I was at a meeting at work, answering questions about some of the project our team was working on, when all of a sudden my phone blows up. First my son sends me a text. Then I received an email from a friend who enters the pool every year. Then my roommate from college sent me a text. And I knew the March had happened. I tried desperately to try to remember who was playing. When my meeting was over, I looked to try to find out what carnage had happened and heard a sound.

That sound was the collective deep breath as 88 of us gave a sigh of relief that our bracket wasn’t completely destroyed within the first 5 hours of the tournament, while the rest of the world gave a groan of disappointment as we didn’t get a 16 seed upsetting the overall #1 seed.

You have to give the five starters of Siena a ton of credit as they played their hearts out and literally played the entire game. The first bench player for Siena apparently came into the game with 10 seconds in the game – likely to intentionally foul.

Siena was up 11 at halftime and had the tournament favorites on the ropes. With 8 minutes left, Gavin Doty hit a three pointer to keep the Saints up 5. And then the Blue Devils led by Cayden and Cameron Boozer, Isaiah Evans, and an incredible display of team defense went on an 11-0 run over the next 6.5 minutes, and the Blue Devils survived with a 71-65 victory.

And I hear Kelly Clarkson in the back of my mind singing, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!”

I know I have another game to write about, as Siena’s upset bid failed, but that was not the case for all the mid-major teams playing. I need to find a replay to see what I missed. I know it had to be exciting.