March Madness 2015: Top Plays From NCAA Tourney Day 1

March Madness 2015: Top Plays From Day 1 Of NCAA Tournament

Mar 19, 2015; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Georgia State Panthers gather around Panthers guard R.J. Hunter (right) following their victory over the Baylor Bears in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Jacksonville Veteran Memorial Arena. Georgia State defeated Baylor 57-56 on Hunter /

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Mar 19, 2015; Louisville, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats forward Trey Lyles (41) shoots the ball during the first half against the Hampton Pirates in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at KFC Yum! Center. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports /

No. 1 Kentucky vs. No. 16 Hampton

For the first half of the first half, Hampton looked confident enough to stay with Kentucky for awhile. They were only down 20-14 with eight minutes left in the half and hadn’t shown signs of cracking.

But then Kentucky woke up, went on a 21-8 run to close the half and ultimately blew the overmatched Pirates right out of the water.

We probably should have known what was coming when Trey Lyles threw down this monstrous and-one dunk, but Hampton stayed strong:

And then when Marcus Lee spun through the paint and rose up to dunk like nobody was guarding him, we probably knew it then too:

But we gave the Pirates the benefit of the doubt for as long as we could. Wouldn’t it have been the most March Madness thing ever for the first No. 1 seed to go down in the Round of 64 to be the Kentucky Wildcats, a team in pursuit of a perfect 40-0 season?

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, and John Calipari’s squad wound up winning 79-56. They’ll probably go undefeated the rest of the way, but for about 12 minutes, we clung to the silly hope that something amazing might happen. You know, other than an unstoppable influx of Wildcat dunks.

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