March Madness: Highlights and key moments from day 1
March Madness this year comes at a time of great uncertainty in college sports. (AP video by Ted Shaffrey) (AP production by Javier Arciga)
Get your brackets ready — March Madness is back. The first round of the 2024 NCAA men’s tournament is underway, and there’s already been a few upsets.
Here’s what to know:
● Bracket busters: BYU lost to Duquesne, Michigan State triumphed over Mississippi State and Oakland’s Jack Gohlke pushed his team to victory over Kentucky.
● Score updates: Keep up with all the games with the AP’s men’s and women’s brackets.
● Watch live: All of the men’s games are airing on CBS, TBS, TNT or TruTV and their digital platforms, including Paramount+. A full broadcast schedule is available on the NCAA website.
Samford was a popular upset pick against injury-plagued Kansas.
The 13th-seeded Bulldogs nearly pulled it off, coming within seconds — and an apparently errant foul call — of potentially knocking off the Jayhawks.
Samford trailed 90-89 with about 15 seconds left when A.J. Staton-McCray was called for a foul as Kansas’ Nick Timberlake went up for a dunk. Replays showed Staton-McCray somehow got all ball for what should have been called a block. The play wasn’t reviewable.
Timberlake hit both free throws, the Bulldogs missed a hurried 3 and the Jayhawks moved on to face No. 5 seed Gonzaga in the second round
The Pac-12 won’t go quietly.
The conference opened its last NCAA Tournament before breaking apart by starting 4-0, capped by Washington State’s 66-61 win over Drake.
The Pac-12 as we know it will be no more with 10 of its 12 teams leaving for new conferences next season.
Colorado kicked off the league’s stellar start before its demise with a 60-53 win over Boise State in the First Four. Arizona followed with an 85-65 rollover of Long Beach State in the first full day of the bracket.
No. 11 seed Oregon was next, joining four other double-digit seeds in advancing with an 87-73 win over No. 6 South Carolina.
N.C. State needed to win its conference tournament just to get into the NCAA Tournament.
The Wolfpack are now headed to the second round after becoming the fifth double-digit seed to win in the first full day of the bracket with an 80-67 win over No. 6 Texas Tech.
The 11th-seeded Wolfpack played their way into the bracket by winning the ACC tournament as a No. 10 seed, knocking off North Carolina in the title game.
Washington State made the most of its first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 16 years.
Isaac Jones scored 20 points and the seventh-seeded Cougars made the key plays down the stretch to pull out a 66–61 win over No. 10 Drake.
Washington State was one of the surprises in college basketball this season, earning its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2007 after being picked to finish 10th in the Pac-12.
The Cougars earned an at-large bid into the bracket and survived a back-and-forth game against the Bulldogs to move into the second round against No. 2 seed Iowa State.
John Calipari’s future as Kentucky’s coach is in doubt another early NCAA Tournament exit.
Calipari used the one-and-done rule to his advantage, riding some of the nation’s best recruiting classes to the 2012 national championship and four Final Fours.
Kentucky hasn’t been as good lately, failing to get past the first weekend three straight years, including a loss to Saint Peter’s as a No. 2 seed in 2022.
Wildcats fans started calling for Calipari’s job during a rough stretch earlier this season, and it’s only going to intensify after the latest shortened March run.
“I hate it for these guys that people try to define this season by that game, and it’s natural and it’s how this business works,” Calipari said. “But this group was a ball to coach, and we did things to help them and bring them together, and they did it for each other. They’ve got great hearts, and that’s what’s devastating about this for me.”
Saint Peter’s bid for another Cinderella run came to a crashing halt.
All-American Dalton Knecht scored 23 points and No. 2 seed Tennessee dominated the 15th-seeded Peacocks from the start in an 83-49 win in the Midwest Region.
Saint Peter’s added a massive dose of madness to March in 2022 with a run to the Elite Eight. The Peacocks were no match for the ultra-athletic Vols, falling into a 26-point hole by halftime.
Tennessee cruised from there to earn coach Rick Barnes a shot at his former team, Texas, in Saturday’s second round.
It’s now 12 turnovers. Kansas’ season high is 18, and we’re still in the first half.
KU is shooting 75% and still dunking a lot. Still leading by double digits, but it feels like if the Jayhawks are going to win, they’re going to do it the way Samford wants them to.
No. 7 seed Washington State leads No. 10 Drake 33-29 at halftime in a back-and-forth game that’s pretty even on the stat sheet.
The Cougars answered a 12-0 Drake spurt with a 13-2 run. Tucker DeVries and Atin Wright have nine points each for the Bulldogs. Isaac Jones has nine for the Cougars.
WSU is 20-0 this season when leading at half.
Message to Samford: So far, at least, Plan A is not working.
The trapping, pressing champions of the Southern Conference have, indeed, made a few steals and forced six turnovers against Kansas.
Problem for them is, this is turning into a slam dunk contest for the Jayhawks in the first half. Of KU’s first 14 buckets, four have been dunks, another four layups. Also, they’re shooting 87.5% and lead by double digits.
So far, so good for KU’s dinged-up center Hunter Dickinson.
Wearing a brace on his recently dislocated right shoulder, the Kansas big fella was moving up and down the court against Samford, grabbing a pair of rebounds and even swatting a shot with no problems.
One of coach Bill Self’s fears -- that Dickinson might reinjure the shoulder hanging on the rim -- hasn’t come to fruition either. Two of his seven points over the first eight minutes came on a dunk off a nice pass from Nicolas Timberlake.
Tennessee looked every bit like a high seed in complete control through the first half of its game against Saint Peter’s.
The second-seeded Vols shot 64% and took a 25-11 rebounding advantage to take a 46-20 lead into halftime. The 15th-seeded Peacocks made just 7 of 30 shots (23.3%), putting an early end to any thoughts of repeating that 2022 magic.
Myles Rice’s 3-point shooting frustration is over. The Pac-12 freshman of the year had missed 25 straight 3-pointers over nine games before he swished his second attempt against Drake.
The Southeastern Conference is off to a rough start.
