After a distinctly dull first round a year ago, when a rather small total of nine of 32 games were decided by six points or less, there wasn’t a single buzzer-beater and not a single result that could be called much of a surprise, it can be argued-quite easily, in fact-that the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament already has delivered more. And college hoops fans can be most thankful for it.
An enthralling first full day of the tourney opened with an overtime game, and the hits kept coming. There were buzzer-beaters-plural. There were single-digit seeds getting threatened all over the place, whether they be 6 seeds, 5s, 4s, 3s, even a 1. And by the end there was a preseason Final Four favorite getting thrashed by a 13 seed with exactly zero NCAA Division I Tournament wins in its history.
What a day.
The hoops featured six games decided by five points or less, but even that number is deceiving. A pair of games decided by eight and 10 points-Ohio State’s 81-73 win over South Dakota State and Texas Tech’s 70-60 victory over Stephen F. Austin-were closer than the final score, one a 5-vs.-12 matchup that was tied with barely over 1 1/2 minutes left, the other actually controlled by a 14 seed for more than 35 minutes before the 3 seed playing in front of a friendly, home-like crowd finished on a 13-2 run.
It opened with overtime, with Rhode Island and Oklahoma going an extra five minutes. As he was in any of the Sooners’ games this year, Trae Young was the main story coming in, and indeed the OU star had his moments of wow with 28 points and seven assists.
It was another freshman for the Rams, though, who shamelessly nudged his way to the forefront in the second half. URI’s Fatts Russell pestered Young defensively from the time he came on in the first half, and in the second half he started shooting like Young, too, with 11 of his 15 points. He helped the Rams get to overtime, and then it was teammate E.C. Matthews who was the closer, his huge three-pointer late putting Rhode Island on the way to an 83-78 win and, quite likely, Young’s last collegiate game.
We already have two buzzer-beaters. 11th-seeded Loyola Chicago gave us the first of the tourney, as Donte Ingram drained a straight-on 25-footer with :00.3 left to give the Ramblers a 64-62 win over Miami (Fla.), their first NCAA tourney win in 33 years. The 29th win of the year for Loyola made the Missouri Valley Conference a perfect 10-0 in its last 10 first-round games in the tourney.
One may be an accident, two a coincidence, three a trend…ten? It’s a record that surely suggests that the selection committee might want to give this league a little more due than it gave Illinois State last year and the Ramblers this year, whose seeding quite clearly suggests that-even as champions of the No. 8 conference in the country with 27 wins heading into their tourney final-almost certainly wouldn’t have been in the NCAAs if they hadn’t won the MVC title game. The Jesuit school continues to be one of the most lovable stories of this season, led by its biggest fan, Sister Jean Delores Schmidt, a 98-year old nun and team chaplain who is a campus treasure well on her way to national status. Also: Loyola has now won at least one game in four of its six trips to the NCAA tourney, not a bad record even as this was just its second bid since 1968. Not bad.
The second came from Houston, a school that incredibly had an even longer streak than Loyola since winning a game in the tourney. Rob Gray put on one of the great individual performances of the last 20 years with a career-high 39 points, and his final two were the most spectacular of all, a drive through three defenders and scoop shot giving the 6 seed Cougars a 67-65 win over San Diego State. Not since the days of Phi Slama Jama in 1984 had Houston won in the NCAAs. It’s safe to say that for anyone who was a fan of college hoops in the 80s, the sport is better when the Cougars are better.
While the Aztecs did not win, it can be said that time and again on Thursday, lower seeds showed that they were more than worthy of their place in the tourney. This year’s tourney features a particularly stout crop of 11 seeds and lower, and they were heard from at almost every seed line.
A 12 seed nearly made it through. Davidson gave Kentucky all it could handle before the Wildcats-UK’s, that is-edged Davidson’s 78-73. South Dakota State came even closer, rallying from 13 points down to tie Ohio State in the final two minutes. The Jackrabbits were soon done in, though, by a combination of big shot-making, overzealous closeouts on three-point shooters and (perhaps) questionable calls, as the Buckeyes’ Kam Williams hit a huge three-pointer while allegedly being fouled (the replays showed very little, if at all), then drew another foul on a three-point try after jumping about two feet forward on his shot, attracting the swipe of a defender. A tie game became a seven-point spread in two possessions. Game over.
