If you are a fan of college basketball, then March is one of your favorite times of the year. As the weather starts to get better, unless you live here in the northeast, it also means it is time for March Madness. The annual college basketball tournament seems to suck people into it who never even watch sports. How many people win office pools for the tournament, that never watched a day of basketball in their life prior to this? Happens all the time. Alot of things happened during the first weekend of the championship. Many favorites won, many young men cried at the thought of playing their final game, and a few underdogs have captured the hearts of fans all over the country. Without further ado, here is the recap of the first weekend leading up to the sweet 16 next Thursday. Read more after the jump.

@IamJOE357

OK, first, let us start with who survived the first weekend. We started with 64 teams on Thursday and we are now down to the sweet 16, which starts this Thursday. In the East region, Miami will take on Marquette, while usual powers Syracuse and Indiana will face off, for the right to advance to the Elite 8. In the South, Kansas will face Michigan, who are very hot right now, and Florida will take on Florida Gulf Coast, who has become everyone’s new favorite school to root for, more on them later. In the Midwest, the overall top seed Louisville will face Oregon, and usual suspects Duke and Michigan State will face each other. Finally in the West region, Wichita State will face La Salle, in a matchup not even God himself could of saw coming, while Arizona will face Ohio State in the other game.

Over the past few days there have been some amazing moments, incredible drama, and tension so thick you could cut it. First we had Harvard University, which is a school you think of when you think of U.S. President’s and Nobel Prize winners. Basketball does not usually come to mind, but this weekend they won their first game ever in the NCAA tournament, when they defeated New Mexico University, in what was a huge upset. Many people had New Mexico going deep in the tournament. In the south region, #15 seeded FGCU, Florida Gulf Coast University, who have become the darlings of the tourney, completed not 1, but 2 amazing upsets in their charge for the sweet 16. They took out Georgetown, and then San Diego State, which were both big time favorites over the small school. We can’t forget about the Wichita State Shockers literally shocking #1 seed Gonzaga in the third round to advance to the sweet 16. La Salle University, a small school in the Philly area, was not given much chance to get out of the first round as a #13 seed, yet after 2 big wins, they are still alive and kicking. Oregon University, which felt disrespected when they were given a #12 seed in the midwest region, showed they are not playing and have dominated their first 2 opponents, and they were underdogs in both those games.

The usual big name schools such as Syracuse, Louisville, Indiana, Michigan State & Florida all won their first couple games with relative ease. Some of the other big name schools such as Duke, Miami, Marquette, Ohio State and Kansas had a few anxious moments closing out their early games in the tourney. Michigan University, which has not been to the sweet 16 since right after the Fab 5 was there almost 20 years ago, looks like one of the best teams in the country the way they are playing right now. They along with Louisville have just absolutely crushed their opponents during the first 2 rounds. So with that said, we are ready for the sweet 16 to start this Thursday. Take a look back at some of the images from this weekend in the gallery. How is your bracket looking now?