Oakland played the role of spoiler on opening day of the NCAA 64. The veteran #14 seed shredded a young #3 Kentucky squad that looked like Cal/UK of years past. Early in his Kentucky career Cali cleaned up in recruiting and often featured a lineup of almost all freshman. The late 2010’s saw Coach Krzyzewski at Duke, Roy Williams at UNC, Bill Self at Kansas, and even a toe dip by veterans like Tom Izzo and Mark Few into the pool of “one-and-dones”. More coaches in the hunt for one-year players in addition for the option to skip college with the G-League Ignite team program supplemented by the NBA in 2020, diluted Cali’s lure of capture top recruits to himself. This year however, saw a powerful class with three top five prospects and another two in the top eighty that resulted in line-ups similar to the youthful 2010 lineups Cali rolled out. On Thursday, seniors Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves (both transfers into the program-this is Mitchell’s fourth school), along with two sophomores, and five freshman each logged 12+ minutes of playing time. Kentucky hasn’t made it to the 2nd weekend of the tourney since 2018-19.
Thanks to Jack Gohlke coming off the bench and crushing a whopping 10 three pointers on twenty attempts the Grizzles traded buckets and came out ahead against UK. Gohike is blowing up on social media. He’s only hit EIGHT two point shots on the season and 347 threes, a stunning discrepancy. The victory gives 40-year Oakland head coach Greg Kampe just his second NCAA tournament win. It doesn’t seem like smashing threes is an awesome way to make a run but it’s not impossible.
#2 Arizona’s final score of 85-65 over #15 Long Beach State Beach looks great but there are concerns. AZ shot horribly to start including a 6/17 shooting game from Caleb Love. AZ only led by only six at half. The Cats held LBSU to 33% shooting and 17% from three that helped enable the blowout. LBSU did rebound and outscore the Cats in the paint which is suprising….
I had #14 Akron circled as a dangerous team prior to the bracket being announced. They hung with a good #3 Creighton team for a half before getting rolled 77-60. The Zips were + 9 in the turnover margin and had 5 steals leading to a +9 point turnover margin. They were severely out rebounded but outscored the Blue Jays in the pain. All five starters scored all the points for the Blue Jays and certainly didn’t play a clean game, but looked much better in the second half. Ryan Kalkbrenner had 23 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks. Enrique Freeman for the Zips had 21 and 14, both above his season averages.
It took a half for #3 Illinois to pull away from a great #14 Morehead State team but 85-69 was the final with three impressive Orange performances. Terrence Shannon Jr scores 26 points, 4 assists, and adds 2 blocks and 2 steals to his superstar performance. Dain Dainja shoots 9/9 off the bench for 21 points and adds 8 rebounds and 2 blocks. Marcus Domask records a triple-double with 12 points, 10 assists and 11 rebounds.
#13 Samford had a chance against short-handed #4 Kansas in a 93-89 loss. The Bulldogs cut down a 22-point deficit thanks to 16 threes on over 50% shooting behind the ark. A foul was called on Staton-McCray that sent Timberlake to the line for two free throws that pushed a two-point game to four with 14 seconds left and essentially put the game out of reach. Upon review the Staton-McCray had all ball on a block and would have had the rebound going the other way with a change to tie or take the lead. An egregious officiating call that could have cost Samford the game. Kansas shot 60% from the field with 14 layups and 8 dunks for +30 in the paint. Dickinson had 19 points, 20 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks. KJ Adams was 10/13 shooting for 20 points as all KU starters had 13+ points.
The A-10 has two teams in the 2nd round….Dayton and Duquesne after day one. Who could have seen that? Duquesne led at half and survived 25 points off the bench from Jaxson Robinson and the #6 BYU Cougars who couldn’t deal with the Dukes pressure in a 71-67 upset loss. BYU’s starters were only 3/12 shooting the 3 ball as the aggressive defense pushing the Cougars off the line was very disruptive. 31 Tourney appearances without a Final Four for BYU is the most ever right now.
#7 Dayton was down 17-points at the under 8 minute media timeout that came at 7:14. #10 Nevada only scored 4 points the rest of the game as the Flyers went on a 24-4 run to win 63-60. The Flyers were missing easy shots- 9 missed layups early- and rallied with threes and frees (throws) late. A crazy swing in a game where both teams had comparable numbers outside of Dayton’s free throw edge (3/6 v 13/15).
- #1 North Carolina shells #16 Wagner 90-62 crushing Wagner +19 on the boards and +28 points scored in the paint
- #5 Gonzaga annihilated #12 McNeese 86-65 and looked dominate on both sides of the ball with a 35-point lead before easing off the gas
- Tourney opener of the MSUs was a strong #9 Michigan State offensive performance 69-51 over #8 Mississippi St. behind 50-43-83 shooting
- #2 Iowa St’s top five defense struggled to suppress an offensive powerhouse in #15 South Dakota but shot the lights out themselves at 57% and 47% from three in a 82-65 win
- #2 Tennessee smashes former tourney darling #15 Saint Peter’s 83-49 behind 23 points from future NBAer Dalton Knecht and stifling defense
- #11 Oregon smashes #6 South Carolina 87-73 behind 40 points from Jermaine Couisnard and 23 points from N’Faly Dante on 59-43-80 shooting as a team
- #11 NC State edges #6 Texas Tech in the paint 42-20 in a 80-67 upset win – NC States 7th in 10 days
- #7 Washington State wins 66-61 over #10 Drake in a tight, competitive game with two late turnovers by the Bulldogs that made the difference
- #7 Texas wins a slog 56-44 over #10 Colorado State, holding the Rams to 11 points in the first half