Round one is underway, and it’s been a doozy. Below we recap Thursday’s action and look ahead to the weekend from the standpoint of the Never Been Kissed (NBK) — our tagline for those schools who have never made it to the Sweet Sixteen in all the years since the NCAA first expanded the D1 Men’s tournament to 64 teams back in 1985.
THURSDAY
Saint Peter’s beat Kentucky in Overtime! <Double-checks> This is not a misprint. Saint Peter’s beat Kentucky. We believe this is the tenth time a 15-seed has beaten a 2-seed, and this one was an extremely entertaining bracket-breaker. Kellan Grady from Kentucky continued a rough week during which he appeared to be a double-agent sent by Dayton to torpedo the Wildcats’ chances. We are not reporting this — just speculating.
Murray St beat fellow NBKer San Francisco also in overtime 92-87. Before this one even tipped off, the NBK was assured of having a graduate this year, by virtue of Saint Peter’s booting Kentucky from this pod containing 3 of 4 NBKers. The NBK studio show — not a real thing — will hereby move to Indianapolis for Saturday’s GameDay telecast.
Colorado St lost to Michigan 75-63. After leading the entire first half and draining 8 of 9 from three, the Rams faltered in the second half and their NBK graduation dreams vanish.
Vermont lost Arkansas 75-71 as the Hogs’ JD Notae took over in the second half to push his team to victory and end an impressive Catamounts season.
Akron lost to UCLA 57-53, giving up a decisive 15-2 run by Tyger Campbell and the Bruins in the last five minutes.
South Dakota St were victims of Providence 66-57.
Boise St lost to Memphis 64-53. Rough day for the Mountain West – only Saint Mary’s remains after day one — Wyoming was eliminated in the First Four and BSU and SDSU bowed out without putting up much of a fight.
Longwood lost to Tennessee 88-56. Impressive win by a hot Vols squad.
Norfolk St was mauled by Baylor 85-49. Will I ever get over The Sovereign State of Norfolk beating 30-4 Mizzou? It’s been ten years since 2012, and given how happy I am today to see this beating administered by Baylor, I don’t see a clear path to forgiveness in the near future. So long Spartans.
Georgia St vs Gonzaga in a 16/1. Holy smokes this one was tied 54-54 with just 13:00 remaining, but foul trouble and injury drained the Panthers. Drew Timme became unstoppable and Chet Holmgren did all the dirty work so the Bulldogs could pull away 85-63.
Texas Southern crushed by Kansas 83-56. UMBC stands alone, at least for one more day.
Elsewhere, North Carolina demolished Marquette and St Mary’s creamed Indiana. Both were moderate favorites but really put the hammer down. UConn fell to New Mexico St (NBK Class of 1992).
Keegan Murray and Iowa were eliminated on Thursday, in a 5/12 upset to Richmond (NBK Class of 1988). All the “sweet-shooting wing” buzz around NBA prospects seems to be focused on whether Jabari Smith will go ahead of Holmgren, but I like Murray. Certainly some of that preference stems from The Murray Bros experience echoing the too-brief-and-weird-but fun Porter Bros era at Mizzou in the early Cuonzo Martin years. Good times.
Jamaree Bouyea did what he could to keep San Francisco‘s Sweet Sixteen hopes alive on Thursday night, driving, dishing, and draining some looooong threes, garnering KenPom Game MVP ($) honors in the losing effort. Justice Hill and his severe leg cramps and the rest of the Murray St Racers have a couple of days to recover and prepare for suprising Saint Peter’s.
His team advanced, and he too was KenPom Game MVP ($), but we fear we may be saying goodbye to Ryan Kalkenbrenner of Creighton. In the chaos of the Bluejays late charge to catch San Diego St, he crumbled in the backcourt with what looked like a major knee injury.
Farewell for sure to Oscar Tshiebwe, likely Player of the Year and Kentucky’s KenPom Game MVP ($) for Thursday. The Big O heads to the NBA after putting up 30 points and 16 rebounds in the Cats loss to NBK hopeful Saint Peter’s.
FRIDAY
Here is today’s action in the NBK. Will we get more than one graduate from this year’s group?
#3 TCU (50%) vs Seton Hall – 8:57 PM CDT on truTV
#4 Colgate (22%) vs Wisconsin – 8:50 PM CDT on TBS
#5 Cal St Fullerton (10%) vs Duke – 6:10 PM CDT on CBS
#6 Delaware (9%) vs Villanova – 1:45 PM CDT on CBS
#7 Jacksonville St (8%) vs Auburn – 11:40 AM CDT on truTV
#8 Montana St (8%) vs Texas Tech – 12:45 PM CDT on TNT
#9 Yale (12%) vs Purdue – 1 PM CDT on TBS
#10 Wright St (5%) vs Arizona – 6:27 PM on truTV
SATURDAY
We began the tournament with 23 NBK hopefuls, and the First Four whittled that down to 20. After day one of round one, only 10 remain. These NBK rankings and game odds will change and be recalculated again Saturday morning, based on Friday’s results.
Murray St (78%) vs Saint Peter’s (22%) for a berth in the Sweet Sixteen, the first in either’s history, and graduation from the list of the Never Been Kissed forever. We’ll have to fire up the NBK supercomputer and go through the annals to see if we’ve ever had anyone with a 78% chance of making it.
Data courtesy Kenpom.com and Basketball Reference