Vote for Turtleboy Sports for best local blog 2015 by clicking here. 

Turtleboy Sports Facebook page has been suspended until Tuesday, March 22. In order to follow the blogs you MUST  like the Free Turtleboy Facebook page, which we use to post blogs whenever the Turtleboy Sports Facebook account is arbitrarily suspended. If we ever get shut down for good, this will become the new Turtleboy Sports main Facebook page.

We urge you to support the Turtleboy Sponsors by doing business with them. Without them none of this is possible: Liberty Tax Preparation, Greenwood Street, Massachusetts Tattoo Festival, Wormtown Brewery, Union Tavern, Scavone Plumbing, Bennie’s Cafe, Craftech Restoration, JJM Insurance, Smokestack Urban Barbecue, Attorney Michael Erlich, Smitty’s Tavern, Julio’s Liquors, Solarreviews.net, The Gun Parlor Range, Attorney Anthony Salerno, 

Click on the image to view all products in the Turtleboy Store. Shirt are also available at the Union Tavern and The Buzz Barber Shop.

Want to have your business advert viewed over 1 million times per month? Email us at Turtleboysports@gmail.com for more information, and check out our website about types of advertising we offer.

I feel bad for people who don’t have March Madness in their lives. Every NCAA Tournament is magical, but this year’s first two rounds have been absolutely insane. There’s been 48 games, (plus the two play in games) and I feel like 75% of them have been decided in the final two minutes. With that said, here’s the Top 10 games from opening weekend in the NCAA Tournament.

10. Miami – 65, Wichita State – 57

Don’t let the final score fool you, this game was fantastic. Third seeded Miami was somehow an underdog to play-in game 11th seeded Wichita State. Probably because half the players on Wichita have been there since the beginning of time and have made the Final Four, whereas Miami is a football school. Nevertheless the Canes jumped out to a 27-6 and led at the half 32-19. It looked like Wichita was gonna get their ass beat.

But then again, this is Wichita State. They don’t get their ass beat in March. Within just 10 minutes of the second half starting, the Shockers had taken a 43-42 lead. That’s when this happened:

Facialized. Miami never trailed after that. Angel Rodriguez was doing some highlight reel, Rucker Park shit the rest of the game and Miami held off to advance to the Sweet 16. The mere fact that Wichita State made a game of this after pooping on themselves in the first half made this a great game.

9. Duke – 71, Yale – 64

This game makes the list for the same reason the Wichita game did – it was an unbelievable comeback that fell just short. Duke led at halftime 48-25. The game was over. The magical run for the Ivy League nerds had hit the brick wall of reality when they went up against Brandon Ingram and Grayson Allen. With 16 minutes to go Duke led 54-32, before Yale went on a 13-0 run, capped off by this Justin Sears dunk:

Yale senior Justin Sears sparks the Bulldog comeback in the second half https://t.co/8ekB5HMO5M

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 19, 2016

Yale wouldn’t go away and clawed their way to within three points with just 30 seconds left before being buried by Blue Devil foul shouts. Legendary tournament run for the Yale-ees.

8. Notre Dame – 76, Stephen F. Austin – 75

Stephen F. Austin was the most underrated, underseeded team in the Tournament. They went 27-6, including 18-0 in conference play. A 14 seed was a slap in the face so they took it out on West Virginia, whom they emasculated. Notre Dame actually tried though. This game had 10 lead changes, 7 tie scores, and not once in the entire 40 minutes did any team ever lead by more than 7 points. It was just a fantastic game. Finally with just under 20 seconds remaining Notre Dame had the ball, down 75-74, and coach Mike Brey didn’t use a timeout. Instead he let this happen:

Gotta feel bad for the Lumbejacks on that one. Zack Auguste (#30 for ND) played for Marlboro High School, so it’s always good to see a local kid making big boy noise on a national level.