The SEC matched the Big 12 with eight teams in the NCAA Tournament, but three are gone after their first games.
No. 3 seed Kentucky was bounced from the South Region by No. 14 Oakland 80-76 after Jack Gohlke torched the Wildcats with 10 3-pointers. No. 6 seed South Carolina had a similar problem in the Midwest Region, giving up 40 points to Jermaine Couisnard in an 87-73 loss to No. 11 Oregon, and Mississippi State fell 69-51 to Michigan State in the West Region.
Tennessee is at least off to a good start against last year’s darlings Saint Peter’s, building a 19-point lead late in the first half.
Fan favorite Conrad Hawley, who walked on to the Iowa State basketball team two years ago after having been a scholarship quarterback on the Kansas football team for one season, nearly made his first field goal as a Cyclone during garbage time against South Dakota State.
Hawley entered to a round of cheers with 1:16 left, and the ISU fans held their collective breath when he corralled a ball under the basket and attempted to lay it in. The ball bounced twice on the rim and fell off, leaving Hawley 0 for 2 for the season. He has played a total of 11:48 in nine games this season. He has one point in 18 career games.
That upset pick of McNeese over Gonzaga? The Zags blew it out of the bracket.
Graham Ike had 16 points and 10 rebounds, and No. 5 Gonzaga dominated from start to finish in an 86–65 win over McNeese in the Midwest Region.
Gonzaga led by 17 at halftime and stretched it to 35 to earn a spot in Saturday’s second round against Kansas or Samford.
Anton Watson had 13 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists for the Zags.
The day started with 22,114,647 brackets in the ESPN.com predictor game.
We’re down to 20,283 shots at perfection.
Mainly because of Mississippi State, BYU and Kentucky losing, 99.91% of the brackets filled out as part of the ESPN contest already have one loss.
And that number will fall even more before Thursday night is over. Of the perfect brackets left, about half took Texas Tech and half took N.C. State — who play later on.
So, no, perfection won’t happen this year. Carry on.
As Iowa State was finishing off its game with South Dakota State in Omaha, much of the attention in the CHI Health Center was focused on the big screen above the court where the Oakland-Kentucky game was being shown.
A couple times players on the court looked confused as fans reacted to what was going on in the game in Pittsburgh. Even the players on the benches in Omaha couldn’t resist sneaking a peak during stoppages.
Iowa State’s Hason Ward was locked in on the game on TV even as play resumed against SDSU.
Iowa State cruised into the second round. The second-seeded Cyclones shot a blistering 58% in an 82-65 win over No. 15 South Dakota State in the East Region.
Milan Momcilovic scored 19 points and Tamin Lipsey added 17 to send Iowa State into the second round against Washington State or Drake.
Jack Gohlke took the first star turn of the NCAA Tournament, pushing Oakland past mighty Kentucky.
Gohlke made 10 3-pointers — one shy of the tourney record — and No. 14 Oakland pulled off the biggest upset of March Madness so far with an 80-76 win over No. 3 Kentucky in the South Region.
Gohlke went 10 for 20 from the arc, finishing just short of the single-game record set by Loyola Marymount’s Jeff Fryer against Michigan in 1990.
Gohlke scored 32 points to send the Grizzlies into Saturday’s second round against Texas Tech or N.C. State.
Gohlke took 335 shots this season and all but eight were from 3. He doesn’t even shoot layups during warmups.
Tennessee’s NCAA Tournament journey has begun. The Midwest Region’s No. 2 seed has tipped off with No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s in the final game of a quartet in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Vols have lost to a lower NCAA seed five times in as many tournament trips under Rick Barnes, while the Peacocks are hoping an overhauled roster can re-create some of the bracket-busting magic from their Elite Eight trip in 2022.
The No. 6 seed Syracuse women finally know their opponent on Saturday. No. 11 seeded Arizona never trailed in final First Four game of the tournament, taking down Auburn 69-59 at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut.
South Dakota State has lost backup guard Kalen Garry to a left ankle injury, and now the Jackrabbits could be losing their game to Iowa State.
They had clawed back from a big early hole to get within 40-33 at the break, only to watch the Big 12 Tournament champs go on a 14-5 run to start the second half. Milan Momcilovic already has 19 points, two off the freshman’s career high.
Don’t think the kid is another European phenom just because of his name, though. Dude was a prep star in Pewaukee, Wisconsin.
Jack Gohlke has his 10th 3-pointer, and he’s in special company now. Here are the most 3s hit in an NCAA Tournament game.
11 — Jeff Fryer, Loyola Marymount vs. Michigan, 1990
10 — Freddie Banks, UNLV vs. Indiana, 1987
10 — Roburt Sallie, Memphis vs. Cal State Northridge, 2019
10 — Carsen Edwards, Purdue vs. Virginia, 2019
10 — Jack Gohlke, Oakland vs Kentucky, 2024
9 has been done on eight other occasions
Gohlke is also now the NCAA leader in 3s this season. He passed Hofstra’s Tyler Thomas (125) tonight. Gohlke had 121 entering today.
Kentucky fans don’t know whether to laugh, cry or pray. Some seem to be doing all three.
When Oakland’s Jack Gohlke made his ninth 3-pointer in 16 tries, a few Wildcats supporters dropped their heads in disbelief at the sharpshooting display. On Kentucky’s bench, coach John Calipari turned to his assistants with a what-are-we-going-to-do-now glance.
Gohlke is two shy of the record held by Loyola Marymount’s Jeff Fryner, who made 11 against Michigan in 1990.
No. 7 seed Texas overcame a shaky shooting night to grind out a 56-44 win over No. 10 Colorado State in the Midwest Region.
Texas used a 25-3 run to lead 27-11 at the half, holding the Rams scoreless over the final 6:50.
Colorado State rallied to pull within six, but Texas stretched the lead back out to move into the second round against Tennessee or Saint Peter’s.
The Longhorns went 1 for 14 from the 3-point arc but held the Rams to 29% from the floor.
Oakland’s Jack Gohlke doesn’t even shoot layups during layups.
