The University of Tennessee announced Sunday the hiring of Missouri State University head coach Cuonzo Martin (pronounced CON-zoe) as the Vols' 18th head men's basketball coach. He will be introduced at a press conference tomorrow (Monday, March 28) at 2:30 p.m. ET at the Ray Mears Room at Thompson-Boling Arena.

The 39-year-old Martin, who is a graduate of Purdue University, posted a 61-41 (.598) record in three seasons at Missouri State from 2008-11. This season's Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year, Martin's 2010-11 Bears team finished 26-9 and won the school's first-ever Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship. The team's 15-3 mark in MVC games set a school-record for conference wins in one season.

"Cuonzo is among the most promising young coaches in the game, and we are excited about the coaching ability, toughness, and energy that he brings to our program," Tennessee Director of Athletics Mike Hamilton said. "He has a proven track record of success as a head coach at Missouri State and an assistant at Purdue as well as an outstanding career as a college basketball player. His Missouri State program improved from 11 wins to 26 in just two seasons, and they won the regular season conference championship this year."

"Cuonzo has an inspiring personal story, and we look forward to his impact on Tennessee basketball. We welcome Cuonzo, his wife Roberta, their sons Joshua and Chase, and their daughter, Addison, to the Tennessee family."

Martin is also a finalist for two national coaching awards this season: the Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year Award, presented annually to the top mid-major coach in Division I college basketball, and the Ben Jobe Award, presented annually to the top minority head coach in Division I. Both awards are to be presented during Final Four weekend.

On March 26, 2008, Martin was introduced as the Missouri State head coach after spending eight years as an assistant coach at his alma mater under head coaches Gene Keady and Matt Painter. After finishing 11-20 in his first season with the Bears in 2008-09, the team improved 13 wins to a 24-12 finish and the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament title in 2009-10, tying Kansas for the national lead in home wins with 19.

Martin's Missouri State teams were a combined 36-3 at home over the last two seasons, and the three home losses were by a combined total of five points.

A two-win improvement this season (26-9) means Martin's last two Missouri State squads have averaged 25 wins, posting a combined record of 50-21 and a .704 winning percentage. In addition, after a 3-15 finish in the MVC in 2008-09, the Bears improved to 8-10 in 2009-10 and 15-3 in the league in 2010-11.

Through all NCAA games of March 25, the 2010-11 Missouri State squad ranked seventh nationally in turnovers per game at 10.3 and also led the MVC in 3-point shooting (.376, 39th nationally) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.28, 27th nationally) while ranking second in winning pct. (.745, 30th nationally), scoring offense (69.8 ppg, 140th nationally), and scoring margin (6.7, 60th nationally). Missouri State played in the MVC Tournament as the No. 1 seed and fell to Indiana State in the MVC Tournament Championship Game. The Bears played in the NIT this year, defeating Murray State in the first round before losing in the second round at Miami (Fla.).

The 2009-10 MSU team led the MVC in scoring and assist-to-turnover ratio and ranked in the top 25 nationally in turnovers per game (11.3).

Martin was a standout player for the Boilermakers as a collegian, scoring 1,666 points in 127 career games. During his four playing seasons, Purdue posted a 90-37 record, including a combined 54-12 mark in his last two seasons and two Big 10 titles in 1994 and 1995. He made 45.9 percent of his 3-point attempts (179-for-390) over his junior and senior seasons and was an 80 percent free-throw shooter.

During his senior season of 1994-95, he averaged 18.4 points per game while leading Purdue to the second of three consecutive Big 10 championships, earning First Team All-Big Ten honors. Broadcaster Dick Vitale also named him to his All-Defensive Team in 1995.

Martin set the Purdue school record for 3-pointers made in a single game, draining eight in an NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen contest against Kansas on March 24, 1994, a game hosted at Thompson-Boling Arena. The Boilermakers won that game to advance to the Elite Eight. Martin's record still stands and was subsequently equaled by Robbie Hummel against Ohio State on Jan. 12, 2010.

Martin was selected with the 57th overall pick in the 1995 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks and played professional basketball for four years, including NBA stints with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Vancouver Grizzlies. He also was the team captain and leading scorer with the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Hoops of the Continental Basketball Association for three seasons and was the leading scorer for the Felize Scandone team in Avellino, Italy in 1997.

In November of 1997, Martin was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and returned to the United States for treatment of a malignant tumor between his heart and lungs. He received his last treatment on April 20, 1998, and is now in full remission. He has used his courage and experience with the disease to promote awareness of cancer research and support cancer charities.

