2018 NCAA Tournament Round One, Day Two Recap: Absolute Mayhem

2018 NCAA Tournament
UMBC Retrievers celebrate on the bench (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images North America)

Upsets, overtimes, crazy plays and key injuries highlighted day two of the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

Purdue pounds Cal State Fullerton, but loses Haas

The game itself wasn’t overly competitive as Purdue asserted control in the middle of the first half and won 74-48. The story of the game was Purdue losing star center Isaac Haas for the NCAA Tournament with a broken right elbow in the middle of the 2nd half. Losing Haas is a massive blow to the Boilermakers as back up freshman Matt Haarms will have to replace the 14.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game that Haas produced. Haarms is capable but star Carsen Edwards will have to put on his Superman cape for Purdue to live up to their seeding. Now a match up with in-state rival Butler just got a bit more challenging.

UNC downs Lipscomb after an early spirited effort

The defending champs started out their title defense with a resounding win over the Atlantic Sun Conference Tourney champs, Lipscomb. Lipscomb hung around with UNC and was leading with less than 4 minutes in the first half. UNC was led by Theo Pinson who nearly had a triple-double, finishing with 15 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in 35 minutes. He also had a block and a steal. Junior, Kenny Williams added 18 points for the Tar Heels.

Butler handles Arkansas

Butler jumped out to a 21-2 lead early in the 1st half, but Arkansas rallied before the Bulldogs asserted control in the 2nd half for a 79-62 win. Kelan Martin lead the Bulldogs with 27 points and Kamar Baldwin added 24 as Butler finally put a blemish on the SEC’s early dominance in the NCAA tourney. Arkansas was 4-18 from 3 point land, which sunk any hope the Razorbacks had. Butler has won at least one game in four straight NCAA Tournaments, this one in the team’s first season under coach LaVall Jordan. Now they’ll play Purdue in a Hoosier showdown.

West Virginia too much for upstart Murray State

Jevon Carter filled out the stat sheet with 21 points, 8 assists, and 6 rebounds as the Mountaineers downed the Ohio Valley conference champs. Murray kept it relatively close and inched to within 5 points in the second half before WVU put them to bed with a 9-1 run sparked by Carter. Next up, West Virginia takes on in-state rival Marshall. Earlier this season, Bob Huggins stated he didn’t want to engage in a yearly game with The Herd suggesting they weren’t really rivals. Cannot wait for this matchup.

Nevada tops Texas in an Overtime Thriller

Nevada’s Caleb Martin scored 18 points to lead the Wolfpack to an overtime win over the Longhorns. Martin made two huge 3-pointers in overtime as Nevada rallied from being down 14 points for an 87-83 victory. This is the Wolfpack’s first NCAA Tournament victory since 2007. Nevada tied the game at 68 when Jordan Caroline hit one of two free throws with 3.8 seconds left in regulation. The Wolf Pack came back again after trailing by five early in an overtime session that featured 34 combined points. The Martin twins, Caleb and Cody combine for 32 total points to power Nevada. Texas, a team that many didn’t think belonged in the tournament was lead by Kerwin Roach’s career effort of 26 points. Star freshman Mo Bamba had a solid game with 13 points and 14 rebounds, which is probably his last in a UT uniform as he is projected to be a top 10 pick in the upcoming NBA draft.

Texas A&M takes down Providence 73-69

In a classic 7-10 matchup this game wasn’t well played in the 1st half as Texas A&M started the game 0-10 on FGs and Providence’s hacked their way to early foul trouble. Billy Kennedy’s A&M team somehow ended the half up one on the Friars. In the second half, Texas A&M ran off a 12-2 run to break a 50-all tie with about 9 minutes left and finally asserted control over Providence.

A&M relied on their bigs, Tyler Davis who had 14 points and 15 rebounds and Robert Williams who added his own double-double. Davis and Williams combined to outrebound Providence as a team. A&M now has a date with defending champ UNC.

Cincinnati pulls away from Georgia State for a 15 point win

Cincinnati relied on 27 points and 11 rebounds from Jarron Cumberland to hold off a pesky Georgia State team, 68-53. D’ Marcus Simonds, the Sun Belt Conference player of the year, scored Georgia State’s first 16 points, but was locked up the rest of the way, accumulating 24 total points. UC recovered after blowing a 10 point lead in the 2nd half. The turning point in the game was when Gary Clark, the American Athletic Conference player of the year, put Cincinnati back in front of GSU by nailing a 3-pointer with 9:02 left which triggered a run that gave the Bearcats a 56-47 edge with 6:19 remaining.

