Just when I thought I was out ...

The NCAA Tournament pulls me back in.

You might remember this post from last year -- and I'm sure you do, as all of 11 people read it -- wherein I discussed the reasons for my nearly-nil interest in college basketball. But as play in the Sweet 16 begins today, I'd be remiss if I didn't write about the incredible opening rounds of the tourney, and how much I enjoyed them. I happened to be working out of the house last Thursday, and I can't imagine anyone not loving that day of basketball.

Huge upsets. Heart-stopping finishes. Buzzer beaters galore.

All of it in a twelve-hour period. And while Friday was a bit anticlimactic -- at least in comparison to the previous day -- the weekend might've even topped Thursday's excitement.
And sure, there would be a higher level of play if Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, Brook Lopez, Ty Lawson (seniors), Derrick Rose, DeJuan Blair, Blake Griffin, Kevin Love, O.J. Mayo, Michael Beasley (juniors), Tyreke Evans, Brandon Jennings (sophomores), et al were involved. But the games themselves really could not have been any more entertaining.

I loved every minute of it. Well, except for these 40.

But it's not like I expected Cal to knock off Duke again (that's right, it happened a mere 17 years ago), so the loss didn't take a whole lot of luster off of my enjoyment of the first two rounds. And so I present to you my Final Four countdown of the best moments of the tournament thus far:

4. The first four games
Two one-point upsets by double-digit seeds [(11) Old Dominion 51, (6) Notre Dame 50; (13) Murray State 66, (4) Vanderbilt 65], an overtime escape by a high-seed [(2) Villanova 73, (15) Robert Morris 70], and a double-OT thriller in which a recent-national power fell [(7) BYU 99, (10) Florida 92]. I mean, that was just the first four games! Jesus.

While I always revel in seeing Notre Dame die an untimely death in any sport, the highlight of this group was the buzzer-beating 15-footer by Murray State's Danero Thomas to beat Vandy. Watched it happen live and you just can't top that sort of thing. At least that's what I used to think (SPOILER ALERT!) ...

3. Overtime
(9) Wake Forest 81, (8) Texas 80
Just a remarkably exciting game, and it came in the final contest of opening day. Wake led by 10 early (20-10, 10:52 in the first half), only to find themselves down six (36-30) just 9 minutes later. At the half, the Longhorns led by one.

In the early going of the second half, Wake again built a lead, this time up to 54-42 with 13 minutes to play. But Texas chipped away at it, pulling within a point at the 2-minute mark. Following a pair of free throws by the Deacons Al-Farouq Aminu, J'Covan Brown hit a huge 3 to tie the game at 67 with 55 seconds left. After Wake's C.J. Harris hit one of two free throws, Damion James had a chance to put the Longhorns ahead with a pair of free throws with nine seconds left. But he also made 1-of-2 -- he did then force a turnover to prevent Wake from getting a game-winning shot off -- and the game went to overtime.

And that's when this thing got really exciting. With the team's trading misses on the first three possessions of OT, Texas finally broke through on a Brown 3 with 3:48 remaining. The Longhorns Avery Bradley then got a steal in the backcourt off the press, and Jordan Hamilton hit another 3. Following yet another Wake turnover, James hit a pair of free throws, and Texas was ahead 76-68 with 3:05 to play. Between Demon Deacon shots -- a miss by Ishmael Smith, the guy that had committed both turnovers, finally broke the string of FG-attempt-less possessions -- they had gone from tied to an eight-point deficit. It looked hopeless for the Deacs, to the extent that my friend Art stopped watching. But Tony Woods converted a putback of Smith's miss, and Wake went on a 10-2 run to pull within 78-76 with 35 seconds left. Brown then drained a pair of free throws, before Ari Stewart hit a huge 3 at 19 seconds remaining to get Wake within one. Texas then missed two free throws before Smith -- the very same guy whose turnovers put the Deacons into the huge hole -- hit a 17-footer with 1.3 second left to give Wake a 81-80 win.

And the perfect end to a great day of basketball.

