The best time of the year for hoop fans is upon us, with the NCAA Tournament tipping off yesterday.
As usual, there were the expected results - number one North Carolina made easy work of number 16 Wagner, 90-62, and two-seeded Tennessee trounced St. Peter's 83-49 - but there were also the customary upsets. The biggest was 14th-seeded Oakland University (Rochester, MI) upending Kentucky 80-76. In that game, Jack Gohlke came off the bench for the Golden Grizzlies and had the game of his life, 32 points on 10 made threes. It was a shocking loss for a Wildcat team that has just one NCAA Tournament win in five years.
Duquesne University led by double-digits most of the second half against sixth-seeded BYU. Dayton, a seven seed, was down to Nevada 56-39 with 7:36 to go but went on a 21-4 run to pull off the major comeback.
A big story of day one was what didn't happen late in Kansas' 83-79 win over 14-seeded Samford.
After the Bulldogs, trailing 90-86, won a jump ball with 22 seconds left, Jaden Campbell hit a three to make it a one-point game. At the other end, the Jayhawks' Nicholas Timberlake attempted a dunk, but was apparently fouled by AJ Staton-McCray as the attempt missed and Timberlake fell horizontal to the floor.
Replays, however, showed a clean block, an extraordinary effort by Staton-McCray to swipe the ball away with his left hand. Timberlake made both free-throws to put the Jayhawks up 92-89, and a last second attempt from Jermaine Marshall missed with five seconds left. Kansas secured the rebound and that was that.
If called clean, the play would have by no means given the Bulldogs the victory, as a score would have been needed in the final 14 seconds. However, a missed call on this big a stage is truly an unfortunate turn of events for Samford, a small school of 5,791 students in Homewood, AL. They may not have even converted on their final possession, but it would have been nice if they were at least given the opportunity to potentially win the game and upset on of college basketball's most storied programs.
Defending National Champion UConn (31-3) is in action on day two, as is the 2023 National Player of the Year, Purdue big man Zach Edey, as the 29-4 Boilermakers face 16-seed Grambling.
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