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Four double-digit seeds won their games on Thursday. While this is a bit shocking, none of the teams were. All the teams who won were heavily favored by many as Cinderella possibilities. Some of their own level of play and others because of the teams they played.
The lowest seeded team to win on Thursday was the twelfth seeded High Point Panthers. In their defeat of fifth seeded Wisconsin, the Panthers sent the Badgers to their fifth straight loss before the Sweet 16. They continually struggle in March Madness no matter their seed and Wisconsin fans are starting to ask if Greg Gard simply used the recruiting of Bo Ryan to achieve success early in his Wisconsin tenure.
Either way, High Point, who are 34-2 this season did not allow the big conference school to intimidate them and pulled out an 83-82 win. The win was sealed by a layup by Chase Johnston with 11.7 seconds left on the clock. Known more for his range, this was the first two-point FG of the season for Johnston on his fifth attempt. Next up for High Point will be the Arkansas Razorbacks who managed Hawaii 97-78 and will bring with them one of the best players in the country in freshman Darius Acuff Jr.
Another team which won on Thursday was the Sean Miller led Texas Longhorns who came out of the First Four in Dayton to defeat BYU 79-71.
The Cougars came into this matchup as just 3.5-point favorites despite having a top three choice in the NBA Draft in AJ Dybantsa. The former five-star likely finished his collegiate career by scoring 35 points in the loss. This was the most points scored by a freshman in the tournament since De’Aaron Fox scored 39 for Kentucky.
Dybantsa, based on his play this season, should be the number one choice in the draft but many scouts will still prefer the oft-injured Darryn Peterson from Kansas. This despite Dyvantsa leading the country in scoring at 25.5 ppg.
This said, BYU was playing without their second best player in Richie Saunders. Something they have been doing the last month of the season but also something they never became comfortable with. BYU was a trendy Final Four choice to begin the year because of the potential of Saunders and Dybantsa playing together. While they did, everything was going as planned. But after Saunders went out, everything fell apart leading to this victory for Texas. Next up for Texas will be a date with a Gonzaga team which had a few unexpected struggles with 14 seeded Kennesaw State before finally winning 73-64.
With the hiring of Bucky McMillan as their new basketball coach entering this season, Texas A&M officially announced it was no longer the grind it out, defensive team fans were used to under Buzz Williams.
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McMillan, after an accomplished 12-year high school coaching career and five years of success at Samford University, brings in a let it all out style of basketball.
Much like Nate Oats at Alabama, McMillan is high tempo and wants his team to live behind the three-point line. This works great at smaller schools, and it worked well to start the season as the Aggies were in first place in the SEC in early conference play at 8-0. But they faltered down the stretch to finish eight in the SEC conference and barely made the tournament.
St. Mary, who plays at a snail's pace compared to the Aggies found themselves in a bad matchup as the seven-seed. They were going against a team from a high school who played a way not to the liking of head coach Randy Bennett. This led to the Aggies getting past St. Mary’s and into a second round matchup with the Houston Cougars who defeated Idaho 78-47 in the opening round.
The final double-digit seed to win was also one which was universally picked to win their game.
VCU had to endure and come back from a 19-point deficit to beat North Carolina. But it did so with a 16-3 run in the second to get the game close. From there, the lead fell away and VCU was able to get the game to overtime where they won 82-78.
After giving up the 19-point lead, UNC never felt motivated to continue to play. After being 48-0 in the tournament when leading by 10 or more points at halftime, UNC has lost their last two games in the same situation. Both games were under coach Hubert Davis. The first was the National Championship Game collapse in 2022 against Kansas and the other was this game against VCU.
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Not having Caleb Wilson on the court was certainly a factor. But the truth is, UNC has not been good under Davis and if they do not rebound, they are pacing to become the next Indiana. A traditional power who has a bleak future.
VCU, who only made the tournament due to winning the Atlantic 10 conference despite their 24-7 record in the regular season will now face a daunting task in Illinois who won their first game 105-70 over the University of Pennsylvania.
All the teams who won will have an extremely difficult second round matchup. The Texas Longhorns, who will take on Gonzaga may have the least challenging opponent in Gonzaga who is still missing a key starter in Brayden Huff, who had 17.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game on the season. But Gonzaga has also only missed one Sweet 16 round in the past 20 years.
This said, Illinois scored 15 points, Arkansas 97 points scored and Houston 47 points allowed all overwhelmed their opponents in round one and will be difficult to pick against on the money line. This makes Texas the most likely to keep their run going into the second weekend.
More college basketball news:
- Darryn Peterson situation not alarming to NBA teams, ESPN insider says
- AJ Dybantsa makes college basketball history never done by NBA stars
- John Calipari says college athletics is broken — Here’s his plan to fix it
- March Madness upset predictions for 2026 NCAA men’s basketball bracket
- Where Arkansas Darius Acuff Jr. ranks among John Calipari's best NBA guards
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