March Madness 2017 results: Scores, bracket news, and more from Thursday

Follow Friday’s NCAA tournament action in our live blog here. Below is Thursday’s live blog.

The first round of the NCAA tournament started around lunchtime on the East Coast on Thursday, and it continued deep into the night. This post has been a live, updated file about everything exciting happening at tournament sites across the country. You can read back on it as a sort of running diary of March Madness’ first full day.

Our live NCAA tournament bracket is right here, also updated throughout the tournament. Live streaming of every game for the rest of the spring is available here, via the NCAA’s website. An updating NCAA basketball scoreboard is here. Final scores from Thursday:

Notre Dame 60, Princeton 58
Virginia 76, UNC Wilmington 71
Gonzaga 66, South Dakota State 46
Butler 76, Winthrop 64
West Virginia 86, Bucknell 80
Florida 80, East Tennessee State 65
Middle Tennessee 81, Minnesota 72
Northwestern 68, Vanderbilt 66
Xavier 76, Maryland 65
Villanova 76, Mount St. Mary’s 56
Purdue 80, Vermont 70
Saint Mary’s 85, VCU 77
Wisconsin 84, Virginia Tech 74
Florida State 86, Florida Gulf Coast 80
Iowa State 84, Nevada 73
Arizona 100, North Dakota 82

The most recent updates are up here at the top of your page.

12:38 a.m. ET, Friday

And, we’re out. Arizona’s going through, and the Wildcats became the first team of the tournament to join the 100-point party.

11:58 p.m. ET

Wisconsin and Florida State are officially through to the round of 32. Iowa State and Arizona will be shortly, and we’ll wrap a mostly upset-less day of basketball.

11:34 p.m. ET

Please say a few words for Florida Gulf Coast guard Brandon Goodwin, who tried to drop a ferocious dunk on Florida State and was struck down by a force field.

11:19 p.m. ET

Wisconsin-Virginia Tech is a good one, the 8-9 meeting in the East region. They’re in what’s currently a one-possession game, over on CBS.

11:08 p.m. ET

It’s starting to look like we’ll go the entire day without any serious upsets. No. 12 Middle Tennessee’s win against No. 5 Minnesota sort of qualifies, but a lot of people expected it, and the Blue Raiders are quite good. The same logic applies to No. 11 Xavier’s win against No. 6 Maryland. These are UINOs (upsets in name only).

Princeton and UNC Wilmington got close in the early slate, and Bucknell gave West Virginia a respectable run. Florida Gulf Coast probably isn’t going to catch Florida State.

March Madness has been more March Ordinariness so far.

10:51 p.m. ET

Iowa State’s up 40-27 on Nevada at halftime, and it doesn’t look like we’re in for an upset there. Deonte Burton also pulverized a rim.

Arizona looks like it won’t struggle with North Dakota. Our two interesting games remaining, then, are Florida State-Florida Gulf Coast and Wisconsin-Virginia Tech. Both of those should be competitive as the second halves get farther along.

10:28 p.m. ET

The most disrespectful dunk of the day comes courtesy of Florida State’s Dwayne Bacon.

But Florida Gulf Coast is very much in that game.

10:04 p.m. ET

We’ve now reached the night shift, which is a great shift.

These games are all just started or getting started about now.

Florida State vs. Florida Gulf Coast
Wisconsin vs. Virginia Tech
Arizona vs. North Dakota
Iowa State vs. Nevada

9:56 p.m. ET

VCU’s a tough out in March, but Saint Mary’s got it done. The Gaels ensured that the WCC’s going to have two teams in the round of 32, which is pretty great for a mid-major conference even if one of those teams is Gonzaga.

9:30 p.m. ET

Purdue’s through to the round of 32. Vermont put up a nice fight.

9:20 p.m. ET

Villanova wound up cruising past Mount St. Mary’s, 76-56. In the last five years, the average margin of victory for No. 1 seeds against 16s is 20.6 points. After both trailed early on Thursday, both won by exactly 20 points.

9:02 p.m. ET

Xavier’s through to the round of 32. The Musketeers dominated Maryland in the second half, and Melo Trimble’s college career is maybe finished. We’ll see.

8:41 p.m. ET

Xavier’s Trevon Bluiett is 6-of-7 and has 16 points (in the second half) against Maryland.

8:35 p.m. ET

Villanova is going to win tonight.

