The Latest: Cincy leads Iowa despite Cumberland's slow start
The Latest on the first round of the NCAA Tournament (all times Eastern):
12:35 a.m.
The first round of the NCAA Tournament is complete.
Ohio State beat Iowa State in the Midwest Region, then Virginia Tech held off a comeback attempt by Saint Louis in the East Region to reduce the 68-team field to 32 teams.
The 11th-seeded Buckeyes beat the sixth-seeded Cyclones 62-59. And the fourth-seeded Hokies beat the 13th-seeded Billikens 66-52 with point guard Justin Robinson returning from a foot injury sustained in late January.
The first tickets to the Sweet 16 go out Saturday.
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12:05 a.m.
Tacko Fall had 13 points, 18 rebounds and five blocks to lead ninth seeded UCF to its first-ever tournament victory with a 73-58 win over No. 8 seed VCU.
The win sets up a match Sunday with overall top seed Duke and its transcendent freshman star Zion Williamson. It also pits Knights coach Johnny Dawkins against his alma mater, where he led Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski’s first Final Four team in 1986.
Fall played a big role for UCF, using his 7-foot-6 frame to continually thwart the Rams (25-8) around the rim. The Knights (24-8) made the NCAAs for the first time in 14 years and won for the first time in five appearances.
Malik Crowfield had 11 points to lead the Rams.
— Pete Iacobelli from Columbia, South Carolina
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11:35 p.m.
North Carolina overcame its first-half struggles to advance against Iona, ensuring there would be no repeat of a 16-vs-1 upset.
The Midwest Region’s No. 1 seed trailed by five at half against Iona before dominating the second half to win 88-73, earning a trip to Sunday’s second round to face ninth-seeded Washington.
UNC was the last of the four No. 1 seeds to complete play. Gonzaga won easily in Thursday’s first round, though fellow Atlantic Coast Conference top seeds Duke and Virginia both had to rally from early deficits to win their games.
That leaves last year’s Cavaliers as the lone 1-seed to lose to a No. 16 in tournament history.
Cameron Johnson had 21 points while freshman Nassir Little had 19 off the bench for UNC, which shot 63 percent after halftime. Iona also cooled off, making just 5 of 20 3-pointers in the second half after going 10 of 21 in the first half.
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11:20 p.m.
After three double-digit seeds won to open the day in San Jose, California, Virginia Tech brought some sanity to the site.
The fourth-seeded Hokies raced out to a fast start and led No. 13 seed Saint Louis 40-18 at the half. The Hokies also got back point guard Justin Robinson, who has been sidelined with a foot injury since late January. He didn’t start but had five first-half points in 11 minutes.
Earlier in the day, No. 13 seed UC Irvine beat fourth-seeded Kansas State, 12th-seeded Oregon knocked off No. 5 seed Wisconsin, and No. 12 seed Liberty upset fifth-seeded Mississippi State.
The only time four double-digit seeds won on the same day at the same location came in 2008, when No. 12 seeds Villanova and Western Kentucky and No. 13 seeds San Diego and Siena all won games in Tampa, Florida.
— Josh Dubow from San Jose, California
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10:55 p.m.
UCF scored the last 10 points of the first half to take a 34-24 lead over VCU at the break Friday night in the East Region.
The No. 9 seed Knights (23-8) are in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005, but haven’t shown jitters.
After a four-minute scoring drought, Terrell Allen and Frank Bertz hit back-to-back 3-pointers for UCF.
No. 8 VCU (25-7) shot 29 percent (8 of 28) in the first half.
The winner gets Duke, the No. 1 seed in the East on Sunday.
— Jeffrey Collins reporting from Columbia, South Carolina.
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10:35 p.m.
For the third time Friday, a No. 16 seed is causing headaches for a No. 1 seed from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Iona hit 10 first-half 3-pointers to build a 38-33 lead on North Carolina in the Midwest Region. The Tar Heels shot just 33 percent in the first half and hit just 3 of 13 attempts from beyond the arc.
Rickey McGill led the way with 12 first-half points for Iona, making all four of his 3-pointers.
Coby White and Nassir Little each have eight points for North Carolina.
The Tar Heels, who lost to Duke in the ACC Tournament semifinals, are a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs for a record 17th time.
Earlier, Virginia had to rally against 16-seed Gardner-Webb in the South Region, while top-seeded Duke had a small halftime lead before blowing things open against North Dakota State in the East Region.
— Mitch Stacy reporting from Columbus.
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10:25 p.m.
Liberty added to the haul for the No. 12 seeds.
The Flames beat No. 5 seed Mississippi State 80-76 in the first round of the East Region in San Jose. It marked the third upset of the day at the site, with fellow No. 12 seed Oregon beating 5-seed Wisconsin and No. 13 seed UC Irvine upsetting No. 4 seed Kansas State.
Going back to Thursday’s win by Murray State against Marquette, the NCAA says it marks the fifth time the tournament has had three of the four 12-seeds upset a No. 5.
