NCAA tournament live updates, scores, upset watch and more

With 7.3 seconds remaining, Baltimore native Isaiah Miles drained a three-pointer to put No. 8 seed St. Joseph’s up by two points over No. 9 seed Cincinnati.

Then with a second left, Cincy’s Octavius Ellis had a choice to make as he recovered a loose ball under the basket: lay the ball off the glass or dunk it. In a split-second decision, he chose the latter. It cost Ellis and his Bearcats team the chance to move on to the Round of 32. After reviewing the play, refs called off the dunk, sending No. 8 seed St. Joseph’s to face No. 1 seed Oregon on Sunday at 9:40 p.m.

This is how things were going just minutes before the tension built in the game’s final moments.

After the game, the St. Joe’s mascot enacted what may be the school’s second-most defining moment of the night.

Thanks to upset victories from Hawaii (13-seed), Stephen F. Austin (14-seed) and Middle Tennessee State (15-seed), Friday marks the first time in NCAA Tournament history that a 13, 14 and 15 seed all won on the same day.

After Thursday’s action, other low seeds remaining include 11-seeds Wichita State, Northern Iowa and Gonzaga, and 12-seeds Yale and Arkansas-Little Rock. The Panthers’ win over Texas added another bit of history to the proceedings.

The Madness came out in a major way on Friday night in Oklahoma City thanks to Northern Iowa forward Paul Jesperson.

That’s right, a half court heave propelled the West region’s No. 11 seed to an upset win over Texas, which had tied the score with three seconds remaining on a runner by leading scorer Isaiah Taylor. Jesperson’s fling gave the Panthers their second buzzer-beater win this month, and marked both the sixth double-digit-seeded winner of the day and the 10th overall, the most ever in a first round.

As is its wont, Twitter went nuts.

A fine ending to a wild day of March Madness. Let’s hope Saturday brings it like Friday just did.

NEW YORK — Michigan committed less half as many turnovers as Notre Dame Friday night, and the Wolverines shot 20 more times than the Fighting Irish. But No. 6 Notre Dame managed to come away with a 70-63 win in this East Region clash between the two longtime rivals thanks to far superior shooting.

Following up a game between Stephen F. Austin and West Virginia that saw both teams shoot 31 percent, the way Notre Dame played looked like a different sport. The Fighting Irish finished the game a robust 25-for-43 from the field (58.1 percent) and 8 for 15 from three-point range, which allowed Notre Dame to make up for having 16 turnovers, compared to seven for Michigan.

[Stephen F. Austin stuns West Virginia by beating Mountaineers at their own game]

If Notre Dame can have a similar shooting performance against Stephen F. Austin Sunday afternoon, it could be tough for the Lumberjacks — who proved against West Virginia that shooting isn’t exactly their forte — to keep up with them.

That being said, if Notre Dame committed 16 turnovers against the Wolverines, how many times will they give the ball away against Stephen F. Austin, which led the nation in turnovers created at 18.6 per game? Those two stats — Notre Dame’s shooting percentage and turnover number — could prove to be the deciding factors in Sunday’s game.

Led by James Farr’s 18 points and 15 rebounds off the bench, No. 2 seed Xavier was able to take care of Weber State, 71-53 to advance to the Round of 32.

The Musketeers bench put up 30 points, just eight less than the Wildcats’s starting five.

Xavier will face Wisconsin Sunday at 8:40 p.m. on TNT. No word yet on what Bill Murray’s role will be.

Maryland’s NCAA tournament ride continues Sunday evening out in Spokane, when it will meet the West region’s 13-seed, the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors.

The Terps got past No. 12 South Dakota State by a 79-74 count in their first round game Friday afternoon while Hawaii upset No. 4 Cal, 79-66.

One more double-digit seed looks primed to pull an upset, with Northern Iowa, No. 11 in the West region, up 44-36 on No. 6 Texas at halftime. The Panthers (22-12) are getting it done via a balanced scoring attack, with four players registering eight or more points led by junior guard Jeremy Morgan’s 12. Meanwhile, Texas junior guard Isaiah Taylor leads his team with 16 points but only one other Longhorn has at least seven.

Former VCU head coach Shaka Smart is making his NCAA tournament debut at the Texas helm and has a bit of a hill to climb in order to avoid a third straight season of not making it past the first weekend. Smart’s Rams followed up their 2011 Final Four berth with consecutive Sweet 16 trips but lost in the first round in each of the last two years.

The Longhorns trailed by as many as 12 in the first half, and that doesn’t bode terribly well for their chances to come back and win.

Meanwhile, the Missouri Valley Conference champs shot a blistering 59 percent in the first half, including 5 of 9 from long range. The Panthers went five years between tournament berths after a surprise run to the Sweet 16 in 2010 and were knocked out in the second round in their return to the Big Dance last season.

Neil Greenberg wrote earlier this week that the six seed might be the seed to target for upsets this March Madness, and after the first round games, it looks like those seeds are indeed particularly vulnerable this year.

Arizona and Seton Hall were ousted Thursday night (by Wichita State and Gonzaga, respectively), and at halftime, both Texas (to Northern Iowa) and Notre Dame (versus Michigan) are losing by a combined 20 points.

The common axiom is beware the 12s and the 14s, but perhaps the 11s have become the most underseeded squads going forward.

Since the start of March, No. 11 Michigan, a team that attempts 45 percent of its field goals from beyond the arc, converted just 28 percent from deep. Surprisingly, the Wolverines went 3-2 during that time span, including a first four game against No. 11 Vanderbilt on Wednesday night.

Against six-seed Notre Dame, coach Mike Brey elected to play a 2-3 zone versus U-M, perhaps thinking the slump would continue at the Barclays Center (which is unofficially the Breslin Center East — the Michigan alumni fanbase is strong in the tri-state area). Fortunately for John Beilein and his staff, Michigan erupted from deep against the open gaps of that zone, making seven three-point field goals (or 50 percent from deep).

If the Irish emerge from halftime and switch to man, Michigan might try to slip ball screens to manufacture the same ball movement the team enjoyed during the initial 20 minutes.

Matt Farrell, a 6-foot sophomore guard for Notre Dame, has played in double digit minutes just three times since the beginning of the new year, so when it was revealed that Farrell would replace Bonzie Colson in the six-seed Irish’s starting lineup versus No. 11 Michigan, the Irish faithful naturally began to melt down.

Was Bonzie hurt? Had something happened? Was the team’s chemistry in shambles?

Mike Brey had said earlier this week that he wanted to tinker with his lineups, and this shift was part of that strategy. Brey thought another ball-handler out on the floor would be beneficial versus the Wolverines, and Farrell, who played a combined 31 minutes against North Carolina State and North Carolina in the ACC tournament, had been efficient both in practice and in his limited playing time.

His start was brief though — Farrell was back on the bench after the first media timeout, but his continued emergence in the Irish’s depth chart could be intriguing as the Irish potentially continue through March Madness.

NEW YORK — The West Virginia Mountaineers has become a perennial powerhouse under Bob Huggins by utilizing a full court pressing defense that smothers their opponents into submission.

Friday night, the Mountaineers got beaten at their own game.

Stephen F. Austin, the No. 14 seed in the East Region, came away with a stunning 70-56 victory over the third-seeded Mountaineers Friday night in Barclays Center, joining Hawaii and Middle Tennessee State in setting brackets on fire across the country on this second day of the NCAA Tournament.

The magical ride for Holy Cross came to a screeching end at the NCAA tournament Friday night. The West region’s 16th seed was vaporized by 1-seed Oregon to the tune of a 91-52 final score. The Ducks, who doubled up the Crusaders at times in the second half, had no trouble at all in dispatching the upstart Patriot League champs from Worcester, Mass., winners of their first tournament game in 63 years with a First Four victory over Southern on Wednesday.

Robert Champion, who led the way for the Cross against Southern, managed a team-high 22 points in the defeat. But the Crusaders, who were 10-19 in the regular season and 0-9 on the road in conference play, looked like they barely belonged on the same court as the Pac-12 titleists. Oregon finished with four players in double figures, led by senior forward Chris Boucher’s 20. The Ducks led by 18 at the half and scored a whopping 48 points after the break to easily cinch the win.

Next up for the top seed in the West is the winner of No. 8 St. Joseph’s and No. 9 Cincinnati on Sunday in Spokane. And even though the Cross went down so hard, they still earned props from one celebrity alum and fan.

There were 53 fouls called in the first-round game between No. 14 Stephen F. Austin and three-seed West Virginia, an 70-56 upset for the Southland conference program, which has now gone 89-13 in the past three seasons.

This game will be known for Thomas Walkup’s beard, the unusual Lumberjack mascot, and the amount of free throws shot by both squads. There were 53 fouls called over the course of 40 minutes, and the main beneficiary was Walkup, a 6-foot-5 senior guard/forward/center who attempted a whopping 20 free throws.

He made 19 of those attempts, which accounted for 27.1 percent of the team’s points. At one point, SFA’s offense consisted of Walkup calmly dribbling the ball and then driving the basket and putting the onus on the referees. At Barclays Center Friday night, it helped Stephen F. Austin advance to the second round.

In their first tournament game since 2011, the Texas A&M Aggies took care of the Green Bay Phoenix, 92-65, which counts as its largest tourney win in program history.

With fans waiting outside during the national anthem, the game started off with an odd tenor, but the Aggies ultimately prevailed, advancing to play the winner of Texas-Northern Iowa. They’re now one win away from the Sweet 16, which would match their best finish in program history.

It’s tough to break this to fans of the Wisconsin Badgers so soon after their boys advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament with a win over Pittsburgh. But it has to be done.

The Badgers beat the Panthers, 47-43. That’s a pretty low-scoring game. Especially for the winners. So low-scoring, in fact, that this is an unfortunate fact.

You read that right. The Badgers went 10-3 on the gridiron this past season, and two of their wins were 58-0 over Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 12, and 48-10 over Rutgers on Halloween. Of course, a win is a win. But the combined 90 points scored by Wisconsin and Pitt, the same amount scored by Middle Tennessee State in its win over Michigan State on the same floor a couple hours earlier, did allow for an interesting theory or two, courtesy of the internet.

Probably not going to make either idea stick. But that’s what a game like this one will do to the stray onlooker.

Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ attempts to rebound the ball against Pittsburgh’s Michael Young in the first half. (Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

It wasn’t pretty but the Wisconsin Badgers advanced to the Round of 32 by surviving a low-scoring affair with the Pittsburgh Panthers, 47-46. The Badgers will face the winner of Xavier-Weber State, who will face off at 9:20 p.m. on TNT.

Wisconsin is the first team since 2003 to win an NCAA tournament game when scoring less than 50 points, according to ESPN. Understandingly, tournament viewers weren’t exactly thrilled … well, just about anything that had to do with this game.

At least this guy (red-shirt freshman Ethan Happ) was happy:

No other Division 1 team underwent as drastic a change in style of play as No. 14 Green Bay, which used 65.4 possessions per game under former coach Brian Wardle and slammed on the gas pedal to 76.6 possessions with new Coach Linc Darner on the sidelines.

