NCAA Tournament 2022: Thursday's First-Round Winners and Losers of Men's Tourney

The first full day of the men's NCAA tournament is always one of the greatest days of the year.

That is, unless you actually thought this was the year you were going to fill out a perfect bracket. If you were so deluded, I'm sorry the Big Ten and/or Mountain West conferences let you down immediately.

You weren't the only one who lost on the day, though. And as long as you didn't have Iowa or Kentucky in your Final Four, you might still be a winner when we get to the first Monday in April.

As far as other winners and losers go, how about a rare upset (by seeding) in the first game of the first round, an off night by the best shooting team in all the land, the biggest No. 8 vs. No. 9 blowout in tournament history and a little backdoor cover to avoid what would have been a painful gambling loss?

We have all that and more in this list of the biggest winners and losers from Thursday's slate of hoops.

The first game of the first round of the men's NCAA tournament usually delivers the goods.

In both 2018 (Rhode Island vs. Oklahoma) and 2021 (Florida vs. Virginia Tech), the opening game at 12:15 p.m. ET set the tone by going to overtime. In both 2015 (vs. Northeastern) and 2017 (vs. Princeton), Notre Dame narrowly survived playing in the first game on Thursday afternoon. And in the year in between those Fighting Irish scares, Duke got a legitimate challenge from UNC-Wilmington.

But, usually, the better seed prevails. The lone exception in the past six tournaments was when No. 10 Minnesota knocked off No. 7 Louisville to get the 2019 party started. And when No. 6 Colorado State stormed out to an early 28-13 lead over No. 11 Michigan, it sure did look like the better team would prevail once again.

Despite playing without starting point guard DeVante' Jones (concussion), the Wolverines never gave up.

Veteran glue guy Eli Brooks ran the offense for most of the afternoon, finishing with 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Frankie Collins went for 14 points and six rebounds in the first start of his college career. And Hunter Dickinson led the way with 21 points and four blocks as Michigan not only erased the 15-point deficit, but also rallied for a 12-point win.

If they go on to win another game, it would be the Wolverines' first two-game winning streak in more than a month. But we'll cross that bridge Saturday when they face Tennessee. For now, they are the first of what is sure to be many bracket busters.

For just about the entire season, No. 13 seed South Dakota State could not miss.

The Jackrabbits went 30-4, scoring more than 100 points more times (three) than they were held below 75 (twice). They had one of the best three-point shooting seasons in NCAA history (44.9 percent) and entered the Big Dance on a 10-game streak of making at least 40 percent of those long-range attempts. During that time, they averaged 86.2 points and shot 46.2 percent from downtown.

Suffice it to say, an inability to score was not a concern.

But, evidently, running rampant against the Summit League was not suitable preparation for facing the Big East's regular-season champion.

No. 4 seed Providence held SDSU to 57 points. The Jackrabbits shot 30.4 percent from three-point range and a highly unusual 38.6 percent from the field. The Friars made Baylor Scheierman work like mad for every one of his game-high 18 points, and they held the bench without a single point, which never happens for this team.

Despite those rare offensive woes, the Jackrabbits kept things interesting, closing the gap to three points on three occasions in the final three minutes. However, Providence always responded with points of its own, keeping the Jacks from ever having a chance to tie or take the lead.

In the end, trying to eke out a close game against the Friars was just never going to happen. They improved to 19-2 in games decided by 10 points or fewer.

Even before Rick Barnes made the transition from Texas to Tennessee in 2015, the Volunteers pretty consistently struggled in their opening games.

They made the tournament in all six years under Bruce Pearl but twice lost in the first round and twice won that first game by a single possession—including just barely surviving against No. 15 seed Winthrop in 2006. In Cuonzo Martin's only trip to the dance with the Vols (2014), they needed a late comeback and an overtime session to survive their First Four game against Iowa. And then under Barnes, they won convincingly in 2018 but barely beat Colgate in 2019 and lost to No. 12 seed Oregon State last year.

Cruising into the second round just isn't in this program's DNA.

