NBK 2022: Championship Week – Friday

Thursday recap as we track those teams that have not made the Sweet Sixteen in men’s college basketball since the field was expanded to 64 back in 1985. These schools have Never Been Kissed:

THURSDAY
Toledo trailed by 2 at half to Central Michigan, and by one in the closing seconds. A drive and finish by Rayj Dennis, followed by some great defense by JT Shumate allowed the Rockets to escape with a one point win 72-71 and advance in the MAC.

The suddenly-formidable TCU Horned Frogs stormed back from 18 down to upset Texas in the Big XII, further solidifying their position in the field of 68.

SLU Billikens took care of business with a 20-point blowout of the Explorers in their A-10 opener. Next up: program bogeyman St Bonaventure.

Nevada made it interesting late but Boise St advances 71-69 in their Mountain West opener.

UC Irvine fell to UC Santa Barbara, ending their season suddenly in the Big West quarterfinals. The NBK bids the Anteaters farewell until next year, and welcomes the Gauchos (Santa Barbarians?) to our rankings in their place.

North Texas ripped off a 23-4 run early in the first half to put this one out of reach of minute Rice.

In an NBK vs NBK clash, Colorado St busted Utah St‘s modest bubble, eeking out a 53-51 win in a super-slow Mountain West conference tourney game. CSU remains comfortably in the field and looks to move up a line or two.

Fresno St fell to San Diego St in another MWC tourney slog 53-46. America is not going to be clamoring for MWC at-large bids after these grinders. That said, Joey Brackets still has the Mountain West as a four-bid league — Boise St, San Diego St, Colorado St and Wyoming — which would be their most since they sent five in 2013. A strong showing in the NBK rankings indicates the MWC could continue to poach bids formerly reserved for the likes of the Pac-12, ACC, Atlantic 10 and Missouri Valley.

FRIDAY
#3 Boise St (56%) vs Wyoming – 8:30 PM CST
#4 Colorado St (45%) vs San Diego St – 11 PM CST
#5 TCU (22%) vs Kansas – 6 PM CST
#6 North Texas (66%) vs Louisiana Tech – 11:30 AM CST
#8 Saint Louis (59%) vs St Bonaventure – 1:30 PM CST
#9 SMU (78%) vs Tulsa – 6 PM CST
#14 Rutgers (23%) vs Iowa – 1 PM CST
#17 Toledo (69%) vs Akron – 4 PM CST
#22 UC Santa Barbara (56%) vs Long Beach St – 8 PM CST
#23 Montana St (58%) vs Weber St – 6:30 PM CST

#10 Vermont and #19 Princeton next take the court on Saturday.

NBK standings & KenPom rankings through 3/10/2022. KenPom Conf Tourney odds via Ken’s Twitter, until the conference championship game, where they are the KenPom odds ($) of winning that showdown – e.g. Vermont. ESPN Bracketology as of 3/11/2022 at 12:00 A.M. ET.

Data courtesy Kenpom.com and ESPN Bracketology and ESPN Bubble Watch and NCAA.com