Texas A&M plays much more methodically, and one interesting aspect of this first-round matchup was whether the Aggies would attempt to slow the game down and force the Phoenix to play at the lower seed’s pace or whether Texas A&M would adapt.

After the first half, which the Aggies lead 41-33, they are more than comfortable with and have welcomed Green Bay’s frantic gameplan: Billy Kennedy’s squad has used 40.6 possessions, and while the team is only scoring 1.00 points per possession, the group is limiting Green Bay to a stingy 0.82 PPP.

Fresh off of a 79-74 first-round win over South Dakota State, Maryland has been installed as an early favorite for its next game, Sunday against 13-seed Hawaii.

The Rainbow Warriors upset No. 4 Cal, 77-64, earlier Friday out in Spokane. The tip time has yet to be announced.

Rasheed Sulaimon chases down his decisive steal in the final seconds. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)

Maryland let an 18-point lead dwindle to two, but Rasheed Sulaimon made up for a costly three-point foul with a steal and dunk to clinch the Terps’ 79-74 escape. Read Roman Stubbs’s game story here.

The Terps will next face No. 13 seed Hawaii, which upset short-handed California. Read how the Rainbow Warriors did it here.

Everyone knows about Thomas Walkup and the Lumberjack, Stephen F. Austin’s (slightly terrifying) mascot, but Clide Geffrard could be poised to become a household name outside of Nacogdoches, Tex.

The 6-foot-5 senior wing played in SFA’s first round loss to Utah in 2015, but according to Underwood, who I spoke with in late February, Geffrard was a shell of himself — he had fractured his foot in the Southland conference tournament.

In his final season, Geffrard made more than 60 percent of his twos, 34.9 percent of his threes, and is the team’s “most talented guy, in sheer athleticism,” said Underwood.

“Clide becomes a hard matchup for opposing teams,” said Underwood, noting his perimeter shooting and driving ability. Against four-seed West Virginia, the wing has 10 points and has already made one three-point field goal.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — When the brackets were unveiled and Barclays Center was going to get a game between Notre Dame and Michigan (assuming the Wolverines beat Tulsa), the arena was thrilled with the outcome.

Why? Because both Notre Dame and Michigan have massive alumni bases — which means lots of fans in the seats for their game.

The one problem with that: the game doesn’t start until 10 p.m. Eastern time.

So that’s how this happens early in the opening game between West Virginia and Stephen F. Austin:

Barclays Center may be looking forward to the people in the seats, but CBS can’t like seeing so many empty seats on their broadcast.

The Monmouth Hawks were left out of the NCAA tournament this year because the NCAA selection committee hates fun. Okay, that’s not true. Monmouth didn’t win its conference tournament, and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference isn’t exactly a powerhouse known for warranting multiple bids.

[Why Monmouth should have made the tournament]

So instead, the Hawks are mobbing the NIT, where the No. 1 seeds rolled in their first-round game against No. 8 Bucknell, 90-280. But that doesn’t mean the now-famous “Bench Mob” members aren’t still thinking about what they might have accomplished court-side during March Madness.

https://twitter.com/danpillari/status/710969667058270208

Presumably, he means it is missing this:

But also, possibly, some of this:

That question has been pondered by more than a few on Twitter as more and more single-digit seeds fall this tournament.

https://twitter.com/aye_tracy/status/710935664972468224

Regardless of where you stand on the issue, it would have been fun to see what “madness” the team could have come up with.

South Dakota State had a chance to tie the game down three points, but Maryland’s Rasheed Sulaimon got a steal and scored on a breakaway dunk to help the Terps win their first-round game, 79-74.

Maryland will play Hawaii on Sunday.

Maryland senior Jake Layman has clearly been a difference maker against South Dakota State.

The forward tied a career-high with 27 points, going 8-of-8 from the free throw line. He also added three rebounds.

Michigan State has ended Virginia’s season in the NCAA tournament each of the last two years, so you can imagine the dread that some Cavaliers fans felt on Sunday when they learned that U-Va.’s path to the Final Four might have to go through the Spartans.

After Middle Tennessee State pulled off one of the biggest upsets in tournament history, defeating No. 2 seed Michigan State on Friday, Cavaliers fans were understandably happy. At least a couple of Virginia fans were reportedly in a giving mood, thanking the Blue Raiders for knocking off the Spartans with a donation to MTSU.

Maryland guard Melo Trimble fouls out with 1:03 left in the game after fouling South Dakota State’s George Marshall as he was attempting a 3-pointer.

Marshall hit all three free throws to cut the lead to 72-70.

Slow and steady wins the race. Shooting nearly 50 percent as a team from three-point range usually wins the game.

No. 5 seed Maryland isn’t having much trouble with No. 12 seed South Dakota State in Friday’s first-round game in Spokane. The Terps lead the Jackrabbits by 11 with five minutes to play.

Jake Layman leads all scorers with 23 points on 7 of 10 shooting, including five three-pointers. Layman and Jared Nickens (12 points) are a combined 9 of 14 from beyond the arc.

(Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Middle Tennessee, seeded 15th entering Friday’s first-round matchup with Michigan State, became just the eighth team in NCAA tournament history to upset a No. 2 seed. But was it the biggest upset in March Madness history? Fancy Stats asks and answers here.

It’s not just higher seeds who face potential danger in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, it’s the photographers too.

In the second half of the Oklahoma/Cal State Bakersfield matchup in Oklahoma City, a Roadrunners player suffered the indignity of getting a layup attempt swatted away by a Sooner crashing the rim. But said Roadrunner hardly took the worst of it.

Ouch. Maybe the NCAA should invest in helmet cams for all cameramen and camerawomen stationed on the baselines going forward.

Entering Friday, there were 14,525 perfect brackets in ESPN’s Tournament Challenge out more than 13 million entries. My colleague Jorge Castillo was among that 0.1 percent.

After Middle Tennessee State shocked No. 2 seed Michigan State and Iowa knocked off Temple in overtime, only three perfect brackets remain. (Jorge is not one of them.)

There are no perfect brackets remaining in CBS’s bracket challenge or the Post’s tourney pick ’em. There’s always the Second Chance Bracket.

Minutes after Michigan State became just the eighth No. 2 seed in NCAA tournament history to lose to a No. 15 seed, CBS’s Dana Jacobson asked Spartans Coach Tom Izzo about what he said to senior Denzel Valentine after the game.

“Thank you. I love you, man,” a choked-up Izzo said. “He did everything — he did everything he could do for me. Some people give the program, some people give the team — he gave the program, the team, the university, the city — he gave us everything we could ask in every way, shape and form. I may be in it a long time and never have another Denzel. That’s what I said to Denzel.”

Valentine had 13 points, 12 assists and six rebounds in his final collegiate game.

Mike Gessell wasn’t planning on airballing when he shot the potential game-winner with just under three seconds remaining in overtime in Iowa’s 72-70 win over Temple, but it’s just as well that he did.

Gessell missed net, rim, backboard and everything else, but 7-foot-1 Adam Woodbury was there to clean up the mess. He caught the miss and put it in, dashing Temple’s hopes of an upset after they fought their way into overtime.

No. 7 Iowa advances to play No. 2 Villanova in Brooklyn on Sunday.

First-half box score.

Maryland leads South Dakota State, 34-22, heading into halftime, with the Terps a perfect 9-of-9 from the free-throw line and shooting 11-of-22 (50 percent) from the field.

Melo Trimble finished the half with 15 points, while adding three rebounds and two assists. The sophomore guard went 7-0f-7 from the free-throw line, and as the team Twitter account has pointed out, good things typically happen for the Terps when Trimble gets to the line seven times.

To overtime, they go. Iowa led Temple by 2 points with junior Peter Jok at the line and 8 seconds left in their first round game against Temple. He made the first shot but missed the second, keeping Temple’s hopes alive.

Quenton DeCosey pulled up for the potential game-tying shot with two seconds left, and his attempt wasn’t close. Turns out, that’s because Iowa’s Anthony Clemmons caught DeCosey on the arm as he tried to contend the shot.

The three-shot foul was called, DeCosey stepped to the line and made all three free throws under pressure. Just like that, free basketball.

Buzz Aldrin’s busted bracket.

According to ESPN, 22.3 percent of people who filled out the 13.02 million brackets on the network’s tournament challenge this year selected Michigan State to win the national title, second only to 25 percent of people who chose Kansas to win it all.

Among those who had the Spartans taking home the title were astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who was filling out his first NCAA bracket, and this blogger.

Well, that won’t be happening after No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee knocked off the second-seeded Spartans, 90-81.

Better luck next year Buzz.

Reggie Upshaw led the Blue Raiders with 21 points. (Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports)

There won’t be a Sparty Party at the Final Four this year. Middle Tennessee State became the eighth No. 15 seed in NCAA tournament history to upset a No. 2 seed with an 90-81 win over Michigan State in St. Louis on Friday.

Junior Reggie Upshaw led five Blue Raiders in double-figures with 21 points, while Michigan State star Denzel Valentine was limited to 13 points. Middle Tennessee jumped out to a 15-2 lead and never trailed.

That sound you heard after the final buzzer sounded? Thousands of brackets busting across the country. The Spartans were the second-most popular pick to win the championship in ESPN’s Tournament Challenge (22 percent).

It’s all been leading up to this for Maryland. With the return of Melo Trimble and Jake Layman, plus talented additions that included highly-touted freshman Diamond Stone, the Maryland Terrapins were favorites to reach the Final Four.

But the team has struggled heading into the NCAA tournament, having dropped the last five of its eight games.

Washington Post reporter Rick Maese and photographer Toni Sandys went behind-the-scenes throughout the season to capture what it’s been like for a Terps team that has not quite lived up to its lofty expectations.

Part 1: For Maryland basketball, expectations are great. Now for the hard part.

Part 2: For Turgeon and his Terps, preparation is key — and every night is movie night

Part 3: Maryland’s fortunes are tied to Melo Trimble and Jake Layman they-almost lost bot

Part 4: Mark Turgeon, the man who holds the Terps%u2019 operation together

Part 5: To compete for national title, Maryland basketball must solve chemistry equation

Part 6: A fork in the road to the Final Four

Quincy Smith, left, and Sheriff Drammeh jump for joy over Hawaii’s upset of California. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

SPOKANE, Wash. — The most turbulent week of California’s season took another stunning turn moments before Friday’s game against Hawaii in the first round of the NCAA tournament, when Bears’ Coach Cuonzo Martin was forced to sit starting forward Jabari Bird for mysterious reasons. Soon, there were conflicting reports that Bird was either ill or had back spasms. Did it matter? It was just the latest casualty of the past 72 hours. California assistant coach Yann Hufnagel resigned earlier this week amid sexual harassment charges, and starting point guard Tyrone Wallace was ruled out of the first round game after breaking his hand during practice on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, No. 13 seed Hawaii, perhaps energized by the fact that NCAA violations will keep it out of the postseason in 2017, capitalized on the turmoil. The Warriors were clearly the more complete team in a 77-66 upset of the fourth-seeded Bears, using a late burst push to earn its first NCAA tournament victory. Hawaii, which received 19 points from Quincy Smith, closed by hitting 7 of its last 9 shots from the field to complete the biggest upset of the tournament so far by seeding.

