Oh Belmont ... So Close ...

Day One of March Madness looked like a snoozy affair — until the final seconds ticked down in Washington, D.C., and No. 15 Belmont was about to beat second-seeded Duke.

SCREECH!

That was the sound of the needle coming off the record, and the Blue Devils crawling back out of the abyss. Gerald Henderson drove for a go-ahead basket with 11.9 seconds to go, giving Duke a 71-70 lead; with 2.2 seconds left, the Bruins’ Justin Hare fired off a 35-foot shot he thought felt good. It wasn’t, and Duke had just avoided being the fifth No. 2 team to fall to a No. 15 seed in the first round men’s tournament. (For a view from behind the Belmont bench, see Josh Levin’s account in Slate.)

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