Connecticut played like a 4 seed on Friday. In their game against San Diego, the Huskies have little to regret. In the most surprising aspect of Friday afternoon’s big story—the Toreros upsetting UConn—Connecticut played every bit as well as they were expected to and still lost to a lower seed.

Unlike the Huskies, Drake cannot say they played a game without regret. Drake, the 5 seed out West, showed both their absolute best and worst basketball today at various times; a Jekyll and Hyde routine that cost them the game against a tough Western Kentucky team that not only knocked off Drake, but beat the buzzer with a beautiful game-ending three.

Drake was down by 16 points in the second half, and not just because Western Kentucky brought their A game to the arena. The Bulldogs couldn’t keep up with the Hilltoppers late in the first half or early in the second, allowing the underdogs from WKU to get ahead by a large margin before Drake regained their touch. In the last eight minutes of regulation, the Bulldogs were tremendous. Led by Jonathan Cox’s 39 points, Drake earned overtime the hard way with a tough second half comeback.

Tyrone Brazelton played a great game for Western Kentucky, leading the Hilltoppers to the victory with 33 points, 18 of them from behind the three point line. Brazelton was the player through whom Western Kentucky ran their offense, and the player Drake’s overtime defense was keyed in on. The 6 foot guard from Chicago ran up and down the court all day, and nobody the Bulldogs put on him could keep up.

The overtime period was back-and-forth as both teams began to show a healthy amount of fatigue. With just seconds left on the clock, Cox hit a foul shot to put Drake ahead by a point. Brazelton got the ball as WKU sped up the floor for a last-second shot, but of course Drake had people all around him. So when Brazelton ran past teammate Ty Rogers, he left the ball with Rogers, who made the shot to propel the Hilltoppers into the next round and into the ranks of 12 seeds who have upset their #5 counterparts in the NCAA Tournament.

Not that a 12 seed beating a 5 is entirely surprising; it happens on a seemingly annual basis. Most large offices have a self-proclaimed “bracket expert” that reminds everybody of this every year, but keep in mind that only gives you a one-in-four chance of picking the right 12-5 upset. What’s surprising is that it’s Drake that becomes the victim of this “unwritten law.” Everybody loved Drake coming into the tournament, mostly because it was one of those names that sticks out on a bracket.

It was Drake that was supposed to be this year’s upstart mid-major. Much of the year, pundits ranked the Bulldogs near the best teams in the country as they finished atop the Missouri Valley Conference, that hallowed mid-major in mid-country.

In the next game held in Tampa, Connecticut was supposed to overpower San Diego. USD didn’t have a big man, much less one as big as Hasheem Thabeet.

Thabeet, along with having one of the most fun names to say in the entire tournament, played a solid game for the Huskies. Thabeet had 14 points, 4 blocks and 6 rebounds in the losing effort, but what made him so important in this game was that he was playing against the San Diego Lilleputians.

Enough cannot be said of how Gyno Pomare played in this game for San Diego. Pomare didn’t have the size to keep with Thabeet, but he muscled his way into the paint to disrupt the game and toss in 22 points to lead San Diego in their victory.

What San Diego couldn’t do was grow, but they certainly could run. The Toreros played a swift, offense predicated on passing and speed. Undersized teams usually prefer to shoot three pointers; USD only attempted twelve. Brandon Johnson was the wheel that turned Connecticut’s first round opponent. Johnson scored 18 points to go with 5 rebounds, 4 assists and a block. But in overtime, Johnson dove out of bounds to save a ball from hitting the ground and being awarded to Connecticut, subsequently straining something in his torso. Soon thereafter, Johnson fouled out.

San Diego looked worn out, while Connecticut showed everyone the big difference between a mid-major and a high-major: depth. Frequent substitutions and a big bench helped the Huskies keep the Toreros in sight all game, but in the end there was just no answer to San Diego’s grit and game plan. De’Jon Jackson hit a long shot with just over a second on the clock to give San Diego a lead, and there just wasn’t enough time for UConn to get the shot they wanted. San Diego had perservered against an extremely tough UConn team.

It was Connecticut’s first first-round loss under coach Jim Calhoun, who has built up quite a program at UConn. If they can get the sophomore Thabeet to stay in Storrs for another year (or two), the Huskies will be a scary team moving forward. This year however, Connecticut is the victim of a team that rose to the NCAA Tournament’s occasion and earned the big win that will be spoken about on campus for years to come.

Western Kentucky and San Diego will meet on Sunday to see who advances to the Sweet Sixteen, and that too should be an interesting matchup. Johnson will be matching up against the swift Brazelton to see which giant killer comes out on top, while the higher seeds Connecticut and Drake will be anywhere but the court.