Roderick Bobbitt scored 17 and Stefan Jankovic added 16 for the Warriors, who will take on the winner between Maryland and South Dakota State in the second round on Sunday.

It was inconceivable that it could get worse for California after tipoff, even with Bird nowhere in sight.  But it did. Junior Sam Singer, who was expected to pick up the slack with Wallace out, picked up two fouls within the first four minutes and struggled through foul trouble the rest of the game. That forced Martin to play his third stringer at point for much of the first half, Brandon Chauca, who had played in just eight games prior to Friday.

The performance only cascaded downward, with freshman standout Jaylen Brown missing long stretches due to his own foul trouble. By the time Brown picked up his fourth foul with 14 minutes 56 seconds remaining, Hawaii led 47-37 and was looking as if it was about to run away with the game. The Warriors led for much of the game, using a pesky zone defense and durable guard play to fluster the Bears.

Brown, considered a likely lottery pick in June’s NBA draft, fouled out with about six minutes remaining and finished with just four points. His freshman counterpart, star big man Ivan Rabb, finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds. But California could recover despite 23 points from guard Jordan Matthews, who cut it to 66-60 with just under four minutes left. Hawaii responded with an 11-4 run, including a turnaround jumper from Bobbit with 2:21 remaining that made it 72-60 and effectively put the game away.

Hawaii made 9 of 10 from the free throw line to close the game.

California shot just 41 percent from the field, including 3-of-19 from three-point range.

Hawaii earned its first NCAA tournament win in school history with the biggest upset — based on seeding, anyway — of this year’s tournament.

The No. 13 seed Rainbow Warriors, a popular Cinderella candidate, defeated No. 4 seed Cal behind 19 points from senior guard Quincy Smith.

Cal was without its leading scorer, guard Tyrone Wallace, who fractured his hand in practice this week.

The “Hawaii 5-0 Bench Crew,” which hit the dab after a Smith free throw late in the second half, could make us all forget that Monmouth was snubbed. The Rainbow Warriors will play the winner of Maryland-South Dakota State.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Jarrod Uthoff is going to be taken in the 2016 NBA Draft.

His teammates on the Iowa Hawkeyes might want to remember that.

Uthoff, a 6-foot-9 skilled scoring forward, scored 12 quick points for No. 7 Iowa in their first round matchup against No. 10 Temple at Barclays Center Friday, as Iowa raced out to a 32-20 lead.

Then it appeared that Iowa forgot he was on the team. Over the final 10 minutes of the first half, Uthoff scored just two points — on a pair of free throws — and took just three shots.

If Iowa wants to win this game, that’s going to have to change in the second half.

Before Friday’s first round contest between two-seed Michigan State and No. 15 Middle Tennessee, the Spartans’s worst defensive performance came in mid-January in a loss to Wisconsin.

MSU allowed the Badgers to score 1.26 points per possession, and the game, which was highlighted by Wisconsin shooting 42.9 percent from deep and attempting 36 free throws, was a turning point for Tom Izzo’s squad, which went on a run (winning 13 of their next 15 games).

But against the Blue Raiders, MSU looks just as lost on the defensive side of the ball as they did two months ago versus Wisconsin. MTSU has connected on a blistering 61.3 percent of their threes, and the Conference USA squad, which is leading at halftime 41-35, has hung up 1.32 PPP.

Izzo is one of the game’s master tacticians, so he is surely devising some halftime salve to slow Giddy Potts and his teammates, but this will be a first half that sticks with the Spartans for some time.

The Pac-12 placed a conference record seven teams in the NCAA tournament. Four of them are already headed home with losses to lower-seeded teams after No. 7 seed Oregon State fell to No. 10 seed VCU, 75-67, on Friday.

Colorado, USC and Arizona got things off on the wrong foot for the Pac-12 with losses on Thursday.

With No. 4 seed Cal trailing Hawaii by eight points late in the second half, Utah, which won Thursday, and No. 1 seed Oregon, which has yet to play, could be left carrying the torch for the Conference of Champions.

(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee State jumped to a 15-2 lead against No. 2 Michigan State in their first-round meeting this afternoon, and it seemed like a brief moment of joy for Blue Raiders’ fans that probably didn’t expect to experience anything of the sort.

And when Denzel Valentine’s three-pointer with 9:29 left in the first half cut it to 20-18, the feeling that the Spartans had gotten their feet under them and were on there way to a 20-point victory was fully settled in.

But maybe not?

It’s halftime, and Middle Tennessee State still holds a six-point lead, 41-35. Sparty hasn’t led in the contest, and the only tie was at 2-2.

Without Jabari Bird (illness) and Tyrone Wallace (hand injury), there is significant pressure on the remaining players for fourth-seeded California. One of those is Ivan Rabb, a 6-foot-11 freshman who has displayed flashes throughout his first year but hasn’t been called upon to take over games (thanks to the aforementioned Bird and Wallace, along with the scoring ability of Jordan Mathews and Jaylen Brown).

But now, as Cal is down early in the second half to No. 13 seed Hawaii, Rabb needs to come alive if the Pac-12 team is going to avoid the upset. He has 11 points so far, along with nine rebounds, and Coach Cuonzo Martin has sought to exploit Cal’s size advantage by having Rabb camp on the low block and use his length and size to score over Hawaii defenders.

If Rabb becomes stymied, though, it could be a short stay in Spokane, Wash., for a team many at the beginning of the season thought was the best on the West Coast.

With his famous father looking on from the crowd, Oregon State’s Gary Payton II is doing his part to keep the Beavers from avoiding a first-round upset against VCU.

Oregon State trailed by eight points at the half, but took a 51-49 lead midway through the second half on a dunk by GPII, who has better hops than his dad and a game-high 15 points.

I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the elder Payton, who also starred at Oregon State before his NBA career, fueled the comeback by trash-talking Wayne Tinkle’s team at halftime.

https://twitter.com/marchmadness/status/710905307933892608

VCU leads by eight at the under-4 media timeout.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — I mean, how can you argue with these shoes?

Jok can also play. He’s got nine quick points for Iowa — going 3 for 3 from three-point range — and the Hawkeyes have an early 19-13 lead over Temple.

VCU was in command for most of the game but lost control in the second half when Oregon State went on a 10-0 run to close the gap.

Coach Fran Dunphy and his Temple basketball team of the people took the subway to their first-round game against Iowa on Friday. Don’t worry; the game’s in Brooklyn, not D.C., so the Owls should arrive safely and on time.

This isn’t a typo: Middle Tennessee is up 15-2 on Michigan State after five minutes of play. Yet the win probability models have MSU a 64 percent favorite.

Why? Because the Spartans are 1 for 5 from the field and 0 for 2 on three-point attempts. Don’t expect that to go on much longer.

VCU’s pep band is one of the best in the nation, even without its full assortment of instruments. The Peppas have treated fans in Oklahoma City to a quality show on Friday, including wrestler John Cena’s entrance music.

VCU band director Ryan Kopacsi did his best Cam Newton impression during a media timeout, ripping his T-shirt off to reveal a Superman jersey.

VC has a pretty good basketball team, too. The 1oth-seeded Rams lead Oregon State by six with 12 minutes left in the game.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — The NCAA tournament is supposed to be about close games and dramatic upsets.

But just as often, the early rounds of the tournament — particularly in games between teams like No. 2 Villanova and No. 15 UNC Asheville here Friday afternoon, are boring routs.

That’s why the loudest cheer of the day so far came when Villanova junior Patrick Farrell, who grew up in nearby Rockville Center, N.Y., buried a corner three-pointer inside the final minute of the Wildcats’ easy 86-56 victory.

It was fitting for Villanova that the game ended with a made three-pointer. The Wildcats opened the game going 4 for 14 from three-point range. After that? Villanova went 9 for 14 from behind the arc. That’s how you turn a seven-point game late in the first half into a 30-point rout.

(Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

As if a sexual-harassment controversy and an injury to its starting point guard and leading scorer wasn’t bad enough for fourth-seeded California, things may have gotten a little worse for the Bears once their game against 13th-seeded Hawaii tipped off in Spokane, Wash. Starting guard Jabari Bird wasn’t on the bench with an unspecified illness, meaning the Bears are missing their entire starting back court and top two scorers.

Bird is averaging 10.9 points per game and shooting 41 percent from three-point range this season.

The run-up to Friday’s game was far from ideal for Cal. On Monday, Coach Cuonzo Martin fired assistant Yann Hufnagel after the school completed a sexual-harassment investigation that found he made unwelcome advances toward an unidentified female reporter who was covering the team.

Then, on Wednesday, starting point guard Tyrone Wallace broke a bone in his hand at practice, ending his season. He was averaging 15.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.4 assists.

With about four minutes remaining in the first half, Hawaii leads California, 29-25. Oh, and the Bears have some foul trouble, too. Guard Sam Singer and forward Jaylen Brown (15 ppg) both have three fouls.

(Charlie Riedel/Associated Press)

Matthew Giles is taking a look at the a key player in each of Friday’s matchups. Read the whole list here. In the meantime, your potential star from the next game on the docket:

No. 15 Middle Tennessee vs. No. 2 Michigan State, 2:45

Denzel Valentine, Michigan State: Giddy Potts of Middle Tennessee is on the all-name team and is a fantastic shooter (50 percent from deep this season). But though he might get free to splash the net on occasion, Valentine is — as always — the key to this first-round game. The Blue Raiders switch defenses often, going from a 2-3 to a 1-3-1 (sometimes within possessions), and it’ll be on Valentine to decipher the changing strategies while running the Spartans’ offense.

Ah, the highs and lows of March.

Syracuse is putting a beatdown on Dayton — it’s a 17 point game with four minutes left —and not everybody is happy about it.

Respect, kid. If you were shy about it your team’s offensive ineptitude or embarrassed to be crying about it, the simple solution would be to hide behind your flight goggles — I assume they are more than just a trendy fashion accessory. But you’re owning it and watching unimpeded as the season crashes to an end.

(Ricardo Arduengo/Associated Press)

Matthew Giles is taking a look at the a key player in each of Friday’s matchups. Read the whole list here. In the meantime, your potential star from the next game on the docket:

No. 13 Hawaii vs. No. 4 California, 2

Sam Singer, California: Without Tyrone Wallace, who will miss the postseason, Singer, a 6-4 junior guard, will likely spend much of the game running point. According to Hoop Lens, when the Bears go small with Singer at point guard (which has happened roughly 69 possessions in Pac-12 regular season and tournament play), the team’s efficiency improves — an efficiency margin of plus-0.19. But Singer isn’t as careful with the ball as Wallace — the guard has a turnover rate of nearly 27.4 percent, according to Ken Pomeroy — which could be a significant concern vs. the swarming defense of Hawaii.