Marshall upsets Wichita State to set up a Coal Country Showdown

In the biggest upset of the morning session, Marshall behind the performance of Jon Elmore upset Wichita State 81-75, for their first NCAA tournament win in 62 years. This matchup highlighted an individual duel between Elmore and WSU’s Connor Frankamp, who delivered 27 points, which was good for a career high.

Head coach Dan D’ Antoni, the younger brother of Mike D’ Antoni of the Houston Rockets, delivered maybe the quote of the tournament so far, courtesy of the Associated Press.

“I like our style. I like our kids. Our kids fit the style real well,” D’Antoni said. “They’re hustlers. They put their heart on the line, and usually I’m pretty good at quotes. But I’m so excited I’m losing my mind! I don’t know, I’m just happy where we are and I’m never at a loss for words. Hell, I’m at a loss for words.”

Wichita State outrebounded the Thundering Herd 44-30, with Rashard Kelly grabbing 12. But the Shockers also committed 15 turnovers, which led to 27 points for Marshall.

Evening Games:

Kansas State drops Creighton

Barry Brown of KSU took on the responsibility of guarding KSU transfer Marcus Foster (not a misprint) and helped lead the Wildcats to a win over the Bluejays 69-59. KSU, down leading scorer Dean Wade, won an NCAA tournament game for the first time since 2012 in the tough 8/9 game.

Florida State is too much early for Missouri

Florida State jumped out to a 22 point halftime lead and cruised to an unsuspecting and relatively easy win over Missouri, 67-54. This was only the second loss for the SEC in NCAA tournament play up to this point. Touted freshman Michael Porter Jr, in only his third game, had 16 point and 10 boards. This is likely his last game in a Tiger uniform as he’s projected to be a lottery pick in the upcoming NBA draft.

Syracuse squeaks past TCU

The Syracuse Orange, a team many expected to not be in the field of 68, has now won two games by taking out Jamie Dixon’s TCU squad 57-52. Frank Howard’s jumper with 1:27 remaining gave 11th-seeded Syracuse a commanding five-point lead. Marek Dolezaj scored 17 points before fouling out, and Syracuse utilized its famous 2-3 zone to stifle TCU.

Number 1 Seed Xavier easily handles Texas Southern

J.P. Macura scored 18 of his career-high 29 points in the first half, and Xavier beat 16 seeded Texas Southern 102-83. Trevon Bluiett added 26 points, and Kerem Kanter, brother is Ene Kanter tied his career-high with 24 for the Big East’s regular season champs.

Michigan State outlast Bucknell, 82-78

Miles Bridges scored 29 points and had a pivotal tip-in dunk that helped the Spartans hang on against Bucknell, from the Patriot League. Bucknell’s Zach Thomas (27 points) went head to head with Bridges but was outdueled.

Bridges had a little bit of help from fellow sophomore Josh Langford who added 20 points. Next up for MSU, a date with play in-game survivor, Syracuse.

College of Charleston falls short against Auburn

Cold shooting Auburn broke a tie with 1:17 left in the game with a late 3 pointer from Jared Harper which shifted the Tigers to a 62-58 victory. Mustapha Heron scored 16 points for Auburn (26-7), which shot only 35.6 percent overall (21 of 59) and just 20.8 percent from 3-point range (5 of 24). Harper finished 1 of 7, but his lone field goal was the difference.

Clemson knocks off Upset-Minded New Mexico State

Before the season started, many people predicted UNC and Duke to advance per usual. However, no one expected the third strongest ACC team in the NCAA Tournament would be the Clemson Tigers. Behind hot shooting from Gabe Devoe and Shelton Mitchell, Clemson helped complete the sweep of 5 seeds knocking off 12 seeds for the first time since 1997. NMSU was known as one of the best defensive teams in the country but Clemson executed perfectly on offense for a 79-68 win. NMSU drew within 6 points in the second half but couldn’t get a big stop down the stretch to threaten Clemson.

UMBC demolishes #1 Overall Seed Virginia

The impossible happened. DeAndre Hunter’s injury was a problem and no one can deny it now, as the University of Maryland Baltimore-County Retrievers demolished UVA in arguably the largest upset in sports history, 74-54. This is not a misprint.

The game was tied at 21 a piece at the half and everyone expected UVA to make adjustments to put away the Retrievers. It just didn’t happen, as UMBC never trailed in the 2nd half. Jairus Lyle led the way for UMBC with 28 points. Lyles scored 23 of his 28 in the 2nd half.

According to David Hale of ESPN, KJ Maura of UMBC had a fun time playing against the Virginia bigs.

“I love it, I love it,” Maura said of toying with UVA’s big men. “That’s been me my whole life. I have to prove myself every time I step on the court. Height’s never meant anything to me. It’s heart over height.”

This is March Madness.

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