What happened in Thursday and Friday's first round

No. 14 seed, East Region

Opponent, time, TV: Illinois, 3:10 p.m., truTV

Team in 16 words: Ignore the November results. Morehead State won’t go quietly against a high-major team.

Record: 26-8 (14-4 OVC)

Coach: Preston Spradlin (0-1 in NCAA Tournament)

Player to watch: Riley Minix (OVC Player of the Year)

Numbers:

BetMGM title odds: +100000

Sweet 16 projected chance: 6.6 percent

Final Four projected chance: 0.4 percent

Outlook: The Eagles lost Mark Freeman — the preseason Ohio Valley Player of the Year — a week before the season began and reeled off 26 wins. That’s reason enough to be impressed by Preston Spradlin’s squad.

But there’s more! The Eagles can shoot from outside (36.1 percent) and do so frequently (45 percent of their shots are beyond the arc). They have multiple ball-handlers who can initiate the offense, the size to throw at high-major teams inside, and a bonafide go-to guy in the 6-foot-7 Riley Minix (20.8 points per game). The Eagles may not win a game, but they’re going to be a tough out.

— Mike Miller

Looked pretty good for Duquesne after two free throws made it 69-64 with 10 seconds left.

But BYU's Dallin Hall hits a 3 to bring it to 69-67 with 5.7 seconds to go. Cougars aren't quite out of it.

Big cheers from the crowd here in Pittsburgh as Duquesne knocks down two free throws to go up five in the final minute.

SPOKANE, Wash. — There are those who want to keep the NCAA Tournament as it is. There are those who are bullish on expanding it. And then there is Andy Kennedy, who apparently wants to watch the world burn.

“I’ve got some crazy ideas,” the Alabama-Birmingham coach said Thursday at Spokane Arena, and that was putting it mildly.

In short, Kennedy is pro-tournament expansion. But in order to do so, he’s also for wiping out conference tournaments altogether, assigning automatic bids to regular-season champions and otherwise filling the bracket by using metrics to distribute bids on a league-by-league basis.

The best conference gets the most bids. The second-best gets the second-most. And so on down the line.

“A lot of folks say we don't want to expand the tournament because we have to finish at the appropriate time before those flowers start blooming at Augusta National,” Kennedy said. “They say we're going to run out of time. We're not going to run out of time if we move it back a week.”

As for the counterargument that this might water down the competitive level of the tournament itself, Kennedy had a ready retort for that, too. “I bet you'll watch,” he said. “I bet you'll pay to watch. I bet TV will pay. I bet it'll solve a lot of our problems."

PITTSBURGH — It feels like Creighton might just have too much firepower. After trailing 33-31 with three minutes left in the first half, the Jays have now taken charge and lead, 50-42, at the first media timeout of the second half.

Akron has shot well to hang around and has an experienced team, but Creighton seems to have just too much offense. The Jays were 15-of-25 shooting in the first half and have started 3-of-5 in the second half to create a little breathing room.

OMAHA, Neb. — Buckle up. Duquesne has a 2-point lead with 3:01 remaining in what could be the final minutes of Keith Dambrot's coaching career. Duke led for 36:09 thus far. As if the place wasn't tense enough they're supplementing the atmosphere with the Creighton game on the screens during the timeout.

Getting one-part of the Caleb Love experience here in Salt Lake City and it's not the one Arizona is looking for this March. Love is 2-for-8 from the field and 0-for-5 on 3s in what's a much closer matchup than most imagined — the second-seeded Wildcats are tied 33-33 with 15th-seeded Long Beach State with three minutes remaining till halftime.

Love's shot selection has been, um, questionable, including most recently chasing down a loose ball with most of his teammates on the opposite side of the court and four Long Beach defenders in position. Love turned and launched a 3 with 25 second left on the shot clock as Tommy Lloyd responded with a blank stare.

Jaxson Robinson continues to be a one-man show for the BYU offense. He has 25 of the Cougars’ 58 points with eight field goals and five 3-pointers.

The rest of the team has 33 points with 13 field goals and two 3-pointers.

No. 1 seed, West Region

Opponent, time, TV: Wagner, 2:45 p.m., CBS

Team in 16 words: The transfer portal and go-to guy RJ Davis have given the Tar Heels new life.

Record: 27-7 (17-3 ACC)

Coach: Hubert Davis (5-1 in NCAA Tournament, 1 Final Four)

Player to watch: RJ Davis (ACC Player of the Year)

Numbers:

BetMGM title odds: +1300

Sweet 16 projected chance: 60.1 percent

Final Four projected chance: 18.2 percent

Strengths: The Tar Heels have one of the elite guards in the country in RJ Davis — who has thrived with the departure of Caleb Love. Armando Bacot has a decreased offensive role, and he’s accepted it. Two transfers — Harrison Ingram (Stanford), Cormac Ryan (Notre Dame) — and reclassified freshman point guard Elliot Cadeau have made the Tar Heels legit Final Four contenders again.

Weaknesses: Bacot hasn’t been nearly as effective this season on the offensive end, and tends to struggle against length and athleticism. While the Tar Heels have been improved defensively, the backcourt is small — and Cadeau is still a freshman who isn’t much of a threat to shoot it.

Outlook: This team has chemistry, which was clearly lacking a year ago. They have floor-spacing with the addition of Ingram and Ryan. Davis uses his bench this year, and they have a guy who can go get a basket — and is efficient in doing so. This is a group that came into the season with something to prove, and they have done so — with improved defense, winning on the road and claiming the ACC regular-season title.

— Jeff Goodman

No. 16 seed, West Region

Opponent, time, TV: UNC, 2:45 p.m., CBS

Team in 16 words: The Seahawks have momentum, seven healthy players and a former Seton Hall point guard as coach.

