Day one of March Madness is finished as 16 teams saw their hopes of cutting down the nets go up in smoke. Florida Basketball fans got to sit back and watch without the stress of having their season on the line.
But that doesn't mean there were not some lessons to be learned. Here are the three biggest takeaways from Thursday's action.
Florida Basketball: Mike White Gonna Mike White
Yes, at some point, Florida fans are going to stop comparing the current state of the Gators with their former coach, but Georgia's opening game loss against Gonzaga was the perfect ending to the most Mike White of seasons.
Georgia lost by 21 points after falling behind 27-3 to open the game. Florida fans kept telling Georgia fans that this is how the story ends with White, so there was a sense of catharsis in watching these prophecies play out in real-time.
SEC Not Invincible
Besides Georgia, Missouri also looked lifeless in their opening-round loss to Drake. Caleb Grill, who turned into Steph Curry when the Tigers handed Florida one of their four losses, was held to 1-7 shooting from three.
Add in Auburn and Tennessee failing to cover their respective spreads, with Auburn in particular having early struggles against Alabama A&M, and the only real highlight of the day for the SEC was Arkansas upsetting Kansas.
It Is Possible To Cover 28.5 Points
Florida enters tonight's contest against Norfolk State as 28.5-point favorites. That is a massive number, and there are reasons to doubt whether Florida can cover that spread.
However, Houston had a 29.5-point spread against SIU Edwardsville and beat them by 38 points. After an early scare from Omaha, St. John's pulled away and won by 30 points.
First things first, just beat Norfolk State and move on, but winning by 30 or more points would send a strong message to the rest of the country.