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Bracket busters: 4 upsets mark first round of NCAA Tournament
By Keith Farner
Published:
The triumphant return of March Madness in all its glory with fans, cheerleaders and bands proved to be a memorable and upset-heavy Thursday across the NCAA Tournament.
No. 15-seed Saint Peter’s taking down No. 2-seed Kentucky is an all-timer, as the small school from Jersey City took down one of the sport’s blue bloods 85-79 in overtime, and immediately sent countless brackets into the trash can. It was the first opening-round loss for Kentucky coach John Calipari, as the Peacocks are the 10th No. 15 seed to win a first-round game since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
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GET BONUS!While that was the biggest upset, it was far from the only one, as there was 12-seed Richmond shocking Big Ten Tournament champion and 5-seed Iowa, 12-seed New Mexico State beating 5-seed UConn, and 11-seed Michigan knocking off 6-seed Colorado State. There was also Memphis and Creighton winning as 9 seeds.
Richmond’s defense was the story of that game, as the Spiders suffocated the Hawkeyes’ fourth-best offense nationally (83.8 points per game) which was resulted in a 67-63 result. Iowa struggled to find a rhythm except for a small flurry early in the second half.
New Mexico State was led by Teddy Allen who scored 37 points as it won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time almost three decades, which delivered the second 12 over 5 upset, one of the more popular picks each year by fans from a seeding perspective. The Aggies won for the first time since beating Syracuse in the first round in 1993.
Michigan, meanwhile, playing without point guard DeVante’ Jones who was out with a concussion, the Wolverines got over a slow start, and beat Colorado State, which was impressive because of the tumultuous recent weeks for the Wolverines, which started with Juwan Howard’s dust-up, and subsequent suspension, against Wisconsin.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
