What happened in Thursday and Friday's first round

BROOKLYN — We've got a tied game with 2:35 to play. I'd estimate that at least half of the fans in the lower bowl are standing.

Northwestern's Nick Martinelli gets whistled for a Flagrant 1 after a review, which could be a turning point in a close game with 3:21 to play. Vlad Goldin makes two free throws for Florida Atlantic to cut the Wildcats' lead to 56-54. FAU hasn't led since the opening seconds of the second half.

MEMPHIS — A lackadaisical effort by Baylor to start the second half prompts an early timeout by Scott Drew. Colgate's opened the second half on a mini 8-3 run — four of those points from Baylor turnovers and six points in the paint. The Baylor lead still stands firm at 57-42 but Drew's unhappy with the effort out of the break.

BROOKLYN — Northwestern has only been to three NCAA Tournaments, but it won its first game in both of its previous appearances.

Cats are currently up nine with 7:10 to play.

BROOKLYN — Piggybacking on Nicole's missive above, in less than nine minutes, we already had more points scored than in the entire first half.

The Wildcats have erupted (no, legitimately!) for 24 points already.

CHARLOTTE — Greetings from Charlotte, where Michigan State’s players are meeting with the media before tomorrow’s round of 32 game vs. UNC.

Malik Hall is asked what Tyson Walker brings to the Spartans: “He can score that motherf—er.”

BROOKLYN — Both teams are playing much better in the second half, although they really could only go up from such an atrocious first half. Northwestern is 10-of-16 from the field, led by Boo Buie and Ryan Langborg who each have four buckets. Wildcats are stretching their lead now up to seven points with 10:53 to play.

No. 15 seed, South Region

Opponent, time, TV: Marquette, 2 p.m., TBS

Team in 16 words: The fastest team in college basketball has a point guard who should strike fear in opponents.

Record: 22-11 (8-8 C-USA)

Coach: Steve Lutz (1-2 in NCAA Tournament)

Player to watch: Don McHenry (first-team All-CUSA)

Numbers:

BetMGM title odds: +100000

Sweet 16 projected chance: 2.7 percent

Final Four projected chance: 0.1 percent

Outlook: Steve Lutz came in and immediately made Texas A&M Corpus-Christi a good team — two NCAA bids, 47 wins, one NCAA win in two seasons — and he has been an instant jolt for a proud program now enjoying its first NCAA bid in 11 years.

Lutz has this team playing at the fastest tempo in the sport — a shot every 14.6 seconds of possession — with a JUCO point guard controlling the action. McHenry, who was at Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College last season, is a crafty lefty who has an extraordinary feel for running the pick and roll. He’ll finish with either hand, he’ll make the right pass and he’s effective at the lost art of the mid-range jumper.

He’s got help in 6-foot-11 Georgia Tech transfer Rodney Howard, Purdue transfer and physical guard Brandon Newman, and Indiana transfer guard Khristian Lander. Throw in Kentucky transfer Dontaie Allen, who missed the C-USA title game win over UTEP with knee soreness, and it’s quite a collection of previous homes. All these guys have come together in a season to hold opponents to 41.3 percent shooting, flirting with top-100 status nationally in defensive efficiency. That’s a tremendous coaching job.

The issue for this team at times is turning it over too much (turnover percentage of 18.3). But the coach and the point guard give the Hilltoppers a chance.

Will this be a 12-5 upset? Our staff's picks for San Diego State-UAB:

Nicole Auerbach: San Diego State

• Tobias Bass: San Diego State
• John Hollinger: San Diego State
• Brendan Marks: San Diego State
• Austin Mock: UAB
• Joe Rexrode: San Diego State

INDIANAPOLIS — Greetings from Indy. Marquette’s Tyler Kolek is warming up right in front of me. Doing some easy spin moves and layups at the hoop, messing with his teammate David Joplin and throwing up hook shots.

Would appear to be just fine.

He’s also officially in the starting lineup.