7. Iowa – 72, Temple – 70

Iowa got up by double digits in the first half, only to see Temple storm back to trail by only one point (38-37) going into halftime. Iowa never trailed in the second half, extending their lead to double digits again, only to see the Owls storm back time and time again. Finally with just 18 seconds left, Iowa was fouled, leading 61-58. The only guy on Iowa who isn’t a 6’10” farm boy, Peter Bok, hit the first free throw but missed the second, giving them a 62-58 lead. An easy Temple layup made it 62-60 with 11 seconds left to play. Once again Bok was fouled, making the first and missing the second, to give them a 63-60 lead. Temple needed a 3-pointer to tie.

That’s when Iowa pulled one of the biggest boners we’ve ever seen – they fouled Temple on the game tying three point attempt, and Quenton DeCosey hit all three shots, sending it to overtime. OT was a real back and forth, but Iowa had the ball, with the score tied 70-70 and five seconds left, when this controversial play happened:

Was this a push off?

I dunno. It’s hard to call that with the game on the line like that. But it kind of totally was a push off. He didn’t even have to do it either. He’s a 7 foot farm boy and he had six inches on the dude. Nevertheless, what a finish!!

6. Little Rock – 85, Purdue – 83

Turtleboy had Little Rock in the Sweet 16. Because, fuck it. March Madness. And TB looked like the office chump when Purdue held a 63-49 lead with less than five minutes to go. So I jumped in the shower and when I came out there was less than a minute to go and somehow it was a 1 point game. Going back and watching what happened Purdue deserved to lose. They literally stopped trying. They tried running out the clock instead of trying to score. And they led 68-67 before hitting two free throws, to put them up 70-67. That’s when one of the most magical shots of the tournament was unleashed by Josh Hagins, who had 31 points in this game:

Insane. Absolutely INSANE. Little Rock went on to win the game in double overtime and it was all because Hagins made a shot he had no business taking. The dude is cold-blooded, which makes sense because he looks exactly like Marlo Stanfield from The Wire. 

Upset Alert: Little Rock forces OT against Purdue on a three by Josh Hagins with 5.1 left. (Photo- Getty Images) pic.twitter.com/MXWJpTLK4I

— CBS Local Sports (@CBSLocalSports) March 17, 2016

I swear to God that’s him out there. Either way, Purdue wanted it to be one way, but it’s the other way.

5. Wisconsin – 66, Xavier – 63

Should’ve seen this upset coming. Sure Wisconsin was 7 seed and Xavier a 2. But come on man, it’s a team that’s made it to back to back Final Fours against Xavier. Anyone ever remember them making the Final Four? I feel like they’re one of those teams that’s just happy to be there. Anyway, it was another great back and forth game, with no team ever really pulling away by that much. Xavier led the whole second half, but never by double digits. And the last thing you wanna do is let the Badgers stick around in March. With Xavier up 63-60, Wisconsin drained a three pointer like they always do to tie the score with 12 seconds to go. Xavier would get the last shot, so long as they didn’t turn the ball over. Which of course, is EXACTLY what they did when another yet another white guy from Wisconsin did what white guys from Wisconsin do best – played textbook defense and took this controversial charge:

I kind of can’t stand charges. If you’re gonna defend, then defend. I almost wanna eliminate it from the rule book. I understand a body flew there, so the refs had to call something, and it was more of a charge than a block. But come on man. Let the players decide the game. Anyway, it left two seconds left on the clock, and I don’t think there was anyone watching this game who didn’t see this one coming:

Wisconsin doing Wisconsin things.

4. Providence – 70, USC – 69

Turtleboy invested a lot in Providence because they have two superstars in Ben Bentil and Kris Dunn. Should’ve researched them more though, because that’s literally all they have. Never seen a more useless surrounding cast ever. Without those two this team wouldn’t have won 10 games. This game was a real back and forth, with USC leading for most of the second half. Kris Dunn hit a huge three to tie it up 68-68, but the Friars trailed 69-68 with just three seconds left in the game. Luckily they had the ball and by the grace of God, this happened:

They were so obsessed with Bentil and Dunn on that play (3 and 0), that they just said “fuck it” and didn’t guard anyone else. What an ending.

