March Madness: Highlights and key moments from day 1

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.

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.