Belmont came close to joining the "Fab Four."

True NCAA tournament buffs can reel off the four No. 15 seeds to beat a No. 2 — Richmond, Santa Clara, Coppin State and Hampton.

Duke came close to becoming part of the other half of that list — Syracuse, Arizona, South Carolina and Iowa State.

The Blue Devils' 71-70 victory over Belmont, which wasn't assured until the Bruins' Justin Hare missed a long 3-pointer at the buzzer, wasn't the only scare a high seed has gotten lately.

Over the last five tournaments, three No. 2 seeds beat a No. 15 by six points or fewer.

In that same span, five No. 3 seeds have beaten a No. 14 by six points or fewer.

Two of those high seed scares happened in the same year, and for Duke fans here's the good news: Both reached the Final Four.

Second-seeded Kansas beat Utah State 64-61 in the first round in 2003, holding on as the Aggies missed two 3-point attempts in the final seconds. The Jayhawks eventually lost to Syracuse in the title game.

Third-seeded Marquette beat Holy Cross 72-68 in that same round and the Golden Eagles won three more games to advance to the Final Four where they lost to Kansas.

The coaches didn't know what was to come but they both stressed the positive aspects of a close win.

"I've seen a lot of teams, including Kansas last year, go pretty far when they struggled to win the first game," then-Jayhawks coach Roy Williams said after the close win over Utah State.

"I think any time you advance, you're fortunate," Marquette coach Tom Crean said five years ago. "That first win is always the hardest because you have to learn how to win."

Gerald Henderson, who scored 21 points for Duke including the game-winning drive with 11 seconds left, sounded a lot like those coaches from years ago.

"A win is a win," the sophomore guard said. "Obviously you want to make it as easy as possible for yourself to win a game, but Belmont is a good team and you're not going to just run through this tournament. So it's a big thing for us to win our first game."

Perfect start

The Big East couldn't have done any better Thursday.

The conference that tied its own record with eight teams in the field went 4-0 on the opening day of the tournament.

West Virginia, Notre Dame, Marquette and Pittsburgh all won Thursday, leaving Villanova, Georgetown, Connecticut and Louisville to try to match that effort on Friday.

The Big East had eight teams in 2006 and it went 5-3 in the first round with Syracuse, Marquette and Seton Hall taking the losses.

Bad half

There are bad halves and then there's Kent State's opening 20 minutes against UNLV and Winthrop's second 20 against Washington State.

Kent State scored 10 points in the first half in falling behind by 21 points on the way to a 71-58 loss.

Winthrop scored 11 points after being tied at halftime of its 71-40 loss.

Kent State was 5-of-24 from the field, including 0-for-7 on 3-pointers, and committed 17 turnovers in the first half. The Golden Flashes entered the game shooting 46.7 percent from the field, 36.9 from 3-point range and averaging 14 turnovers.

It was the fewest points scored in a half in the shot clock era.

Then came the Eagles.

They were 4-for-24 from the field, including 2-for-11 on 3-pointers, in the second half. Winthrop had been 12-for-28 and hit half of its eight 3-point attempts in tying the fourth-seeded Cougars after 20 minutes.