Defending national runner-up Gonzaga also had a tremendous scare in its opener, facing a 13th-seeded UNC Greensboro team that took the fight to the Bulldogs from the start. The Spartans-whose athleticism on the frontline may be as underrated as any team in the country-staggered the Zags early, and though they didn’t hit many shots, they were in position to come back late and led with less than a minute left.
Gonzaga’s Josh Perkins hit a long jumper to tie the game at 64, and then the Spartans had a series of miscalculations in the final minute that cost them. A too-hard push by UNCG for a 2-for-1 resulted in a bad shot, then Zags’ freshman Zach Norvell hit a three-pointer with :23 left for the eventual game-winning points. UNC Greensboro missed one chance to try to tie when Frances Alonso pushed off his defender trying to get open, while also inadvertently stepping on his foot, causing him to fall down and leading to an offensive foul call. The Spartans still had another shot to tie in the final seconds that rattled in and out, a shame as it would’ve been a blast to see these two teams duke it out for another five minutes. Or more.
The biggest shot fired by a double-digit seed, though, came in a 4-vs.-13 game, from a team with exactly two previous NCAA Tournament appearances. Buffalo came into its game with Arizona with a quality backcourt and plenty of athletic drivers, though not exactly the size expected to be able to deal with the Wildcats’ Deandre Ayton. The Bulls, though, brought the swagger to the Wildcats, served it up and force-fed it down their throats, dominating the second half for a stunning 89-68 victory.
Buffalo made one of the preseason national title favorites look like it was a 16 seed, shooting 54.8% and drilling 15 three-pointers, every one seemingly more cold-blooded than the last. Wes Clark (25 points), Jeremy Harris (23) and C.J. Massinburg (19) did much of the damage. It was a disastrous end to a tumultuous year for Arizona, a year of chaos ending with Ayton and teammate Allonzo Trier already telling reporters right after the game that they are leaving school for the NBA Draft. Meanwhile, the Mid-American Conference champion Bulls, while facing a tall task against Kentucky in the second round, certainly looked like a team that might be capable of more than just a one-weekend stop in this event.
If that wasn’t enough, No. 14-seed Stephen F. Austin led Texas Tech much of the way, once again showing how fearless it is, and nearly scored its third win as a 12 seed or lower in the last five years. This program needs to be featured nationally more; SFA isn’t far from a Gonzaga- or Butler-like rise to consistent status among the top 40 programs in the country. And even 16th-seeded Pennsylvania gave Kansas a scare early, even as the Quakers played what was essentially a true road game, jumping out to an early 10-point lead before the Jayhawks heated up and rolled to a 76-60 win.
Regardless, once again the play should’ve laid waste to what some (including the Selection Committee) want fans to believe: that there are a couple good teams out there, and the rest are just chaff, meaningless. This sport has infinitely more balance than the committee’s overemphasis on highest-end wins would warrant. And the competition throughout the bracket-from 1 seeds to 16s-showed as much Thursday.
NCAA Tournament Roundup:
- Among other results, Alabama edged Virginia Tech 86-83 in an 8/9 game in the East Region. Collin Sexton scored 25 and John Petty added 20. The Crimson Tide moves on, while the Hokies go out in the first round for the second straight year. Bama now takes on top seed Villanova, which drilled Radford 87-61, looking every bit the part of a top seed. Also in the East, Florida ended St. Bonaventure’s run with a 77-62 win, the apparently weary Bonnies shooting just 35% and an unsightly 3-for-19 from three-point range.
- In the Midwest, Kansas now faces Seton Hall, whose senior class led by several four-year stars finally got its first NCAA tourney win, defeating North Carolina State 94-83. With that burden lifted, the Pirates are talented enough and perhaps can play free enough to give the Jayhawks a battle, even as they’ll be basically playing on the road.
