INDIANAPOLIS — Freshman Frankie Collins provided the spark Michigan needed in a turbulent year for the Wolverines and coach Juwan Howard, helping the 11th-seeded Wolverines rally from a 15-point deficit to beat sixth-seeded Colorado State 75-63 on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Indianapolis.
Collins, pressed into the starting lineup because starting point guard DeVante’ Jones was out with a concussion, had season highs of 14 points, six rebounds and 31 minutes. He came in averaging less than 10 minutes per game.
Big man Hunter Dickinson led Michigan with 21 points on eight-of-10 shooting. Eli Brooks had 16 points and Caleb Houstan added 13 for the Wolverines (18-14), who will face third-seeded Tennesseein the second round of the South Region on Saturday.
The Wolverines, highly touted at the beginning of the season, squeaked into the tournament thanks largely to their stout schedule. Howard was suspended for five games down the stretch for hitting a Wisconsin assistant coach in the postgame handshake line, and Michigan hasn’t won two straight games in more than a month.
Dischon Thomas scored 15 points on five-of-seven three-point shooting for Colorado State (25-6), and Mountain West Conference player of the year David Roddy had 13 points and six rebounds.
But the Rams could not take advantage of the highest seed in school history, the momentum from nine wins in their previous 11 games or the big, early lead.
Michigan turned the ball over nine times in the first 12 1/2 minutes to fall behind 28-13, but things turned around when Howard reinserted Collins. He finished six of seven from the field and had just one turnover.
March Madness is officially here. Here’s everything you need to know about the 2022 NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Al Durham had 13 points, eight rebounds and six assists and Jared Bynum made three big free throws with 29.9 seconds left as Providence snapped the longest winning streak in college basketball by beating South Dakota State 66-57.
The fourth-seeded Friars (26-5) advanced to face Richmond in the Midwest Region on Saturday.
It was a typical grind for the Big East regular-season champions. The Friars’ turnaround season after going 13-13 in 2020-21 now includes 16 victories by single digits.
The Jackrabbits (30-6) came in on a 21-game winning streak and were a popular pick to spring the tournament’s first upset.
The Friars were up by three in the final minute and Bynum let loose a three-pointer with three seconds left on the shot clock. The shot missed, but Douglas Wilson was whistled for a foul. Bynum released the ball before contact, but Wilson appeared to hit the shooter’s arm and bump him before he landed.
South Dakota State coach Eric Henderson put his head in his hands in frustration and then argued the call after watching it on the big screen.
Bynum knocked down all three shots to give Providence a six-point lead. Bynum finished with 12 points and Noah Horchler had 13 for Providence.
Baylor Scheierman led the Jackrabbits with 18 points and 10 rebounds and Wilson scored 13.
PORTLAND, Ore. — DeAndre Williams had 14 points, Jalen Duren made a crucial basket down the stretch and No. 9 seed Memphis held off a second-half rally by Boise State for a 64-53 victory in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
The Tigers (22-10), whose poor start to the season had coach Penny Hardaway dropping expletives in a news conference, are into the second round in the West Region and will play top-seeded Gonzaga on Saturday.
Duren finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Tigers, who were 9-8 after 17 games but went on a late-season charge to reach the tournament for the first time since 2014. The Tigers have now won 13 of their last 15 games.
Abu Kigab had 20 points to lead the eighth-seeded Broncos (27-8), the Mountain West regular-season and tournament champs, who were making their first appearance in the tournament since 2015.
Boise State trailed by 19 at the half but, taking advantage of a cold snap by the Tigers, narrowed the gap to 42-35 with 9:45 left. The Tigers had scored just four second-half points before Williams’ dunk with 9:18 left got them going again.
Kigab hit a three-pointer and a short jumper to get Boise State within 49-43 with 5:55 remaining, but Williams answered again with a three-pointer for the Tigers. And when the Broncos closed to 56-51 with 1:26 left on Naje Smith’s layup, and the teams traded foul shots, Duren’s layup pushed the margin to 60-53 and gave Memphis some breathing room.
Alex Lomax, hobbled in the first half by an ankle injury, added some clinching free throws for the Tigers.
FORT WORTH — Matthew Mayer scored a career-high 22 points that included a dunk and salute just before halftime, and defending national champion Baylor opened the NCAA tournament with an 85-49 victory over Norfolk State.
Freshman standout Jeremy Sochan added 15 points and seven rebounds for the Bears (27-6), the top seed in the East Regional who had to travel less than 100 miles from their Waco campus for the first NCAA tournament games at Dickies Arena. They will play the North Carolina in the second round Saturday.
