There’s been no shortage of madness through the first two rounds of the 2016 NCAA Tournament – Northern Iowa alone had enough ups and downs to keep us on the edge of our seats. But for the two Colorado schools participating in the nation’s biggest weekend of hoops hype, it was largely a letdown. Both the Buffs men and Rams women fell in their opening round games, brining a different kind of “madness” (see: anger, disappointment, frustration, etc.) to fans up and down the Front Range.

CU and CSU weren’t the only teams to have disappointing weekends. DU was dropped from a tournament, as well, and the Furniture Row Racing team had their worst finish of the year and a major PR gaffe.

Fortunately for Colorado sports fans, there were some big wins over the sports weekend to salve the pain of another disappointing March showing by the local college hoops teams. The Nuggets, Avs and Rapids all had big victories (of sorts) to keep it from being a weekend of “March Sadness.”

In this week’s edition of “Studs & Duds,” we look at the best and worst team performances from the opening weekend of March Madness.

Honorable Mention Duds – Colorado Mammoth & DU Men’s Hockey

The Mammoth dropped a 13-9 contest in Calgary, their third loss of the year. Colorado is still a league-best 8-3, but all three of their losses have come on the road, where they are 3-3. The DU men’s hockey squad fell to St. Cloud State in the NCHC conference tournament semifinals, then skated to a 1-1 tie against North Dakota in the third-place game. Those results slowed the momentum they had carried from late January, when they began an 11-game win streak. They could face St. Cloud State again in the NCAA Tournament semifinals in less than a week.

Studs No. 3 – Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets put to an end a three-game road losing skid that started Monday, along with their five-game road trip. The fact that it came against a playoff-caliber team, Charlotte, and without the services of Kenneth Faried is something this young team can use as fuel down the stretch. Eight of their remaining 12 games are against teams either in, or in the hunt for, the playoffs. Even if they win all 12, Denver likely wouldn’t make the postseason, but they can play spoiler and build skills for next season when they will actually be a part of the playoff chase.

Duds No. 3 – CU Men’s Basketball

For the fourth time in five years, Tad Boyle had his team in the NCAA Tournament – the most successful such span in program history. But for the third time in four tries, the Buffs went one-and-done, losing their first game at the big dance. CU finished with 22 wins, tied for fourth-best in program history and the fifth time in Boyle’s six years that they’ve eclipsed the 20-win mark. But with such a poor showing by the Pac-12 in the tournament’s opening weekend (only one of seven teams made it to the Sweet 16), their early exit means they’ll probably need north of 24 wins next year to earn another at-large bid.

Studs No. 2 – Colorado Avalanche

After dropping a disappointing game to Winnipeg (in which they led 2-0 at one point), the Avalanche responded to close out their four-game Canadian road trip with three straight wins. Semyon Varlamov was stellar against Vancouver, then battled to a shootout win against Calgary, and Calvin Pickard picked up an important win in Edmonton on Sunday night. With the three wins (two of which came without suspended captain Gabe Landeskog), Colorado kept a point ahead of Minnesota in the race for the final Wild Card spot and picked up a crucial regulation/overtime win, which they may need in a tiebreak scenario.

Duds No. 1 – CSU Women’s Basketball

For much of the season, it seemed like the CSU women’s basketball team wasn’t getting a fair shake. After all, they didn’t appear on the AP national rankings until very late in the season, despite suffering only one loss very early in the year. The Rams went on a 27-game win streak to bring their overall record to 31-1 entering the NCAA Tournament. They were undefeated in the Mountain West regular season and conference tournament, still, they were handed a No. 11 seed in the big dance. After running out to a 10-0 lead to start the game, the Rams crashed back down to Earth. They couldn’t convert two chances to tie the game within the final 10 seconds and a dream season came to a very disappointing end.

Studs No. 1 – Colorado Rapids

No, their 1-1 draw with D.C. United on Sunday isn’t the reason the Rapids earn our top spot this week. Nor is the fact that their two goals through three games is the worst in MLS. Neither of those are real cause for celebration. But Rapids fans were waving their burgundy banners high on Sunday when the club (finally) officially announced it had acquired USMNT and Everton keeper Tim Howard via allocation. The deal had been rumored for months, but it was the kind of deal that had fans squirming that it could all fall apart at some point. With the ink officially dry, it’s time for Commerce City to rejoice. The “Secretary of Defense” should join Colorado sometime after Independence Day when the international transfer window opens.

Duds No. 1 – Furniture Row Racing

The boys at Denver’s local NASCAR shop were actually in the running for our top spot – and more importantly their first win of the 2016 NASCAR season – that was, until Joey Logano bumped Martin Truex Jr. and sent his Bass Pro Shops / Furniture Row Racing Toyota into the wall and out of contention at Sunday’s Auto Club 400. Truex led 31 laps, but ended up finishing in 32nd place after the bump Logano later said was “completely my fault.” What swung the pendulum to full-fledged “Dud,” however, wasn’t the back-of-the-pack finish. After the race, FRR crew chief Cole Pearn tweeted out, “I guess @joeylogano can’t see through his squinty douchy eyes.” Sorry Cole, but the real “douchy” thing from the weekend was that tweet.