2. Final two minutes
(5) Michigan State 85, (4) Maryland 83
This game was on in the background for me throughout -- I had one matchup on my TV, and was toggling between games on my laptop -- and MSU had a 16-point second-half lead; they were also up 74-60 with under seven minutes to play, and that's when I really started paying attention. Maryland was able to chip away at the lead, but when the Spartans' Korie Lucious hit a layup for a 80-71 lead with 2:09 left, the game appeared to be over.

To everyone to Greivis Vasquez, that is.

Vasquez responded with one of his emotionally-charged three-point plays, then stole the inbounds pass which led to a Sean Mosley layup, giving the Terps a quick five-point run and pulling them back to 80-76 with 1:48 to play. Vasquez then hit a 3 to get the Terps within one.

Ho-hum, right? Well, compared to what would follow, it actually was.

Off an MSU turnover -- their fourth in a 59-second span -- Vasquez hit a leaner to put Maryland up 81-80 with 39 second left. So that's lead change #1 (LC1).

Tom Izzo then called timeout -- which would be, shockingly, the last timeout called during the game -- and the Spartans Draymond Green responded with a 17-foot jumper at the 22 second mark for a 82-81 advantage (LC2).

At nine seconds, Vasquez hit another short shot -- that's 10 points for him in the last 2 minutes -- after wheeling into the lane (LC3) before Korie Lucious took a pass from green at the top of the key and drained a 3 at the buzzer (LC4) for an 85-83 win.
Four lead changes in the last 40 seconds. Only one timeout, and I relished seeing a game that completely lacked any over-coaching. When are more coaches going to realize that end-of-game timeouts to diagram plays end up helping the defense more than their offense? A free-flowing game keeps the D on its heels, and it also doesn't allow the offensive players a chance to over-think what they need to do. Without the unnecessary stoppages, it's all just basketball. And it's unbelievably entertaining to watch.

1. Ali Farokhmanesh 3-pointer, 35 seconds remaining,
(9) Northern Iowa 69, (1) Kansas 67
The most dissected play of the tournament, and by far my favorite moment. Farokhmanesh's UNI squad had seen a 12-point second-half lead whittled down to one, and its seven-point advantage (63-56) with 1:18 left had almost entire evaporated when Farokhmanesh found himself wide open at the arc after the Panthers had broken the KU press. Instead of dribbling out the clock in hopes of getting fouled, Farokhmanesh -- who you could actually see hesitate while deciding what to do -- went for the jugular, and buried the most audacious shot I've ever seen.

Had Farokhmanesh missed, he likely would've been a huge goat. Conventional basketball wisdom says to try to play keep away and burn off as much clock as possible before the inevitable Kansas foul. But Farokhmanesh -- showing absolutely zero fear of failure despite having missed seven consecutive shots to that point -- saw a chance to win the game and took it. I really admire his boldness, and wish I could have his mentality with the things that I try to do.

I thought ESPN.com's Pat Forde, not someone I read regularly, had a great take on Farokhmanesh's shot:

Consider this argument for why it should go down as the greatest early-round shot in NCAA tournament history:

When Bryce Drew, Tyus Edney, Ty Rogers, James Forrest, Drew Nicholas and Rolando Blackman hit their famous shots, there was no choice involved -- it was either shoot now or go home. There was no real risk of failure -- nobody was going to hold a miss against those players, given time and score implications. Greatness was thrust upon them.

Ali? He chose greatness -- and the potential censure that would have come with a miss. He made a completely voluntary decision to tee up a 3 with 30 seconds on the shot clock and 35 seconds in the game and his team holding a one-point lead. While on a personal seven-shot miss streak. With nobody there to rebound offensively. And the biggest tourney upset in years hanging in the balance.

What a badass. Which is why Farokhmanesh gets the number one spot on my list.

While I'm not expecting the same volume of thrills from the rest of the tournament, I will be planted firmly in front of my TV/PC. And that's something I never would've predicted just eight days ago.

Speaking of predicting, on Wednesday of last week, I filled out my bracket, the first time I've done so in I don't even know how many years. And, despite all the upsets, I think I'm doing pretty damn good; even though I only got 10 of the Sweet 16 right, I still have seven of my Elite Eight, and all of my Final Four. I mention this not to brag, but because I think this will mark the high point for my bracket. After seeing all of my Final Four teams play, I'm much less optimistic about Ohio State and Butler's chances. So I've got to crow when I can. Caw, caw.