- Also winning in the South was Tennessee, which rolled past 14 seed Wright State 73-47. Undoubtedly the SEC will crow about going 4-0 on the tourney’s first day.
- Houston’s next opponent in the West is Michigan, which fought back from a 10-0 deficit at the start of the game to get past Montana 61-47. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win, the Wolverines outscoring the Grizzlies 30-19 in the second half.
Side Dishes:
- There was one game in the CIT on Thursday, as Austin Peay defeated Louisiana-Monroe 80-66. Thankfully, this tourney is not using the ridiculous experimental rules the NIT is using.
- The SEC is a rich, rich league and a cutthroat one, and the competitiveness among coaches only increased Thursday. First, there was Mississippi officially announcing the hire of Kermit Davis, who will continue coaching Middle Tennessee State through the duration of its NIT run. Then, there was Georgia announcing that it had hired Tom Crean to become its new coach. Crean had been out of coaching for the past year since being fired at Indiana, and he has a 356-231 career record and most famously took Marquette to the Final Four with Dwyane Wade in 2003.
- More coaching news, with some coming and some going in the Southland. McNeese State has hired Heath Schroyer, a pretty solid pickup for a program that has struggled for some time. Schroyer most recently has been an assistant at BYU this past season and North Carolina State two years ago. He has been a head coach before at Portland State, Wyoming and Tennessee-Martin, where he had a very successful two-year stint from 2014-16 turning around what had been a struggling program. He’ll face a similar situation at McNeese, which has had six straight losing seasons.
- Also, Nicholls State coach Richie Riley is moving on, as he has been hired at South Alabama. Riley performed a quick turnaround of the Colonels, going 35-28 over the last two years, including 21-11 this year when his team shared the Southland regular season title. He has all the looks of an up-and-comer in the profession, and South Alabama is something of a sleeping giant, a program that has had big success at times in the past but hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since receiving an at-large bid in 2008.
- Georgia Tech’s Josh Okogie has announced he will declare for the NBA Draft but will not hire an agent, per a school release. Okogie was a third-team all-ACC pick this season and averaged 18.2 points per game.
Today’s Menu:
- Friday’s action opens with an attractive game as 10 seed Providence faces No. 7 Texas A&M in Charlotte (12:15 p.m. Eastern, CBS). The Aggies have a big frontcourt advantage, but watch the point guard matchup with Friars senior Kyron Cartwright against A&M frosh D.J. Starks. Other games in that window include Big West champ Cal State Fullerton against 2 seed Purdue (12:40 p.m., truTV), a very interesting one with No. 13 Marshall vs. 4 seed Wichita State (1:30 p.m., TNT) plus a very dangerous 15 seed Georgia State against 2 seed Cincinnati (2 p.m., TBS).
- The second round of games begins with Lipscomb against defending national champion North Carolina (2:45 p.m., CBS). Butler takes on Arkansas (3:10 p.m., truTV), very capable 12 seed Murray State faces West Virginia (4 p.m., TNT), plus Texas and Nevada meet in a 7/10 game in Nashville (4:30 p.m., TBS). Watch Murray State against WVU; the Racers take on the Mountaineers’ press with a freshman point guard, but a very good one in Ja Morant.
- The night session starts with an 8/9 game with Creighton against Kansas State (6:50 p.m., TNT). Bucknell is a very good 14 seed but has a tough assignment vs. Michigan State (7:10 p.m., CBS), top seed Xavier opens with Texas Southern (7:20 p.m., TBS) and College of Charleston is another strong 13 seed and will try to slow down Auburn (7:27 p.m., truTV). The Cougars are fourth in the country for fewest turnovers per game (9.6); the Tigers are in the top 30 nationally in TOs forced/game (15.3).
- The final window includes one of the most popular upset picks of the tourney with New Mexico State against Clemson in a 5/12 game (9:57 p.m., truTV). Others include 1 seed Virginia against Maryland-Baltimore County (9:20 p.m., TNT), Syracuse taking on TCU, which makes its first tourney appearance in 20 years (9:40 p.m., CBS) and Florida State goes up against Missouri (9:50 p.m., TBS).
Enjoy more terrific games Friday.
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