The graduate student, who dropped seven 3-pointers – the last a banked shot while falling backward – in the first half against Kentucky, attempted only 3s when the Grizzlies warmed up after halftime.
Gohlke was one of the last Oakland players to leave the locker room and he joined his teammates in a huddle where they yelled “finish” before taking the floor.
Duquesne made history by winning its first NCAA Tournament game since 1969.
A school professor is giving Dukes fans time to enjoy it.
“Class canceled due to March Madness,” Robert Healy III posted on X. “Go celebrate. I’ll figure it out.”
No. 11 seed Duquesne won four games in four days to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 47 years and capitalized with a 71-67 win over No. 6 seed BYU.
Healy is the director of Duquesne’s sports information and media program, and has authored several books on the Dukes’ men’s team. He had a media and sports class (SPTS 434 01) scheduled for 3:05 p.m., but bagged it after the Dukes’ historic win.
“After the win and seeing everyone’s reaction and joy, I canceled that,” Healy said in a text to The Associated Press. “If there’s one student body I the country that deserves this day to celebrate, it’s Duquesne’s. We can make up the course content in another way. This is part of what you for in colleges I think – these experiences.”
South Dakota State has shown some resolve after letting Iowa State race to a 17-3 lead, nipping away at that big deficit to get within 40-33 of the second-seeded Cyclones at halftime.
There’s been some above-the-rim highlights on both sides.
Iowa State’s Hason Ward threw down alley-oop dunks on three consecutive trips down floor, each one from a different teammate. Later in the half, the Jackrabbits’ William Kyle III caught an alley-oop that Matt Mims threw up for the midcourt line and dunked it to an audible gasp from a heavily pro-Iowa State crowd
Looking for one of those 5-12 upsets?
Don’t look in Salt Lake City.
No. 5 Gonzaga has doubled up — more than doubled up — on McNeese. Cowboys coach Will Wade just took a timeout to try to stop ... the momentum, the bleeding, anything, with his team trailing 44-20 late in the first half.
Jack Gohlke and 14th-seeded Oakland are giving third-seeded Kentucky all they can handle through 20 minutes.
Gohlke has 21 points on the power of seven 3-pointers to give Oakland a 38-35 lead at the break.
Gohlke, a graduate student who was the Horizon League’s Sixth Man of the Year this season, stuck his tongue out after making one 3-pointer. He then did the Michael Jordan shoulder shrug after knocking down his sixth 3-pointer of the half.
He later banked in his seventh that left PPG Paints Arena roaring.
Fairfield University has announced that women’s basketball coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis has signed a contract extension designed to keep her at the mid-major through the 2029-30 season.
FILE - Fairfield coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis directs her team during an NCAA college basketball game against Marist, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024, in Fairfield, Conn. Thibault-DuDonis is in her second year as a head coach, leading Fairfield to a 22-1 record and a 20-game winning streak.(Cloe Poisson/Hartford Courant via AP, File)
Thibault-DuDonis, the daughter of former WNBA coach Mike Thibault and sister of Washington Mystics coach Eric Thibault, has guided the No. 25 Stags to a 31-1 record and the 2024 MAAC Championship.
No. 13 seed Fairfield will bring a 29-game winning streak into their game Saturday against No. 4 seed Indiana (24-5).
South Dakota State is learning what then-No. 1-ranked Houston learned last week: Iowa State is good.
And the Cyclones can make it near impossible to score when they’re playing their best. They held the Cougars to 41 points in the most lopsided Big 12 title game ever last Saturday night, and the second seed in the East Region held the No. 15 seed Jackrabbits to a single field goal in the first five minutes of their first-round NCAA Tournament game on Thursday.
Iowa State is showing it can score, too, hitting its first eight shots against the Jackrabbits as T.J. Otzelberger’s crew opened on a 17-3 tear.
Oakland guard Jack Gohlke is feeling it early against third-seeded Kentucky.
The graduate student has five 3-pointers in the opening 12 minutes for the 14th-seeded Grizzlies, most of them contested shots that have found their way through the basket.
Gohlke averaged 12 points off the bench this season for the Horizon League champions and was named the league’s Sixth Man of the year.
Oakland coach Greg Kampe noted on Wednesday that this week was the anniversary of the famous high school upset featured in the iconic basketball flick “Hoosiers.”
So far, Gohlke is channeling his inner Jimmy Chitwood.
It’s starting to get annoying.
The net on one end of the court in Salt Lake City has been tight all day. Balls are getting stuck. Maintenance workers have been out at least three times (that we’ve counted) to try to stretch that thing out. But here we are in warmups for Game 3 and McNeese shots are still lodging in there.
Nevada, which blew a 17-point lead in a 63-60 loss to Dayton about an hour ago, said there are no excuses.
“It’s basketball at the end of the day,” commented the Wolfpack’s Kenan Blackshear. “It happens.”
Hopefully not much longer.
After taking over T-Mobile Center in Kansas City during last week’s Big 12 Tournament, Iowa State fans have descended on the CHI Health Center in Omaha to watch their Cyclones play South Dakota State in the NCAA Tournament.
As much as 80% of the crowd is wearing yellow and red for the Cyclones, even though there were three other teams involved in the evening session.
A pocket of blue in the corner was cheering hard for the Jackrabbits, and there were a few Washington State and Drake fans, too. But the cheers of “Let’s go Cyclones” were loud before the opening tip.
Texas was down 8-2 after six minutes of its game against Colorado State.
It’s 25-3 Texas since, with the Longhorns up 27-11 at halftime.
Colorado State missed 17 of its final 18 shots of the half.
Colorado State is the 10th team in NCAA Tournament history to score 11 points or fewer in the first half. The last time that happened was in 2008 when UNLV led Kent State 31-10 at half in a first round game.
Grambling State got a win and a call from the White House.
The Tigers beat Montana State in a play-in game at Dayton, Ohio on Wednesday night -- and the celebration continued Thursday with a congratulatory call from Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I just had to call you all to tell you, you made me proud and you made history for Grambling,” Harris told the team. “And as a fellow HBCU, proud HBCU graduate, I just had to let you all know that you’ve got fans all over the place -- including in the White House.”