BROOKLYN — The biggest thing hurting Johnell Davis' draft stock is how careless he is with the ball. Has made several iffy passes into traffic today, and just stepped out of bounds on a play where they maybe could have also called a carry. He has six of FAU's 16 (!) turnovers so far, after averaging 4.8 miscues per 100 possessions during the season.

FAU trails 30-27 at the under-16 timeout after an "eruption" of Northwestern scoring to start the second half.

No. 5 seed, East Region

Opponent, time, TV: UAB, 1:45 p.m., TNT

Team in 16 words: Brian Dutcher’s team shocked the nation last year, and now are hoping to ride star Jaedon LeDee.

Record: 24-10 (11-7 MWC)

Coach: Brian Dutcher (5-4 in NCAA Tournament, 1 Final Four)

Player to watch: Jaedon LeDee (first-team All-MWC)

Numbers:

BetMGM title odds: +8000

Sweet 16 projected chance: 27.6 percent

Final Four projected chance: 3.7 percent

Strengths: The defense is completely different than it was a year ago en route to the Final Four run, since there’s no rim protector this season. But the Aztecs are still one of the top defensive teams in the nation (No. 8 on KenPom). Jaedon LeDee averaged 7.9 points on last year’s team, but has developed into one of the nation’s top players, and he’s a big, strong forward who can win matchups with opposing big men.

Weaknesses: The Aztecs struggle to shoot the ball from deep. Of the four players who have attempted more than 100 3-pointers this season, only Reese Waters (36.9 percent) is hitting more than a third of them. There’s also no true point guard on the team, and besides LeDee, no one averages more than 10.2 points per contest. San Diego State has a bunch of solid guards, but this team is largely reliant on LeDee to put up points.

Outlook: It’s hard to count out the Aztecs after last year’s surprising run to the national title game, but this team just doesn’t appear as capable without a rim protector in the paint and also without a sidekick to LeDee on the offensive end. Coach Brian Dutcher will need last year’s hero, Lamont Butler, to step it up offensively along with Micah Parrish and Darrion Trammell.

— Jeff Goodman

Halftime: No. 3 Baylor 54, No. 14 Colgate 34.

Yves Messi's put-back dunk at the buzzer puts an exclamation point on a first half that saw the Bears lead wire-to-wire till the buzzer. The result itself may not be shocking but the manner in which it's happening somewhat is, Colgate is the 10th best 3-point defense in the country, according to KenPom, yet Baylor's shooting 7 of 12 from that distance and it's largely the reason why the margin is this big through 20 minutes of play.

Five different Baylor players have made at least three baskets, led by Ja'Kobe Walker's game-high 15 points, and the even scoring distribution has been too much for the Raiders to handle thus far. There's another half to play and anything can happen but all indications are that Baylor will cruise into the second round to play the Clemson-New Mexico winner.

SAN DIEGO — San Diego State's last March Madness included its rally past No. 1 overall seed Alabama to make the program’s first Elite Eight; Darrion Trammell’s clutch free throw vs. Creighton that sealed a Final Four berth; Lamont Butler’s game-winner vs. Florida Atlantic; and ultimately, falling short against a UConn-shaped buzzsaw. You can’t walk past five fans outside Viejas Arena before you see someone wearing Final Four apparel. As one middle-aged man said, it was “magical.”

Was. Past tense.

Because it was also 10 months ago, with a different roster. Even with seven returners back, last year’s success has no impact on the Aztecs. It’s a tough line to straddle: appreciating what happened, without letting it become an anchor in the present.

Which makes this season a peculiar place for fans to occupy, too. Aztecs supporters, sensibly, understand the uniqueness of last year’s run. But now that they’ve seen the top of the mesa, you think they’re not desperate for another climb?

That mission begins in places like this: a grueling Thursday afternoon practice. Coach Brian Dutcher sets the tone before the first rebounding drill, standing near a hoop with a bubble over the rim:

“Before you jump,” he hollers, “just f—ing hit somebody.”

This is how the Aztecs operate: with physicality, defense. A sandpaper mentality.