What You Missed the First Weekend of March Madness

The first weekend, and subsequently, first two rounds of the 2024 NCAA tournament have come to a close after 48 games were played between Thursday and Sunday.

Thursday opened up at noon with an 8-9 matchup between Michigan State and Mississippi State that never really got close as Michigan State would proceed to outclass their MSU counter parts, winning by nearly 20 points. But, as that game was concluding, the first true March upset would take place as Duquesne, an 11-seed that made the tournament solely due to the fact that they won their conference title game, would edge out 6-seed BYU 71-67. The next few games during the early slate on Thursday would offer little excitement, as Creighton, Arizona, North Carolina, and Illinois would all dominate their matchups against 14-16 seed teams. The Oregon-South Carolina game would tip off at 4:00 on Thursday, and after a closely contended 1st half, Oregon would pull away in the 2nd half, winning by a margin of 14.

By around 6:30pm on Thursday it seemed as if all the games would end up being blowouts, as now 10-seed Nevada was destroying 7-seed Dayton by 17, with 7 minutes remaining in the game. What ensued was one of the craziest comebacks of recent march madness history, as DaRon Holmes and Dayton would go on a 18-0 run to take the lead 57-56 with 2:30 to play, capitalized by an and-one dunk by Holmes in which the ensuing free throw would take the lead. Eventually, Dayton would take the win 63-60, as a buzzer beating 3 point attempt by Nevada would go wide, cementing Dayton's comeback as an early contender for "best game of the tournament".

The evening sessions would begin Thursday night, as Texas would manhandle Colorado State in a defensive game reminiscent of Colorado State's game against Virginia on Tuesday. But the first true shock of the tournament would take place over in Pittsburgh, as small university 14-seed Oakland, would take down the 3-seed, and college basketball "blue blood" Kentucky, 80-76. Oakland, outscored Kentucky thanks in large part to Guard, Jack Gohlke, who would cement himself as a march legend, hitting 10 of 20 three pointers, and scoring 32 points in the process. The most impressive part of Gohlke's performance was that he rarely ever dribbled the ball, and only took 3 point shots the whole game.

Up next would be some pretty unentertaining games again as some powerhouse schools, Gonzaga, Tennessee, and Iowa State would dominate their weaker opponents in games that were never all that close. The 10pm slate however would offer some pretty entertaining games, as 11 Seed North Carolina State would continue their Jim Valvano survive and advance 1987-esq run during the ACC tournament with a convincing win against Texas Tech, led by Center DJ Burns who has had an incredible March so far.

The final two games of Thursday both had some interesting finishes to them, 10-seed Drake holding on to an 8 point lead late in the game over 7-seed Washington State would go cold from the field in the final ten minutes of the game, as Wazzu would outwill the Bulldogs and advance to the round of 32.

Meanwhile, another close game between 4-seed Kansas and 13-seed Stamford was taking place in Salt Lake City, as Stamford was looking to make a Cinderella run of its own. However, an extremely controversial foul call at the end of the game against Stamford proved to be pivotal. The call would allow Kansas to hold on the the lead and win the game.

Friday would open up with yet another blow out as 3-Seed Baylor would destroy Colgate by nearly 30 points, while Northwestern and Florida Atlantic (FAU) were locked in an all out war. FAU would control most of the game, leading by 9 with about 5 minutes left to play. But Northwestern, would take over in the final 5 minutes and force OT, with help from a late drive and layup by Brooks Barnhizer with 20 seconds left. In Overtime, transfer from Princeton, Ryan Langborg would score 12 points including 2 three pointers to help Northwestern take down last years Final Four participants.

At the same time, another member of the 2023 Final Four, San Diego State was locked in a back and forth game with 12-seed UAB who made their way into the tournament after surprisingly winning the American Conference Tournament during their first year as a member. San Diego would grind out the late win thanks to some great free throws made down the stretch by Jaedon LeDee.

The rest of the early afternoon slate would see 2-seed Marquette and 1-seed Uconn show their dominance in convincing wins over 15-seed Western Kentucky and 16-seed Stetson, respectively.

Friday's late afternoon slate featured two games that would easily become instant classics, as 13-seed Yale looked to shock the world against 4-seed Auburn. Auburn would control the game from the end of the 1st half into the second half, but just couldn't seem to pull away, as Yale would answer to every Auburn run. In the last 7 minutes of the game Yale eventually started to make their comeback going on a 12-2 run that would pull them even with Auburn at 2:30 mark. Down the stretch Auburn's awful free throw shooting, paired with great defense and key free throws by Yale, would give the Ivy league institution it's second NCAA Tournament win in program history.

Simultaneously, the definition of a "barn burner" was taking place between 7-seed Florida and 10-seed Colorado. After 30 minutes of a punch-for-punch game, Colorado landed some haymakers that would land them up 13 with about 4 minutes to play, however, the Florida Gators wouldn't go down without a fight, going on an insane run with some help off some insanely clutch free throws and three pointers by Walter Clayton Jr, tying the game at 100 with 11 seconds left in the game. However, a clutch jumper by Colorado guard KJ Simpson, would rattle around on the rim, before falling with 2 seconds on the clock, would prove. to be the nail in the coffin. As Florida would lose a wildly entertaining game 100-102.

Over in Memphis, 9 seed Texas A&M would out score 8-seed Nebraska in a similarly high scoring (although less entertaining) game in which they would win by double digits, and 4-seed Duke would out-gun 13-seed Vermont in Brooklyn, while in Indianapolis 1-seed Purdue would assert dominance over 16-seed Grambling. 1-seed Houston would also similarly beat up on its 16-seed matchup Longwood.

