NCAA Tournament Friday: March Madness scores, schedule, highlights and more

North Carolina’s Joel Berry II re-injured his ankle in the first half of the Tar Heels’ Elite Eight game against the no. 2 Kentucky Wildcats.

This has been an issue for Berry throughout the tournament. In the Tar Heels’ first round game against Texas Southern, Berry left the game but returned for the second half, but the injury continued to linger.

We’ve had ridiculous dunks, obliterating blocks, and even a broken basketball court. But now we’ve got a layup that would make even the games’ best players proud. It has shades of Kyrie Irving but there’s also a little of Michael Jordan and Julius Erving in there too.

The South Carolina players’ reactions here say it all. No. 15 with the surrender cobra!

We all know the students on the court during the NCAA tournament are great. But there is a group of students from the University of Dayton doing something pretty incredible off the court as well. Xueyin Shi and Yiqing Zhou are part of a five-member team who have been broadcasting UD basketball games in Mandarin all season long.

On Friday night, the team was on site to call the Dayton Flyers-Wichita State Shockers game.

Good substitute teacher or BEST substitute teacher?

This is how you win over the kids and shape their minds. There will be plenty of Fridays for them to learn science and things that will actually help them in life, so you might as well just steer into the swerve and make life easy as well.

Arkansas shooting guard Dusty Hannahs doesn’t have a name that stops you in your tracks, until you find out he’s named after Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker. It’s one of the more curious March Madness factoids, and has a fascinating story behind it.

Dusty’s father, Gerry Hannahs spent four years in the majors as a pitcher for the Montreal Expos and Los Angeles Dodgers. He first met Baker in a club following a game during his rookie season in Montreal. Hannahs pitched against Baker earlier in the day, and when Baker saw his opponent later that night he approached him. The Dodgers’ star congratulated Hannahs for a good game and complimented his pitching.

March isn’t just a month of madness, it’s one of ingenuity. People everywhere are trying to find a way to sneak watching the games at work or school, and these two guys might be running the best one-two play in the country.

With just a phone, a friend, and two strips of duct tape, a surprisingly elegant solution to a common problem. So long as nobody narcs to the teacher they should be able to get away with this one for most of the tournament.

Maybe! Judge for yourself.

To recap, Allen definitely was guilty of tripping opposing players two other times this season, first against Louisville and then against Florida State. Three is a trend and the Internet was eager to jump on Allen after Yale’s Makai Mason hit the deck in the second half.

Ever wonder what happens to mascots at security? We sure did. One would think that a mascot costume is the perfect way to sneak contraband into an arena, and it seems security feels the same way. Wichita State faces Miami in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday and the Shocker is being thoroughly wanded before entering the game.

This has all sorts of opportunities for a new line of sports erotic fiction. We saw it happen with Gronk, and now we can get such literary works as “Wanding the Shocker,” “Exploring Big Red” and “Ramses’ Horn.” It’s perfect.

The Cavaliers skipped through the first round with a starching of 16-seed Hampton. Senior Anthony Gill scored 19 points to lead Virginia to an 81-45 opening game rout. The only drama came when UVA coach Tony Bennett collapsed on the sideline late in the first half, an issue he’d later attribute to dehydration. The two-time ACC Coach of the Year later tweeted he was fine, and he should be ready to go for the team’s showdown with Butler.

Virginia will need its team and coach at full strength to better last year’s disappointing tournament result. The Cavs were picked as a potential Final Four team as a No. 2 seed in 2015, but suffered a 60-54 defeat to Michigan State in the round of 32. On Saturday, they can lock down their second Sweet Sixteen appearance in the last three seasons by beating the Bulldogs.

And then we get to two programs who have heard the word Cinderella more often than a Disney animator. Gonzaga and Wichita State showed off their tournament savvy by breezing to big wins as 11 seeds on Thursday. Standing between them and another Sweet Sixteen bid are three seeds Utah and Miami, respectively.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, three of the tournament’s top-seeded teams will also be in action. Connecticut and overall No. 1 Kansas will throw down in a game between two programs that have won four of the last 12 national championships. Nine seed Butler and one seed Virginia will light up the scoreboard behind two of the nation’s most efficient scoring attacks. And Providence, the team that graciously provided the world with some last minute magic by dropping USC with a last-ditch layup, will have a chance to avenge a 2014 tournament loss when it faces North Carolina in Raleigh.

What is it about Northern Iowa and signature March Madness moments? Six years ago, Ali Farokhmanesh vaulted the program onto the national stage by hitting countless big shots to upset UNLV and mighty Kansas on the way to the Sweet 16. For many, that was the defining image of that year’s tournament.

Six years later, Paul Jesperson stepped into the spotlight. His long heave from one step beyond half-court gave the 11th-seeded Panthers a 75-72 buzzer-beating win over No. 6 Texas in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament. In the process, he vaulted himself past Farokhmanesh -- who’s known for hitting a few big shots rather than a single buzzer beater -- in the program’s lore.

St. Joseph’s 78, Cincinnati 76, final.

Remember how the Bearcats lost their last game, a four-overtime affair in the AAC Tournament that included a 70-foot buzzer-beater in triple OT? Yeah, March is not always a kind month.

The shot is even better when you add in the call from the UNI announcer.

That is just a solid minute of nonstop one-liners. Each and every one required to properly describe the shot and the moment. A prayer was answered. Giants killers. I love this team. It was all just pure bliss.

Stephen F. Austin is a much better team than its No. 14 seeding might indicate. The Lumberjacks ran the table in the Southland, demolishing every conference opponent on their way to a 27-5 overall record. For that reason (and many more), the Lumberjacks were one of our favorite picks to pull an upset in the NCAA Tournament.

The Lumberjacks didn’t disappoint on Friday, knocking off No. 3 West Virginia, 70-56. This wasn’t your typical mid-major upset win, either -- Stephen F. Austin was ruthlessly physical, beating the Mountaineers’ press defense over and over while playing tough defense of its own.

Cal revived its program by nabbing two top-10 recruits and completing its best conference record since 2012-13. Now it’s their chance to prove they are good enough to make an impact in the NCAA Tournament behind a solid veteran core and two potential NBA lottery picks out of the freshman class. Their opposition is a solid Hawaii team with nothing to lose and a chance to shock the world in its first time dancing since 2001-02.

Hawaii won the Big West crown largely thanks to the play of the Conference Player of the Year Stefan Jankovic. The versatile big man can score inside and out and has nice pick-and-roll chemistry with Roderick Bobbitt. There’s some shooting in the roster but the Rainbow Warriors prefer to attack the basket and get to the free throw line, ranking No. 16 in the NCAA in free throw attempts. If Jankovic can force the Bears’ centers to step outside, expect the rest of Hawaii’s players to venture to the paint as often as possible.