The last time came in 2014.
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9:20 p.m.
Zion Williamson scored 25 points and put on a second-half highlight show as top-seeded Duke overcame a sluggish start to overwhelm 16th-seeded North Dakota State 85-62 in the East Region.
The Blue Devils led just 31-27 at halftime when Williamson came out on fire. He drove on two defenders for a layup and was fouled. When he missed the free throw, he got the rebound for a power slam. Moments later, Williamson ran down his own steal, dribbled behind his back for a remarkable layup that put Duke ahead 40-27.
RJ Barrett also had 25 points to give Duke two players with 20 points or more in their NCAA Tournament debuts since Mark Alarie and Johnny Dawkins did it in 1984. Duke will face either No. 8 seed VCU or ninth-seeded UCF (coached by Dawkins) on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16.
— Pete Iacobelli reporting from Columbia, South Carolina
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8:40 p.m.
Zion Williamson had a dribble-behind-his-back-after-chasing-down-his-own-steal layup and a thunderous dunk on his own missed free throw just in the first three minutes of the second half.
The 6-foot-7, 285-pound freshman outran 5-foot-11 190-pound Vinnie Shahid of North Dakota State for the ball after he tipped it for a steal.
He then dribbled behind his back, briefly losing and regaining his balance with a hand on the floor. That cleared room for Williamson to get to the lane and go up and under for a layup that gave the Blue Devils a 40-27 lead over the Bison.
Two possessions earlier, Williamson drove between two defenders and was fouled as he made a layup. He missed the free throw, but rebounded the miss and put it back with a monster dunk.
Williamson has 23 points on 11 of 14 shooting in his NCAA Tournament debut.
— Jeffrey Collins reporting from Columbia, South Carolina.
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8:25 p.m.
It’s been a good day for double-digit seeds so far in San Jose, California.
After 13th-seeded UC Irvine and No. 12 Oregon won in the afternoon session Friday, 12th-seeded Liberty got off to a strong start against No. 5 seed Mississippi State in a first-round matchup in the East Region.
The Flames made three 3-pointers early in the game and hung with the Bulldogs through the half, trailing 37-35 at halftime.
Liberty is 0-3 all-time in the tournament.
— Josh Dubow reporting from San Jose, California.
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8:10 p.m.
The Zion Williamson show in the NCAA Tournament is getting off to a little bit of a ragged start, at least for his Duke team.
The No. 1 seed Blue Devils lead No. 16 North Dakota State 31-27 at halftime Friday in the first round of the East Region.
Williamson has 10 points, including a thundering dunk that finally gave Duke the lead after they trailed for nine minutes. RJ Barrett also has 10 points for the Blue Devils.
North Dakota State’s Vinnie Shahid leads all scorers with 15. The junior averages 13 points a game.
— Jeffrey Collins reporting from Columbia, South Carolina.
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8 p.m.
Washington started pulling away from Utah State late in the first half for a 40-28 lead at the break. The Huskies have the Pac-12’s player of the year in Jaylen Nowell and the top defensive player in Matisse Thybulle, and both have figured prominently.
Nowell has 11 points. Thybulle has five points, two blocks and three steals, including a steal and a dunk during a 13-3 run that closed the half.
Utah State has the first No. 8 seed in school history after winning 10 straight and 17 of 18 while taking the Mountain West title. The Aggies haven’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2002.
— Joe Kay reporting from Columbus, Ohio.
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7:45 p.m.
A short jumper after forcing his way through two defenders and a blocked shot straight into the Duke bench is how Zion Williamson’s first — and possibly only — NCAA Tournament started.
And it’s all being captured with a CBS camera dedicated solely to the Blue Devils’ freshman star.
CBS took the unprecedented step of adding a single camera tracking Williamson for the tournament. CBS coordinating producer of college basketball Marc Wolff said the network will track Williamson 24/7. The coverage began when CBS filmed Williamson during his Thursday practice session with a cameraman hired specifically to track one player.
Williamson at least provided a quick burst of material for the top-seeded Blue Devils against 16-seed North Dakota State.
He hit the shot inside after winning the tip. Then, as Sam Griesel tried to drive for the Bison, the 6-foot-7, 285-pound Williamson swatted his shot near the lane all the way to the Blue Devil bench.
Williamson scored six of Duke’s first 12 points. Yet North Dakota State jumped to a 12-5 lead and has stayed right with the Blue Devils late in the first half.
— Jeffrey Collins reporting from Columbia, South Carolina.
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7:10 p.m.
Yes, Jimmy Kimmel, Gonzaga really does exist.
A reporter on Friday brought the late-night comedian’s bit about whether the Spokane, Washington campus is for real straight to coach Mark Few. On a recent show, Kimmel called March Madness the time of year that brings together “63 real (teams) and one from a made-up college called Gonzaga.”
“It’s like egg nog. You hear about it once a year, then for 50 weeks, it disappears,” Kimmel said.
