The Only Recap: Day 1 Edition

Welcome back to March Madness!

I watched a lot of basketball today so figured I would run through what happened for those of you with lives.

Game Winners-

Loyola-Chicago vs Miami Fl (64-62)

The first upset of this tournament came when Donte Ingram knocked down a three with .3 seconds remaining. The 11th seeded Ramblers took out 6th seeded Miami 64-62 on an almost buzzer beater.

Houston vs San Diego State (67-65)

Rob Gray didn’t feel the need to play any extra basketball today and hit a winner with 1.1 left.

Midwest Bracket-

7 Rhode Island vs 10 Oklahoma (83-78)

Everyone who was hoping Trae Young could slay Duke will have to turn their attention to Fatts(seriously) Russell and the Rhode Island Rams, who were able to take out Oklahoma despite a big game by Trae Young. It took overtime, but Rhode Island pulled it out with an 83-78 victory.

2 Duke vs 15 Iona (89-67)

Iona kept it tight for the first 10 minutes until Duke took over and coasted the rest of the way to an 89-67 victory. Dukes starters destroyed Iona, scoring 82 of their 89 points, led by Marvin Bagley’s 22 and Trevon Duval’s 19. Turns out Duke is still good, and they are still in the tournament. Let’s go Rhode Island.

1 Kansas vs 16 Penn (76-60)

Well, Penn made it fun for a bit taking a 21-11 lead with 8 minutes left in the first half. Unfortunately, Kansas remembered they were playing Penn at that point and took a 7 point lead going into the 2nd half. It was smooth sailing the rest of the way for Kansas who got a 76-60 victory.

8 Seton Hall vs 9 NC State (94-83)

Seton Hall led the entire way in a foul filled game with NC State. A huge performance from Allerik Freeman who scored 36 for NC State wasn’t enough. Seton hall got 20 off the bench from Desi Rodriguez and Kadeem Carrington led the Pirates with 26. There were 53 total fouls, NC State had 3 starters foul out and Seton Hall had 2 players foul out as well. Seton Hall gets a shot at number 1 seed Kansas on Saturday.

Fun Stuff-

13 Buffalo vs 4 Arizona (89-68)

Woof, not a great month for Arizona. It was a close first half and Buffalo took a 40-38 lead into halftime. Arizona was keeping it close in the second half and were only down 5 at the under 12 timeout. From here, Buffalo outscored Arizona 29 to 13 and finished off the biggest upset of the night with a 21 point butt-kicking of likely Number 1 pick Deandre Ayton and the 4 seed Wildcats. Should be an interesting off season for these guys.

4 Gonzaga vs 13 UNC Greensboro (68-64)

A big second half for UNC Greensboro made Gonzaga sweat it out. With 51 seconds left it was tied at 64. A three by Zach Norvell Jr. with 21 seconds remaining put the Zags up for good and another free throw sealed it at 68-64.

5 Kentucky vs 12 Davidson (78-73)

Davidson played a solid game and kept it tight until a tough two minute stretch that saw Kentucky’s lead go from 61-59 to 70-59. A bad last minute by Kentucky helped out Davidson and the game ended up 78-73 with UK pulling out the victory.

8 Bama vs 9 Va Tech (86-83)

Close one and a good one, this entire game was played within a 7 point window. Collin Sexton wasn’t great but still ended up with 25 and 6. The “Can Collin Sexton be Kemba Walker?” train gets to make another stop against Villanova on Saturday.

3 Texas Tech vs 14 Stephen F Austin (70-61)

Stephen F Austin led most of the way and got the Upset Alert treatment with a 58-57 lead. Texas Tech got it together and pulled away in the last 4 minutes to break the heart of underdog fans everywhere and finished off a 70-61 victory.

5 Ohio State vs 12 South Dakota State (81-73)

A 10-0 South Dakota St. run with 1:53 left in the game tied the game at 70. Kam Williams had other ideas and drew a foul while knocking down a triple to complete a four point play. He followed that up by drawing another foul while shooting a three and converted on all three free throws to take a 77-70 lead. Ohio State survived and took out SDSU with an 81-73 victory.

Other Stuff-

1 Villanova vs 16 Radford (87-61)

3 Tennessee vs 14 Wright State (73-47)

6 Florida vs 11 St. Bonaventure (77-62)

3 Michigan vs 14 Montana (61-47)

Hard to complain about a day with two almost buzzer beaters, as well as both an 11 and a 13 getting W’s. March is back and it feels great.