A first round of March Madness that isn’t particularly mad only means good things as the tournament spills into the future. After a mild Thursday, we saw a couple more upsets through Friday’s slate of games, but most of the favorites lives to fight another day headed into this weekend’s second round.
March Madness scores 2017: USC pulls off the first major upset, while No. 1 seeds annihilate opening games
Day 2 of March Madness was a little bit better, and we’re set up for even better drama later on.
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The main exception was No. 6 SMU, who fell in a 66-65 loss to the USC Trojans. USC had only earned their way into the tournament through a First Four play-in game, and they trailed by eight points at halftime, but they roared back and survived SMU’s potentially game-winning floated that fell just short at the buzzer.
The Wichita State Shockers knocked off the Dayton Flyers on Friday, as well — a 7-10 upset that wouldn’t necessarily stand out every March Madness, but did in this upset starved one. One more upset many pundits saw coming was Rhode Island, whose last loss came in early February. They knocked off the No. 6 Creighton Bluejays, who were also widely seen as overseeded, in an 84-72 win.
Top seeds acquitted themselves well. The North Carolina Tar Heels and the Kansas Jayhawks — both No. 1s — won by a combined 77 points, both blowing out their No. 16 opponents by nearly 40. Another favorite, Duke, allowed Troy to hang around into the second half before smacking them in a 87-65 opening game, while the Lonzo Ball-led UCLA Bruins did the same against Kent State.
Ball suffered a bruised hip near the end of the first half on a hard fall to the floor, but he powered through the minor injury despite that. He finished with 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting with three assists, while T.J. Leaf led the team with 23 points and six rebounds. Aaron Holiday also added 15 points and 11 assists off the bench.
The Seton Hall Pirates had an unfortunate early dismissal in part thanks to a questionable flagrant foul call. Here it is, and we’ll let you decide.
Highlights and updates from the entire day of action can be found here. If you’re just looking for a complete and freshly updated bracket, please see here.
Every final score from Friday
(1) Kansas 100, (16) UC Davis 62
(1) North Carolina 103, (16) Texas Southern 64
(2) Duke 87, (15) Troy 65
(3) Oregon 93, (14) Iona 77
(2) Louisville 78, (15) Jacksonville State 63
(6) SMU 65, (11) USC 66
(3) Baylor 91, (14) New Mexico State 73
(6) Cincinnati 75, (11) Kansas State 61
(7) Dayton 58, (10) Wichita State 64
(7) Michigan 92, (10) Oklahoma State 91
(8) Arkansas 77, (9) Seton Hall 71
(6) Creighton 72, (11) Rhode Island 84
(3) UCLA 97, (14) Kent State 80
(7) South Carolina 93, (10) Marquette 73
(8) Miami 58, (9) Michigan State 78
(2) Kentucky 79, (15) Northern Kentucky 70
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