NCAA tournament’s first day sees just 3 double-digit seeds pull upsets

• The evening session of the NCAA tournament’s first day produced a few more close games and a pair of double-digit upsets. Drake and Arkansas are moving on.
• Two seeds St. John’s and Tennessee also put up big numbers to move on to the second round.
• The tournament continues Friday with 16 more first-round games.

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Thursday’s late session of the NCAA tournament had a little more drama and some closer games than those that took place earlier in the day. A pair of double-digit seeds pulled off upsets to move on to the second round.

What went down in the South Region?

For the most part, like the afternoon session, the teams that were supposed to win did just that. Texas A&M didn’t have any real trouble with Ivy League champion Yale. The Aggies shot 60% in the first half, led by 11 at the break, and didn’t look back, winning 80-71. Buzz Williams’ team had lost five of their last seven games to end the regular season, but the first half Thursday, March 20, was the difference.

“Some people get confused on what we consider a good offensive half. We’ve had a lot of great offensive halves this year, but to what how we want to play, but we played pretty well in the first half,” Aggies guard Wade Taylor IV said. “We still had a couple things that we could’ve cleaned up, which we tried to do in the second half, but ultimately, we played to the game plan, and I think we executed pretty well.”

The Aggies will face 5-seed Michigan in the second round Saturday. The Tritons were a hot pick to pull an upset over the Big Ten tournament champs, but they fell behind early and never recovered. Also, in the South region, Auburn and Creighton won earlier games.

Who stood out in the West Region Thursday?

In the West, one of the better games took place as 10-seed Arkansas and 7-seed Kansas went back and forth all night. The Jayhawks, the preseason number one team in the country, turned the ball over six times in the final four minutes, allowing the Razorbacks to advance with a seven-point win.

“There’s stuff we’re still learning. We learned some stuff today, didn’t we boys?” Head coach John Calipari asked his players during the post-game press conference. “We learned some stuff today, and I told them after. So, there’s stuff going forward that are good for us. This was a good win. That was an NCAA tournament game, two teams battling it out, making shots, making plays, and we kind of got away from them in the very end.”

A mild upset took place in that part of the bracket as well. 11-seed Drake, who came in with a 30-3 record, jumped out to an early lead on the SEC’s Missouri Tigers and held them off late in a great game with the help of guard Bennett Stirtz. The Missouri Valley conference player of the year dropped 21 points to lead the Bulldogs to the second round. His teammate Mitch Mascari said it was just another day at the office.

“I expected this. This is why I came back. I knew that this was a possibility for us. Having Mac as a coach and his ability to not only find good players but get everybody together and fight for each other, it’s really special,” Mascari said.

There’s a showdown brewing between two legends

Drake will play Texas Tech as the Red Raiders beat 14-seed UNC Wilmington 82-72 late Thursday night. Also, in the West region, after a shaky first half where they trailed by seven, 2-seed St. John’s pulled away in the second half with a 27-8 start. That win sets up a showdown Saturday between two legendary coaches—John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks against Rick Pitino’s St. John’s Red Storm.

Another 2-seed, Tennessee, had it easy. They dominated Wofford behind six three-pointers from senior guard Chaz Lanier who finished with 29. Tennessee was the SEC tournament runner-up, a conference that had a record 14 teams in the tournament.

The Vols have a date with UCLA in the next round. The 7-seed used some great defense to start the second half against Utah State to separate themselves.