The first day of the NCAA tournament is in the books.
Here are the highlights from Thursday’s action, including the renewal of one of college basketball’s best rivalries.
Day 1 of the NCAA tournament first round was a disaster for the ACC.
No. 8 seed Louisville lost to No. 9 Creighton early. Then No. 5 Clemson fell in the biggest upset of the early slate of games after failing to rally in a loss to No. 12 McNeese.
That means that half of the ACC’s tournament contingent is already gone from the field. Only No. 1 seed Duke and No. 11 seed North Carolina remain. And North Carolina needed a win in the First Four just to get this far.
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The Tar Heels were dominant in their First Four win over San Diego State. But for a proud basketball conference, a First Four win is of little solace. The ACC was criticized as weak during the regular season, and an 0-2 start in the first round reinforces just that. The ACC is down and getting lapped by the likes of the SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten.
This is not the first time in recent years that the ACC has shown weakness. It’s been an ongoing theme for multiple seasons. Last year, the ACC bucked the criticism from the regular season as three of its five tournament teams advanced to the Sweet 16 and NC State advanced to the Final Four with an Elite Eight win over Duke.
Day 1 of the NCAA men’s tournament is in the books. (Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports)
There will be no repeat in 2025. Duke is dominant and on the short list of favorites to win the whole thing. North Carolina has a chance to write a rare Cinderella story out of Chapel Hill. But even deep runs by both wouldn’t salvage what’s been a brutal season of basketball for the ACC as a whole. Even if both Duke and UNC win on Friday, the ACC will be tied for its fewest number of teams in the second round since the tournament expanded to 32 teams in 1975.
There are plenty of theories as to why the ACC is struggling, most notably brain drain. In the past four years, head coaches Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Tony Bennett, Jim Boeheim, Leonard Hamilton, Jim Larrañaga and Mike Brey have retired. That list includes three Hall of Famers and four national-championship winning coaches with a combined 10 NCAA titles among them.
It’s a collection of coaching talent that’s impossible to replace without a dropoff, and the results demonstrate as much for programs throughout the conference. And this year, there will be no salvaging a bad regular season of basketball with a strong showing in the NCAA tournament.
-Jason Owens
One of college basketball’s most compelling rivalries is renewed. John Calipari led No. 10 Arkansas to an upset of No. 7 Kansas and will coach in the second round of the NCAA tournament for just the second time since 2019.
Rick Pitino, meanwhile, coached St. John’s to an 83-53 win over No. 15 Omaha to lead the Red Storm to their first tournament win since 2000. That means that Arkansas and St. John’s will face off on Saturday in the second round of NCAA play.
It also means that means that Calipari and Pitino will square off as head coaches for the 24th time, and for the first time since Pitino coached Louisville to a win over Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats in 2016. It will mark the first time the two have faced off in the NCAA tournament since Calipari coached Kentucky to a win over Louisville in the 2012 Final Four en route to Calipari’s only NCAA title as a head coach.
Pitino, of course, has his own national title with Kentucky (1996) in addition to coaching Louisville to its since-vacated 2013 NCAA championship. Now he’s seeking a third title with a third program, with Calipari standing in his way.
-Jason Owens
The best conference in college basketball performed about as expected on Sunday.
Auburn, the top seed in the entire tournament, cruised to a dominant 83-63 win over No. 16 Alabama State to tip things off. No. 2 Tennessee grabbed a 15-point win to make it out of the first round, though it let No. 15 Wofford hang around for longer than it should have. No. 4 Texas A&M, similarly to the Vols, struggled to put No. 13 Yale away before picking up the nine-point win.
That, however, was where the conference’s big wins ended. John Calipari snuck past No. 7 Kansas in a thrilling battle on Thursday night. Arkansas rallied to grab a 79-72 win over the Jayhawks, which snapped Kansas’ streak of 17 straight wins in the first round of the tournament. We’ll get to their issues later.
The SEC’s two losses, while one was a technical upset, weren’t too surprising. No. 8 Gonzaga rolled to a dominant 21-point win over No. 9 Georgia early Thursday afternoon. Then Drake held on down the stretch to knock off No. 6 Missouri. Drake was the most-bet team on the moneyline at BetMGM among all of Thursday’s games, too, so it appeared that plenty of fans saw that upset coming.
It wasn’t a clean sweep, but the SEC is off to a very solid start in this year’s NCAA tournament. The other seven schools from the conference, including No. 1 Florida, will be in action on Friday.
-Ryan Young
Ben McCollum led Drake to its first NCAA tournament win since 1971 on Thursday. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
The two biggest upsets of the day were from coaches who are very likely on the way out.
McNeese head coach Will Wade has reportedly agreed to take over at NC State next season, which completes a huge turnaround for the coach that was once fired from LSU. He’s led the Cowboys to the NCAA tournament in back-to-back seasons, and now got them their first-ever tournament win. He’ll take over for Kevin Keatts at NC State, who was fired after eight seasons earlier this month.
Ben McCollum is in a similar boat, though he doesn’t have a new deal even reportedly in place. McCollum, who is in his first season at Drake, has been linked repeatedly to the open job at Iowa — which recently split with longtime coach Fran McCaffery. McCollum was born in Iowa City and grew up in the state, and he is a clear favorite to land with the Hawkeyes. The other name that Iowa reportedly had its eye on, Darian DeVries, has since accepted the open job at Indiana.
McCollum said before the tournament started that he wouldn’t address his future until the Bulldogs have lost. Now with their first tournament win since 1971 in the books, that’ll have to wait even longer.
-Ryan Young
After starting the season as the top-ranked team in the country, Kansas’ late-season slide continued on Thursday. The Jayhawks lost for the first time in the opening round of the tournament since 2006 when they fell to Arkansas.
While Self has more than established himself as a Hall of Fame coach — he’s won two national titles and reached four Final Fours since their last opening-round loss — they’ve not made it out of the first weekend in the tournament in three straight years now.
The Jayhawks have finished sixth in the Big 12 standings the last two years, too, which is a stunning fall for a team that once completely dominated the league. They lost six of their last 11 games before the NCAA tournament, including a historic blowout loss at BYU, and they just barely made it out of the first round of the Big 12 tournament by sneaking past UCF.
Self and Kansas will now likely have to go for a bit of a reboot this offseason, which can be made easier with the transfer portal and the current state of college basketball. But for a team that started out the year No. 1 and beat Duke in November, this season will go down as a disappointment.
-Ryan Young