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference player of the year Joe Bryant had 15 points for 16th-seeded Norfolk State (24-7), which was playing 10 years and a day after pulling off one of the biggest upsets in NCAA tournament history. The Spartans were a No. 15 seed and 21 1/2-point underdog when they beat Missouri 86-84.
The Spartans were one of the biggest underdogs in first-round games this year, at 20 1/2 points, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Despite some size up front, they couldn’t keep up with the Bears and never came close to an upset.
Flo Thamba scored 14 points and Adam Flagler had 11 points for the Bears after some early foul trouble. James Akinjo had 10 points and 10 assists.
Baylor, which shot 57% from the field and made 11 three-pointers, led throughout. Flagler hit a three and made a nifty floater in the lane to make it 5-0. He also picked up his second foul less than three minutes into the game.
Mayer capped the first half with his breakaway slam, then directed a salute with his left hand toward the Spartans’ pep band with the Bears up 43-27 at halftime.
Santiago Vescovi scored 18 points and Tennessee pounded Longwood 88-56, showing exactly why it felt it deserved better than a No. 3 seed.
The Volunteers (27-7) shot 60% from the field and had four players score in double figures.
Josiah-Jordan James added 17 points, and John Fulkerson scored 15 on seven-for-eight shooting. Kennedy Chandler had 13 and Zakai Ziegler finished with 10.
Next up for the Volunteers is 11th-seeded Michigan on Saturday. The Wolverines beat sixth-seeded Colorado State 75-63 in Thursday’s first game in Indianapolis.
No. 14 seed Longwood, the Big South champs from the tiny town of Farmville, Va., was led by Justin Hill with 13 points in the school’s first NCAA tournament appearance. DeShaun Wade had 10 as the Lancers’ eight-game winning streak ended. Longwood had won 18 of its previous 19.
Following a sluggish start for Tennessee, the Lancers were overwhelmed by a bigger, stronger opponent, playing in front of a crowd largely dressed in bright orange.
Longwood, trailing 17-15 with 11:15 left in the first half, fell off the pace quickly when the Volunteers went on a 10-2 run to break open the game.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Jacob Gilyard scored 24 points, Tyler Burton added 18 points and 11 rebounds, and No. 12 seed Richmond leaned on its experience to defeat Big Ten tournament champ Iowa 67-63 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Nathan Cayo also had 15 points, including a couple of big baskets down the stretch, as the Atlantic 10 Tournament champ Spiders (24-12) improved their NCAA tournament record against fifth-seeded teams to 4-0. They will face the Midwest Region’s No. 4 seed, Providence, after the Friars defeated South Dakota State earlier in the day.
Keegan Murray scored 21 points and Patrick McCaffery added 18 for the Hawkeyes (26-10), who were unable to carry over the momentum of winning four times in four days at the Big Ten tournament last weekend. In winning the title with a 75-66 win over Purdue on Sunday, Iowa set conference tournament records with 123 field goals and 351 points.
The Hawkeyes’ fourth-best offense nationally, which entered the NCAA tournament averaging 83.8 points, was held to its third-lowest total of the year and worst production since a 48-46 loss at Rutgers on Jan. 19.
The Spiders are making their 10th tournament appearance and first since 2011, when they reached the Sweet 16 as — you guessed it — the No. 12 seed.
Led by sixth-year senior Grant Golden, Richmond’s 20-player roster is made up of five fifth-year graduate seniors — Gilyard is one of them — and three fourth-year seniors. And that experienced showed down the stretch, when Gilyard sealed the victory by hitting all four of his free-throw attempts in the final 16 seconds.
After the teams traded the lead seven times, the Spiders never trailed after Golden laid in an inbounds pass from Gilyard to put Richmond ahead 40-39 with 14:33 remaining. It was Golden’s first basket after missing his first nine attempts.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Drew Timme scored 22 of his 32 points in the second half and top overall seed Gonzaga struggled to shake No. 16 seed Georgia State for 30 minutes before pulling away late for a 93-72 win in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The tournament’s No. 1 team for the second straight season, the Bulldogs (27-3) were sluggish early and couldn’t make a basket for a long stretch of the first half. Even when Gonzaga’s offense kicked into gear after halftime, the Panthers didn’t fold.
The eventual overwhelming surge from the Bulldogs finally arrived with about 10 minutes to go. Gonzaga went on a 24-1 run, turning a four-point game into the blowout that was expected. The Zags will face the West Region’s No. 9 seed, Memphis, in the second round on Saturday.
Timme was the catalyst, topping 30 points for the fifth time in his career while also grabbing 13 rebounds. Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga’s 7-foot freshman, added 19 points, 17 rebounds and seven blocks.