Because it’s nowhere near a major media market and has an enrollment around 5,200, Gonzaga is, in fact, easy to miss.
But Few batted down any conspiracy theory. Sort of.
“As long as they are talking about Gonzaga and the program, I think that’s probably a really, really good thing,” Few said.
But, back to the question: Does it really exist?
“I’m not going to go down the road on some silly little deal,” Few said. “But as long as he’s having fun with it, he can have fun with it.”
— Eddie Pells reporting from Salt Lake City.
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6:35 p.m.
Buffalo coach Nate Oats beat his former boss when the sixth-seeded Bulls topped Bobby Hurley and 11th-seeded Arizona State 91-74 in the West Region.
Hurley was Buffalo’s head coach during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons with Oats as an assistant before leaving to turn the Sun Devils around. The two shook hands and spoke briefly near the scorer’s table as time expired. Both coaches had said they weren’t thrilled about having to play each other.
The teams were tied at 14 in the first half before the Bulls went on a 17-5 run to take control.
Nick Perkins and Jeremy Harris each scored 21 points for Buffalo, which will play No. 3 seed Texas Tech on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16.
Zylan Cheatham scored 22 points for Arizona State.
— Cliff Brunt reporting from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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5:50 p.m.
A tumultuous season at Kansas has had an unexpected consequence: coach Bill Self has spent more on hair-care products.
“I’m not going to say I haven’t purchased Just For Men at some point in time over the last several months,” Self said to laughter Friday.
It’s been a rough season in Kansas, starting with the indefinite suspension of Silvio De Souza after his name surfaced in a federal probe into college basketball.
The Jayhawks also lost big man Udoke Azubuke to a season-ending wrist injury and senior guard Lagerald Vick left the team for personal reasons.
The attrition has forced Self to get creative with his lineups and coaching style, closing the season with four freshmen starting and a lineup he never would have expected at the start of the year.
“Sometimes the way we play in the past isn’t as available to us now, so we have to figure out different ways to do things,” Self said. “It’s been fun for me to try to tweak some things to get the most out of them.”
— John Marshall reporting from Salt Lake City.
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5:20 p.m.
Admiral Schofield had 19 points and No. 2 seed Tennessee held off a second-half rally by No. 15 seed Colgate for a 77-70 win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Jordan Bone added 16 points and Jordan Bowden 14 for Tennessee (30-5), which advanced to play Iowa on Sunday. The Hawkeyes beat Cincinnati earlier in the day.
The Raiders (24-11) erased a 42-30 halftime lead by Tennessee with an 11-2 run to tie the score midway through the second half and keep the game close after that.
Schofield hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give Tennessee a cushion with 45 seconds left, and Bone and Schofield followed up with a pair of foul shots each to extend the lead as Colgate ran out of time.
— Mitch Stacy reporting from Columbus, Ohio.
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5:15 p.m.
No. 1 seed Virginia avoided the ignominy of another first-round NCAA Tournament upset, rallying from 14 points down to beat No. 16 seed Gardner-Webb in the South Region.
The Cavaliers were the top overall seed last year but lost 74-54 to 16th-seeded UMBC. It was the first — and still the only — time in 35 years that a 1-seed has fallen in its opening game.
The Cavaliers trailed 30-16 with 6:42 left in the first half but rallied and cut the Runnin’ Bulldogs’ lead to six at halftime. Virginia then opened the second half with a 25-5 run that ended any ideas of another 1-and-done.
The Cavaliers used their trademark stifling defense to force 11 Gardner-Webb turnovers in the first 12 minutes after the break.
Virginia coach Tony Bennett told his team all season they needed to turn last year’s disaster into something positive.
— Jeffrey Collins reporting from Columbia, South Carolina.
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4:20 p.m.
Michigan State freshman Aaron Henry doesn’t know what all the fuss is about.
Tom Izzo’s heated exchange with him on the court during the Spartans’ first-round win over Bradley on Thursday has drawn wide attention on social media and from pundits opining about the coach’s fiery methods. But Henry said Friday that it was just Izzo being Izzo.
“No abuse was done. Nothing bad was done. It was just coaching,” he said. “That’s what he is, that’s his life, that’s his job. Coaching. You can’t be upset how he does it.”
TV cameras caught Izzo laying into Henry as he came off the court during a timeout, and players stepped in to separate the two in the team huddle. Izzo said after the game that he was upset with the level of effort Henry was playing with at the time.
“My parents loved my response. I didn’t show disrespect or fight back,” he said. “Not that I wanted to, which in this period in general, most people would have in this generation. Not me.”
Henry said he doesn’t doubt Izzo has faith in him. After all, he is a freshman starting for one of the top teams in the country and playing about 30 minutes a game the last month.
— Eric Olson reporting from Des Moines, Iowa.
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More AP college basketball: http://apnews.com/MarchMadness and http://twitter.com/AP_Top25
The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal.
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