The vice president attended Howard University for her undergraduate degree.
Said Grambling coach Donte Jackson, on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: “It’s not every day you receive a call from the Vice President of the United States of America!!!”
Grambling plays No. 1 seed Purdue on Friday.
The Atlantic-10 got two teams into NCAA Tournament when Duquesne won the conference tournament and Dayton received an at-large bid.
Now the conference has two teams into the second round for the first time since 2016.
No. 11 seed Duquesne had the bracket’s first upset, knocking off sixth-seeded BYU 71-67 in the East Region for their first NCAA Tournament win since 1969.
Dayton followed Duquesne into the second round by rallying from a 17-point deficit to beat Nevada 63-60 in the West Region.
Duquesne faces No. 3 Illinois and Dayton plays No. 2 Arizona in Saturday’s second round.
The third game in Charlotte was expected to feature a high quality point guard matchup between high school rivals Max Abmas from Texas and Isaiah Stevens from Colorado State, who have combined for more than 5,400 points during their college careers.
But 12 minutes into the game neither had scored and they were a combined 0 for 11 from the field and 0 for 6 from beyond the arc.
UConn women’s basketball star Aaliyah Edwards will be playing in her final NCAA Tournament.
The Huskies star center made her announcement Thursday on social media. Edwards had one more year of eligibility remaining and could have joined teammate Paige Bueckers, who announced during UConn’s senior night last month that she would suit up for the Huskies next season.
Edwards, an honorable mention All-American, is expected to be a first-round pick in the WNBA draft. UConn, a No. 3 seed, opens play Saturday at Gampel Pavilion against No. 14 seed Jackson State.
For Oregon coach Dana Altman, the next game will have a special meaning.
The Ducks will face Creighton, where he coached for 16 years, in the second round after upsetting No. 6 South Carolina.
“You can leave a place but that doesn’t mean you don’t love a place,” he said, adding his family might be a little divided. “Oregon is 1, but Creighton is 1a.”
Jermaine Couisnard pulled off a true rarity.
The Oregon guard became the second player in the last 10 years to score 40 points in a men’s tournament game when he did it in the Ducks’ 87-73 win over South Carolina.
The only other player to do it in the last decade was Carsen Edwards, who had a pair of 42-point games for Purdue a week apart in the 2019 tourney.
Before that, it was exactly 10 years and one day ago: Adreian Payne had 41 for Michigan State in a win over Delaware on March 20, 2014.
DaRon Holmes II scored eight of his 18 points during a massive second-half run and No. 7 seed Dayton rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat No. 10 Nevada 63-60 in the West Region.
The Wolf Pack closed the first half on a 16-0 run, but the Flyers answered with a 20-2 run to go up 59-58. Nevada had two chances to tie after Dayton went up three but missed both.
The Flyers move on to face No. 2 seed Arizona on Saturday.
Purdue has waited a year to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
And on Friday, the Boilermakers will have to wait all day, too.
Some teams get to wake up, go to the arena and play a little after noontime. Purdue has to wait until 7:25 p.m. before it faces Grambling State on Friday. Waiting a year — after losing as a No. 1 seed — is one thing, but another few hours might make Purdue coach Matt Painter edgy.
“It’s hard to wait for a night game, to be honest with you,” Painter said. “Like when you wake up, you just want to play the game and let’s get it over with. We’re ready, they’re ready, let’s compete. You’ve got to wait all day to play a game.”
A second No. 11 seed is on to the second round.
Jermaine Couisnard scored a school NCAA Tournament-record 40 points against his former team and Oregon knocked off No. 6 seed South Carolina 87-73 in the Midwest Region.
The Ducks join fellow No. 11 seed Duquesne, a 71-67 winner over BYU, in the second round.
Couisnard, who played three seasons at South Carolina before transferring, scored 26 points in the second half as the Ducks pulled away.
Oregon moves on to play No. 3 Creighton, coach Dana Altman’s former team, on Saturday.
Nevada is in position to knock off a higher seed and maybe spoil a few brackets.
The No. 10 seed Wolf Pack closed the first half on 16-0 run and leads No. 7 seed Dayton 56-39 with about eight minutes left.
Nevada has held the Flyers to 3-of-13 shooting in the second half.
Vermont has a history of coaches with candor. Former Catamounts coach Tom Brennan was one of the characters of college basketball (“There’s 50 states and I own one of them,” he’d like to say) and current coach John Becker is great with quips, too.
Such as this one: “Oh, (bleep).”
That was his reaction when 13th-seeded Vermont learned it would face fourth-seeded Duke.
“You’ve got to play somebody,” Becker said Thursday. “As a 13 seed, you’ve got to play someone really good. ... We want to play the best and they are obviously one of the best programs in the country, a blue blood.”
The teams last played in 2013, a 91-90 Duke win. “Probably one of my greatest experiences as a head coach,” Becker said.
We have an upset brewing in the Midwest Region.
Oregon leads South Carolina 67-54 with about seven minutes remaining in the second half.
Oregon is the No. 11 seed; South Carolina the No. 6 seed. If the Ducks pull this off, it’ll mean coach Dana Altman will face Creighton — his former team — in Round 2.
Marcus Domask had the 10th triple-double in men’s tournament history, and third-seeded Illinois rallied past 14th-seeded Morehead State 85-69 in the first round of the East Region.
Illinois trailed 45-43 about 3-1/2 minutes into the second half. The Illini scored 32 of the game’s next 41 points to take total control.
Next up for Illinois: Duquesne on Saturday.
Have a game, Marcus Domask.
The Illinois forward has the first triple-double that the NCAA men’s tournament has seen since 2019: 12 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists.
It’s officially the 10th triple-double in men’s tournament history. Draymond Green has two, Ja Morant had the most recent one in 2019, and the others were turned in by Shaquille O’Neal, Dwyane Wade, Andre Miller, Cole Aldrich, David Cain and Gary Grant.
Look, you aren’t going to have a perfect bracket. But halfway through Day 1, you’re likely still in pretty good shape.
