The primary spherical of the 2022 Ncaa males’s basketball event concluded Friday night time with out additional casualties amongst contenders. After a Thursday of upsets, top-three seeds survived the second day of the primary spherical with out even a scare.

Arizona, Duke, Auburn and Villanova coasted to victories.

Texas Tech, with a 97-62 bludgeoning of Montana State, proved that it belongs in that very same high tier.

However no crew was extra dominant on Friday than the most effective title guess of all: the South Carolina girls.

They led Sixteenth-seeded Howard 20-0, then 42-2, and later 63-8. Halfway by way of the third quarter, just one Howard participant had scored. The Gamecocks broke a file for fewest factors allowed in an NCAA event first half (4). They shot simply 8-for-38 from lengthy vary … and nonetheless waltzed to a 79-21 victory.

Their challengers cruised too. Louisville received by 32, and No. 2 seeds Iowa and Baylor by 40 apiece. Stanford, the defending champs, held Montana State scoreless within the first quarter, and eased to a closing margin of 41.

However this South Carolina crew is unparalleled. It beat six top-10 opponents, and 11 top-25 foes all through the common season. It knocked off No. 2 twice. On Friday, it snared 30 offensive rebounds, and confirmed no indicators of slowing down in March.

Is eye-popping pre-eminence was the story of a day on which March Insanity did not fairly stay as much as its identify.

Close to-misses make for a day with out drama

Day 2 of the boys’s event did not essentially lack drama. However the Insanity that so typically punctuates tight event video games was, as an alternative, a set of near-misses.

In Greenville, South Carolina, USC’s Drew Peterson let fly from half courtroom as a closing buzzer sounded. Miami held its breath — after which exhaled when Peterson’s would-be game-winner bounded off the backboard, off the rim, and out.

In Pittsburgh, Thirteenth-seeded Chattanooga led Huge Ten regular-season champ Illinois for greater than 39 minutes. However the Mocs went ice chilly down the stretch. They did not make a single discipline purpose over the sport’s closing 4 minutes and 30 seconds. They coughed up the lead they’d held all sport within the closing minute. And when Malachi Smith had an opportunity to undo all that slow-burn agony, his jumper on the buzzer rimmed out.

Story continues

In Milwaukee, 14th-seeded Colgate and its misfit band of sharpshooters gave No. 3 Wisconsin a run, however light late. The Badgers survived, 67-60, and advance to satisfy Eleventh-seeded Iowa State. The day fizzled out with out a main males’s shock.

Friday’s greatest upset

With Chattanooga and Colgate falling, the day’s greatest upset belonged to Florida Gulf Coast. It was a kind of predictable upsets, the place the No. 12 seed has no enterprise being a No. 12 seed. Nevertheless it was an upset nonetheless.

The Eagles have been 29-2. They’ve a WNBA prospect and NCAA event expertise. So it was wholly unsurprising when that prospect, Kierstan Bell, who has already declared for the draft, led FGCU to an 84-81 win over fifth-seeded Virginia Tech.

The truth is, 4 of the primary six video games of the ladies’s event have been received by lower-seeded groups — as many upsets as there have been all day on the boys’s facet.

First 4 magic resumes

In all however one yr for the reason that NCAA created the First 4 in 2011, a play-in winner has gone on to win a real first spherical sport. Notre Dame continued that development on Friday.

The Preventing Irish staved off Rutgers in double time beyond regulation late Wednesday night time. Some 40 hours later in San Diego, they made mild work of sixth-seeded Alabama. And the Crimson Tide radio announcers have been NOT completely satisfied.

America’s finest convention has been the NCAA event’s finest convention

Ken Pomeroy has been monitoring the relative energy of males’s faculty basketball conferences for 20 years, and never for the reason that 2003-04 ACC — a league propelled by Chris Paul and J.J. Redick — has a convention been as far ahead of the pack as the 2021-22 Big 12.

Alas, the Huge 12 has had different sturdy common seasons. It spent six consecutive years atop Pomeroy’s rankings. They yielded simply three Ultimate 4 appearances, zero nationwide titles and loads of early spherical flops, resulting in suspicions that the on-paper energy was flimsy.

However in 2022, to date, so good — good, truly, in each the boys’s event and the ladies’s.

Huge 12 groups have performed 10 video games to date by way of two days of Insanity. They’ve received all 10, by a mixed margin of 222 factors. They obtained anticipated contributions from Baylor, but additionally blowouts like TCU’s 69-42 beatdown Seton Corridor on the boys’s facet that showcased the depth of the league.

There shall be stiffer assessments to come back, however the Baylor, Kansas and Texas Tech males, and the Baylor and Texas girls all seem like Ultimate 4 contenders.