March Madness Morning After: Little Rock Shocks, Wichita State Rocks, and Yale Is Not Plucky

This feature is part of VICE Sports' March Madness coverage.

Day One of March Madness is in the books, and it was … not that great. Don't get me wrong, days don't get much better than the first round of the NCAA tournament, but there were only two upsets really worth getting excited about.

Still, things happened! And after every day of the tournament, we'll be recapping the best of those things. Let's get start`ed:

Earlier this week, I listed Purdue as a team that could make a run through the bracket. The Boilermakers promptly lost in double overtime to Arkansas-Little Rock. I don't regret my pick, because Purdue is still a very good team. But UALR is just an awesome mid-major, and maybe the best team the Sun Belt has ever had.

Down by 14 in the second half, the Trojans had just a 0.4 percent chance of coming back to win. So, of course, they did just that, behind an incredible three-pointer to send the game to overtime:

It takes some amount of luck to rebound from a deep second-half deficit, and not just any mid-major can do it. According to KenPom.com, the Trojans are the No. 42 team in the country. They began the season with 10 straight wins, and have defeated two of the three NCAA tournament teams they've played, Tulsa and Purdue.

UALR plays slow, defends, and has great shooters. That's what it takes for an underdog to win in March. KenPom gives the Trojans a 35 percent chance to beat Iowa State on Saturday. Those are great odds for a lightly regarded mid-major, but after Thursday it's not fair to classify the Trojans as one.

● Arkansas-Little Rock is the third-poorest public school in the NCAA Tournament. It brings in $9.5 million per year. Purdue brings in $71 million per year. If players are allowed to be paid, we won't have competitive balance!

● UNC-Wilmington led Duke at halftime. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski's salary ($6 million) is half of UNCW's entire athletic department revenue.

● Yale is rich and not an underdog. Which leads me to …

No. 12 seed Yale beat No. 5 seed Baylor on Thursday. That's cute, huh? Those plucky Yalies rising up from adversity. Except it's definitely not cute. Here's why:

1. Yale is for rich people who are already ahead in life. "Adversity" does not really apply.

2. The Ivy League will try to win your heart by telling you it doesn't give athletic scholarships. That's not really true—its schools essentially do.

3. On a more serious note: Yale basketball is still affiliating itself, in an unofficial capacity, with a team captain who the university expelled on the basis of a sexual assault claim. This is not just an allegation that the school has yet to investigate or act upon. The university found a preponderance of evidence to expel him, yet the team is rallying around him, and the university hasn't come out against it. That's not a good look.

Yale has a quality squad—underrated, even—and could give Duke, its next opponent, a tough game. But this is not your typical Cinderella. Keep that in mind.

After a 43-point performance to send his school into the NCAA tournament, Stony Brook forward Jameel Warney put together a highlight reel against Kentucky that looked like something you'd see from the Wildcats.

First, he blocked Skal Labissiere's tomahawk dunk attempt:

Next, he recovered from a Labissiere spin move to lay down another devastating block:

Warney was a zero-star recruit coming out of high school. Labissiere, like most of Kentucky's players, was a five-star.

Stony Brook lost the game, and Warney didn't shoot the ball well, but he proved he could hold his own against one of the country's elite teams. Even in defeat, it was the kind of individual performance that makes the tournament so great.

reminder: wichita state's mascot is basically donald trump — Mina Kimes (@minakimes)March 18, 2016

Chattanooga is a good mid-major, as it proved earlier this year with wins over Dayton, Georgia, and Illinois. The Mocs were a justifiably popular upset pick because of this, and they played pretty well against Indiana.

They were still dismantled, 99-74. That's how good Indiana is.

The Hoosiers might have the best shooting team in the country, thanks to backcourt options Yogi Ferrell, Nick Zeisloft, and Robert Johnson, who has just returned from injury. The frontcourt is becoming dominant, too. Freshman center Thomas Bryant has the 35th best offensive rating in the country, and dynamic forward O.G. Anunoby is becoming a dunking, three-point shooting sensation:

360 Dunk in a — CBS Sports (@CBSSports)March 17, 2016

Most teams that rely on shooters are one cold performance from being bounced, but Indiana is far less vulnerable to a player's off night because the Hoosiers have so many players who can hit shots. They also have Bryant and Anunoby to provide scoring down low.

Next up is a monster match-up with Kentucky in the round of 32. The Wildcats are favored, but the Hoosiers are dangerous enough to make a run all the way to the Final Four.

There's a difference between a team pulling an upset and a team being underseeded. For instance, Arkansas-Little Rock is for real, but probably not consistently better than any teams ahead of it, so beating Purdue doesn't make the Trojans underseeded.

However, because of the dumb way the NCAA seeds teams—refusing to take into account margin of victory, and have I mentioned that before?—Wichita State was criminally underseeded. While the advanced stats see the Shockers as a No. 2 seed (or a No. 3 seed before the tournament started), their "resume" earned them a No. 11 seed and a spot in Dayton for a First Four game.

Unsurprisingly, the Shockers blasted Vanderbilt in the First Four, then beat Arizona comfortably. After this seeding mess, hopefully the NCAA gets the picture: margin of victory needs to play a role in seeding. It's fine to reward wins and losses, but with unbalanced schedules across conferences, it's necessary to use an equalizer like margin of victory when seeding teams.

Thanks to the NCAA's insistence on avoiding this useful information, Arizona got screwed, a No. 2 seed is taking a No. 11 seed's path through the NCAA tournament, and Wildcats coach Sean Miller nearly dissolved:

Sean Miller already needs a new shirt — Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport)March 18, 2016

The NCAA has many dumb rules during March Madness, like the fact that while covering games on-site I had to pour my Coke carbonated beverage into a Powerade cup, in order to protect amateur athletes from commercial exploitation.

But the dumbest thing the NCAA did today was not allow Butler's live mascot, Blue III, into the Bulldogs' game against Texas Tech. Blue III handled the situation much better than the association, probably because he is a very good and chill dog:

Much love for the — Butler Blue III (@ButlerBlue3)March 18, 2016

As always: You're Welcome, America. On to Day Two!