BYU’s loss to Duquesne knocked nearly 9.4 million brackets out of the perfect ranks on ESPN.com, and Mississippi State’s loss to Michigan State was the first defeat for 9.3 million others.
(For some reason, 66,720 folks picked Wagner to beat North Carolina. We presume you’re all alums.)
But so far, you’re probably still good.
▶ Follow the AP’s men’s brackets.
Terrence Shannon Jr. kept No. 3 seed Illinois in the game against No. 14 Morehead State in the first half and Dain Dainja is helping the Illini pull away in the second.
The 6-foot-9, 255-pounder is having his way with whoever the Eagles put on him. He has scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half, and the Illini lead 57-48.
Sixth-seeded South Carolina trails 11th-seed Oregon 34-29 at the break. The Gamecocks’ deficit would be at least three points deeper if not for Ta’lon Cooper.
The guard hit a last-second, running shot near half-court at PPG Paints Arena to send South Carolina into the half with a little bit of momentum.
Oregon led by as many as 10 during the half as South Carolina went nearly eight minutes without a made basket until Cooper’s heave.
No. 3 Illinois has its hands full with No. 14 Morehead State.
An Illini team known for its offensive firepower needs its defensive to step up, and high-scoring Terrence Shannon Jr. obliged with one of the best plays of the tournament so far. Early in the second half, he tapped a ball loose at midcourt, dived between two Morehead State players to grab it going toward his basket and from his back threw the ball off Riley Minix’s leg to keep possession.
After the inbound pass, Shannon scored on a layup.
LSU guard Last-Tear Poa, who had to be stretchered off the court at the SEC Tournament because of a concussion, appears ready to come back for the Tigers’ opening game in the NCAA Tournament.
Poa participated fully in a portion of practice open to reporters Thursday, hitting several mid-range jump shots in a row during warm-ups and driving for a layup during a half-court, five-on-five drill.
“She should be available,” said LSU coach Kim Mulkey, whose third-seeded Tigers open NCAA play on Friday against No. 14 seed Rice.
The top seeds in the West are through to Round 2.
North Carolina eased away from 16th-seeded Wagner 90-62 in a first round matchup.
Awaiting the Tar Heels: Michigan State on Saturday. Again.
This will be the sixth time the Heels and Spartans meet in the tournament. North Carolina has won each of the previous five, the last four of them as a No. 1 seed.
The last tournament meeting for the two storied programs was the 2009 title game, won 89-72 by North Carolina.
Colgate is a No. 14 seed, set to take on No. 3 Baylor on Friday in the West Region.
A 13 seed seems more fitting.
Here’s why: 13, an unlucky number to many, is lucky for Colgate. Coach Matt Langel is in his 13th year, and that’s just the beginning of this tale.
Per Colgate lore, in 1817, “13 men gathered and offered 13 prayers and $13.” They crafted 13 articles for a constitution that led to Colgate’s creation.
But Langel isn’t superstitious.
“For me, it’s been an awesome season and a special season, but nothing to have to do with 13,” he said.
By the way, Colgate is an underdog Friday .... by 13.
LeBron James, who was coached by Duquesne’s Keith Dambrot in high school, celebrated the Dukes’ tourney win on X.
AYYYYYYYEEEEE!!! First tournament win in 55 years! @CoachDambrot 🐐 @DuqMBB 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾. Keep it going
— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 21, 2024
No. 14 seed Morehead State is staying close to No. 3 Illinois, trailing 39-38 at the break.
Terrence Shannon, who averaged 34 points over three games in the Big Ten Tournament, scored 19 for the Illini. Jordan Lathon and Riley Minix have 12 apiece for Morehead State.
“I like the shots we’re getting. It’s not that end of the court that’s the problem,” Illini coach Brad Underwood told CBS. “Couple defensive mistakes, and they’ve capitalized on them. They’re a good team. They’re here for a reason.”
Dan Monson’s run at Long Beach State is over.
Second-seeded Arizona pulled away in the second half and moved into the second round of the West Region by topping 15th-seeded Long Beach State 85-65.
It was the final game for Monson at LBSU. The coach was fired by the school earlier this month.
Arizona will play either Dayton or Nevada on Saturday.
No. 1 seed North Carolina is pulling away from 16th-seeded Wagner.
The Tar Heels twice got loose in transition for a 3-point play for Cormac Ryan, then a coast-to-coast layup by AP All-American RJ Davis.
North Carolina pushed the lead to 54-36 with 13:49 left and time is running out for the Seahawks.
The Oregon State baseball team was set to host Pac-12 rival Washington on Friday night at Goss Stadium.
But the game conflicted with Oregon State’s game against Eastern Washington in the first round of the women’s tournament down the street at Gill Coliseum, so the baseball team pushed its game back 90 minutes to give fans the opportunity to attend both.
The third-seeded OSU women tip-off the tournament at 5 p.m. local time, while the baseball game is now set for a 7:05 p.m. local start.
Duquesne’s Jimmy Clark III knew what he and his teammates did by beating BYU. He said it as he celebrated during his walk through the arena tunnel to the locker room: “Bust them brackets, baby! Bust them brackets, baby!”
“Bust those brackets!” Duquesne guard Jimmy Clark celebrates his team’s upset over BYU.
Terrence Shannon Jr. willed No. 3 Illinois to three come-from-behind wins in the Big Ten Tournament, and he might have to do the same against No. 14 Morehead State.
Riley Minix, Kalil Thomas and Jordan Lathon made three straight 3s in rapid succession to get Morehead State out to a 9-0 lead before two minutes were gone.
The Illini were within four points at the first media timeout thanks to Shannon scoring nine of his team’s first 13.
No. 1 regional seed North Carolina leads 16th-seeded Wagner 40-28 at halftime.
The Tar Heels dominated inside, shooting 51.9% with 24 points in the paint and a 25-14 rebounding edge.
UNC’s Armando Bacot has a double-double, while fellow big Jae’Lyn Withers had 10 points and five boards.
Creighton is into the second round after the third-seeded Bluejays topped 14th-seeded Akron 77-60 in the Midwest Region.
A 10-0 second-half run provided breathing room and Creighton kept control the rest of the way.