Dayton is having a rough time in the paint against Syracuse. Just look at all these empty blue circles in the lane. Someone’s been in here with the ugly stick.

The Flyers have just five second-half points and trail 55-33 with 7:48 left. They’re shooting 27.9 percent for the game.

This is good work by the Villanova mascot.

Villanova Coach Jay Wright isn’t lying — No. 15 seed UNC Asheville is very good on defense.

The Big South team, which made the NCAA tournament after upsetting favorite Winthrop in the conference tournament final, aggressively guards the three-point line, closes out hard on shooters, and forces unsteady ballhandlers into committing countless turnovers: UNC Asheville has a defensive turnover percentage that ranks in the top 10 of KenPom’s database.

But here is the rub: the Bulldogs don’t like it when other teams pressure their ballhandlers. The squad gives the ball away on 18.5 percent of their possessions, and this sloppiness has been exploited throughout the first half by Villanova. In particular, Dylan Smith and Sam Hughes have committed a combined seven turnovers.

Nicholas McDevitt’s team has posted a turnover percentage in the first half of 31.3 percent, which means that nearly a third of their possessions have been wasted. If UNC Asheville wants to keep the first-round game close in the second half and spark upset hopes, it has got to tighten its handle.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Villanova closed the first half with a flurry of three-pointers to take a 40-26 lead into the halftime break over UNC Asheville.

When you are a team like Villanova that features so many perimeter players, you’re almost inevitably going to wind up living and dying by the three-pointer. And, in the Wildcats’ case, they lived by it late in the first half, getting triples on three straight possessions, and turning a game that had close for most of the first 20 minutes into one that might be headed for a blowout at the half.

The Wildcats, remember, haven’t made it out of the first weekend since making it to the Final Four in 2009. They’ll be hoping Friday’s result is the start to changing that.

(John Locher/Associated Press)

Matthew Giles is taking a look at the a key player in each of Friday’s matchups. Read the whole list here. In the meantime, your potential star from the next game on the docket:

No. 10 VCU vs. No. 7 Oregon State, 1:30

Gary Payton II, Oregon State: VCU is going to bring its trademark pressure, which has altered slightly under new Coach Will Wade (it isn’t as constant, and Wade uses it more as a change of pace), so how Payton handles the barrage of swiping hands will be an issue. If he attacks the basket — without Tres Tinkle, who is out with a foot injury, the guard has the team’s best offensive rating (111) — the Beavers could advance from a game that is widely seen as a poor seeding.

Despite a halftime lead for 10th-seeded Syracuse, No. 7 seed Dayton isn’t an ideal matchup for the Orange.

Dayton can switch 1 through 4, and is versatile enough (and loaded with enough ballhandlers) to handle the intricacies of the Orange’s 2-3 zone. But neither team has exploited each other’s defense at the rim, or even in the midrange: this first-round game is being waged in the first half from beyond the arc.

Syracuse likes to shoot threes, largely fueled by Trevor Cooney’s 237 threes this season (along with Michael Gbinije’s 208 attempts), and Dayton has a similar offensive profile — while the Flyers don’t shoot as many threes, they are comfortable from deep. So far, the team’s have combined to post a three-point field goal attempts percentage of 45.5 percent, which would rank just outside the top 10 of KenPom’s database.

Since the two teams are both converting more than 35 percent of their attempts, count on this offensive barrage continuing into the game’s final 20 minutes.

Syracuse is up 30-28 on Dayton in St. Louis. The Post was unable to secure the television rights to the game, but here’s a close approximation:

The Orange is shooting 11 for 25 but only after finishing on a 10-for-17 clip. Syracuse also has 11 turnovers and just four assists. Dayton made 10 of 29 shots — missing a healthy handful from close range — including just 5 of 14 from three-point range.

Villanova and UNC Asheville are underway in Brooklyn, and like most 2-15 games it’s probably going to get ugly. But that doesn’t mean the second-seeded Wildcats aren’t hustling out there. Here’s Josh Hart going hard for the ball in the first half.

It’s something of an upset.

For the first time in the game, Syracuse has a higher win probability than Dayton.

Syracuse wasn’t a strong shooting team heading into the tournament and has started 5 for 16 from the field against Dayton. The Orange trails 20-16 with 8 minutes 42 seconds left in the first half.

(Bill Streicher/USA Today Sports)

Matthew Giles is taking a look at the a key player in each of Friday’s matchups. Read the whole  list here. In the meantime, your potential star from the next game on the docket:

No. 15 UNC Asheville vs. No. 2 Villanova, 12:40

Kris Jenkins, Villanova: Jenkins, who shined for the Wildcats during the Big East tournament, is Draymond Green-lite. The 6-5 junior doesn’t turn the ball over, is prolific from long range — both his three-point field goal attempts (224) and percentage (37.1 percent) lead the Wildcats — and he is an mismatch on both sides of the ball. He has the size to body opposing fours, but also possesses the foot speed to either go around them on offense or post up on the block.

They’re already cutting down the nets, so to speak, in the first round of the NCAA tournament in St. Louis.

As reported by the Associated Press, the nets that were in place for Friday’s four games at Scottrade Center were found to be longer than regulation. So site organizers had to scour the area for the correct ones, eventually finding them at Fontbonne University, a Division III school about 15 minutes west of the arena. They went up not long before Syracuse and Dayton got things going in the day’s first game.

It didn’t really matter, though: The Orange started the game 1 for 9 from the field and the Flyers weren’t much better at 3 for 10.

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

No. 10 Syracuse vs. No. 7 Dayton, 12:15 p.m.

Charles Cooke, Dayton: The 6-foot-5 Cooke, who transferred from James Madison, is the Flyers’ most dynamic offensive player. He can slice through lanes and finish at the rim — per Hoop-Math.com, only 24 percent of his attempts around the bucket have been assisted, the lowest on the squad. And he is also Dayton’s most consistent three-point threat: since March began, he has made 45 percent of his long-range shots. For Dayton to attack Syracuse’s 2-3 zone (which is less vaunted than in past years but still effective), Cooke is best suited to exploit the defense’s gaps, particularly in the wings and the short corners.

Thursday was a good day for upsets, even if one of more of them busted your bracket.

We could see another upset early on Friday, as No. 10 VCU has the best chance (58.8 percent) to beat No. 7 Oregon State when they tip off at 1:30 p.m.

Here are the rest of Friday’s most likely upsets.

The “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign stands along the Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2012. The 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show trade show, which runs until Jan. 11, is the world’s largest annual innovation event that offers an array of entrepreneur focused exhibits, events and conference sessions for technology entrepreneurs. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

If you happen to find yourself in Vegas for today’s tournament games, these against-the-spread trends might help you with your picks.

We feel your pain, you guys. Only 0.1 percent of the contestants in ESPN’s bracket challenge picked all 16 games correctly on Thursday.

Yahoo’s bracket challenge is showing similar results, with 94 percent of the brackets imperfect after the afternoon games and 99.999 percent imperfect when the final buzzer sounded on the night session.

Maybe Day 2 goes better for all of us? Nah, probably not. Bring on the upsets!

SyracuseCoach Jim Boeheim. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Dayton vs. Syracuse in St. Louis kicks things off on CBS at 12:15 p.m., followed by Villanova vs. UNC Asheville in Brooklyn at 12:40 p.m. on truTV.

The rest of the schedule and TV lineup can be found here.

Markis McDuffie, left, and Wichita State drew raves from Arizona Coach Sean Miller, who declared himself “envious” of the Shockers’ first-round ‘upset.’. (Charles Krupa/AP)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The post-game reviews came in after midnight, and they sparkled. Arizona Coach Sean Miller called himself “envious.” Wichita State Coach Gregg Marshall called it “a testament to these young men.” Arizona center Kaleb Tarczewski said, “Their defense is unbelievable.” Wichita State guard Fred VanVleet called it a “big-time game plan” from coaches “that are skipping sleep.”

Here’s that Wichita State again. Its defense stirs awe. Its program stands 9-3 in the last four NCAA tournaments. It’s a team nobody should want to play. Coaches agree its senior guards, VanVleet and Ron Baker, should play in the NBA, with Miller saying VanVleet will “be there for a long, long time.” They and their mates just took an Arizona program averaging 81 points and throttled it, allowing a puny 55 points in a 65-55 finish not nearly that close. They have Miami (Fla.) next.

They’re a fresh storm in a South Region bracket. Miller called them “good enough to win several more games in this tournament.”

After all of that, everyone might need a reminder that a wee week ago, the Shockers were the subject of a mild national bubble debate, that VanVleet felt “a breath of fresh air” and relief just seeing Wichita State’s name pop up on the Selection Sunday screen, that the team once stood 5-5 largely because of VanVleet’s injury, that it lost a Missouri Valley semifinal in overtime to Northern Iowa, that it had to win a play-in game against Vanderbilt just to get here . . .

You might call it madness.

“I mean, they held an 81-point-per-game team to 55, and we really struggled to get 55,” Miller said. They spent the first half shooting 6-for-22, spent part of the second half trailing by 24, had 19 turnovers to go with 20 field goals, looked uncommonly helpless. Their 7-footer, Tarczewski, got three shots. Their veteran guard, Gabe York, “mentioned he missed a couple shots,” Miller said, “(but) I don’t think we had many. I feel guilty. I wish I could have done a better job helping our guys on offense.”

It didn’t even matter that the Shockers (25-8) missed 35 of 59 shots because, Marshall said, “I was so pleased with how we got back in transition tonight. We sprinted back after we missed, and we missed a lot of shots . . . We were able to get back, get our butts to the baseline, and support that basketball and keep them from getting in the paint.”

The raves kept on. York told of clogged passing lanes. Miller said of VanVleet, “He’s in total control of the game,” and, “He dominates the ball,” and, “He forces your point guard to do things that he normally doesn’t do.” He said of VanVleet and Baker, “When you put those two guys out there together, considering the experience they have, it’s not a good feeling playing against Wichita State.”

The Shockers, of course, reached the 2013 Final Four. They entered the 2014 tournament unbeaten, got a No. 1 seed, but in the second round found a recovering No. 8 seed in Kentucky. They reached the 2015 Sweet Sixteen. Now they’re playing, in a way, with house money. “When you play against a defense that talented, ferocious, disciplined, tough, you have to be great at what you do,” Miller said, “and that’s what’s going to be required to beat them.”

That’s a week after they resided on a bubble.

Let’s start by giving Gonzaga credit: the 11th-seeded Bulldogs were simply better than sixth-seeded Seton Hall in their NCAA tournament matchup Thursday. That said, it seemed clear that the Pirates struggled with a couple of factors that had nothing to do with their on-court opponent in their 68-52 loss.

To many observers, including the announcing crew on the truTV telecast, it appeared that Seton Hall, having traveled from New Jersey to Denver’s Pepsi Center, had a hard time adjusting to both the altitude and the game’s late start.

Isaiah Whitehead, Seton Hall’s star point guard, seemed particularly affected. The sophomore wound up going four for 24 from the field, zero for 10 from three-point range, for 10 points, although he did have eight assists.

The game tipped off just before 9 p.m. in Denver, which is two hours behind Eastern time. That meant that the Pirates were starting to play at what their bodies felt was closer to 11 p.m.

It was a shame that Seton Hall ran into some tough obstacles in addition to Gonzaga, because, on paper, that game had looked like one of the more intriguing matchups of the first round. However, the Bulldogs did well to take advantage of the situation, and now they get to meet Utah in the second round, advancing past which has often been an obstacle for Gonzaga.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Providence notched its first NCAA tournament win since 1997 at the end of a long day in Raleigh with a 70-69 upset over No. 8 seed Southern California thanks to a last-second layup from Rodney Bullock. Sophomore forward Ben Bentil led the game with 19 points and nine rebounds.

The Trojans (21-13) led by five with 2 minutes 40 second remaining when they tuned the ball over on back-to-back possessions, which led to a dunk from Bentil and a three-pointer from Kris Dunn on the other end to tie the game 68-68 with 1 minute 27 seconds to play. Southern California missed from the foul line three times and flubbed a layup in the game’s last minute before Drew Edwards found Bullock — on a play intended for Dunn — for the final layup with two Providence (24-10) players in foul trouble. Bullock and Dunn both finished the night with 16, and Bullock had 10 boards.

“Great finish, March Madness at it’s best,” Providence Coach Ed Cooley said.  “…In the end, we prevailed, and that’s what this month is about. Just advance, however you can.”

Providence advances to play No. 1 seed North Carolina, who the Friars lost to in last year’s first round. The Tar Heels beat Florida Gulf Coast University 83-67 earlier Thursday.

The Friars were the second  ninth-seeded teams advanced in the first round Thursday — in the Midwest Region No. 9 Butler beat No. 8 Texas Tech and moves on to play Virginia; in the South, Connecticut beat Colorado and advances to play Kansas.

Miami Coach Jim Larranaga, who has seen some coaches in a five-university career that spans from Ralph Sampson to George Mason and beyond, said Thursday night that Arizona’s Sean Miller “is a coach that’s headed toward the Hall of Fame.” That’s a rational view, but the 47-year-old Miller will suffer a dip with this March. It happens.

Miller has engendered some respectful sympathy for his tantalizing Marches of late. Arizona’s final-eight finishes in 2014 and 2015, both with losses to Wisconsin, the first in overtime, gave Miller four different finishes at the doorstep of the Final Four without quite getting in. The clobbering this oft-injured Arizona team (25-9) took from hot play-in entry Wichita State in the first round finished one of Miller’s more disjointed years. It will be interesting to see how the rebound attempt goes in 2016-17.

Wichita State has spent the late evening in Providence treating Arizona to the kind of frustration that makes a ghastly stat sheet that shows field-goal ratios such as, say, 11-for-31. As the Shockers really started to pull away just after 11 p.m., Shaquille Morris took a gorgeous pass from Ron Baker, dunked and drew a foul from Arizona’s Dusan Ristic and gave the scary Shockers a 19-point lead. Finishing the play behind the baseline, Morris put his hands together, leaned his head into them and indicated it was time to go to sleep.

Much of a depleted arena agreed.

Skal Labissiere tries to dunk during the first half of Kentucky’s first-round game. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

This has been a tumultuous season for Kentucky freshman Skal Labissiere, but the 6-foot-11 big man has finally begun to show signs that he is ready to contribute.

At the end of February, Labissiere was glued to the Wildcat bench, logging single-digit minutes. Against No. 13 Stony Brook, Labissiere was a first-half mainstay, using his length and timing to block five shots (several on Stony Brook’s Jameel Warney, the America East squad’s star big), grab four rebounds and score six points. The big isn’t a traditional, back-to-the-basket big, and Coach John Calipari put the onus on his shoulders, saying he mistakenly tried to manipulate Labissiere’s game in a way the freshman wasn’t ready for.

But after three straight games of 15 or more minutes (followed by a return to a reserve role), Labissiere is rounding into form, which gives Kentucky yet another weapon in a possible matchup with Indiana or, looking even further ahead, with top-seeded North Carolina.

(Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

No. 11 Wichita State was underseeded. The Shockers had the nation’s top defense, allowing just 0.88 points per possession and finished the regular season with 23 wins, but because the Shockers lost the Missouri Valley Conference title game, Gregg Marshall’s squad had to make an appearance in the play-in game (a win against No. 11 Vanderbilt) before facing  six-seeded Arizona in the first round.

Simply, it was a nightmare first half for the Wildcats. The team used 31.3 possessions, and scored a scant 0.60 PPP. Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker, the Shockers’ senior guards, were physical with the Zona guards, and the Wichita State bigs used their lower body to force their opponents into uncomfortable shots and kept Arizona from establishing any level of comfort on the glass (20.o percent offensive rebounding rate, well below Zona’s overall rate of 35.1 percent). The Missouri Valley team unnerved the Wildcats, who were clearly unaccustomed to this level of defensive intensity, which was evidenced by Arizona’s 10 turnovers.

The Wildcats are an upperclassmen-laden team, so it’s likely Coach Sean Miller is challenging his squad to enter the second half with a bit more energy than was displayed in the initial twenty minutes. Otherwise, this could be one of the more lopsided NCAA tournament games in recent memory.

Did they leave the ovens on at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence? The NCAA tournament game there between Arizona and Wichita State was not even close to halftime before Wildcats Coach Sean Miller sweated through his dress shirt.

What in the name of Gary Williams was going on there? Whatever was getting Miller hot and, with his higher-seeded team down early, bothered, it gave the Internet plenty of fodder for wisecracks.

We’ve all heard about coaches sweating out a big game, but, um, that’s a little much.

When the NCAA tournament holds two sessions of two games each at the same arena, a common arrangement in the early rounds, it mandates that all fans leave their seats between the sessions, even if they have tickets for both. That process of clearing an arena, then admitting thousands of fans all over again can be time-consuming, and on Thursday, it was apparent that the NCAA had not allotted enough time for that to happen at Denver’s Pepsi Center.

Session 1 at Pepsi Center, featuring the Iowa State-Iona and Purdue-Arkansas-Little Rock games, tipped off at noon local time. Session 2, featuring the Utah-Fresno State and Seton Hall-Gonzaga games, was scheduled to start at 5:27. Giving each game about two hours to play out, and allotting a half hour between the first two, meant that the NCAA had allowed for only about an hour between the two sessions.

Not surprisingly, that wasn’t nearly enough time to herd everyone out and then admit another arena’s worth of fans, so that when Session 2 tipped off, there were far more folks outside, in cold, snowy conditions, than inside, enjoying the game they had spent no small amount of money to attend.

https://twitter.com/msnikivon/status/710614575217909760

Twitter user @MileHighBrendan had a particularly painful tale of woe, because he thought he’d learned his lesson in 2011, when a similarly chaotic scene played out. So late in the second half of the second game of Session 1, with fifth-seeded Purdue apparently comfortably ahead of 12th-seeded UALR, he decided to leave the arena, just so that he could grab a good spot in what he knew would be an epic line to get back in.

If you have been following tournament events, you know how that turned out. UALR stormed back, hit a miraculous shot to force overtime and then prevailed in double-OT, in what became an instant classic of a contest. Unfortunately for @MileHighBrendan, he had to try and watch the dramatic finish from somewhere outside Pepsi Center, this after having had a perfectly good seat for the action.

Now that is brutal. Come on, NCAA, just one hour between sessions? Madness.

At the under-eight minutes timeout, five-seeded Indiana leads No. 12-seeded Chattanooga, 77-61. Against any other team in the field of 68, the Mocs would be a difficult out — the squad holds opponents to just under one point per possession and uses ball pressure to force a high rate of turnovers (20.3 percent) without fouling (a scant defensive free throw rate of 30.8 percent).

But Tom Crean’s squad cares little for the statistical reputation of its first-round opponent — the Big Ten squad has used just 58.7 possessions and has scored a whopping 1.34 PPP, a rate that will only grow in the next seven or so minutes. By the end of the game, which IU won 99-74, the squad — on just 69.5 possessions (slightly above the season average for DI teams) — dropped 1.42 PPP. In a conference game, or a non-conference content, that would be impressive, but the rate takes on added weight considering the situation and how difficult an opponent Chattanooga was throughout 2016.

Whether the team is converting from deep (60.0 percent from three) or within the arc (66.6 percent on their two-point field goals), IU appears unstoppable, and a team that could be a legitimate problem for No. 1 North Carolina and (presumably) their next opponent, four-seeded Kentucky. Perhaps we have undervalued Indiana all along — we thought that humiliating defensive meltdown against Duke wasn’t a blip, and that Hoosier team would eventually return to the court.

Based on how IU has played throughout the Big Ten slate, and this first round showing versus a very strong almost-Cinderella, IU could be a title contender.

AP Photo/Danny Moloshok

RALEIGH, N.C. – Southern California Coach Andy Enfield knows a fair amount about imbuing an overlooked team with the kind of confidence needed to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament.

In 2013 Enfield coached No. 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast to an historic Cinderella run through the tournament’s Sweet Sixteen that included upsets of then-No. 2 seed Georgetown and No. 7 seed San Diego State. Two years later, Southern California leading scorer Jordan McLaughlin said Enfield’s given his eighth-seeded Trojans the same kind of faith as they start their tournament against No. 9 seed Providence in Thursday’s final first round game.

“Andy Enfield, he never puts none of his players down,” McLaughlin, who averages 13.4 points per game for Southern California, said Wednesday. “You know, he may yell at you for a little bit, but as soon as he’s done yelling at you, he picks you right back up …and he does that every day in practice, even when we don’t have practice. He just – he fills everybody’s brains, minds with confidence.”

McLaughlin and guard Julian Jacobs, the sophomore and junior guards who’ve been elevated to leaders on a Trojans (21-12) team with just one senior, said it was Enfield’s faith that got them through their darker days at Southern California. Enfield was hired away from Florida Gulf Coast in 2014, and the Trojans posted an 11-win and 12-win season for the past two years before finally cracking 20 wins – and making it to the PAC-12 tournament quarterfinals this year.

Jacobs committed to Southern California before former coach Kevin O’Neill was fired in the middle of the 2013-14 season. Enfield was a big part of why he stayed.

“Honestly, it was miserable the first two years,” Jacobs, who dishes a team-leading 5.5 assists per game and is the team’s third-leading scorer, said. “I’ve never been a part of the team that was the laughingstock of a conference, like we were our first two years. But I think our coaching staff, as a whole, did a really good job of reiterating that, you know, it’s not always going to be like this.

“I think this summer is when I realized that this team had a chance to do something special, we’re just sort of seeing it come to fruition now. And it’s been fun. It’s been a fun ride.

Should Southern California beat Providence, the Trojans could face Florida Gulf Coast in the second round, should the Eagles pull off an improbable upset over No. 1 seed North Carolina. Enfield said he’d enjoy playing his former team, which was trailing the Tar Heels by just a point at halftime Thursday, before North Carolina pulled away in the second half.

“Put it this way, we’d love to play them in the second round,” Enfield said with a smile Wednesday. “That means we won our game too.”

It seems that Isaiah Hicks heard all about Florida Gulf Coast’s “Dunk City” reputation (sorry, Georgetown) and decided to teach the upstart squad a thing or two. Unfortunately for the North Carolina forward, he ended up learning an embarrassing lesson in the limits of even his own outstanding athletic ability.

In his top-seeded Tar Heels’ first-round NCAA tournament game Thursday against the 16th-seeded Eagles, Hicks had an opportunity to drive down the lane. Despite being met by a pair of defenders, the 6-9 junior thought he could jam one home over his opponents, but he really didn’t come all that close.

https://twitter.com/aardodson/status/710617411414790146

D’oh! It’s never a high-percentage shot, even from a few feet away, when you have to throw the ball at the basket.

In fairness, Hicks does have tremendous hops, if occasionally misguided ambitions. Here he is at a practice on Wednesday, demonstrating that he can soar to the hoop — as long as no one gets in his way.

Jared Nickens, left, and Rasheed Sulaimon keep it light during Maryland’s open practice in Spokane, Wash. (Toni L. Sandys/ The Washington Post)

Maryland will being its NCAA tournament Friday afternoon in Spokane, Wash., against 12th-seeded South Dakota State. Here’s some pregame reading:

• Coach Mark Turgeon admits it has been a challenging season. But, Jerry Brewer writes, their struggles over the past month have forced introspection that could benefit them when the games matter most. (Read more)
• Though he is in his first season with the Terps, graduate transfer Rasheed Sulaimon is a vocal leader, and its most experienced NCAA tournament veteran. (Read more)
• Maryland has Diamond Stone, but South Dakota State has a versatile front-court freshman in Mike Daum, its leading scorer. Stone said of Daum: “He’s a great player. A lot of moves,” before adding, “He has to pretty much prove himself to me.” (Read more)
• Speaking of South Dakota State, it’s led by Coach Scott Nagy, who weathered several tough years after the program jumped from Division II to Division I. Now the Jackrabbits are in their third NCAA tournament in five years. (Read more)
• Rick Maese’s latest chapter in his season-long look behind the scenes of the Maryland basketball team follows the Terps through the Big Ten tournament to Selection Sunday — the cusp of the season’s defining moments. (Read more)

Angel Rodriguez, left, drives to the basket in the first half of Thursday’s game against Buffalo. (Rogash/Getty Images)

Angel Rodriguez is Miami’s most dynamic player. The 5-foot-11 Rodriguez has an offensive rating of just 109, but the guard leads the Hurricanes’ offense and his actions often determine how well Miami plays.

During some of Miami’s losses, like to Virginia Tech or Virginia (at the end of the ACC slate and during the conference tournament, respectively), Rodriguez has struggled with turnovers (giving the ball away eight times) and the Miami offense largely flagged. But he is also capable of large scoring — and emotional — swings: During the late January win against Duke, Rodriguez had 11 assists and just one turnover.

For No. 14 Buffalo to pull the upset, Nate Oats’s team either needed to contain Rodriguez or find some method to throw off the guard’s game, but with about five minutes remaining in the second half, Rodriguez has played a nearly flawless game. The guard has connected on three three-point field goals, handed out four assists and (most impressively) grabbed six rebounds. When Rodriguez’s overall game is on point, the Hurricanes are one of the field’s top teams, and a legitimate challenger for top-seed Kansas.

( Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)

The 12th-seeded Trojans knocked off Purdue in double overtime Thursday, and now they will face Iowa State on Saturday. Fancy Stat’s named the Little Rock among four potential Cinderellas who could reach the Sweet 16 earlier this week, and that looks even more likely after Thursday’s result. If that is to happen it will start and end with defense.

From the blog:

Saturday’s game will be a clash of basketball strategies. The Cyclones still retain much of the offensive philosophy left over by Coach Fred Hoiberg and play at an up-tempo pace (72 possessions) and shoot a lot of threes (35.0 percent three-point field goal attempts rate) and a lot of shots at the rim (32 percent of their overall attempts). As the Trojans did against Purdue, they’ll attempt to take away ISU’s three-point game — Purdue, a team that normally makes 36.0 percent from deep, converted just 32.1 percent — and using a swarming, interchangeable help defense, Little Rock could bother those high-percentage looks around the bucket.

Read more here.

You’d think Chris Beard might have been a little more careful with his broken hand while in the Arkansas-Little Rock locker room. After all, it was in the team’s locker room, just a few days ago, that the Trojans’ head coach suffered the injury in the first place.

However, that was a different place, and under very different circumstances. On Sunday, Little Rock was down by five points at halftime of the Sun Belt final, held at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, and a loss would have kept the team out of the NCAA tournament.

Beard put on a fiery halftime performance, and while his team went to win, he lost a battle to a dry erase board, and Thursday saw him coaching while wearing a splint on his right hand. Meanwhile, his 12th-seeded Trojans put a hurting on fifth-seeded Purdue at Pepsi Center in Denver, storming back late and upsetting the Boilermakers, 85-83 in double overtime.

Naturally, that huge win led to a joyous celebration back in the locker room, and Beard was not about to be left out.

One can only hope the coach didn’t injure anything else in that mosh pit. Beard doesn’t need any more distractions, with his Cinderella squad now set to take on Iowa State in the round of 32.

It’s actually been a rough time for Sun Belt coaches in the NCAA tournament for the past couple of years. Last year, Georgia State’s Ron Hunter tore his Achilles while celebrating his team’s conference final victory, leading to a memorable scene when he fell off his stool after his son, R.J., hit a game-winning shot against Baylor.

The story of Duke’s 93-85 win over UNC Wilmington Thursday in the NCAA tournament was the performance of Marshall Plumlee. The senior forward, who is the third Plumlee brother to play for the Blue Devils, scored a career-high 23 points, adding eight rebounds and three blocks, to help his team put away the pesky Seahawks.

[Marshall Plumlee emerges as Duke’s X-factor in win over UNC Wilmington]

And the story of Plumlee’s performance was the fact that he ditched the face mask he was wearing after halftime, when he racked up 19 of his points. Plumlee had broken his nose during an ACC tournament game, but he decided that the mask was bothering him, and that he’d rather risk pain or further injury for the chance of playing more effectively.

“There’s no excuses for my play in the first half,” Plumlee said after the game (via the AP), wearing a blue jersey with the words “Be Worthy” emblazoned on the front. But many would beg to differ, considering the apparent effect taking his mask off had on his play.

After the first half, which saw fourth-seeded Duke trailing 13th-seeded UNCW, 43-40, Plumlee told his teammates in the locker room, “I got you.” He had them, alright, just as soon he made sure of not having something else.

Arkansas-Little Rock’s Josh Hagins joined Yale’s Makai Mason among the breakout stars on the first day of the NCAA tournament. Just like Mason, Hagins scored a career-high 31 points. Just like Mason, he willed his 12th-seeded team to a first-round upset of a No. 5 seed.

Hagins hit game-tying shots at the end of regulation and the first overtime in Little Rock’s 85-83 double-overtime win over Purdue. The Trojans trailed the Boilermakers by 14 points with five minutes remaining before mounting a comeback.

Thursday’s loss was Purdue’s second consecutive early exit in the tournament. As a No. 9 seed last year, the Boilermakers lost to eighth-seeded Cincinnati in overtime. Meanwhile, Hagins and the Trojans advance to play Iowa State on Saturday.

Tony Bennett, the Virginia Cavaliers’ head coach, has surely heard jokes all his life about the fact that he shares a name with the legendary singer. Well, it works the other way, sometimes, as well, and Thursday provided another example.

Bennett, the coach, collapsed on the sideline during his Cavaliers’ 81-45 NCAA tournament win over Hampton. He was taken to the locker room but later was able to return to court, coaching the rest of the game while sitting on a stool, after apparently suffering from dehydration.

A short while after that, Bennett, the singer — whose real name is Anthony Dominick Benedetto — posted this tweet:

It’s understandable that some of the singer’s fans would hear something to the effect that “Tony Bennett collapsed” and react with great concern, given that the “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” crooner is 89. Fortunately, he and the coach both seem to be in good shape.

All in all, it was a good day for the Butler Bulldogs, but not quite as much for Butler Blue III. The team’s bulldog mascot — of the real, live-animal variety — was not allowed into PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C., Thursday to cheer (bark?) on Butler as it squared off against Texas Tech.

Given that Blue III, nicknamed “Trip,” had been woofing it up at previous Butler games, the arena took heat from outraged fans who presumed it was enforcing some draconian policy. However, PNC pointed out that it was actually an NCAA rule for its tournament, and Trip himself did the same.

Class act, that Trip. However, he and the school presumably were prepared for this to happen, given that the rule, in place for the more crowded preliminary rounds, has been in effect for several years. In fact, Blue II was banned from a Butler-Old Dominion tournament game in 2011, even though that contest took place at Verizon Center, where Georgetown trots out its own live bulldog mascot.

Butler happened to win that game on a last-second shot, and it didn’t even require that much drama Thursday, as the Bulldogs pulled away from the Red Raiders for a 71-61 win and a trip to the round of 32.

If Butler makes it all the way to the Final Four, the school can apply for an exemption to let Trip into NRG Stadium in Houston. On the other hand, the team may decide that the dog is providing better karma from outside the building.

Coach Kevin Ollie, center, won the national title two years ago with a U-Conn. team that entered the tournament seeded seventh. (Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press)

These Huskies might not have the pedigree of their recent teams, but as John Feinstein writes from their victory over Colorado in Des Moines, they’ve made a habit of doing damage in the NCAA tournament.

Purdue led Arkansas-Little Rock by 12 points with five minutes to play, but the Trojans battled back and eventually tied the game to force overtime on a deep, fadeaway three-pointer by Josh Hagins.

This. Is. March. Are we headed for the second No. 12 seed-No. 5 seed upset of the day?

In its 79-75 upset of fifth-seeded Baylor on Thursday, Yale outrebounded the much bigger Bears, 36-32. At least one reporter at the postgame press conference found that statistic surprising and asked Baylor’s Taurean Prince how it happened.

Prince’s literal answer was perfect:

“You go up and grab the ball off the rim when it comes off, and then you grab it with two hands and then you come down with it, and that’s considered a rebound,” Prince said, demonstrating with his hands for added effect. “So they got more of those than we did.”

That’s cold, Mr. Prince.

The thing is, Yale finished second in the country in rebounding this year, while Baylor ranked 15th. Sure, the Bulldogs played 14 games against Ivy League foes, but they also matched Duke on the glass in a November loss at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The 12th-seeded Butler Bulldogs stunned the No. 5 Baylor Bears on Thursday, pulling off the first major upset of the tournament, 79-75. Now they turn their attention toward fourth-seeded Duke, a team that defeated the Bulldogs earlier this season, 80-61. That may not happen this time around.

From The Post’s Fancy Stats blog:

Because of their size advantages in Thursday’s game against UNC-Wilmington, Duke (Brandon Ingram, in particular) was able to grab a board and immediately morph into their transition offense, sparking quick points and trips to the foul line. That shouldn’t happen versus Yale. First, those defensive boards shouldn’t be available. And second, the Elis are the rare team that crashes the offensive glass but is also stingy with its transition defense, allowing opponents to notch an effective field goal percentage of 45.7 percent, the 20th best mark in Division I.

Read more here.

Late in the second half of Duke’s first-round NCAA tournament game against UNC-Wilmington on Thursday, Duke guard Grayson Allen slipped on consecutive possessions.

The slippery condition of the court at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center didn’t cost the Blue Devils, who held off the Seahawks for a 93-85 win, but Baylor wasn’t so fortunate in the following game in Providence.

Trailing Yale by two points with 6 seconds remaining, fifth-seeded Baylor had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead. The Bears didn’t get a shot off because guard Lester Medford slipped after going behind his back with his dribble.

It was Medford’s only turnover in 33 minutes, and it wasn’t entirely his fault.

In addition to serving as the home arena for the Providence basketball team, Dunkin’ Donuts Center is also home to the American Hockey League’s Providence Bruins, who last played at home on Sunday. The court conditions will be something to monitor in Thursday’s late games (Miami vs. Buffalo and Wichita State vs. Arizona) at the site.

After collapsing during the first half when he “blacked out a little,” Virginia’s Tony Bennett coached the second half while sitting on a stool. The top-seeded Cavaliers didn’t give him much reason to want to pace, breezing to an 81-45 victory over Hampton.

Read the full story here.

The year after it endured a debacle in the NCAA tournament defined by both Baylor biting the dust early, the muscular Big 12 might be trending toward another debacle in the NCAA tournament defined by Baylor biting the dust early.

Last year, the Big 12 earned seven bids, and yet only two Big 12 teams reached the second weekend, and both Oklahoma and West Virginia were bounced in the Sweet 16. Already, on the first day of the tournament, Baylor has been upset by Yale and Texas Tech has been outclassed by Butler.

It’s still early. Kansas, currently crushing Austin Peay, faces a difficult second-round matchup with red-hot Connecticut. Iowa State defied widespread upset picks with a convincing victory over Iona. Texas, West Virginia and Oklahoma are on tap tomorrow.

So far, it’s been a rough start for the conference ranked No. 1 in the RPI.

Quick question: How on Earth did Scott Drew reach the Elite Eight a couple years ago?

Makai Mason led Yale with a career-high X points. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

Yale’s first-ever NCAA tournament win provided this year’s first real upset. The 12th-seeded Bulldogs, who were making their first tournament appearance since 1962, stunned No. 5 seed Baylor, 79-75, in Providence on Thursday behind a career-high 31 points from Makai Mason.

Mason scored 16 points in the first half to help the Ivy League champions build a 39-34 lead and shot 11 for 11 from the free throw line.

Mason’s two free throws with 20.5 seconds to play gave Yale a four-point lead, but Baylor’s Taurean Prince answered with a three-pointer with 16 seconds remaining. Nick Victor made one of two free throws on Yale’s ensuing possession, giving Baylor a chance to tie or take the lead. But Baylor’s Lester Medford slipped as he drove into the lane, resulting in a turnover. Sherrod Brown iced the game with a pair of free throws.

Baylor, which was upset by No. 14 seed Georgia State in last year’s first-round, lacked discipline in the loss. During a media timeout in the second half, Prince and teammate Rico Gathers got into a shouting and shoving match by the Baylor bench.

Here’s a quick summary of the game, in GIF form:

Yale advances to play Duke, which defeated UNC Wilmington earlier in the day, on Saturday.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — In every iteration of college conference realignment, the opinions of players, coaches or fans never have anything to do with whatever decisions are made.

That’s because money, at the end of the day, is the final and binding arbiter in any of these discussions.

But for a school like West Virginia, which once was at the top of the Big East when it was the most powerful conference in the land, switching conferences to the Big 12 — which is almost entirely made up of Midwestern schools — has had very real consequences.

“It’s not like it used to be,” Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins said Thursday afternoon. “It used to be, you could tell [recruits] we were going to come back and play three or four games in the Metropolitan area. We were going to play the conference tournament in the Metropolitan area, and we were a part of very much an Eastern league. We’ve tried to get back in here because there are kids who want to go away, as well, and we certainly want to try to be involved with them as much as we possibly can.

“I think it helps, but it’s never going to be what it was. I know you’re well aware of this, but our alumni base is very, very strong up and down the East Coast, from below D.C. up to, pretty much up to Boston. I think having our alumni, that strong alumni base in there, we had a lot of people at games, and there’s a lot of support. I think kids could see the support West Virginia had up and down the East Coast.

“We’re not playing in here but maybe a game or two a year [now. It’s not like playing all the games we used to play in here.”

It’s just one of many repercussions of schools all around the country chasing dollar signs over traditional conferences in sensible regions.

It’s been a rough start to the NCAA tournament for Baylor. The Bears might be more athletically gifted than their upset-minded foes from Yale, but Coach Scott Drew’s team has shown a serious lack of discipline.

The lowlight thus far was an altercation on the bench between teammates Rico Gathers and Taurean Prince during a timeout. No wonder Baylor trails by 11 with 7:28 to play.

Yale senior forward Brandon Sherrod, who sings at least as well as he shoots a basketball, skipped last year’s season in order to travel to 26 different countries with the Whiffenpoofs, the world’s oldest cappella group.  Here he is singing a solo in Singapore:

“I honestly feel very blessed to say the least,” Sherrod recently told USA Today’s Nicole Auerbach. “You can’t really script it the way that it’s been, the way that it’s gone down. I guess for one, the traveling that I did and the year that I took off gave me a great deal of perspective on how people really take their opportunities for granted sometimes —especially in the States. We are so fortunate and so blessed to have activities at our whim and being able to play the sport of basketball at the Division I level.”

Sherrod, who averaged 12.5 points and 7.1 rebounds per game this season, now has the opportunity to help Yale to its first NCAA tournament win in school history. The Bulldogs lead No. 5 seed Baylor by nine points midway through the second half.

Iowa State held off Iona, 94-81, in the highest-scoring game of the tournament thus far. Led by Georges Niang’s 28 points, all five Cyclone starters finished in double-figures. In fact, Iowa State’s starters accounted for all but two of the team’s points.

Go ahead and dance, Jameel McKay.

Entering this classic No. 12 vs. No. 5 upset matchup between Yale and Baylor, many people assumed the Bears would be too physical for the Ivy League’s Elis and easily outmuscle them on the interior.

Well, that hasn’t been the case — Yale has grabbed 30 percent of their misses, which have consistently led to putbacks and open threes, spacing Baylor’s zone defense and creating gaps for coach James Jones’s squad. Yale’s rebounding dominance, though, shouldn’t be surprising: no other Division I team ranked within the top-10 of KenPom’s offensive and defensive rebounding percentage rankings.

Justin Sears and Brandon Sherrod, in particular, both grab more than 10 percent of the team’s misses, and Sherrod, who took a hiatus from the team last year to join the Whiffenpoofs, a prestigious acapella group, prevents opponents from hauling in 17 percent of their caroms. And this is the most surprising development of all: the Bulldogs have allowed Baylor, the nation’s third-best team at securing their own misses, to secure just 18 percent today.

So while Rico Gathers, Johnathan Motley and the rest of the Baylor Bears continue to draw praise for how well they attack the glass, just realize Yale has similar — if better — rebounding chops.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Tony Bennett fell on the sideline after becoming light-headed just before halftime during Virginia’s first-round matchup against Hampton on Thursday at PNC Arena.

Anthony Gill was setting up at the free throw line with about 30 seconds left in the half when the Cavaliers’ coach crumpled in front of Virginia’s bench at the far end of the court — it appeared as though his left leg gave out — and stayed on the ground for a brief period after being surrounded by assistant coaches and the team physician. He stood up slowly and sat in a chair on the bench as play resumed. He walked to the locker room with help a few seconds later.

Bennett said he was just dehydrated, his wife was heard telling a sideline photographer on the sideline. She went to the locker room to check on him at halftime.

Bennett returned to the court with the Cavaliers after halftime and told CBS in an on-court interview that he was fine.

On-court there was much less drama. Virginia lead 40-21 at halftime after the Cavaliers shot 57 percent (54 percent from three-point range) to Hampton’s 30 percent from the floor in the first half. Gill leads with 11 points and Perrantes has nine on 3 of 6 shooting from beyond the arc.

Basketball in the Big 12 is just a bit different than basketball in the Ivy League, as Yale’s Nick Victor discovered when he received a bounce-pass and elevated for a dunk along the baseline in the first half against Baylor.

In the Ivy League, it would’ve been a sure two points, but Princeton, Dartmouth and the like don’t have many athletes like Baylor forward Rico Gathers. The 6-foot-8, 275-pound senior, who has NFL — not NBA — dreams rejected Victor with a ferocious block.

OH MY. Yale took a 39-34 lead into halftime.

Yale sophomore guard Makai Mason, who is as photogenic a dunker as you’ll find in college basketball, averaged nearly 16 points per game during the regular season. He had 16 points in the first half against Baylor.

Mason scored a career-high 25 points in a win over Dartmouth on Feb. 12. Our Wizards beat reporter Jorge Castillo is just a little bit excited about his fellow Yalie…

Yale leads the Bears 39-34 late in the first half.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Most college coaches would bristle at the notion that they can’t get it done in March.

Not Villanova’s Jay Wright. The dapper dressing coach of the Wildcats made it clear Thursday — as he has all season — that Villanova’s struggles in the NCAA Tournament over the past few seasons are more than fair game.

“It’s been a big part of our season,” Wright said. “It’s been a big part of our program. As soon as we lost to N.C. State last year, it became a big issue, even in the off-season.

“And when we started this season, it was the first thing everyone talked about. So we had to talk to the team about it and just say, ‘OK, this is just something we’re going to have to deal with.'”

The results speak for themselves. Since Villanova made it to the Final Four in 2009, the program has made the tournament five of the past six seasons — and made it past the first weekend in none of them. That includes exits as a No. 2 seed in the second round in both 2010 and 2014, as well as the loss to N.C. State as a No. 1 seed last year that Wright referred to.

So despite the fact that seniors Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu have been part of the winningest class in Villanova history, they still lack the kind of postseason success that every player hopes to gain during their collegiate careers.

“It’s definitely something that we take great pride in playing four years at Villanova,” Arcidiacono said. “We know that this run could maybe add to it, but we just know we have to take it one game at a time.”

Lost amid No. 9 Butler’s 71-61 win against No. 8 Texas Tech were the implications for both the Big East and the Big 12 at the conference-perception level. Each conference was hyped entering the 2015 NCAA tournament, and schools from the two conferences flamed out in the early rounds, either to Cinderellas or other overlooked high-majors.

The Big 12 was arguably the toughest league in Division I this season — from Oklahoma to Kansas and West Virginia — it wasn’t often that a team had an off night. The same could be said for the Big East. Villanova was ranked as the nation’s top team at one point, and Xavier spent much of the season as a top-10 team.

So the Bulldogs’ win is somewhat of a validation for a conference that, since being split apart and allocated to the highest bidder, has constantly fielded questions as to whether the Big East still needs to exist. Butler absorbed all of Texas Tech’s surges and, without much scoring help from Kelan Martin and Roosevelt Jones (though the former did erupt late in the second half), still managed to hold the Red Raiders to well under one point per possession (0.89 PPP).

Meanwhile, the Big 12’s postseason reputation still hangs very much on the bubble. Texas Tech is the first conference member to be bounced from the field, and No. 4 Iowa State, a surprisingly popular upset pick, leads No. 13 Iona by 16 through 29 minutes. Should both the Cyclones and top seed Kansas advance, two high-major leagues could get a boost of sorely needed confidence.

Former Yale basketball captain Jack Montague, who was expelled last month for sexual misconduct, is at Thursday’s first-round game against Baylor to support his teammates, according to the Yale Daily News.

Montague responded to the allegations on Monday with a statement through his lawyer, Max Stern, who said his client was inappropriately pushed out of school and that Montague’s sexual encounters with a woman were all consensual.

The CBS announcers in Providence for the Baylor-Yale game joked before tip-off that if the power goes out at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, R.I., they’ll still be able to spot the Bears.

They’re not wrong.

Baylor, sporting highlighter yellow uniforms, took a 12-9 lead into the first media timeout against the Bulldogs, who are making their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1962.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Fran McCaffery has a reputation for losing his cool on the sidelines.

He was asked about it Thursday afternoon and … got defensive.

“I think there’s only one way to play the game,” McCaffery said. “You’ve got to compete. I will be honest … I think sometimes I’m unfairly categorized as a guy that’s constantly fiery. If you watch me coach, about 85 percent of the time, I just have my arms folded, and I just watch the game.”

You mean like this, Fran?

Anyway, McCaffery went on from there.

“What will upset me is, if we have repeatedly gone over something and then that aspect breaks down. So, in other words, if you play for me, I’m not going to ask you to do what you can’t do, but if I ask you to do a certain thing and you don’t do it and I know you can do it, that’s going to be a problem. We’re going to have an issue there.”

He also apparently has an issue with being asked questions in postgame settings. Check out this exchange from a presser after losing to Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament last week.

Players to Watch

If the Bulldogs want the Providence pod to echo with the sounds of ‘Boola Boola,’ Mason will need to be big.

No. 12 Yale vs. No. 5 Baylor, 2:45 p.m.

Makai Mason, Yale: The sophomore upped both his minutes and usage rates after a surprising first season, and if Yale is to shock the bracket, Mason needs to both be converting from deep — 38 percent — and keeping a tight handle amid Baylor’s pressure defense. Much of the Bears’ attention will be paid on Brandon Sherrod and Justin Sears, so Mason could emerge as the Cinderella darling in a potential upset bid.

TruTV pulled in a pretty good viewership haul for the play-in games on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The 2014 play-in games — which included N.C. State-Xavier and Iowa-Tennesse games — drew 5.9 million viewers.

It’s hard to call a No. 8 beating a No. 9 a surprise, but if Colorado does hold off Connecticut (it currently has a win probability of 78 percent), it would make 9.2 million people pretty unhappy.

The Providence crowd engaged in one of America’s favorite viewing pleasures: a loose perception of the number of fouls called against Duke versus the number of fouls called against a Duke opponent. In that vein, the crowd practiced other traditions such as the sarcastic cheering of an official for whistling a foul against Duke, or the observing of Mike Krzyzewski leering at an official for 20 solid seconds into a timeout late in the first half.

Well into the second half, Duke had 17 fouls to 29 for UNC Wilmington, but that only deepened season-long trends. According to NCAA statistics, Duke finished 27th among 346 teams with 16.6 fouls per game, while rushing, pressing UNC Wilmington ranked 344th with 23.8 per game.

The UNCW mascot walks off in defeat. (Chuck Culpepper/The Washington Post)

Let the conspiracy theories begin.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — As a longtime member of the Big East, Villanova is used to making the trip up Interstate 95 to play games at Madison Square Garden.

But Wildcats coach Jay Wright is more than happy to be spending this weekend playing across the East River at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center instead.

“It’s a little different,” Wright said with a smile Thursday afternoon. “When you’re at the Garden, it’s like pure tradition. You feel like it’s old school New York.

“When you’re at Barclays Center, it just feels like it’s like, hyped, hip-hip New York. Everything’s new and black and hyped.

“It’s just different. I love both of them.”

Given the open hostility between the NBA tenants of the two buildings (the New York Knicks at MSG, the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center), you’d better believe the Nets will be more than happy to hear a prominent college coach say something like that.

Butler’s Roosevelt Jones and Kelan Martin are two of the most integral Bulldogs to the team’s NCAA tournament bid. Without Martin’s all-around mid-range game, and Jones’s unique combination of push shots, Butler would not have clawed to a nine-seed, which is why it is so surprising that with under 10 minutes remaining, both players have scored a combined six points  versus the No. 8 Texas Tech.

Martin hit his first buckets with about eight minutes remaining, and overall, Chris Holtmann’s squad is scoring just one point per possession, and has been carried by contributions from Tyler Wideman (a forward who typically attempts just 13 percent of the team’s shots, per KenPom) and his 12 points, beasting the Texas Tech defenders, and Andrew Chrabascz, a shifty big man who dreams of being a small forward and has scored 10 points.

Kellen Dunham, as he has done all season, has sprinkled 17 points about the perimeter, but it is remarkable that Butler has gone nearly the entire game without any offensive contributions from two of its most integral players.

Here’s what happens when you press the Boss Button while watching NCAA tournament games on your work computer this year.

Yeah, it’s branded again, and not for the first time. The much-clicked Boss Button has been sponsored off and on since 2008.

Texas Tech is 5 for 6 in the paint but 8 for 21 everywhere else, including 2 for 9 from beyond the three-point arc.

Despite Oregon’s status as a No. 1 seed, the other Pac-12 teams might not have a long tournament life.

No. 4 California was a popular upset pick against No. 13 Hawaii, and that was even before it was announced that Tyrone Wallace suffered a fracture in his non-shooting hand. He’ll miss the entire tournament.

That news was followed by CBS’s Jon Rothstein’s report that Tres Tinkle, the son of Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle and the second-most efficient offensive player on that Beavers’ roster (111.1 offensive rating), was doubtful against No. 10 VCU.

Colorado and USC are both 8 seeds, a perilous position for any team that wishes to advance to the second weekend, and No. 6 Arizona began to be crossed off many brackets when No. 11 Wichita State — a trendy upset pick — dropped Vanderbilt on Tuesday night in the play-in game. Even Oregon is being discounted as the tournament’s weakest number one seed.

By the time we re-evaluate our brackets next week, Utah might be the lone Pac-12 representative remaining.

Butler is taking on Texas Tech in Raleigh, N.C. The Bulldogs are down one mascot.

Doesn’t the NCAA know that Butler Blue III has 17,500 Twitter followers?

Anyway, “you’re my boy, Blue” was heard from coast to coast.

This game will feature two of the nation’s stingiest defenses.

Colorado allowed 95.5 points per 100 possessions and just a 46.9 percent effective field goal percentage. Connecticut’s defense was even better, allowing 93.9 and 44.2 percent, respectively.

Give the edge to Connecticut, who is the better shooting team.

Josh Scott could be the difference-maker Thursday against Connecticut. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Players to Watch

There’s really not much Colorado’s big man can’t do.

No. 9 Connecticut vs. No. 8 Colorado, 1:30 p.m.

Josh Scott, Colorado: You may have learned this week that Scott, a 6-foot-10 senior, was the best player you’ve never heard of. For those still unaware of  Scott’s abilities, a primer: A load on the defensive glass, Scott hoovers up 20 percent of opponents’ misses, and while he doesn’t have much flash to his game on the other side of the ball, he has an array of post moves at the rim — his 91 makes, per Hoop-Math.com, are a career high.

Advanced stats like Pomeroy’s ratings gave UNC Wilmington just a 27 percent chance at beating Duke in the first round. And even with a 43-40 lead at the half, they still aren’t being given much chance.

According to the win probability model at FiveThirtyEight, the Seahawks have a 31 percent chance at beating the Blue Devils.

It’s very, very early and who knows if the Seahawks of North Carolina-Wilmington can hold on to knock off Duke, but it’s never too early to compare the salaries of the teams’ head coaches.

Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, it seems, makes a boatload of dough while his UNCW counterpart, Kevin Keatts, does not. You knew this. We all knew this, but Darren Rovell had an important reminder.

UNCW is up by three at halftime.

Chris Flemmings averaged 16.1 points and 5.9 rebounds per game and already has 13 points in the first-round game against Duke.

Flemmings ranked 35th in the nation for offensive rating, scoring 125.8 points per 100 possessions.

In the first half against Duke, UNC Wilmington has spaced the halfcourt, spread out defenders, and then find openings through dribble-drives and perimeter shooting. Sounds a lot like Duke’s offensive gameplan.

For years, coach Mike Krzyzewski’s teams have won by creating these defensive mismatches, putting pressure on opponents to either guard one-on-one or help and rotate. And just as it did for Duke, it’s working for UNCW.

During the first half, Duke appears flummoxed by the Seahawks’ familiar game plan. Coach Kevin Keatts’s squad is attacking the rim in the halfcourt, using ballhandlers like Denzel Ingram and Craig Ponder to exploit their speed advantage. And when a Duke player shuffles over to cut off the lane, Chris Flemmings is waiting on the perimeter to shoot a three.

Through the first 20 minutes, UNC Wilmington is scoring 1.17 points per possession, and has an effective field goal percentage of 60.6 percent.

Duke’s defense was always going to be a liability — without Amile Jefferson, this squad is vulnerable both depth-wise and skill-wise, but those defensive slips are being magnified by a team that looks very similar to the Blue Devils’ offenses of old. Entering the tournament, this was Duke’s worst defensive team since 2013 … when the Blue Devils were shocked in the first round by Mercer. Before that, Duke’s 2012 squad was similarly as porous … and that team was upset by Lehigh. There is another half, but history could be repeating itself for Krzyzewski and his staff.

In Butler’s Big East Tournament loss to Providence, it allowed the Friars to shoot 55 percent from the field. It’s early, but Texas Tech is already 7 for 12 (58 percent) on its attempts.