8:31 p.m. ET

It’s starting to look like Xavier will beat Maryland. The Terps hadn’t scored in five minutes while Xavier got on a 14-0 run. It’s a nine-point game.

8:22 p.m. ET

Vermont’s hanging with Purdue, down just a point at halftime. But the Catamounts lost senior guard-forward Kurt Steidl to an apparently bad knee injury. That’s terrible.

8:01 p.m. ET

Villanova is now performing more like you’d expect.

Still, it’s just 30-29, Nova, at the half against Mount St. Mary’s. The Mountaineers would become the first 16th seed to ever beat a No. 1 if they could pull this thing off.

I think that’s unlikely to happen, still.

7:44 p.m. ET

No. 13 Vermont is out to an early lead over No. 4 Purdue in the Midwest.

7:42 p.m. ET

This Maryland-Xavier game is going to be pretty good, I think. I went to Maryland, so if it’s close, I won’t enjoy it myself. But the halftime score is 36-35, Terps. The offenses have been good, and Xavier’s doing things like this:

7:36 p.m. ET

Mount St. Mary’s is beating Villanova!

(After 12 minutes or so, 16-11.)

We can all keep an eye on this, though it’s much too early for Nova fans to panic.

7:20 p.m. ET

The end of that Northwestern-Vanderbilt game sure was bananas, wasn’t it? The last 96 seconds featured six lead changes and one brutal mental error on the part of Vanderbilt’s Matthew Fisher-Davis. Quite a game, though.

We’re now on to the night shift. Maryland-Xavier (in the first half) and Saint Mary’s-VCU are the games of the moment, if you don’t want to watch Villanova play No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s in the East region.

6:44 p.m. ET

Northwestern won a thriller against Vanderbilt, after a baffling late foul by Vanderbilt guard Matthew Fisher-Davis. That’s the first tournament win, in the first tournament game, in Northwestern men’s basketball history.

6:27 p.m. ET

Flip over to TBS. Northwestern blew most of a big lead against Vanderbilt, and the Commodores are within four with 2:40 to play. The ‘Dores are blocking shots, too.

6:22 p.m. ET

No. 12 Middle Tennessee is moving on in the South region. The Blue Raiders beat No. 5 Minnesota in a non-upset upset, 81-72. They’ll play Butler on Saturday.

The Blue Raiders, you’ll recall, upset Michigan State when they were a 15th seed a year ago. Kermit Davis Jr.’s team is now officially good at the whole “NCAA tournament” routine, and they’ll be a threat to Butler. MTSU has won 11 in a row.

On another note, that was a pretty great bounce-back season for Richard Pitino’s Gophers. They were a disaster a year ago, and they’ve come a long way.

6:10 p.m. ET

Minnesota’s now pretty close to out of time: 10 points and about two minutes to make them up. Middle Tennessee will do this thing.

5:58 p.m. ET

Minnesota’s not done yet. The Gophers have their deficit against Middle Tennessee down to 7 with seven minutes to play.

5:51 p.m. ET

It certainly looks like we’ll have a No. 12 seed beat a No. 5. Middle Tennessee is putting it on Minnesota, and the Gophers, down 11 with nine minutes left, are short of time. This doesn’t feel like much of an upset, but it technically clears the bar to be our first.

5:26 p.m. ET

You’ll see Julia-Louis Dreyfus at lots of Northwestern games.

Why? Her son’s on the team. Charlie Hall is a sophomore walk-on for the Cats.

5:22 p.m. ET

It’s going well for Northwestern.

5:16 p.m. ET

Wanted to pass along video evidence of the Northwestern Wildcats playing in an NCAA tournament game. That’s a thing that’s happening. The first points:

Vanderbilt and the Wildcats are in a tight one, late in the first half.

5:12 p.m. ET

West Virginia survived what I’m not sure I’d call a “scare” against Bucknell, but the Mountaineers had to work for their first-round win. They’ll play Notre Dame on Saturday in what strikes me as an awfully fun second-round game.

If Notre Dame can break WVU’s press and get open three-point looks for Steve Vasturia and his friends, Mike Brey’s team will make another Sweet Sixteen. But that’s easier said than done, and WVU will have a good shot. Seems like a tossup to me.

Florida is going to win against ETSU, so, still: no real upsets so far.