Record: 17-15 (7-9 NEC)

Coach: Donald Copeland (First NCAA Tournament)

Player to watch: Melvin Council Jr. (first-team All-NEC)

Numbers:

BetMGM title odds: +200000

Sweet 16 projected chance: 0.2 percent

Final Four projected chance: 0.01 percent

Outlook: Wagner’s coach, Donald Copeland (great interview here after he won the NEC), is a former Seton Hall point guard, and that’s been a pretty great resume builder for March Madness runs lately (Shaheen Holloway and Danny Hurley can attest). The Seahawks allowed the fewest points per game in the NEC (62.1) and were second in rebounding margin (+1.5).

The NEC ranked second-to-last among conferences this season, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an NCAA Tournament team with worse metrics than Wagner: 290th in the NET, 292nd in KenPom, 11-10 in Quad 4 this regular season.

The Seahawks won the NEC as the No. 6 seed and with just seven healthy players — did that group jell at the right time? According to the New York Post, they had assistant coaches and a football player helping them practice during the season, and they haven’t had contact practices since late December. Wagner will likely lose its first game, but this could be a team with an electric coach that just needed some time to adjust to the missing pieces.

— Brian Bennett and Nando Di Fino

Jaxson Robinson has kept BYU alive throughout its game against Duquesne, and now the Cougars are making a run. They have scored the game’s last nine points to pull within 52-49 with 7:41 to play, and Robinson has 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting.

The rest of the Cougars are 10 for 34 from the floor.

Duquesne once led by 14 points (46-32). BYU’S last lead was 20-19 in the first half.

PITTSBURGH — 14th-seeded Akron look to have Creighton on the ropes, but the Bluejays closed the half on an 8-0 run to lead 39-34 at halftime. Some scouting notes from the first half:

• Ryan Kalkbrenner has to be more physical defending the post. We saw this a year ago when he got destroyed by Arizona’s Oumar Ballo in Maui; today against 6-foot-7 Enrique Freeman he’s still had trouble getting stops one-on-one. Having a 6-foot-7 guy repeatedly back him down for buckets isn’t a great look for his hopes at the next level.

• Baylor Scheierman’s shot is perhaps a little flatter than you’d prefer, but his size and shooting will make him a threat at the next level. Can he do enough other stuff to say on the floor? He’s looked flustered any time he’s had to handle the ball against pressure today; Akron’s ball pressure in general has been a big story. More importantly, can we talk about that haircut?

• Trey Alexander is really comfortable snaking pick-and-rolls and/or keeping his defender in jail to get a pull-up, but you still want to see a little more explosion getting by people and all the way to the cup. He needs to make life easier for himself by adding more layups to his shot mix; he had one clear iso situation this half where he was forced into a difficult jumper.

• Freeman is going to be an interesting summer league/training camp guy for next year, a 6-foot-7 center who can’t possibly play that spot at the next level, but might have enough hidden perimeter skill to get by as a combo forward.

CHARLOTTE – If this is the Michigan State that’s going to come to play Saturday at Spectrum Center, the Spartans have to be taken seriously in that game.

Presumably, they will be taking on West Region No. 1 seed North Carolina in the round of 32, if North Carolina takes care of No. 16 seed Wagner in a game that starts in a few minutes. The No. 9 seed Spartans handled No. 8 seed Mississippi State impressively in the first game of the round of 64, rolling 69-51 behind 19 points from Tyson Walker and 15 from Jaden Akins.

Those two were 6-for-13 combined from 3-point range on a 10-for-23 day (40.9 percent) for the Spartans. Getting efficient shooting from those two is as much a necessity as anything for this team if it wants to advance. MSU shot 27-for-54 from the field as a team, carving up Chris Jans’ pressuring zone with layups and open corner looks.

And the Spartans actually followed the obvious defensive scouting report in the second half — don’t give Bulldogs freshman star Josh Hubbard an inch of space.

Hubbard kept his team in the game in the first half with 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting. In the second? He was 1-for-9 for two points. And most of those were forces from extra long range with a defender in his face.

This is where Tom Izzo is at his best, the second day of an NCAA Tournament weekend with the short turnaround. The Spartans are 24-7 under Izzo in such games. Izzo is now 56-24 (.700) overall in the NCAA Tournament, third among active coaches in percentage behind John Calipari (48-19, .716) and Bill Self (52-21. 712). He is tops among active coaches in total NCAA wins.

PITTSBURGH — Akron is right in the game, and star forward Enrique Freeman is leading the upset-minded Zips.

At halftime, Creighton leads 39-34. Freeman has 15 points, 8 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal.

Creighton coach Doug McDermott spoke Wednesday about Freeman's athleticism and ability to attack from different angles, and both have been on display. Though Creighton has a size advantage across the board and a signficant one in the post matchup between Freeman and Creighton center Ryan Kalkenbrenner, Freeman has found space in and out of the paint.

Freeman is 6-foot-7, 206. Kalkenbrenner is 7-foot-1, 270.

These guys have done this before. Kalkenbrenner entered the game with 814 career rebounds and 296 career blocks.

Freeman entered the game with 1,391 career rebounds and 185 blocks. Freeman blocked one of Kalkbrenner's shots early in the game, but later in the half Kalkbrenner used his size to get a pair of scores over Freeman near the rim.

After one of them, Freeman answered right back with a baby hook. Akron took a 33-31 lead on another Freeman hook shot with just over three minutes left in the half.

Freeman won't apologize for banking in a 3-pointer for Akron's first points, nor should he have to. The former walk-on and the national leader in both rebounds and double-doubles introduced himself nicely to a national audience in the first half.