Live scores, updates and analysis from Day 2 of the N. C. A. basketball tournament.
Friday is Day 2 of the N. C. A. men’s basketball tournament. Follow here for scores and live analysis of who wins, who loses and who broke your bracket.
How to watch:CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV will broadcast the games starting at noon ET, and a livestream is available at NCAA.com. (Don’t know where to find TruTV? CBS figured you didn’t, so they made this helpful guide.)
There’s your first stunner: the California-Irvine Anteaters and their N. B. A. roots (see below) have beaten Kansas State, the fourth seed in the South.
Stop us if you’ve seen this before.
Could it really be happening again? A year ago, Virginia became the first No. 1 men’s seed to lose in the first round when it fell to Maryland-Baltimore County. This year, Virginia a No. 1 seed again and it is trailing again, this time to No. 16 Gardner Webb. The Runnin’ Bulldogs took a 26-14 lead with 7:40 left to play in the first half, and are playing with a lot of confidence.
But who are they, and where do they come from?
Gardner-Webb, which is in the N. C. A. tournament for the first time, is located 128 miles from Columbia, S. C., where Friday’s game is being played. It is just over the border in North Carolina, so the stands are packed with fans in red and black, and they are loving it. The Bulldogs have a swarming defense and they are feeding off the fan support. Gardner-Webb made 13 of its first 22 shots.
If the Cavaliers were not tight coming into the game, they look it now.
Third-seeded Texas Tech shook off a slow first half to roll past 14th-seeded Northern Kentucky in the West Region. Jarrett Culver, the Big 12 Player of the Year, scored 29 points on 10-for-17 shooting. The Red Raiders shot 53 percent from the field over all.
Gardner-Webb, the pride of Boiling Springs, N. C., is enjoying an early 26-14 lead over Virginia and the full-throated support of the Carolina-centric crowd in Columbia, S. C.
Florida State forward Phil Cofer found out his father had died minutes after the Seminoles’ 76-69 victory over Vermont in the first round on Thursday.
Florida State said Mike Cofer, a former N.F.L. linebacker, died after a long illness. The Seminoles said Cofer learned of his father’s death in a phone call during the open locker room period after Thursday’s. He broke down into tears.
Florida State Coach Leonard Hamilton did not know about the news when he spoke with reporters after the game, but he addressed the loss on Friday.
In one of the biggest first-round victories by a No. 9 seed in N. C. A. tournament history, Oklahoma blitzed No. 8 Mississippi, 95-72, in the South Region. Paced by four starters who scored at least 18 points, the Sooners raced to a 12-0 lead, went up by 17 at halftime and led by as many as 29 in the second half. Christian James and Rashard Odomes each had 20 points for Oklahoma. Terence Davis had 17 for the Rebels.
According to David Worlock, the N. C. A. A.’s director of media coordination/statistics, the Sooners’ 23-point margin of victory equaled Mississippi State’s over Stanford in 2005 and trailed only Purdue’s 24, over L. S. U in 2003, and Pittsburgh’s 29, over Colorado in 2014. Next up for Oklahoma is a likely date with No. 1 Virginia, which plays No. 16 Gardner-Webb Friday.
Sure, both were to end the first half. But UC-Irvine and Kansas State are tied at halftime, 30-30, after this Max Hazzard 3-pointer:
More of this type of drama please. Maybe try at the second-half buzzer next?
The Big Ten hasn’t won the N. C. A. tournament since Michigan State’s title in 2000, but it has had seven teams lose in the championship game since then.
In 2002, Maryland beat Indiana in the final, but the Terrapins, then in the A. C. C., weren’t a member of the Big Ten at the time.
After that, Illinois lost in 2005, Ohio State in 2007, Michigan State in 2009, Michigan in 2013, Wisconsin in 2015 and Michigan last year, to Villanova.
On the first day of the N. C. A. tournament, Big Ten teams went 5-0. The second day began with Iowa’s extending the conference’s run of dominance, as the Hawkeyes pulled away late from Cincinnati to win, 79-72, in the South Region.
After trailing by 13 points in the first half and by 5 at halftime, Iowa made seven 3-pointers in the second half, including one by Joe Wieskamp that powered an 8-0 run that extended the Hawkeyes’ lead to 73-64 with about a minute remaining.
“I thought our ball movement and the shots we got in the second half were better,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffrey said. “And we made them.”
Iowa advances to play either No. 2 Tennessee or No. 15 Colgate on Sunday. BEN SHPIGEL
With all due respect to the Norse (Northern Kentucky) and the Sun Devils (Arizona State), the best mascot in the N. C. A. tournament hails from California-Irvine.
“There are no other Anteaters anywhere,” Coach Russell Turner said.
Nor are there any other rosters that have quite the pedigree as Irvine’s. On a team that has won 16 consecutive games, four players have direct ties to the N.
