A foul that shouldn’t have been committed. A win for a college that had never even been to the NCAA tournament. An underhanded free throw, and one with a form that hurts to look at. Many great dog mascots. There’s no other way that this year’s March Madness could have started, and it’s why we love the tournament.
March Madness scores 2017: Northwestern stuns Vanderbilt, Xavier pulls off the only real upset vs. Maryland
Thursday provided wild moments but also many predictable results.
Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
Thursday’s most memorable game feature the Northwestern Wildcats vs. the Vanderbilt Commodres, and was won on a foul that never should have been committed. Up one with 20 seconds left, Vanderbilt’s Matthew Fisher-Davis fouled Northwestern’s Bryant McIntosh after he forgot the score. McIntosh is an 86-percent free throw shooter, and he calmly hit both shots to put the Wildcats ahead. Northwestern successfully played defense and came away with a 68-66 win.
Of course, Fisher-Davis’ foul stood out from an otherwise somewhat ordinary slate of games. His teammates — and even Northwestern’s own coach — all defended Fisher-Davis’ foul as an honest mistake, and several people correctly pointed out that Vanderbilt wouldn’t have made their second-half comeback without his contributions. Given Fisher-Davis scored 22 points, his most since Jan. 4, that’s absolutely true. Still, no one is denying that losing on a mistake like that is heartbreaking.
All that undersold Northwestern’s role in all this: the Wildcats are in the NCAA tournament for the first time in the school’s history, and now they’re undefeated. (Alright, they’re 1-0, but that’s still undefeated.)
Technically, the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders provided the tournament’s first upset — but MTSU was underseeded, Minnesota was overseeded, and it was no surprise when the Blue Raiders marched to a victory.
When the dust settled, only one other game technically counted as an upset — Xavier knocking off No. 6 Maryland. There was almost one more, with Princeton coming within a couple inches of beating Notre Dame. Instead, their potentially game-winning three-pointer clanked off the glass in a 60-58 finish.
Here are the scores from Thursday, and here’s a link to our live updating bracket with every result so far.
Every tournament score from Thursday
(4) West Virginia 86, (13) Bucknell 80
(5) Notre Dame 60, (12) Princeton 58
(4) Butler 76, (13) Winthrop 64
(5) Virginia 76, (12) UNC Wilmington 71
(5) Minnesota 72, (12) Middle Tennessee 81
(8) Northwestern 68, (9) Vanderbilt 66
(1) Gonzaga 66, (16) South Dakota State 46
(6) Maryland 65, (11) Xavier 76
(4) Purdue 80, (13) Vermont 70
(5) Iowa State 84, (12) Nevada 73
(1) Villanova 76, (16) Mount St. Mary’s 56
(7) Saint Mary’s 85, (10) VCU 77
(3) Florida State 86, (14) Florida Gulf Coast 80
(8) Wisconsin 84, (9) Virginia Tech 74
(2) Arizona 100, (15) North Dakota 82
(4) Florida 80, (13) East Tennessee State 65
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