Vanderbilt's Loss To Murray State Was A Tournament Cliche

When it comes to beating potential Cinderellas in March Madness, there are a few time-worn maxims for higher seeds. First among these is not letting the other team hang around. The longer a lower-seeded team can keep it close, the greater their belief that they can win, and (obviously) the higher the chance they can steal the game with just a few plays at the end.

As SB Nation's SEC blog, Team Speed Kills, points out, this was exactly what happened to Vanderbilt in their first-round loss to 13-seed Murray State:

Vanderbilt played with fire all game, never building much of a lead and in fact trailing for quite a bit throughout. In the end, it got them burned as Murray State's Danero Thomas hit a jumper at the buzzer to take out the Commodores 66-65.

This one was tight the whole way, with the largest lead of the game being a Murray State eight point advantage in the second half.