One of NCAA tourney's greatest days ... in Tampa

The NCAA men's basketball tournament always brings great thrills, especially on the first weekend.

One of the greatest days was in Tampa.

It was 2008, and I remember not being thrilled with the field of teams coming to Tampa. We were gearing up to cover the event in the St. Petersburg Times, but we didn't seem to have the greatest storylines. The highest-seeded teams we got were No. 4s, UConn and Vanderbilt. But even without the best teams in the tournament, we probably had the best games.

Since the NCAA began seeding teams in 1979, never had one site had more than two major upsets in the round of 64. Tampa went 4-for-4. Our 12th-seeded teams beat our No. 5s and our 13s beat our 4s.

It was a thrilling day with an overtime buzzer-beater by Ty Rogers helping No. 12 Western Kentucky beat No. 5 Drake 101-99 and an 18-footer by De'Jon Jackson with 1.2 seconds left helping No. 13 San Diego top UConn 70-69. No. 12 Villanova rallied from an 18-point deficit to beat No. 5 Clemson 75-69, and No. 13 Siena drubbed Vandy 83-62.

It made for a fun day and a fun followup as we broke down how the last shots came about.