After day one of March Madness, some fans went to sleep well knowing their team would be moving on to the second round. While other fans would be kept up for hours sulking in the heartbreak that surrounds an early tournament exit. However, There were still 16 games to be played. So fans of the remaining 32 teams would go to bed still holding onto the hopes of making a deep run into the tournament. Dreaming of their teams Cinderella run through the bracket.
Day two added even more excitement to the already exhilarating tournament. While many of the top teams took care of business on day two, there were still plenty of upsets. Over the course of the 16-game slate on Friday, we saw six total upsets. This includes two 12-seed victories over five-seeds.
Day two upsets
Day two saw its fair share of upsets. We saw a total of six upsets throughout the Friday slate of games. Starting with two nine seeds upsetting eight seeds. First, Northwestern was victorious over FAU by a score of 77-65. The next nine-seed upset was Texas A&M beating Nebraska 98-83. It was a great shooting night for the Aggies, who shot 56.5% from the three-point line in this game.
On Friday there was one ten-seed who upset a seven-seed. The Colorado Buffaloes beat the Florida Gators by a score of 102-100 in a shoot-out of a game. Junior Florida guard, Walter Clayton Jr. had an outstanding game scoring 33 points on 10-17 shooting. However, it wasn’t enough as five Buffaloes finished with 12 or more points. The Buffaloes shot 63% from the field on their way to this two-point victory.
Over the course of Friday’s slate of games, we saw two 12-seeds upset five seeds. The first was James Madison who took down Wisconsin 72-61. James Madison held Wisconsin to just 37.3% shooting from the field in this game. The second 12-seed to capture an upset was Grand Canyon who took down Saint Mary’s 75-66. This was Grand Canyon’s first-ever tournament win in school history.
The only 13-seed upset we got on Friday was Yale over four-seeded Auburn 78-76. Junior guard John Poulakidas led the way for the Yale Bulldogs with 28 points on a 10-15 shooting night that included hitting six out of nine three-point attempts.
Sadly we did not see any 14,15, or 16-seed upsets on day two of the tournament.
Top seeds dominated on day two
Day two of March Madness gave us three of the one-seeds. All three of the one-seeds who played on Friday were able to come away with victories. It started with UConn dominating Stetson by a score of 91-52. Stetson shot an abysmal 15% from the three-point line in this match-up. The second one-seed to handle their business on day two was Purdue, who took down Grambling 70-58. Purdue star Zach Edey scored 30 points and hauled in 21 rebounds in this game. The final one-seed to play in the first round was Houston who will advance to the round of 32 with a win over Longwood 86-46. Houston did not allow a Longwood player to score more than ten points in the game.
Marquette was the only two-seed that played on Friday. The Golden Eagles did what was expected of them and will be advancing to the round of 32 with a victory over Western Kentucky. Marquette was led in this game by junior guard Kam Jones who scored 28 points on 10-16 from the field.
Only one three-seed played as well in Friday’s slate of games. The three seed was Baylor who came out with a win over Colgate by a score of 92-67. It was a dominating team performance that propelled Baylor to this victory. The Bears shot an outstanding 53.3% from the three-point line and 57.9% from the field.
Other favorites who handled business
When it comes to four-seed handling business, we had two of them on Friday. First, Duke came out with a comfortable win over Vermont 64-47. In this match-up, Vermont was held to just 38.5% shooting from the field and 25% from the three-point line. The second four-seed to move onto the second round was Alabama who took down Charleston 109-96 in the highest-scoring game on Friday. Charleston had six players score double-digit points. However, it was not enough to take down Alabama and Mark Sears who had an outstanding day scoring 30 points.
There was only one five-seed who was able to come out on top Friday. This was San Diego State who squeaked past UAB 69-65. San Diego State was led by senior forward Jaedon LeDee who scored 32 points on an impressive 11-18 from the field.
In the six vs 11-seed game, we saw sixth-seeded Clemson top the 11-seeded New Mexico 77-56. It was a bad shooting night for New Mexico which was ultimately the difference in this game. Clemson shot 33.3% from the three-point line. While New Mexico shot a horrendous 13% from the three-point line.
The final higher-seeded team to handle business on Friday was eight-seeded Utah State who took down nine-seeded TCU 88-72. It was a great defensive effort on the part of Utah State that helped them to move on to the second round. While Utah State shot 55% from the field, they held TCU to just 35.8% from the field.
Round two and beyond
This concludes the March Madness day two recap. The first round has now concluded. This means 32 teams will move on to the second round with hopes of making the Sweet 16 while 32 other teams will be heading home with thoughts of what could’ve been. Saturday and Sunday will determine which of the first-round winners will be moving on to the Sweet 16. So don’t go anywhere folks, there’s still a ton of basketball to be played. Keep an eye out this weekend for recaps of the second round of March Madness.
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