The final session of the first round on Friday night would have some entertaining games to close out the first round of play. 4-seed Alabama would provide some fireworks in a convincing, yet competitive 109-96 win over 13-seed Charleston, as 12-Seed James Madison would show that they meant business, with a 10 point victory over 5-seed Wisconsin. While 8-seed Utah State would also do the same thing to 9-seed TCU.

The final game of the first round was a late night matchup between 5-seed St. Mary's and 12-seed Grand Canyon, that would give the Lopes its first ever Tournament win, upsetting St. Mary's 75-66.

Saturday afternoon marked the beginning of the round of 32, and started off with a game between 2-seed Arizona and 7-Seed Dayton. Arizona got out to an early lead, with a 40-33 advantage at half, that Dayton couldn't overcome like they had a few days earlier in their spectacular comeback over Nevada, losing 78-68 to Arizona.

Gonzaga and Kansas met up following the Arizona game, where a great game looked to be in the works as Kansas led by one at half. But, a second half uptick in scoring by Gonzaga, paired by a 10 minute span in which Kansas only scored 4 points led to Gonzaga closing out the game with a comfortable 20 point margin.

Game 3 on Saturday featured a matchup of CBB "Blue Bloods" 8-seed Michigan State and 1-seed North Carolina, where Carolina, led by RJ Davis and Armando Bacot would take care of "Sparty"85-69 after initially trailing by as many as 12 at one point in the first half.

Similarly, 2-seed Iowa State and 7-seed Washington State followed suit with the same trends as Iowa State would pull away in the 2nd half winning by 10.

Finally, the trend of no-contest games would end Saturday Night as 11-seed North Carolina State and DJ Burns would take on 14-seed Oakland in a battle of Cinderellas. For most of the game, NC State would lead by about 2-6 points, while oakland kept fighting back to keep the game close. At half, NC State would lead 32-29, and continue to hold on to their small lead for most of the 2nd half until the under 4 minute mark where a three by March Madness "Sweetheart" Jack Gohlke, followed by a layup by teammate Trey Townsend, would give Oakland a 62--61 lead with 2:49 remaining. NC State would eventually take the lead on an "and-one" layup, after the made free throw would make the score 64-66. Eventually Gohlke would step to the line and drill two free throws at the 40 second mark to tie the game at 66.

After a pair of turnovers by both NC State and Oakland the game would head to OT, where some clutch shots and free throws by DJ Burns would give NC State the victory over Oakland 73-79, cementing themselves as this years "Cinderella."

Illinois and Duquesne began their game as NC State and Oakland battled out their game, although this one would be more similar to the other games earlier on Saturday as Duquesne never really had a shot and was overpowered by Illinois 63-89

Saturday night ended with another OT thriller between Creighton and Oregon. Most of the game featured a close back and forth battle between the Blue Jays and Ducks, featuring insane performances by N'Faly Dante and Jermaine Couisnard of the Oregon Ducks who together scored every single one of Oregon's points in the second half of the game. And after a clutch 3 point shot by Couisnard tied the game inside of a minute to play in OT, the game would be sent to Double Overtime where the Creighton Blue Jays would pull away with a 86-73 win.

The final day of the 2nd round, Sunday, started with a noon matchup between 10-seed Colorado and Marquette. Marquette held on to a 2-6 point advantage most of the game, not pulling way, but also not allowing Colorado and big man Eddie Lampkin to ever get on too much of a run, winning a high scoring game 81-77.

The following games would feature 1-seed Purdue taking on 8-seed Utah State, along with 4-Seed Duke facing 12-seed JMU (looking to join NCST as a Cinderella). However both games never really proved to be much of a contest as Purdue and Duke would each win their game by almost 40 points.

6-seed Clemson and 3-seed Baylor would tip off that evening in a highly anticipated matchup between two quality teams. Clemson would control most of the game, thanks to forward PJ Hall, and would extend their lead to 15 points with around 6 minutes left to play. However the 2021 National Champion Baylor Bears would dig down deep and miraculously cut the lead to 2 with one minute remaining in the game. Sadly for the Bears, there just wouldn't be enough time to finish off the comeback as Clemson would take the win 72-64.

4-seed Alabama would take on another Cinderella hopeful, 12-seed Grand Canyon who were looking to make their first ever trip to the sweet 16 in program history. For most of the game Alabama would be in front, but everytime they went on a run to put the game out of reach the GCU Lopes would battle back, even cutting Alabama's lead down to 1 with four minutes remaining, however a late scoring drought by Grand Canyon would seal the win for Bama.

1-seed Uconn would once again showcase another wire to wire victory over 9-seed Northwestern, winning 75-58.

1-seed Houston looked as if they were about to do the same thing to their in-state rivals Texas A&M, leading by as much as 12 halfway through the second half. However, some clutch shots, paired with some poor ball security by Houston would allow A&M to pull within 3 with under a minute to go, where an insane 3 point shot at the buzzer by Andersson Garcia would tie the game and force OT. However, A&M's incredible run to tie the game would prove to be unfruitful as Houston would redeem themselves in OT, winning 100-95.

The final game of the second round, along with the final game of the 2nd round would be a late night matchup between 13-seed Yale and 5-seed San Diego State, where SDSU would run away with the game, symbolic to a lot of the games that occurred this past weekend.

The first weekend of March Madness once again showed why it's the greatest sporting event on earth, as even though there were a few more blowout games than normal, there was still non stop entertainment all weekend. Whether it be the Cinderella upsets of Oakland, Yale, or JMU, or the flagship teams in the tournament like UNC, Uconn, or Purdue advancing to the Sweet 16, there was a lot to admire this past week, and we can oly expect more in the next two rounds.

The Sweet 16 will take place on this Thursday and Friday, and Elite Eight on Saturday and Sunday.