But the Volunteers bucked that trend and kicked Longwood's butt in a game that got out of hand in a hurry in the first half.

It was a one-point game at the second media timeout before Tennessee went on a 38-13 tear. The Vols shot 8-of-10 from three-point range in the final 11 minutes before the intermission, and the Lancers had no hope of recovering from that onslaught led by Santiago Vescovi and Josiah-Jordan James.

The Vols went on to win 88-56.

Tennessee will face Michigan in the second round Saturday, and the Wolverines are no strangers to getting smashed by a hot offense. They lost nine games by double digits during the regular season and could be headed for a 10th such game if Tennessee looks like it did against Longwood.

I take no joy in pointing this out every year, because I do quite enjoy watching regular-season Mountain West hoops.

But for some reason, this league always lays a gigantic egg in the NCAA tournament.

Heading into this March, the MWC was 22-51 all-time in the dance. Not only has the league never produced a Final Four team, but it's still searching for its first Elite Eight. In fairness, a lot of those 51 teams were underdogs in the first round and none of them were expected to reach the Final Four, but 15 of them lost in the first round as a No. 8 seed or better.

And that unfortunate trend continued in earnest into 2022.

It started Tuesday with Wyoming losing its play-in game against Indiana, in spite of the Hoosiers shooting 2-of-13 from three-point range. Hunter Maldonado committed 10 turnovers, while Indiana had just eight giveaways.

That luck against Big Ten bubble teams didn't get any better Thursday, as we've already covered Michigan coming back from a 15-point deficit for a 12-point victory over Colorado State.

And right as CSU's loss to Michigan was drawing to a close, Boise State's loss to Memphis was well underway. The Broncos threatened to make things a little interesting down the stretch, but they were down 38-19 at halftime and never quite managed to get it all the way back to a one-possession game.

Just like that, three of the first seven teams eliminated from the 2022 men's NCAA tournament were from the Mountain West.

Making matters even worse, in the evening slate, San Diego State led Creighton for basically the entire game before wilting late and losing in overtime. That polished off the 0-4 record for the MWC.

It's rare to see a team stick by a coach for roughly a decade of tournament-less seasons, but that's what Richmond did with Chris Mooney. The Spiders perhaps would have gone dancing had there been a tournament in 2020, but their last tournament appearance before this one was in 2011, when they made it into the Sweet 16 as a No. 12 seed.

And after a first-round shocker against Iowa—which inexplicably became a trendy Final Four pick in spite of its substantial defensive shortcomings—Richmond is hoping to reprise that role of second-weekend Cinderella story from 11 years ago.

Completely shutting down Keegan Murray is effectively impossible, but the Spiders limited the National Player of the Year candidate to 21 points. Against a star who had been averaging better than 25 points per game since the beginning of February, 21 has to be considered a win for the defense.

Where they really won the game, though, was in the backcourt. Jordan Bohannon, Tony Perkins, Joe Toussaint, Connor McCaffery and Payton Sandfort shot a combined 6-of-23 for 16 points. Moreover, those Hawkeyes guards had no answer for Jacob Gilyard, who racked up 24 points, six assists and six rebounds.

Richmond didn't get anywhere near its usual volume of forced turnovers, but it did make Iowa work for every inch of space on offense. And its veteran leadership in the backcourt played a huge role in keeping composure down the stretch of a game that was tight throughout.

The Marquette Golden Eagles had a solid season in their first year under Shaka Smart. In early February, they were 16-7 with season sweeps of Villanova and Seton Hall under their belt, and they had impressive victories over Illinois and Providence. At the time, Smart was on the short list of obvious candidates for National Coach of the Year.

However, the apparent price for beating Villanova twice in the span of 14 days was losing the ability to play anything resembling defense.

Marquette allowed an average of 82.3 points over its final five pre-tournament losses, and, goodness, the Golden Eagles would have killed for 82 against the Tar Heels on Thursday. North Carolina eclipsed that mark with 9:06 remaining in the second half before cruising to a 95-63 victory.