The Bluejays will play either sixth-seeded South Carolina or 11th-seeded Oregon on Saturday.
North Carolina’s Armando Bacot is a big problem for Wagner so far.
Bacot needed only 16:30 to post a double-double in the top-seeded Tar Heels’ tourney opener against 16th-seeded Wagner. He had 12 points and 11 rebounds in that span, helping UNC to an early 35-26 lead.
Akron center Enrique Freeman’s remarkable career now includes an impressive bit of history.
The 6-foot-7 Freeman recorded the 31st double-double of the season during the Zips’ opening-round game against Creighton. That ties Hall of Famer David Robinson’s NCAA record for double-doubles in a season. Robinson reached double figures in points and rebounds 31 times while playing at the Naval Academy in 1985-86.
For all those wondering, Lassina and Aboubacar Traore both play for Long Beach State, are both juniors and both hail from Abidjan, Ivory Coast. But they are not related — at least they don’t think so.
The forwards first met in 2018 while playing for the country’s under-18 national squad. Their skills there created a pipeline of sorts between Ivory Coast and Long Beach State.
But, as Aboubacar noted in a feature about himself and Lassina on the 562.org website, in Ivory Coast the last name Traore is sort of like “Smith” in the United States.
“We share the same background, religion, culture, language and the same everything really,” Lassina told the website. “So we’re brothers, we’re just not sure if we’re related or not.”
Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot has a wonderful problem. He’s still employed.
Dambrot is retiring when Duquesne’s season ends. The Dukes delayed that until at least Saturday by topping BYU in their tourney opener on Thursday.
“They just don’t want me to retire, I guess,” Dambrot told truTV in the televised on-court postgame interview. “I’m trying to get to the promised land and they want me to keep coaching.”
▶ Read more: No. 11 Duquesne knocks off No. 6 BYU
Because Yale is currently on spring break, the Bulldogs were not able to pull together enough musicians capable of making the trip to Spokane, Washington, for the NCAA Tournament.
So the Bulldogs are getting an assist — from the University of Idaho. The Vandal Marching Band will be filling in on Friday when the No. 13 seeded Bulldogs face No. 4 seed Auburn in the first round.
Duquesne might have been playing 910 miles away, but there was plenty of support for the underdog Dukes close to campus during their first-round upset of BYU.
The crowd inside Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena — which came to watch Akron face Creighton — erupted when the Dukes finished off their first NCAA Tournament win since 1969.
The in-house videoboards used a split screen between Duquesne’s game against BYU and the game being played on the arena floor.
When the videoboard went briefly full screen to the Akron/Creighton game, there were audible boos, followed by a cheer when the decisive moments of Duquesne’s victory reappeared.
There was then a long, loud rolling ovation when BYU’s last-second heave fell away.
Some brackets just busted: Duquesne has pulled off the first big upset of the tourney.
The 11th-seeded Dukes beat sixth-seeded BYU 71-67 in an East Region first-round game. Duquesne led by 14 in the second half, watched BYU pull into a tie but rallied at the end. Jimmy Clark III scored nine straight Duquesne points down the stretch. The win keeps retiring coach Keith Dambrot working a little longer.
Next up: third-seeded Illinois or 14th-seeded Morehead State on Saturday.
Duke coach Jon Scheyer says freshman guard Caleb Foster will sit out the remainder of the season with a stress fracture in his right ankle.
Foster has missed the past five games, but there was some hope he could return during the NCAA Tournament. Scheyer says Foster tried to practice this week but wasn’t himself.
▶ Read more: Duke’s Foster to miss tourney
North Carolina has opened play in the NCAA Tournament’s West Region in its home state.
The No. 1 seed is facing 16th-seeded Wagner in Charlotte, where UNC has gone 12-1 in NCAA Tournament games overall. That’s part of a 34-2 record in the state of North Carolina.
No. 11 seed Duquesne is trying to pull off the first big upset of the NCAA Tournament, leading sixth-seeded BYU 58-56 with 3:01 to go.
The Dukes were 9 1/2-point underdogs at tipoff, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, despite carrying an eight-game winning streak into the tournament. The Atlantic-10 tourney champs led by as many as 14 in the second half and have trailed for just 29 seconds all game.
Too early for an upset alert, but during this 13-0 Long Beach State run, we saw a team that was getting every loose ball, scrappier, quicker ... like, sorta maybe what they thought they could be before things started going bad and Dan Monson lost his job. Beach by 3 over Arizona at the 8:00 timeout.
Creighton finally has a little breathing room on Akron. The third-seeded Bluejays, who were favored by 10 ½ points, needed an 8-0 run over the final two minutes to open a 39-34 lead at halftime over the Zips, who are 0-5 in NCAA Tournament play.
Tom Izzo in March (and sometimes April) tends to mean good stuff for Michigan State.
The Spartans’ win over Mississippi State was Izzo’s 56th NCAA Tournament win at Michigan State.
Only three coaches have won more tourney games at one school. Mike Krzyzewski won 101 at Duke, Dean Smith won 65 at North Carolina and Jim Boeheim won 62 at Syracuse.
Impressive moves happening on the court in Omaha — and we’re not talking about basketball.
BYU’s Cosmo the Cougar walked length of the court on his hands during a timeout in Omaha.
Tom Izzo and No. 9 Michigan State has beaten No. 8 Mississippi State 69-51 in the first round of the West Region.
Next up for the Spartans: Either No. 1 North Carolina or No. 16 Wagner on Saturday.
Creighton likes the rims in Pittsburgh. The Bluejays made their first five 3-pointers and were still shooting over 60% late in the first half.
The Zips, though, weren’t missing much either and are giving the No. 3 seed all it can handle .
There’s been a melee in the opening minutes of the second half between BYU and Duquesne when the Cougars’ Noah Waterman and the Dukes’ Fousseyni Drame simultaneously grabbed the rebound and took it together to the floor.
Drame appeared to be the instigator, rolling back on top of Waterman on the floor as official Pat Driscoll jumped between them. Players from both teams surrounded them as if it was a schoolyard fight and Driscoll appeared to be a bit shaken up.