In 2008, Martin served as a spokesman for the inaugural Purdue Center for Cancer Research Challenge for cancer research, which attracted more than 1,000 runners and walkers to Ross-Ade Stadium and raised more than $30,000 for cancer research at Purdue. In his honor, the Cuonzo Martin Challenge Award was established.

Cuonzo LaMar Martin was born Sept. 23, 1971, in East St. Louis, Ill. He and his wife, Roberta, have two sons, Joshua and Chase, and a daughter, Addison.

The 2010 edition of the best day in college sports turned into arguably the greatest opening day in NCAA tournament history.

And it was a day that left many college basketball fans, including President Barack Obama, second-guessing their brackets.

The opening day of the NCAA tournament started Thursday with two games ending in overtime -- one going into double-overtime and the other involving a No. 15 seed -- and another game being decided by one point.

Just when it seemed the day could not get any better, a No. 13 seed stunned a No. 4 on a buzzer-beater and a No. 3 seed had to fight like mad to hold off a No. 14.

Unbelievably, Thursday's nightcap was even better than the day's earlier games. A No. 14 seed actually knocked off a No. 3 and three more games were won on last-second shots, including yet another one decided in overtime.

By the time No. 3-seeded New Mexico held off No. 14-seeded Montana 62-57 early Friday morning on the East Coast, the carnage of the tournament's first 13 hours left researchers scrambling for the record books. Seven lower-seeded teams won games Thursday, including five double-digits seeds, the most on the opening day of the tournament since 1991.

And for those who think there's not enough parity in college basketball, consider this: eight of the 16 games were decided in OT or by a 3 points or less (that hadn't happened on the first day since the field expanded in 1985), 11 of the 16 were decided by single-digits and three games went to overtime.

How much of a difference is eight out of 16 being decided in OT or by 3 points or less? Consider this: There were a grand total of nine of those games in the entire 2009 tournament.

Only four teams ran away with victories on Thursday, and even No. 1 overall seed Kansas had its problems with No. 16-seeded Lehigh before pulling away with a 90-74 victory.

Indeed, madness finally returned to March on Thursday and it seemed like no team was safe, regardless of its lofty seeding or rich pedigree.

"I think it reflects the magic of March," Old Dominion coach Blaine Taylor told reporters, after the Monarchs won their first NCAA tournament game since 1995.

Like upsets? Thursday's action provided seven games won by lower seeds:

• No. 14 seed Ohio stunned No. 3 seed Georgetown 97-83 in a rout that wasn't even that close.

• No. 13 seed Murray State upset No. 4 seed Vanderbilt 66-65 on a shot as time expired.

• No. 11 seed Washington beat No. 6 seed Marquette 80-78 on a shot with 1.7 seconds left.

• No. 11 seed Old Dominion upset No. 6 seed Notre Dame 51-50 in a game that was as slow as the score indicates.

• No. 10 seed Saint Mary's knocked off No. 7 seed (and trendy sleeper) Richmond 80-71, winning its first NCAA tournament game since 1959.

• No. 9 seed Northern Iowa defeated No. 8 seed UNLV 69-66 on a 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds to play.

• No. 9 seed Wake Forest ralllied from eight down in OT to beat No. 8 seed Texas 81-80 on a 14-foot jumper with 1.3 seconds left.

Surprisingly, a Big East membership card was the only thing that carried less weight than a higher seed on Thursday. The Big East was hailed as the country's best conference throughout the season and half of its 16 teams litter the NCAA bracket. But when the dust settled Thursday, Big East teams went 1-3 against double-digit seeds. Georgetown, Marquette and Notre Dame each went one-and-done, and No. 2 seed Villanova came within only a few points of joining them.

The Wildcats rallied from an eight-point deficit to No. 15 seed Robert Morris in the final 4:19 of regulation and won 73-70 in overtime in a South Region game in Providence, R.I. Villanova narrowly avoided becoming the first No. 2 seed to lose in the first round since 2001. The Wildcats play Saint Mary's in the second round on Saturday.

The Hoyas were not nearly as fortunate. Georgetown played for the Big East tournament championship only five days ago, but it was defenseless against the No. 9 seed in the Mid-American Conference tourney in its NCAA first-round game. Ohio, which had to win four consecutive games to earn the MAC's automatic NCAA bid, led the Hoyas by 12 points at the half and never looked back. The Bobcats led by as many as 19 in the second half and handed the Hoyas the most lopsided ever by a 3 against a 14.