It's no surprise that North Carolina won convincingly. This was a terrible matchup for Marquette, which is one of the worst rebounding teams in the country. For a guy with 25 double-doubles on the year, Armando Bacot wasn't even that dominant (17 points, 10 rebounds), yet the Tar Heels owned the glass while jumping out to an early, insurmountable lead.

And in the end, it was the biggest No. 8 vs. No. 9 blowout in NCAA tournament history.

That ignominious title previously belonged to Tennessee, which lost 75-45 to Michigan in the round of 64 during the 2011 dance. With a 32-point margin, Marquette is now on the wrong end of the most lopsided 8/9 loss ever.

This ended up being way more of a sweat than it should have been.

For a solid 29 minutes, Georgia State had the entire world thinking about UMBC. The Panthers led Gonzaga for a good chunk of the first half and were still right there well into the second. Drew Timme and Co. were starting to take over on offense, but with a little over 11 minutes to go, Gonzaga only led 59-57.

The onslaught soon followed.

With Georgia State's entire frontcourt either injured, fouled out or dealing with foul trouble, Timme and Chet Holmgren became unstoppable. They finished the afternoon with a combined 51 points and 30 rebounds, most of which seemed to come during this seven-minute stretch of the second half.

In what felt like a heartbeat, the Zags turned a 59-57 squeaker into an 83-58 laugher. And that 24-1 run made a whole lot of "Georgia State +23.5" ticket holders quite nervous.

Even after the reserves came in, Gonzaga was still up 93-67 with less than a minute to go.

But Evan Johnson saved the day with five unanswered points for a final margin of 21.

Good teams win; great teams cover. Georgia State was great, even if it didn't advance.

Dating back to 2010, New Mexico State has now been to nine NCAA tournaments. That's the same number of dances as Syracuse, Florida or Cincinnati, and it's one more than each of Arizona, UCLA and Wichita State.

But up until now, all the Aggies had to show for it was a bunch of participation trophies.

They came oh-so-close in 2019, losing by one at the last second to Auburn. In 2014, they took San Diego State to overtime before falling short. And in 2010, it was a three-point loss at the hands of Michigan State.

Truth be told, I had been burned so many times by picking New Mexico State to win at least one game that I barely even considered the possibility of an upset when it was time to fill out a bracket. The Aggies had become the boy who cried "Cinderella."

But they simply found a new way to bust my bracket, this time by finally pulling off the first-round upset.

Teddy Allen was a wrecking ball, scoring more than half of NMSU's 70 points against No. 5 seed Connecticut. The fifth-year senior put up 37 points and shot a perfect 13-of-13 from the free-throw line. (He was the only Aggie to attempt a free throw in the game.) And he delivered the and-1 dagger that put NMSU ahead by six with about 30 seconds to go.

For Connecticut, that's now back-to-back years getting upset in the first round, and the Huskies have won just one tournament game since winning it all in 2014.

The No. 5 seed Iowa Hawkeyes? Toppled by No. 12 seed Richmond.

The No. 5 seed Connecticut Huskies? Ousted by No. 12 seed New Mexico State.

But the fifth-seeded Saint Mary's Gaels? Well, they absolutely stomped the Indiana Hoosiers by a score of 82-53.

It was clear from the outset that they were going to do whatever it took to neutralize Trayce Jackson-Davis. Indiana's big man had 29 points in the First Four victory over Wyoming on Tuesday, and he was the heart and soul of the Hoosiers offense all season. However, he was held to just 12 points on 12 field-goal attempts, never able to get into any sort of groove in spite of getting through the entire game without committing a foul.

And then on offense, the Gaels were en fuego. They shot 10-of-21 (47.1 percent) from beyond the arc and 21-of-39 (53.8 percent) inside it. And it wasn't just one or two guys. Four of the starters scored at least a dozen points, leaving Indiana's defense looking like some cartoon character trying to plug way too many holes in a sinking ship.

What a great statement for this Saint Mary's program. This is the first time the Gaels have ever been seeded better than a No. 7, and they backed it up in a big way against one of college basketball's blue-blood programs. And with UCLA beating Akron, they'll get a chance to do it against an even better blue-blood team on Saturday.