Officials reviewed the play on the courtside monitor and both players were given a technical foul.
Super bummed to report that while Long Beach State made it to March Madness, its awesome mascot, Elbee the Shark, did not.
In news that cuts like a knife, an LBSU cheerleader confirmed to us that Elbee did not accompany the spirit squad on the trip to Salt Lake City. Still digging for why.
One thing the NCAA has improved is keeping fans at games in the loop on what’s happening elsewhere in the tournament.
At halftime at CHI Health Center in Omaha, where BYU and Duquesne were playing, the game between Creighton and Akron in Pittsburgh was played on the video board hanging above the arena floor. CHI Health Center is the home court of the Bluejays and a lot of their fans were interested in the game.
That kind of look-in used to be rare. But these days, now that most fans can watch any game they want on their phones anyway, it makes sense to show other games on the massive screens in every arena.
Akron’s Enrique Freeman led the nation in double-doubles. He’s showing he knows something about triples as well.
Freeman, who made just 17 3-pointers all season, has dropped three from behind the arc in the first five minutes against Creighton. Freeman banked in his first attempt, giving the MAC’s player of the year some confidence, and apparently the green light.
The Dukes have gotten a big lift from Czech freshman Jakub Necas, a backup averaging 2.3 points per game, who finished the first half with five straight to give the Atlantic-10 champs a 38-30 lead.
Keeping the Cougars afloat is Jaxson Robinson, who was the sixth man of the year in the Big 12. He had 13 first-half points while the rest of BYU was just 6 of 20 from the field.
Greatest name in the NCAA Tournament? Gotta be Akron’s Ali Ali. Definitely a contender.
The senior guard rejoined the Zips this season after transferring from Akron to Butler for one season. Ali said Thursday he wanted to come back and play with teammates with whom he started.
The Akron-Creighton game is underway, and now we’ve got three games going simultaneously on this first full day of March Madness.
Michigan State-Mississippi State is in the second half, Duquesne-BYU is at halftime and now Akron-Creighton is going.
Soon, Long Beach State and Arizona will start as well. That one will get going before the end of Michigan State-Mississippi State.
Mississippi State star freshman Josh Hubbard injured his head two minutes into the second half and briefly left the game.
Hubbard had a fastbreak layup but was rejected by Michigan State’s Jaden Akins at the rim. No foul was called, but Hubbard remained on the court holding his head as play continued.
For a pair of relatively physical teams, this one might be a bit of a surprise.
At halftime of the Michigan State-Mississippi State game, here are the numbers: 26 3-pointers attempted, zero free throws attempted.
Both teams have tried more 3s (13 each) than they have 2s (12 for Mississippi State, 11 for Michigan State).
Michigan State’s Malik Hall sank a layup at the buzzer to give the Spartans a 31-24 lead against Mississippi State heading into halftime.
The 5-foot-10 freshman is showing the nation why he’s considered one of the better young outside shooters in the country with three 3s in the first half. He made a school-record 105 3-pointers this season.
Just about everything has gone wrong for sixth-seeded BYU in the first half.
Lead guard Dallin Hall has tissues shoved up both of his nostrils to plug his bloody nose, Richie Saunders was doubled over after taking an elbow to his midsection and Spencer Johnson even lost a shoe while trying to play some defense.
Not the kind of start the Cougars envisioned as they try to snap a four-game NCAA tourney losing streak. They trailed 17-10 midway through the first half in Omaha, Nebraska.
Michigan State center Carson Cooper is wearing a bulky black protective mask on his face for the Spartans’ first-round game against Mississippi State. Cooper took a shot to the nose from Purdue All-American center Zach Edey in the Big Ten tournament.
He is expected to wear the protective gear for the remainder of the season.
It only took 2 1/2 minutes for blood to be spilled in BYU-Duquesne.
The Cougars’ Dallin Hall was whacked by Duquesne’s Fousseyni Drame under the basket, leaving the starting point guard to cup his hands beneath his nose to keep the blood from spilling onto the floor. Hall had to check out of the game and was still holding a towel to his face several minutes later.
Tom Izzo and Michigan State eked into March Madness but look good so far. Tyson Walker has a couple 3-pointers and the ninth-seeded Spartans lead eighth-seeded Mississippi State 20-8 just before the midway point of the first half.
March Madness is underway with the start of the Michigan St.-Mississippi St. game in Charlotte, NC. Here’s a rundown on today’s schedule.
— Michigan St. vs. Mississippi St., 12:15 p.m.
— Duquesne vs. BYU, 12:40 p.m.
— Akron vs. Creighton, 1:30 p.m.
— Long Beach St. vs. Arizona, 2 p.m.
— Wagner vs. North Carolina, 2:45 p.m.
— Morehead St. vs. Illinois, 3:10 p.m.
— Oregon vs. South Carolina, 4 p.m.
— Nevada vs. Dayton, 4:30 p.m.
— Colorado St. vs. Texas, 6:50 p.m.
— Oakland vs. Kentucky, 7:10 p.m.
— McNeese St. vs. Gonzaga, 7:25 p.m.
— S. Dakota St. vs. Iowa St., 7:35 p.m.
— St. Peter’s vs. Tennessee, 9:20 p.m.
— NC State vs. Texas Tech, 9:40 p.m.
— Samford vs. Kansas, 9:55 p.m.
— Drake vs. Washington St., 10:05 p.m.
James Madison’s Terrence Edwards says his team has been dealing with pressure ever since it stunned the college basketball world with a season-opening upset of then-No. 4 Michigan State.
Edwards and the Dukes are hoping it enables them to make a similar impact on March Madness.
He’s one of several players from one-bid leagues who merit attention this week.
▶ Read more about who could shake up the NCAA tournament.
Duquesne is strolling onto the court in some new kicks courtesy of “The King” for its first-round NCAA Tournament game against BYU on Thursday in Omaha, Nebraska.
LeBron James sent the entire team a cart full of his signature sneakers the day before the Atlantic-10 champs begin their first tourney appearance in 47 years. It was wheeled into the locker room on Wednesday as a surprise to the team.
