NCAA tournament roundup

SOUTH REGION

• After MaCio Teague and Baylor got comfortable in the spacious confines of Lucas Oil Stadium, they looked like a team that could be playing there for bigger stakes in a few weeks.

Teague scored 22points and the top-seeded Bears shook off a slow-as-molasses start to roll to a 79-55victory over No. 16 Hartford.

Baylor (23-2) opened its March Madness run at the same stadium the Final Four will take place in during the first week of April.

In front of a crowd of around 6,000filling the south end of the home of the Colts, the Hawks (15-9) looked like they belonged for a solid stretch to start the game. They D’d up on Baylor’s nation-leading 3-point shooters, grabbed most of the 50-50 balls and even celebrated a power dunk from 6-foot-9Hunter Marks to start a mini 4-0 run that gave them a one-point lead at the 8-minute timeout.

And that was that.

• North Carolina coach Roy Williams lost his first openinground NCAA Tournament game in 30tries as ninth-seeded Wisconsin blew out his eighthseeded Tar Heels, 85-62. “I thought (Wisconsin) played very well and Roy Williams didn’t coach very well,” Williams said.

Brad Davison scored 29points and D’Mitrik Trice added 21 points for Wisconsin. The Badgers (18-12) had lost four of five entering the tournament, but they remained confident because the losses were against ranked teams Iowa, Illinois and Purdue, and all were by five points or fewer. “Obviously, our league has been phenomenal and it was such a grind to go through, specifically the schedule we had down the stretch,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “The schedule maker must not like me or us. But it prepared us and it tested us as we came down the stretch of the Big Ten, and thankfully it prepared us for this, and being ready to take steps forward at the end of the year.”

• To be, or not to be? For an underdog named Javion Hamlet and his group of scrapping North Texas teammates, that was an easy question. Hamlet scored 24points and Thomas Bell had 16, along with some game-changing defense in overtime, to lift the 13thseeded Mean Green to a 78-69 win over No. 4 Purdue.

It marked the second teenpowered upset of the Big Ten on the opening day of the NCAA Tournament — this one coming hours after No. 15Oral Roberts knocked out Ohio State. What a great prize for Hamlet and Bell, a pair of seniors who led the Mean Green (18-9) to a regular-season Conference USA title last year but missed a chance at the tournament when the season was canceled by COVID-19.

• Mac McClung scored 16 points in his first career NCAA Tournament game and Kyler Edwards added 12to help sixthseeded Texas Tech pull away from 11th-seeded Utah State, 65-53.

The Red Raiders snapped a two-game losing streak and made new memories in the tournament after their most recent appearance, a loss to Virginia in the 2019 national championship game. Texas Tech (18-10) can reach its third consecutive Sweet 16with a win over third-seeded Arkansas on March 21.

“We told our guys to play fearless, to play with courage and to let it rip,” Red Raiders coach Chris Beard said. “That’s our theme this year — we’re here, let it rip. We think we can win six games in this tournament.”

• The night before his team’s NCAA Tournament opener, Arkansas coach Eric Musselman sat in a hotel room and talked with his son about using fullcourt pressure against Colgate. The Razorbacks didn’t use their “55” defense until after they’d fallen into a 14-point hole, but once they did, the Raiders had no answer.

Call it “24Minutes of Hell.” Justin Smith had 29 points and 13rebounds, and Arkansas shut down high-scoring Colgate to open the NCAA Tournament with an 85-68 win.

“We knew we were going to unleash it,” Musselman said. “I didn’t know if it was going to be in the second half or in the first half, when it might be. We talked about playing Justin at the 5— we didn’t say much to the team about it — and thought it could really speed things up.”

• Florida overcame playing short-handed most of the season after preseason SEC player of the year Keyontae Johnson was lost because of a scary medical episode.

The Gators did it again, getting through to the second round for an eighth straight NCAA Tournament appearance — and doing it without two key contributors.

“This team just continues to show character,” Florida coach Mike White said. “No one’s been through what they’ve been through.”

Colin Castleton scored 19points and grabbed 14rebounds, Tre Mann hit a step-back 3-pointer with 23seconds left in overtime and the seventh-seeded Gators held off No. 10seed Virginia Tech, 75-70.

• The Villanova-Winthrop game was scheduled to tip off at 9:57 p.m. and was in turn not completed in time for this edition.

MIDWEST REGION

• Kofi Cockburn muscled his way to 18 points and Illinois cruised past 16th-seeded Drexel, 78-49, in the Illini’s first NCAA Tournament game as a No. 1seed in 16years. Illinois (23-6) will face eighthseeded Loyola Chicago in the second round of the Midwest Regional on March 21. Maybe that will be more of a test for the Big Ten champions. Drexel (12-8) never really had chance at containing the 7-foot, 285-pound Cockburn, who was 8 for 11 from the field.

“I thought it was a matter-offact game,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said.

• Loyola Chicago might be the only team that feels as though little has changed about the NCAA Tournament. Probably has something to do with all the winning the Ramblers do. The surprise semifinalist in 2018, Loyola was relegated to the NIT the next year and missed out on the tournament entirely — along with everyone else — when it was canceled due to COVID-19last season. But with key pieces of their Final Four team leading the way, the eighth-seeded Ramblers marked a triumphant return to college basketball’s biggest stage with a 71-60victory over No. 9 seed Georgia Tech. Lucas Williamson scored 21 points in a dynamic performance by the defensive whiz, Buddy Norris added 16 points and All-America forward Cameron Krutwig had 10as the Ramblers (25-4) advanced to play No. 1seed Illinois on March

21.

“It is an unusual tournament,” said Williamson, a freshman on that last NCAA tourney team, “but I will say everything is unusual about it until you get on the floor. We had some fans in the building, they were in here hyping it up. Once you’re on the court, you’re just playing basketball.”

• Oregon State opened the season picked to finish 12th in its conference but instead won its first Pac-12Tournament title. The Beavers faced another No. 12hurdle in the NCAA Tournament and pulled off the upset. They’re certainly enjoying this underdog role.

Roman Silva scored 16points and Oregon State took advantage of Tennessee’s icy perimeter shooting to become the latest No. 12seed to win its opening NCAA Tournament game, beating the fifth-seeded Vols, 70-56.

“In the preseason, when we saw we were picked 12, it really lit a fire under us,” said Silva, who made all eight of his shots. Oregon State (18-12) was the first Pac-10or 12school to win the conference tournament after being picked to finish last.

• Cade Cunningham vowed to lead Oklahoma State to a strong run through the NCAA Tournament. The freshman All-American didn’t have an explosive debut, but did just enough to lead the Cowboys to a 69-60victory over Liberty. Cunningham scored 15 points — nine straight in the final minutes — to lead No. 4seed Oklahoma State to its first NCAA Tournament win since 2009. Avery Anderson III led the Cowboys with 21points. Anderson picked up the offensive slack for Oklahoma State and scored 14points in the first half. He shot 8 of 14, including a three-point play with 10:25 remaining for a 50-44lead, and grabbed seven rebounds.

“I don’t really worry about Cade,” OSU coach Mike Boynton said of his star guard. “I think everybody else worries about him a lot more than I do. First of all, I’ve known the kid since he was 14. I know how he’s wired and I know that he wants to play to win.

“And if that means he’s got to score 10points and get other guys involved and allow other guys like Avery Anderson or Matthew-Alexander (Moncrieffe) to kind of carry the load offensively, he’s comfortable with that.”

• San Diego State-Syracuse, West Virginia-Morehead State and Clemson-Rutgers were scheduled to tip off after 9:20 p.m. and were in turn not completed in time for this edition.