5:02 p.m. ET

4:47 p.m. ET

We’ve got a few interesting happenings at the moment. Bucknell still in its game against West Virginia, offering some chance at a 13-seed upset. East Tennessee State is within arm’s reach of Florida, though the Gators should be fine. And a fifth-seeded Minnesota is losing to No. 12 Middle Tennessee. That’s been a popular upset call.

4:30 p.m. ET

File Bucknell under “OK, this is very serious” at this point. The Bison have closed their deficit to 58-55 with about 12 minutes to play.

West Virginia’s still pressing, as West Virginia does. But after the video you’ll see below, Bucknell went on a 10-4 run to get close again.

4:28 p.m. ET

File Bucknell under “keeps hanging around” for right now.

4:20 p.m. ET

You get the feeling West Virginia will be fine against Bucknell. The Mountaineers have gotten ahead by 10 (give or take, depending on the possession), and it’s going to be hard for the Bison to string together enough points against a more talented defense that also pressures the ball relentlessly. East Tennessee State is the best upset candidate of the moment, and it’s not that close.

4:09 p.m. ET

Gonzaga did not lose.

4:06 p.m. ET

Florida is not having an easy time with East Tennessee State, the No. 13 seed in the East region. The Buccaneers have joined Bucknell as an upset threat, and they’re tied with the Gators, 30-30, with a little more than four minutes left in the first half.

Look at the Bucs, doing their thing:

3:43 p.m. ET

The Bucknell Bison have emerged as your best hope as a mid-afternoon upset. They’re hanging around within a score of the West Virginia Mountaineers, and center Nana Foulland already has 13 points in the first half. The Bison are the No. 13 seed to WVU’s No. 4 in the West region. If the Bison could pull it off, that’d be a big one.

3:31 p.m. ET

Do not worry about Gonzaga. The Zags have opened up a lead hovering around 10 points for the moment, and South Dakota State is missing layups and dealing with an injury to Michael Orris, a senior guard. Gonzaga will not lose today.

South Dakota State might keep things close, but there’s a reason 16th seeds do not beat No. 1s. It has never happened and will not this year.

3:20 p.m. ET

A trendy upset pick in some circles, No. 13 Winthrop is not going to beat No. 4 Butler in the South region. The Bulldogs had a dominant first half and will cruise home, helped by a big scoring day from guard Avery Woodson.

The Bulldogs are having some fun, too.

March is a Butler kind of month.

3:04 p.m. ET

In the West region, No. 1 Gonzaga is only up 26-22 at halftime against South Dakota State. The Jackrabbits have the country’s No. 2 scorer in forward Mike Daum, but Daum’s been kept in check, shooting 3-of-10 from the field with 7 points.

That Gonzaga struggled for 20 minutes is a little bit discouraging, but it doesn’t have to be a big deal. It’s unlikely that a 16th seed wins a game in this round. (Duh.)

2:55 p.m. ET

The Virginia Cavaliers, the East region’s No. 5 seed, got a significant scare from No. 12 UNC Wilmington. The Seahawks had a 28-14 lead in the first half, but Virginia erased it with a dominant run to end the half ahead, 30-29. UVA held on to win, 76-71.

It was a pretty hearty upset bid from UNC Wilmington, and it probably would’ve ended better if not for UVA’s senior point guard, London Perrantes. UNCW made a couple of miniature runs with Perrantes on the bench in the second half, but he was hugely effective when he was on the floor. He finished with 24 points and Mariel Shayok 23.

The Seahawks played hard ...

... but it’s hard to beat a team like Virginia. They shouldn’t feel ashamed.

Around 2:30 p.m. ET

No. 5 Notre Dame had a scare against No. 12 Princeton in the West region — the third year in a row a double-digit seed almost ended Notre Dame’s tournament early. But the Tigers missed a long three that would’ve won the game, and the Irish lived.

The play that almost won it for Princeton:

Early-round scares are a Notre Dame feature, not a bug:

In recent seasons, the Irish regularly had fights on their hands from lower-seeded tournament teams. The Irish made the Elite Eight in 2016 and 2015, but they never cruised there. They had to hold off a pesky 14th seed, Northeastern, for a four-point win in their first tournament game two years ago. They almost lost to another No. 14, Stephen F. Austin, in the round of 32 last year. The Irish were used to tests from potential (or real) Cinderellas, and Princeton was only the latest.