James went straight to the NBA from high school, so he never got to play in March Madness. But he does have ties to Duquesne because the Dukes coach Keith Dambrot was his prep coach at St. Vincent–St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio.
Dambrot recently announced that he would be retiring whenever Duquesne’s season ends
The hottest ticket on the March Madness resale market is for the women’s first- and second-round games in Iowa City starting Saturday.
No surprise, with Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes hosting the winner of the Holy Cross/UT Martin First Four matchup in the first round.
The average price per session is $650.99, according to Logitix, a resale site that also analyzes prices across multiple ticket platforms. That’s more than twice as expensive as the top average price on the men’s side -- $285.20 for Indianapolis, where top-seeded Purdue is playing.
Anyone watching the NCAA Tournament exclusively to get a closer look at the top prospects in the upcoming NBA draft is in for a disappointment.
But UConn’s Stephon Castle, Kentucky’s Rob Dillingham an Duke’s Kyle Filipowski are among those who could be selected.
▶ Read more about possible NBA prospects in this year’s March Madness.
Ian Eagle is stepping into a new role as the lead announcer for CBS and TNT Sports’ coverage of the men’s NCAA Tournament, but plenty of things will make it familiar.
One of Eagle’s partners is Bill Raftery, the analyst for Nets games when Eagle moved to the television side in 1995. The location where Eagle, Raftery and Grant Hill will call the first weekend of the tournament is also one he knows very well. The Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York, has been the Nets’ home since 2012.
▶ Read more about Ian Eagle.
For the sixth straight year, the number of states allowing legal sports betting has expanded since the last rendition of March Madness.
A total of 38 states and the District of Columbia now allow some form of sports betting, including 30 states and the nation’s capital that allow online wagering.
▶ Read more about what states allow March Madness betting.
College hoops fans might want to think again before pinning their hopes of a perfect March Madness bracket on artificial intelligence.
While the advancement of artificial intelligence into everyday life has made “AI” one of the buzziest phrases of the past year, its application in bracketology circles is not so new. Even so, the annual bracket contests still provide plenty of surprises for computer science aficionados who’ve spent years honing their models with past NCAA Tournament results.
They have found that machine learning alone cannot quite solve the limited data and incalculable human elements of “The Big Dance.”
“All these things are art and science. And they’re just as much human psychology as they are statistics,” said Chris Ford, a data analyst who lives in Germany. “You have to actually understand people. And that’s what’s so tricky about it.”
▶ Read more about how bracketologists are using AI.
BYU forward Aly Khalifa will play against Duquesne on Thursday without having any food or drink after sunrise as he observes Ramadan during the NCAA Tournament.
The native of Alexandria, Egypt, probably could have taken an exception to one of the Five Pillars of Islam because of travel involved in the college basketball tournament. But instead, he chose to work with the BYU sports science and medicine staff to ensure he could play while observing the fast.
Khalifa planned to wake up at about 4:30 a.m. Thursday to eat and pray, then head to the arena for an 11:40 a.m. tipoff.
▶ Read more about BYU’s Aly Khalifa.
Purdue is back in March Madness with a No. 1 seed after last year’s shocking loss to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson. Only one team has faced that challenge: Virginia, which followed its 2018 loss to UMBC by winning a title.
March Madness kept Tom Izzo sleepless for more than 24 hours before he heard and saw Michigan State made it into a 26th consecutive NCAA Tournament.
The Hall of Fame coach said he had one of the most anxious days of his career on Sunday, sensing his record-breaking streak might get snapped after the Spartans started No. 4 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll and finished an uneven season with five losses in seven games.
Izzo was able to exhale — and get some much-needed sleep — because Michigan State (19-14) was placed in the West Region as a No. 9 seed and matched up with No. 8 seed Mississippi State (21-13) on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
▶ Read more about Tom Izzo’s 26th March Madness bid.
FILE - Creighton forward Isaac Traudt (41) shoots a 3-point basket over North Dakota State guard Boden Skunberg (14) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, in Omaha, Neb. Creighton’s Isaac Traudt is playing at the highest level of college basketball while managing Type 1 diabetes.(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
Creighton’s Isaac Traudt is playing at the highest level of college basketball while managing Type 1 diabetes.
He wears an insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor under his uniform. The CGM tells him his blood glucose level at five-minute intervals. He uses Honey Stinger energy chews to bump up his sugar when the device or his body tell him he’s low.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody put down a packet of chews faster than Isaac,” athletic trainer Ben McNair said. “He can probably put a pack of those down in 10 to 15 seconds.”
▶ Read more about how Traudt manages diabetes on the court.
Bill Self feels pretty good about Hunter Dickinson’s availability for the NCAA Tournament. The Kansas coach frankly has no idea what to expect of his other All-America candidate, Kevin McCullar Jr.
And he’s not the only one fretting the health of their teams. Whether it’s Marquette star Tyler Kolek’s oblique injury or Houston big man J’Wan Roberts dealing with some leg soreness, injuries could play a big role in what transpires over the next three weeks.
▶ Read more about what injuries could impact this year’s tournament.
Tracking the changes upending college sports can be as frenetic as flipping between all the games going down over the first week of March Madness. Ultimately, those changes could impact what America’s favorite basketball tournament looks like in the future — or whether it exists at all.
News about athlete compensation, player unions and realignment dominate discussions. Everything in college sports is open for discussion, interpretation and adjustment. That includes the industry’s most hallowed tradition, the NCAA basketball tournaments, which begin this week and will stretch from coast to coast.
The bottom line behind it all is money.
▶ Read more about how changes to college sports are impacting March Madness.
Duquesne’s return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 47 years is putting a spotlight on the team’s storied past.
The small Pittsburgh Catholic school was among the first collegiate programs to heavily recruit Black players like Basketball Hall of Famer Chuck Cooper. The 1955 team that won the National Invitation Tournament had several Black players in the starting lineup.
Keith Dambrot says the program’s rich history is one of the reasons he took the job in 2017. Duquesne faces BYU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
▶ Read more about Duquesne’s long road back to March Madness.