clock expired -- but it does seem to apply in this case. It was literally the triumph of the little guy (Curry) over the giant (Georgetown's Roy Hibbert), with the Wildcats rallying from a 17-point second half deficit to boot.

Most memorable near-upset: Duke-Belmont. I've covered some big ones the past few years -- George Mason over UConn, Northwestern State over Iowa, Wisconsin-Milwaukee over Alabama -- yet you could just tell from the collective energy within the Verizon Center as the Bruins kept coming down the stretch that this one would have trumped all of them. Hopefully Belmont's Alex Renfroe will remember the feeling that pervaded for the first 59:56 of action rather than his ill-fated inbounds play with four seconds left.

Most memorable ending: UCLA-Texas A&M. In the blink of an eye, the Aggies went from holding the ball down two with less than 10 seconds remaining to watching the Bruins' Russell Westbrook race in the other direction and tear off a game-capping tomahawk dunk just as the clock expired. It's hard to predict which part will make One Shining Moment: Collison's Jordan-esque slam, or the shot of a devastated Aggies player crouching on the court, hands over his head.

Most memorable player: Curry, Curry, Curry. One of the most enjoyable tourney rituals is watching some mid-major star ascend from hoops-junkie secret to national sensation. Few, however, have ever done it more dominantly than the Davidson prodigy, who scored 30 second-half points against Gonzaga, 25 against Georgetown. Grant Wahl made the perfect analogy, even before the second performance: This weekend was Curry's Wally Szczerbiak moment.

Most unusual Cinderella: Villanova. Certainly, the Wildcats' first-round upset of Clemson was surprising -- they were, after all, the last team invited to the Dance (or at least the lowest-seeded at-large team) -- but I'm finding it tough to get all worked about a Big East "underdog" reaching the Sweet 16. If anything, it just confirms that 'Nova's conference was really, really good and Clemson's was really, really mediocre. (Third best team in the ACC? Really?). Now, if Siena had won again ...

Most overhyped game: USC-Kansas State. Yeah, O.J. Mayo, Michael Beasley and Bill Walker all put up big numbers. But the game wasn't close, and the Wildcats went out the next round to decidedly less glamorous, but apparently more effective Wisconsin. Meanwhile, one of the best games of the tournament was played between two teams -- Tennessee and Butler -- full of players who barely merited a blip in high school.

Most bizarre moment: As Memphis' Joey Dorsey prepared to shoot a free throw late in the Tigers' scare against Mississippi State, it appeared on television as if someone had suddenly pointed a spotlight right at Dorsey's face. He immediately pointed toward the stands, where someone had parted a black curtain at the top of an arena aisle, allowing sunlight to come streaming in.

Most annoying decision: The NCAA dashing one of my favorite tourney traditions -- the varied and, often, audacious mid-court logos at each of the eight arenas -- by sticking a big, ugly blue circle with an NCAA logo on all eight floors. Hilariously, it backfired: Players were slipping so often in the UNC-Arkansas game that Roy Williams actually went out to the circle during a timeout and pointed to Nantz and Billy Packer, urging them to mention it on TV.

Most memorable moment not previously mentioned: West Virginia star Joe Alexander's monstrous block of Duke's DeMarcus Nelson during the Mountaineers' second-half surge to knock off the Blue Devils. Both in person and on television, Alexander could clearly be seen shouting something at Nelson as he did it. "I told him he probably shouldn't shoot it anymore," said Alexander, the most mild-mannered cocky player I've ever spoken to.

Told afterward that Duke's roster included eight All-Americans, Alexander responded with his customary dry sarcasm: "Who?"

Hey, if the big names always won, we wouldn't have weekends like this one.