It didn't take long to go from reveling in the Madness to just being plain old mad ... and, in the end, embracing it again despite my ruined paperwork.

So many great finishes yesterday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. But only three that went my way, all in the morning. At the end of the day, bracket broken, probably irreparably.

Villanova in overtime over Robert Morris, loved it. BYU in double overtime over Florida. Double loved it.

Murray State, Danero Thomas' game-winner; yes, called that upset, thank you very much.

But all those other buzzer-beaters and upsets. Yeah, they were upsets, as in upsetting my stomach.

After 13 hours of hoopla, I was left bleary-eyed and drowning in the pool. Eight wins, eight losses.

What started out as a promising day ended with gratitude that I hadn't written the word Georgetown more than twice on the sheet. The only real positive is that none of my Elite Eight teams got knocked out—but there's still today.

Texas. That was terrible; a choke job against Wake Forest, which barely got into the tournament. I shouldn't have been surprised, according to our bracketologist du jour, Jet Wong.

“;Texas didn't hit their free throws; they've been poor at that all year,”; said Wong, who also missed on Texas but got 12 wins on a day when chalk was often ground to dust. “;Teams have to hit their free throws if they're leading near the end. That's one of the major keys.”;

True. You might get away with foul foul shooting in the regular season, but not against national tournament caliber teams.

SAINT MARY'S certainly looked well-coached in knocking off Richmond. You've got to figure Gaels assistant Kyle Smith earned a few bonus points in his bid to become the University of Hawaii head coach. UNLV assistant Lew Hill was in a similar situation, but the Runnin' Rebels lost to Northern Iowa.

Speaking of UH, you could make a pretty good played-against-the-Rainbows team of guys in action yesterday: Jimmer Fredette of BYU, Omar Samhan and Mickey McConnell from Saint Mary's, Tre'Von Willis of UNLV and Darington Hobson from New Mexico.

Best finish in a day of great finishes: Murray State's Danero Thomas' buzzer and Vandy beater. I thought I was special, or something, successfully picking a 13 seed to win. But then our basketball writer Brian McInnis tells me he's 8-for-8 in the morning games. Turns out, I'm just one out of a few kajillion who put their faith in the Racers—and I needed an e-Racer for the rest of the day.

Most entertaining game: Washington and Marquette—and not just because Isaiah Thomas and Elston Turner make me feel like I'm in a time machine. All these little guys zipping around, running and gunning. Who needs scripted plays when you've got great players? No defense, but who cares? Quincy Poindexter, for the win. So thrilling, it almost didn't bother me that I'd picked Marquette.

Almost.

It was a long day that began with Jimmer dropping 37 on the Gators and ended with New Mexico's narrow escape. Do I really think the Lobos can get past the next round and then beat West Virginia? That's what my sheet says.

Sheer Madness, 13 hours of it.

Let's do it again today.

Reach Star-Bulletin sports columnist Dave Reardon at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), his “;Quick Reads”; blog at starbulletin.com, and twitter.com/davereardon.