BROOKLYN–I was here at the Barclays Center Friday covering the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

But I could hear earthquake tremors coming from St.. Louis where 15th-seeded Middle Tennessee State shocked second-seeded Michigan State, 90-81, in an first round game at the Scottrade Center. The Big Ten Tournament champion Spartans (29-6) were the betting favorite in Vegas sports books to win this year’s tournament,. based largely on the fact they had a senior dominated lineup that included versatile 6-5 national Player of the Year candidate Denzel Valentine and were coached by Tom Izzo, who had taken the Spartans to seven Final Fours and a national championship since 1999.

Michigan State was listed as 9:2 to win it all. Middle Tennessee was listed as  2,000:1.

Valentine left last year’s Final Four with a vow that his team would make a return visit.

But, when this game ended, the Spartans were nothing more than road kill, disappearing from the tournament in the blink of an eye.

“I’ve got a lot of emotions running through my head right now,” Valentine admitted. “I mean, I’m more mad and disappointed because I know what this team could accomplish. This is probably one of the worst games we played all year and it happened to be in the first round. You can’t have that if you want to win championships. And in high school, winning two state championships, we didn’t. Today, it kind of fall apart. And it just sucks right now because I know the capability our team had.”

Middle came into the game as a 16.5 point underdog, making this the fourth biggest upset in NCAA history. “We wanted to win this game as bad as anybody wanted us  to win,” Blue Raiders sophomore guard Giddy Potts said. “We played our butts off today.”

The Blue Raiders from Murfeesboro, Tenn. shot 55.9 percent and made 11-of-19 three point attempts and rang up 90 against one of the best defensive teams in the college basketball. “I’ll be honest with you, in my wildest dreams, I didn’t think they’d hit some of the shots they hit,” Izzo said. “We didn’t guard them good, but man, they made some shots.”

Nothing should surprise anyone anymore in the first week of this tournament. The hits just keep on coming. Yale defeated Baylor. Wichita defeated Arizona. Arkansas Little Rock defeated Purdue. Hawaii defeated Cal. Virginia Commonwealth defeated Oregon State.

Kansas and North Carolina may the two best teams remaining in the tournament. But the Blue Raiders (25-7) gave hope to Cinderellas everywhere and gave pause to the favorites. Middle had been in the national spotlight once before, upsetting mighty Kentucky in the first round of the 1982 tournament. But the Raiders hadn’t won a tournament game since 1989. And, in two days of upsets, virtually no one had Middle advancing.

“I got an email from a second grader,” Middle coach Kermit Davis said. “I guess everybody in her class picked the bracket and she picked Middle Tennessee to advance. I’m sure when she took it home to her mom and dad, they laughed. So we had one second-grader on our side.”

 Faith, as it turns out, can be a powerful thing.

The Blue Raiders will have to day to savor this magical moment before they play 10th-seed Syracuse Sunday in the second round.

“It’s so much national attention,” Davis claimed. “And on CBS, on a Friday afternoon and when you beat a team like that. It’s a great day for the whole university.”

The Blue Raiders never seemed intimidated by their surroundings. The Blue Raiders came out flying with 15 of the game’s first 17 points to set the tone. The Spartans battled back, but the Conference USA Tournament champions were relentless, never giving up control. Reggie Upshaw, a 6-7 junior forward with a face up game, led the way for Middle with 21 points, four rebounds and four assists. Potts chipped in 19 points and Darnell Harris and Perrin Buford added 15 apiece for the Raiders, who made the Big Ten champions look defenseless for long stretches.

Forward Matt Costello scored a career best 22 points for the Spartans, who shot 55.6 percent, but wasn’t enough to offset a uncharacteristic, miserable performance by Valentine. Valentine had 13 points and 12 assists, but he also had six turnovers, one of them coming with the Spartans trailing 79-76 and less than three minutes to play. Michigan State twice had chances to tie the score after that but Valentine– who only had one first field in the second half, missed an open three from the top of the key and guard Bryn Forbes, his high school teammate, missed another. The Blue Raiders eventually scored on back to back run outs to establish some breathing room and run out the clock.

“Zel’s had an incredible, incredible career, much less year,” Izzo said. “It just wasn’t in the cards today.”

Valentine’s frustration spilled over after he committed back to back turnovers in the second half. During a stoppage in play and with the Blue Raiders leading, 51-43, Valentine stalked back to his team’s huddle and proceeded to slam his hand to the floor. “That was really frustrating because they were switching up defenses,” he said. “It was probably the only team all year that went from a 1-3-1 to a 2-3 to man. And I was frustrated. But I mean as a basketball player you’re going to have to deal with that. With great power comes great responsibility. And I didn’t handle it today. Just sucks that we’re going home now. But I got something that I’ll never forget the rest of my life” that when you’re in this position and everybody’s looking at you, you’ve got to come through. I didn’t come through today and I’ll remember that for the rest of my life.”