NCAA Tournament schedule and results: Duke, Wisconsin dominate Friday to advance

Second acts are hard, especially when what’s being followed is considered by many to be among the best pieces of work in the history of the field.

Thursday gave the college hoops world five one-point NCAA Tournament games on the same day for the first time ever, four double-digit seed winners, and eight games that came all the way down to a final shot. You have to give Day 2 credit for at least trying, but nearly becoming the first modern era (since tournament expansion in 1985) opening Thursday or Friday without a single upset wasn’t the type of history fans were hoping to see from the big dance’s first curtain call.

Scoochie Smith: best name, worst flop of the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

That three was followed up by a clutch Phillip rebound at the other end, and West Virginia moved on with a 68-62 win — its first since making the Final Four in 2011.

Wichita State, also no stranger to the Final Four, had a more back-and-forth affair on its hands with Indiana. The Shockers trailed at halftime, by five early in the second half, but clicked off 8-0 and 15-3 runs in the period.

It was the reliable trick to picking upsets in bracket pools: There had been a No. 12-over-No. 5 seed upset in every NCAA Tournament since 2007. Not this year, though, as No. 5 West Virginia’s triumph over No. 12 Buffalo on Friday finished a perfect first round for the No. 5s for just the second time this century, and only the fourth time since seeding began.

Traditionally, the No. 5 vs. No. 12 games have been ripe for upsets because No. 5 seeds tend to be power conference also-rans and No. 12s are often the lions of lesser leagues. But that wasn’t really the case this year: No. 5 Northern Iowa roared past No. 12 Wyoming, a team that needed to win its conference tournament to make the NCAA Tournament field. While both Utah and Arkansas fit the profile of good-but-streaky No. 5s, they had too much talent for Stephen F. Austin and Wofford on Thursday.

Wichita State and Indiana are locked up in one of the best games of Friday afternoon. The Shockers and Hoosiers have been going back and forth throughout the contest, with the winner getting a shot at No. 2 Kansas in the Round of 32. How badly does Wichita State want a victory? Big man Darius Carter is willing to play through a dislodged tooth!

As you can see from the video above, Carter returned to the game. Now the question becomes: where’s the tooth???

Georgia State head coach Ron Hunter has had himself quite the week. He first found himself in the news on Sunday, when the Panthers won the Sun Belt Tournament. Hunter tore his Achilles during the post-game celebration, but wasn’t about to miss his first NCAA Tournament game.

Hunter spoke with the media on Friday and had even more memorable quotes, showing himself to be a funny guy who’s kind of amused by the whole thing. Here are just a few of the best snippets, although the whole transcription is worth a read.

Time: 7:10 p.m. ET

Place: Time Warner Cable Arena, Charlotte, North Carolina

By the rulebook, this is a charge, because the defender’s feet were planted when the offensive player left his feet, and because the offensive player clearly crosses a vertical plane to connect with the defender, who remains upright.

In the rulebook of life, this dunk should’ve counted for 11,000 points and the defender should’ve been thrown into the back of a trunk and driven for hundreds of miles until he was far enough away that he could assume a new identity and start a new life.

You’ve watched Ron Hunter fall off his stool a 100 times. Now let R.J. re-enact it. It’s even better that way.

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Things are a different story at Indiana. The Hoosiers stumbled down the stretch, losing nine of their final 14 games and putting even more pressure on Tom Crean. Despite leading the Hoosiers to two straight Sweet 16 appearances not too long ago, Crean remains a polarizing figure in Bloomington, and losing to teams like Eastern Washington and Northwestern have not helped. Crean might survive another season, but a second-round tournament loss will give him almost no margin for error.

Time: 2:45 p.m. ET

Another day in the NCAA Tournament is underway. Can it equal the excitement of Thursday? If nothing else, this seems like a poor omen.

Update: