The first day of the first round of men’s March Madness came and went with a modest amount of madness. We got the 12-seed beating a 5-seed, that we’ve come to expect, and an 11-seed shoving aside a 6-seed.
For the most part, though, the favorites held serve. Perhaps a modest Thursday will yield to a wild and wooly Friday filled with upsets.
Here are the winners and losers after Thursday’s first-round action:
Winners
Conservative bracket pickers
If you picked a lot of chalk for Thursday’s games, you’re probably sitting pretty good in your respective bracket pool. No day of first-round games is complete without the emergence of at least a few upsets, but if you strictly picked the better-seeded team, you would’ve gone 12 of 16 for Thursday’s games, and that’s not a bad place to be entering Friday.
Two upsets – No. 9 Creighton and No. 10 Arkansas won – were upsets in name only. Overall, good day to have chalk.
Gonzaga
If you turned on the Georgia-Gonzaga game a few minutes late, you missed everything you needed to see. Gonzaga raced to a 13-0 lead before the first media timeout.
Game over.
Mark Few added polish to his résumé as the nation’s best active coach without a national championship. Gonzaga has advanced to at least the second round in each of the past 16 NCAA Tournaments, while becoming a model of consistency under Few’s watch.
Will Wade
Just a few years ago, the FBI sharks chomped up Wade’s LSU tenure, and he was cast into purgatory, from which he emerged at a school, McNeese State, that owned no NCAA Tournament victories.
Wade’s McNeese achievements reiterate that this guy can coach.
No. 12 McNeese upended No. 5 Clemson for its first NCAA Tournament victory in program history. Wade is a hot commodity. He’s reportedly in line to become North Carolina State’s coach after McNeese exits the tournament. Wade did not deny that report during a postgame interview on the Field of 68 podcast.
“Whatever else is happening, that’s of no distraction to us,” Wade said after the victory.
No need for FBI sleuthing to reveal that Wade rebuilt his career.
Ben McCollum
Speaking of hot commodities, is there a hotter coach than Drake’s Ben McCollum? Seriously, if he’s not coaching candidate No. 1 for Iowa, then something’s off in the water in Iowa City.
McCollum won four Division II national championships throughout 15 successful seasons at Northwest Missouri State. In his first season at Drake, he’s got his No. 11 Bulldogs into the second round after a polished performance against Missouri. Excluding “First Four” results, this marks Drake’s first NCAA win since 1971.
Four Drake starters played for McCollum last season at Northwest Missouri State. Those players keep proving they belong at the Division I level. That’s especially true of Bennett Stirtz. One of the nation’s best players, he scored 21 points while roasting Missouri.
And if Iowa wants McCollum, surely it shouldn’t mind waiting until this NCAA ride ends – even if it might not end in the second round. Drake is good enough to reach the Sweet 16.
Losers
Clemson
Woof. What was that performance? A dud to trump all duds, that’s what that was.
Clemson coach Brad Brownell spent the past several weeks prominently featured on hot boards suggesting him for other jobs. He stayed put and reportedly struck a contract extension with Clemson, then watched as his team piled up bricks in a 69-67 loss to No. 12 McNeese that, for most of the game, wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.
Clemson’s Elite Eight journey last season proved the exception, not the rule.
The ACC
If Clemson was bad, Louisville might have been worse.
The Cardinals looked lost in an 89-75 loss to No. 9 Creighton despite playing the game 80 miles from campus, in Lexington.
Creighton’s NCAA Tournament veterans Steven Ashworth and Ryan Kalkbrenner efficiently combined for 36 points, and Arizona State transfer Jamiya Neal went off for 29. The thumping Creighton laid on Louisville ought to serve as a wake-up call for No. 1 Auburn. The Bluejays are plenty talented and experienced enough to pull off a second-round upset.
Meanwhile, the ACC limps forward with just two teams left standing, No. 1 Duke and No. 11 North Carolina, after the Clemson and Louisville flops.
The SEC
After an NCAA record 14 bids, “it just means more” NCAA Tournament losses for the SEC, apparently.
The SEC earned acclaim during the regular season for delivering the best single-season performance ever by a conference, but March Madness has a way of humbling even the mightiest among us.
To be clear, this wasn’t an awful day for the SEC. No. 1 Auburn, No. 2 Tennessee and No. 4 Texas A&M won without need for hijinks. No. 10 Arkansas toppled Kansas in one of the day’s more interesting games.
But the SEC has lost three teams, marking it down to 11 left standing.
No. 11 Texas bid farewell by giving up a late 10-point lead in a “First Four” loss to Xavier. No. 9 Georgia forgot to show up in a blowout loss to Gonzaga. And No. 6 Missouri looked overmatched throughout much of its loss to Drake.
Not a disaster, but not a great start for the SEC.
Missouri
The trouble with Missouri basketball isn’t making the postseason. The trouble with Missouri basketball is doing something when it reaches the postseason.
The Tigers boast a rich history of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament, but they’ve never made a Final Four – and that streak will continue after Drake flexed its usual defensive toughness and rebounding clout in a 67-57 win that counted as an upset but felt like an expected result.
Drake was the better team entering the tournament, and that became unmistakable once the game started.
Six of Missouri’s last seven NCAA Tournament appearances ended in the first round. The one time Missouri won its first-round game during that stretch, it lost to No. 15 Princeton in the second round.
Frankly, this game became more of the same old story for Missouri.
Kentucky fans
Sorry, Big Blue Nation, but John Calipari won’t make this breakup easy on you.
Calipari’s Razorbacks advanced to the second round, and while that’s not an achievement worthy of a parade – considering Arkansas’ talent level, it should make the second round – it puts extra pressure on first-year Kentucky coach Mark Pope. The third-seeded Wildcats will play Troy on Friday.
UK fans were all too delighted to see Calipari leave for another job after last year’s first-round exit continued a streak of March Madness disappointments. But then Calipari beat Kentucky in his return to Rupp Arena in February, and now he’s surging into a second-round game against No. 2 St. John’s. He’s making Kentucky fans sweat this breakup.
Blake Toppmeyer is a columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.