The opening day of the NCAA Tournament – First Four aside, since those are basically play-in games – did not disappoint.
First, Siena played magnificently against #1 seed Duke, shocking the Blue Devils in the first half and totally outperforming them until the second half, when the Blue Devils finally got going.
Howard punched above its weight for quite some time against Michigan before the Wolverines pulled away late, winning by 21. Anyone who watched that game came away with a ton of respect for Kenny
Blakeney’s team.
Then #14 Kennesaw State pushed Gonzaga to the last couple of minutes before yielding, 73-64.
High Point was absolutely brilliant against Wisconsin, and on the last play, Chase Johnson hit his first two-point shot of the season.
In March. After taking 210 shots.
If you look at today’s Twitter Gold though, you’ll understand. That guy has freakish range.
Texas likely ended AJ Dybantsa’s college career, but he went out with a bang: 35 points and 10 rebounds, but just 1 assist.
After his outrageous performance in the Ivy League tournament finals, former Blue Devil TJ Power got sick and didn’t have a great game against Illinois, finishing with just 6.
UNC suffered its second significant collapse in the NCAA Tournament under Hubert Davis, losing a 19-point second-half lead and falling to VCU in overtime. The hot seat is heating up in Chapel Hill.
TCU and Ohio State had a rough, physical game before TCU prevailed. Neither team shot more than 42%, and as physical as the game was, there were only 25 free throw attempts.
And finally, we did not expect St. Louis to devastate Georgia, but, well, that’s an understatement. Someone on X said the Billikens had four of the most athletic players you can imagine and that their best player somehow moves like a middle-aged pastor.
That wasn’t exactly it, but you get the idea. Robbie Avila is one of the better, and stranger, guys we’ve seen lately.
On Saturday, we’ll get #1 Duke vs. #9 TCU, #6 Louisville vs. #3 Michigan State, #5 Vanderbilt vs. #4 Nebraska, #11 VCU vs. #3 Illinois, #10 Texas A&M vs. #2 Houston, #12 High Point vs. #4 Arkansas, #11 Texas vs. #3 Gonzaga, and #1 Michigan vs. #9 St. Louis.
Which one of those looks like the worst game? Which one even looks uninteresting? This is great!
But first we get Friday’s slate of games. Some of these are going to be freaking great, t00.
- #10 Santa Clara vs. #7 Kentucky
- #12 Akron vs. #5 Texas Tech
- #16 Long Island vs. #1 Arizona
- #14 Wright State vs. #3 Virginia
- Nolan Smith’s #15 Tennessee State vs. #2 Iowa State
- #13 Hofstra vs. #4 Alabama
- #9 Utah State vs. #8 Villanova
- #11 Miami vs. #6 Tennessee
- #9 Iowa vs. #8 Clemson
- #12 Northern Iowa vs. #5 St. John’s
- Johnny Dawkins’ # 10 UCF vs. #7 UCLA
- #15 Queens, vs. #2 Purdue, a game where Braden Smith will almost certainly break Bobby Hurley’ career assist record
- #16 Prairie View vs. #1 Florida
- #13 California Baptist vs. #4 Kansas
- #15 Furman vs. #2 UConn
- #10 Missouri vs. #7 Miami.