3. St. Joe’s – 78, Cincinnati – 76

St. Joe’s is another upset special in the now almost last place Turtleboy bracket. We liked this team coming in and for good reason. The game with Cincinnati was close, but St. Joe’s took a 12 point lead with 10 minutes to go. The Bearcats came storming back though, because March Madness is just awesome like that. With five minutes to go they had taken the lead. From that point on it was back and forth until Isaiah Miles nailed a three pointer to put St. Joe’s up 78-76, with just ten seconds to go. You simply must watch the way this game ended on this Vine:

Holy shit. It looked like Cincinnati had forced overtime on a wide open dunk as the clock expired. Except when you watched the replay you could clearly see Octavius Ellis had the ball in his hands as the red light came on, indicating the game was over:

ICYMI: On a wild night of hoops, Cincinnati came THIS close to forcing overtime against St. Joe's. https://t.co/fshtKBuPxo

— ESPN (@espn) March 19, 2016

Madness.

2. Northern Iowa – 75, Texas – 72

Stupid Turtleboy for believing in Texas and doubting Northern Iowa. They’re like Wichita State in purple. All they do is facialize teams from “real conferences” in March. Although Texas jumped out to an early lead, Northern Iowa buried them and led by 14 at one point in the first half, before taking a 44-36 lead to the locker room. Within a few minutes of the second half starting Texas was back up by 6, before once again relinquishing the lead. After that there were six more lead changes and a whole bunch of ties. And with less than three seconds left, Texas’ Isaiah Taylor hit an improbable layup to once again tie the score 72-72. That’s when this happened:

Eat your heart out Bryce Drew. We all knew that was gonna go in right? A half court shot by some white guy from a loser conference against a big time school that no one really imagined going that far? In hind sight there was no way it could miss. Don’t tell that to the Texas mascot and cheerleader though, who were still celebrating the layup as the shot went in:

Ouch.

1. Texas A&M – 92, Northern Iowa – 88

I’m not even exaggerating – this is the greatest college basketball game every played. It didn’t look like it was gonna be, as Northern Iowa owned the Aggies the entire game. They led by double digits at halftime, and much of the second half. With Northern Iowa’s Jeremy Morgan hit two free throws to put them up 69-57 with just 44 seconds to go, the game was essentially over.

And when I say this was the greatest game of all time, I mean biggest fuck up of all time. Northern Iowa led by 12 points with 44 seconds left. I repeat – 12 points with 44 seconds left. Do you understand what the probability of them losing is at that point? It’s actually 0.01%:

Texas A&M miraculously erased a double-digit deficit in 34 seconds to force overtime https://t.co/9wWPBpBEnr pic.twitter.com/R9gksGWf7I

— For The Win (@ForTheWin) March 21, 2016

They would have to literally hand the game to the Aggies by turning the ball over repeatedly in record time and then allowing easy layups and three pointers. This is exactly what ended up happening. Just watch the last 44 seconds if you haven’t seen how this one ended in regulation:

You will never see anything like that again. They literally shit their pants, turning the ball over time and time again. It was capped off by this:

Absolute madness. And that ladies and gentlemen is why the NCAA Tournament is the greatest tournament that has ever existed. Now just imagine if UMass, or any local team was actually good. Oh well, we’re good at everything else, this is the one thing we can’t have. God loves us more, but he had to throw Iowa a bone once in a while too.

We urge you to support the Turtleboy Sponsors by doing business with them. Without them none of this is possible. Click on any of them to check out their sites or Facebook pages.

Want to have your business advert viewed over 1 million times per month? Email us at Turtleboysports@gmail.com for more information, and check out our website about types of advertising we offer.

Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook

Click on the image to get your Turtleboy Sports Revolution hoodie or browse other merchandise from the Turtleboy store.