Midwest Bracket
During the opening round of the tournament, the Midwest stayed the course. Kentucky (over Hampton), Cincinnati (over Purdue), West Virginia (over Buffalo), Maryland (over Valparaiso), Butler (over Texas), Notre Dame (over Northeastern), Wichita State (over Indiana) and Kansas (over New Mexico State) all did what they had to do to move on in the big dance. The closest game in this opening round was Cincinnati beating Purdue, 66-65 in overtime. A.J. Hammons and Vince Edwards both hit double digits in scoring, powering the Boilermakers. But it wasn't enough as the Bearcats pulled out the win. They did it despite the fact that Octavius Ellis, the team leading scorer, was ejected and could play. So Troy Caupain stepped his game up, despite the fact he missed the layup with 61 seconds left in regulation. Caupain came up clutch in OT helping Cincinnati pull out the victory.
It took a nailbitter but the opening round went as planned. It was the round of 32 that saw two upsets in this region. First was West Virginia beating Maryland 69-59. It's viewed as a bit of an upset because it was a five seed in West Virginia beating a four seed in Maryland. Not only did they beat them, but they won by ten to boot. Devin Williams had the big game for the Mountainiers with 16 points and 10 rebounds. The Mountaineers scored 16 second-chance points and forced 23 turnovers, which had the Terps on their heals the entire 2nd half. The other upset was #7 Wichita State beating #2 Kansas 78-65. All five starters for the Shockers, Darius Carter (10pts), Tekele Cotton (19pts), Evan Wessel (12pts), Ron Baker (12pts) and Fred VanVleet (17pts), finished. in double digits in points. It was a bit of a physical basketball game, one which saw the Shockers dominate from start to finish. Wichita State is the third team to beat Kansas in the NCAA Tournament with a quintet of 10-point scorers. The previous two both reached the title game (ESPN).
Matchups in Midwest Bracket (Sweet 16):
#1 Kentucky vs. #5 West Virginia
#3 Notre Dame vs. #7 Wichita State
West Regional
To the West region we go and in the opening round we saw not one but two upsets to kick things off here. Wisconsin, Arizona, North Carolina, Xavier, Oregon and Arkansas all won their opening round games. The two upsets came in the form of #10 Ohio State beating #7 VCU 75-72 in Overtime and #14 Georgia State beating #3 Baylor 57-56. Georgia State pulled off the biggest upset of the start of the tournament. R.J. Hunter became the hero of the night, hitting the game winning 3 with 2.7 seconds remaining on the clock. Baylor wasted the efforts of Taurean Prince, who finished with 18 points and 15 rebounds. After hitting two free throws to take a 56-44 lead, Baylor was held off the scoreboard for the final 2:58 in the basketball game. Baylor had the lead and just couldn't finish the job, allowing Georgia State to come away with the victory.
The other opening round upset saw Ohio State shock VCU in overtime to advance in the tournament, for one more round at least. D'Angelo Russell carried the Buckeyes on this night, dropping 28 points on the VCU Rams. Russell was all over the court, having a solid game at both ends of the floor, and helped the Buckeyes erase a 10 point deficit to come back and move on in the tournament. The 28 points by Russell was the 3rd most by a Big Ten Freshman in the history of the tournament. Once we hit the 2nd round of the tournament, it seemed as if everything sort of fell into place. The upsets in this region died off in the first round.
Matchups in the West Bracket (Sweet 16):
#1 Wisconsin vs. #4 North Carolina
#2 Arizona vs. #6 Xavier
East Region
In the East region there were three upsets in the first two rounds of the tournament. Villanova, NC State, Northern Iowa, Louisville, Oklahoma, Michigan State, and Virginia all moved on after the first round. The upset was #11 Dayton beating #6 Providence 66-53. Dyshawn Pierre scored 20 points to lead the Flyers in scoring. The big story from this game was Providence, who was seedewd 6th, not really being able to overcome early foul trouble for Big East player of the year Kris Dunn. Dayton came in on a roll and Providence just didn't know how to stop them.
The two big upsets from this region came in the round of 32. First we saw #7 Michigan State take down #2 Virginia 60-54. Travis Trice always finds a way to step his game up in the big moments, and for the 2nd year in a row the Spartans beat the Cavaliers. Trice dropped 23 points on Virginia, including scoring 13 of his team's first 15 points on 5-of-5 shooting, including three 3-pointers. That's to go along with Branden Dawson adding in 15 points and nine rebounds. London Perrantes and Justin Anderson were a combined 4-of-17 from the field for Virginia, which couldn't have had a worse time for its two best players not to be able to hit shots in a big game. The other SHOCKER from the round of 32 was #8 NC State beating #1 Villanova 72-68. Anthony Barber, dropped 13 points to complement the 17 points dropped in by Trevor Lacey, which helped power the Wolfpack to the upset victory. It was however the two clutch free throws made by Ralston Turner with one second left on the clock in regulation. Turner went to the line after being fouled by Darrun Hilliard. Hillard had scored 27 points and gamely rallied the Wildcats in the final minutes, but made the foul that cost them the basketball game. This is a bit tough for the Wildcats, as they have not won more than one game in the NCAA tournament since 2009.
Matchups in the East Bracket (Sweet 16):
#4 Louisville vs. #8 NC State
#3 Oklahoma vs. #7 Michigan State
South Region
South region saw it played mostly to the script. Duke, San Diego State, Utah, Georgetown, Iowa and Gonzaga all moved on. The upset was #14 UAB beating #3 Iowa State 60-59. William Lee hit two clutch free throws near the end of regulation to push UAB just ahead of Iowa state, as he finished the game with 23 points to lead all scoresrs. The Blazers had a 19-9 edge on the offensive glass, which is one of the big keys as to why UAB pulled off this upset. This isn't the first time that Iowa State has lost as a two seed, it happened in 2001 when they Lost to Hampton.
The other was #14 UCLA beating #11 SMU 60-59. This is a call that's going to be talked about for quite some time now. Bryce Alford's final jumper appeared offline when he let it fly from behind the 3-point arc. SMU center Yanick Moreira was in position and seemed to time his leap as he went up to touch it. He blocked the shot. The officials, however, thought he was a bit too quick and called goaltending and awarded Alford the winning basket with 13 seconds left. The refs seemed to blow the call and UCLA should have lost the game, but that's not the case and they made that goaltedning call on Moreira. Under Rule 9.3a 1 and 2, "Goaltending occurs when a defensive player touches the ball during a field-goal try and each of the following conditions is met: the ball is on the downward flight; and the ball is above the level of the ring and has a possibility of entering the basket." (ESPN) Moreira later took to social media to apologize to his teammates and fans for making the play he did.
Matchups in the South Region (Sweet 16):
#1 Duke vs. #5 Utah
#2 Gonzaga vs. #11 UCLA
So there's just some of the highlights from the opening weekend in the tournament
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