In 28 previous trips to the NCAA tournament as a No. 5 seed or better, Kentucky was a perfect 28-0 in the first round. There had been a couple of close calls in recent years—a five-point win over Davidson in 2018; a two-point win over Princeton in 2011—but the Wildcats always found a way.

Until they ran into Saint Peter's, that is.

Shaheen Holloway's Peacocks showed no fear whatsoever. Even on a night when their star big man KC Ndefo was held in check (seven points, three rebounds, five turnovers) and Kentucky star big man Oscar Tshiebwe filled up the box score (30 points, 16 rebounds), they never gave an inch.

Neither side led by more than six points at any juncture, though when Kentucky finally got to that point, it felt like the game was over. The Wildcats were up 68-62 and had possession at the final media timeout of regulation, but they only made one bucket the rest of the way—none of which were attempted by Tshiebwe, for reasons beyond anyone's comprehension, since he was the only guy doing anything for most of the night.

And while the Wildcats went cold, Doug Edert went ice cold in his veins, hitting both a go-ahead bucket and the game-tying bucket that sent the game to overtime. He subsequently hit a huge three in overtime.

Daryl Banks III was also massive for the Peacocks, scoring a team-high 27 points.

Now we wait to find out if Saint Peter's can follow in the footsteps of Florida Gulf Coast and Oral Roberts to become the third team to reach the Sweet 16 as a No. 15 seed.

After watching No. 2 seed Kentucky and No. 5 seeds Iowa and Connecticut bite the dust, the fans of favorites who advanced on Thursday shouldn't be complaining about the margins of victory.

But for the three No. 4 seeds in action, it sure was a "sweatin' bullets" type of day.

First up was Providence, who, as previously mentioned, led by just three points on three separate occasions in the final three minutes of its win over South Dakota State. That's nothing new for the Friars this season, but it couldn't have been comfortable, even for fans who have seen that song and dance time and again for the past four months.

In the night session, Arkansas got quite the battle from Vermont, as most expected. The Razorbacks led by seven at halftime, but that vanished in a New York minute with the Catamounts opening the second half on a 12-2 run. Arkansas did gradually re-open up a nine-point lead, but Vermont got it back to within two in the final 10 seconds before falling just short, 75-71.

But the most surprising nail-biter involving a No. 4 seed was UCLA vs. Akron.

The Bruins were a 13.5-point favorite, though you wouldn't know it from, well, anything that happened in the first 34 minutes. Akron led by as many as eight points in the first half and was up 49-42 with under six minutes to play when Tyger Campbell took over. On subsequent possessions, UCLA's point guard set up Jules Bernard and Johnny Juzang for big buckets, cutting the Zips lead to two. And then he scored eight unanswered—a wide-open corner three, a mid-range tear drop and a shot-clock-buzzer-beater from the logo—to turn a four-point deficit into a four-point lead.

Welcome to Survive and Advance season, y'all.

Some people were mad on Selection Sunday when we ended up with Murray State vs. San Francisco as a first-round matchup, because it meant that one of those outstanding mid-major teams would be eliminated before the second round.

But when two outstanding mid-majors square off, you have the potential for greatness, which is exactly what we got from the nightcap in Indianapolis.

The Racers and Dons went back-and-forth-and-back-again in what sure felt like a 12-round bout between heavyweights.

For the first 28 minutes, neither side led by more than four points. Murray State did finally pull ahead by a three-possession margin for a few possessions, including opening up a 73-65 lead with two minutes to go. But Jamaree Bouyea and San Francisco closed out regulation on an 8-0 run, forcing the game into overtime.

And the haymakers didn't stop there. It was just big shot after big shot in overtime. There were points scored on 12 consecutive possessions before San Francisco finally blinked with an empty trip, and the Racers capitalized on that opening, pulling ahead for the 92-87 victory.

Between the quality of this game and the way Saint Mary's destroyed Indiana, maybe it's time to rethink all those braindead "Gonzaga doesn't play in a real conference" retorts.

So, who's ready for Friday?