Corey Allen led Georgia State (18-10) with 16 points, and Jalen Thomas and Kane Williams both added 12. The Panthers trailed by two at halftime despite shooting 29% and were down 62-58 with 10 1/2 minutes left. From there, they watched Gonzaga put together the kind spurt that’s made it the favorite to win its first national title.
Gonzaga led 64-58 when Holmgren scored on a putback and Nolan Hickman blocked a shot and scored in transition. Six points from Timme quickly pushed the lead to 16.
By the time Georgia State scored again with five minutes left, the Panthers trailed by 22 and the dream of the second 16-over-1 upset in tournament history had fizzled.
Gonzaga coach Mark Few warned that in his view Georgia State didn’t fit the typical profile of a No. 16 seed. The Sun Belt Conference tournament champion entered the tournament on a 10-game winning streak and had one loss since Jan. 27.
Even when Timme scored 10 points in the first six minutes of the second half, the Panthers hung around thanks to the shooting of Justin Roberts, Williams and Allen.
Eventually, the Panthers started missing and Gonzaga’s stars kept scoring. Foul trouble also caught up with Georgia State as Kaleb Scott committed his fifth foul with 10:26 left, one of three interior players to foul out for the Panthers.
FORT WORTH — Brady Manek scored 28 points, Caleb Love had 21 of his 23 before halftime and North Carolina routed Marquette 95-63 in first-year coach Hubert Davis’ NCAA tournament debut.
Love made six three-pointers, all in the first 19 minutes, to tie Carolina’s single-game tournament record as the Tar Heels (25-9) built a 28-point lead.
Manek, who also had 11 rebounds, finished with five threes as he and Love combined to go 11 of 24 from long range. Armando Bacot grabbed 10 rebounds on his way to the school season record (422).
RJ Davis had a career-high 12 assists for eighth-seeded Carolina, which will play defending champion Baylor less than 100 miles from the Bears’ Waco campus Saturday.
The win was in stark contrast to last year, when the Tar Heels sent Roy Williams into retirement with his only opening-round loss in 30 NCAA appearances.
Shaka Smart’s return to Texas was a dud a year after he took the Marquette job amid questions about his future as coach of the Texas Longhorns following a shocking first-round loss to Abilene Christian.
Olivier-Maxence Prosper scored 16 points for the No. 9 seed Golden Eagles (19-13), who lost their third consecutive first-round game.
Smart, who lost all three of his first-round games in six seasons with the Longhorns, had one of three Marquette technical fouls in a span of 90 seconds late in the first half when he complained about a no-call. Kur Kuath got one for hanging on the rim after a dunk. Darryl Morsell was penalized on review after a scramble for a loose ball.
Just before the tech spree, Morsell ended up nose to nose with Love after trying to take the ball out of his hands when Love was called for stepping on the midcourt line while trying to dribble around the stocky Marquette guard.
The Tar Heels were already up 18 when players from both teams had to be separated. It quickly got worse from there.
Carolina finished the first half on a 16-4 run for a 53-25 lead, and Manek made it a 34-point game (67-33) with consecutive threes early in the second half. The biggest lead for the Tar Heels was 35.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Teddy Allen scored 37 points and New Mexico State won an NCAA tournament game for the first time in almost three decades, upsetting fifth-seeded Connecticut 70-63 Thursday night to become the second No. 12 seed to advance out of the first round.
The Aggies (27-6) will face the winner of the Arkansas-Vermont game on Saturday in the West Region. In its 23rd NCAA appearance, the Aggies won for the first time since beating Syracuse in the first round in 1993.
New Mexico State had not been back to Upstate New York since beating Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. In Buffalo, Allen and the Aggies made another memory.
Allen made a rainbow three off the dribble with 1:40 to put New Mexico State up 61-58.
He wasn’t done. After R.J. Cole (20 points) cut the lead to one for UConn (23-10), Allen went back to work.
The 6-foot-6 junior drove hard to the basket and scooped it home while drawing a foul. He popped off the floor and ran over to the sideline to flex for the Aggies’ fans before completing the three-point play for a 66-60 lead with 27 seconds left.
The Western Athletic Conference champions followed the tournament’s first 5-12 upset onto the floor at KeyBank Center. After Richmond eliminated Big Ten champion Iowa, New Mexico State asserted itself in the first half against UConn from the Big East.
Huskies coach Dan Hurley called Allen “a bucket” the day before his team faced the well-traveled scorer.
The West Virginia (and Wichita State, Nebraska and junior college) transfer made a bunch of them against UConn after starting the game 0 for 6.
Allen made his next five to lead a closing 12-2 run that put the Aggies up 32-22 at halftime.