Ohio shot a whopping 58.2 percent from the floor, making 13 of 23 3-pointers, and its 97 points were the most allowed by a top-three seed since the NCAA field expanded in 1985.

"We really thought we could make some noise in this tournament," Hoyas guard Austin Freeman told reporters Thursday night. "We really didn't imagine we would be one-and-done."

Vanderbilt, UNLV, Marquette and Texas probably believed they would stick around for more than one day, too, but each of them was the victim of an underdog's improbable buzzer-beater:

• Murray State trailed Vanderbilt 65-64 when it called timeout with four seconds left. Racers forward Danero Thomas was the third option on coach Billy Kennedy's game-winning play, but the senior from New Orleans sank a fade-away jumper from 15 feet to upset the Commodores in a West Region first-round game in San Jose, Calif. It was Murray State's first victory in the NCAA tournament since 1988 and it advanced to play No. 5 seed Butler in Saturday's second round.

"We'll remember this for the rest of our lives," Murray State guard B.J. Jenkins told reporters after the game.

• Northern Iowa fans will never forget Ali Farokhmanesh's 3-pointer, either. The Panthers were tied 66-66 with UNLV when Farokhmanesh let his winning 3-pointer fly from the left wing with 4.9 seconds to play. Northern Iowa's victory in its first-round game in the Midwest Region in Oklahoma City ended its 20-year drought in the NCAA tourney. The Panthers went one-and-done in each of their last four NCAA appearances, but moved on to face No. 1 seed Kansas on Saturday.

• Washington might not have made the NCAA's 65-team field if it hadn't won last week's Pac-10 tournament in Los Angeles. But the 11th-seeded Huskies carried the Pac-10's battered flag proudly on Thursday night, knocking off red-hot Marquette in an East Region first-round game in San Jose. Washington rallied from a 15-point deficit and won on Quincy Pondexter's off-balance bank shot with 1.7 seconds to play. The Huskies advanced to play No. 3 seed New Mexico on Saturday.

• Some people did not believe Wake Forest deserved an NCAA at-large bid after it lost five of its last six games, but the Demon Deacons never lost hope, even after they trailed Texas by eight points with less than three minutes to play in overtime. Ari Stewart pulled Wake to within 80-79 with a 3-pointer with 15.9 seconds left, and Ishmael Smith won it with a jumper with 1.3 seconds left in an East Region first-round game in New Orleans. The Demon Deacons play No. 1 seed Kentucky on Saturday.

While the NCAA tournament said good-bye to five of its former national champions on Thursday (Florida, Georgetown, Marquette, UTEP and UNLV), the sport was introduced to several new stars. BYU's Jimmer Fredette scored 37 points in the Cougars 99-92 double-OT victory over the Gators in a West Region first-round game in Oklahoma City. Fredette scored 29 points in the second half, helping BYU win an NCAA first-round game for the first time since in 17 years.

Ohio guard Armon Bassett was nearly as spectacular in the upset of Georgetown, scoring 32 points and making five 3-pointers. Saint Mary's center Omar Samhan was a one-man wrecking crew in the Gaels' surprising win over Richmond, scoring 29 points on 11-for-16 shooting and pulling down 12 rebounds.

What could Friday's action possibly bring? If we're lucky it will be an encore of Thursday. At least three double-digit seeds look to be plenty competitive. No. 12-seeded Cornell, the Ivy League champion, plays 5th-seeded Temple in a East Region first-round game in Jacksonville, Fla.

South Region first-round games in Spokane, Wash., might be primed for upsets, too. No. 13 Siena takes on wounded No. 4 seed Purdue and No. 12 Utah State will try to knock off No. 5 seed Texas A&M.

Of course, if Thursday was any indication, Big East teams can't be comfortable on Friday. Four more of them are in action, including regular-season champion Syracuse, the No. 1 seed in the West. The Orange play 16th-seeded Vermont in Buffalo, N.Y.

Of course, most college basketball fans remember what happened the last time the Orange and Catamounts met.

Have you ever heard of T.J. Sorrentine?

Vanderbilt University (4 seed) is stunned by Murray State (13 seed) in the 1st Round of the NCAA Championship in San Jose, CA.  Vandy took a 65-64 lead with 4 seconds left, but was unbale to hold on as Murray State scores with 1 second left to win 66-65.

Danero Thomas' basket at the buzzer gave Murray State a 66-65 win over Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament opening round Thursday at San Jose, Calif.