There was nothing wrong with having a big number in front of your name in the NCAA tournament bracket.
Eight teams seeded 10th or higher won a game in the first round, matching last year's total and one off the record set in 2001.
Ohio University, proudly wearing the 14th seed, was the biggest of Thursday's five double-digit defeats, beating No. 3 Georgetown 97-83.
Joining the opening day of double trouble were No. 13 Murray State, 66-65 winners over Vanderbilt on Danero Thomas' 15-foot jumper at the buzzer; two No. 11s which beat Big East teams - Old Dominion over Notre Dame and Washington over Marquette - and No. 10 Saint Mary's, which beat Richmond.
Cornell, a No. 12 many thought should have been given a better seeding, started Friday's double delights, beating Temple 78-65, while two No. 10s moved on: Georgia Tech over Oklahoma State and Missouri over Clemson.
``This is what happens in March Madness,'' Murray State freshman guard John Jenkins said. ``I didn't think it was going to happen and I had no doubt we were going to win that game.''
Cornell, one of the best teams to come out of the Ivy League since the days when Princeton was scaring the top teams in the country year after year, handled Temple, the champions of the Atlantic 10 Conference, pretty easily.
``Everyone was saying we were Cinderella or it's an upset. Not us,'' Big Red sophomore Chris Wroblewski said.
Ohio's big win over the Hoyas, who lost to West Virginia in the Big East championship game, was its second stunner of the postseason. The Bobcats won the Mid-American Conference tournament as a No. 9 seed.
``We may not be a better team, just got to be a better team on a given night,'' Ohio's Armon Bassett said.
In addition to this year and 2009, there were eight double-digit winners in 2006, 1999, 1998, 1989, 1991.
The low came in 2007 when only two teams seeded 10th or higher advanced.
The breakdown of the record nine in 2001 included No. 15 Hampton over Iowa State and two No. 13s, Indiana State over Oklahoma and Kent State over Indiana. Two of the teams beaten by double-digit seeds this year were on the other side of the result in 2001: Temple, a winner over Texas as a No. 11 seed, and Georgetown, which beat Arkansas as a No. 10 seed.