The Aggies upped the lead to as many as 14 early in the second half, but UConn slowly clawed back and tied it 52 with 5:08 remaining.
But the Huskies never led in the second half.
Allen finished 4 for 7 from 3 and 13 for 13 on free throws.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Logan Johnson scored 20 points and fifth-seeded St. Mary’s took advantage of No. 12 seed Indiana’s grueling recent schedule, rolling to an 82-53 victory in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday.
Tommy Kuhse added 19 points and six assists for the Gaels (26-7), the only team to beat Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference this season. St. Mary’s will play the winner of the East Region’s late game between No. 4 seed UCLA and 13th-seeded Akron.
Trayce Jackson-Davis had 12 points for Indiana (21-14), which arrived in Portland on Wednesday morning after an all-nighter because of flight delays from Dayton following the First Four. The Hoosiers won their first tournament game since 2016 by beating Wyoming 66-58 on Tuesday night.
Thursday’s game was Indiana’s fifth in seven days. St. Mary’s came in fresh from a 10-day layoff after falling to the Bulldogs in the WCC tournament title game.
St. Mary’s pulled away late in the first half and led by as many as 34 points — and the overtaxed Hoosiers couldn’t catch up.
The Gaels, ranked No. 19 in last AP Top 25, earned their highest seed ever in 11 NCAA tournament appearances. Their best finish in the tournament came in 2010, when they went to the Sweet 16.
St. Mary’s stature in the tournament was no doubt boosted by its 67-57 win at home over No. 1 Gonzaga on Feb. 26.
Indiana, which has won five NCAA championships, was making its 40th tournament appearance.
At least at the start, Indiana wasn’t showing any fatigue. The Hoosiers had a narrow lead for much of the half until Alex Ducas’ 3-pointer that put Saint Mary’s in front 25-21. The Gaels extended the lead to 33-26 on another Ducas 3.
St. Mary’s ground Indiana down and led 40-28 at the half. Ducas, a junior from Australia, finished with 13 points.
The Gaels stretched the lead to 55-31 in the second half on Kuhse’s 3-pointer.
Tiny St. Peter’s took down basketball royalty on Thursday night, getting 27 points from Daryl Banks III in an 85-79 overtime victory over second-seeded Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The Peacocks became the 10th No. 15 seed to win a first-round game since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 and handed Kentucky its first opening-round loss under coach John Calipari.
St. Peter’s, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion, kept it close throughout and Banks’ two free throws with 1:45 left in overtime gave the Peacocks the lead for good. Doug Edert’s layup with 24 seconds left in regulation sent the game to overtime. He also made the final two game-sealing free throws for the Peacocks and finished with 20 points.
St. Peter’s (20-11) moves on to face either Murray State or San Francisco in Saturday’s second round in the East Region.
Not bad for a private Jesuit school in Jersey City, N.J., that’s made half as many NCAA tournament appearances (four) as Kentucky has national titles (eight).
Oscar Tshiebwe had 30 points and 16 rebounds for Kentucky (26-8) but his pair of missed free throws early in overtime was costly, and the Wildcats lacked a reliable secondary scorer. TyTy Washington Jr. was held to five points on two-of-10 shooting.
The game featured 16 ties and 13 lead changes. Kentucky went ahead 68-62 on Sahvir Wheeler’s driving layup with 4:12 remaining. St. Peter’s followed with seven unanswered points, capped by Edert’s go-ahead three-pointer with 1:25 remaining. Kellan Grady put Kentucky back ahead before Edert forced overtime.
FORT WORTH — Trey Alexander converted a go-ahead, three-point play late in overtime, and Creighton rallied for a 72-69 victory over San Diego State in an NCAA tournament opener Thursday night.
The Bluejays hadn’t led since the first five minutes of the game when Alexander, who also had the tying bucket late in regulation, drove right and was fouled on the layup. The free throw put Creighton ahead 71-69 with 1:08 remaining.
Down by two, the Aztecs had the ball with 4.3 second left when Matt Bradley inbounded to Aguek Arop, then ran around him for the handoff. Bradley lost control of the ball before getting a shot off, and Creighton secured it with 0.8 to go.
Alexander scored 18 points, and Ryan Kalkbrenner had 16 points and 10 rebounds before leaving with an apparent left leg injury in overtime.
The ninth-seeded Bluejays (23-11) will play Saturday against the winner between Kansas, the top seed in the Midwest Region, and Texas Southern. Creighton reached the Sweet 16 last year.
Chad Baker-Mazara scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half for the Aztecs (23-9), who were in position for their first tournament win since 2015. Gus Bradley added 15.
Bradley had a chance to give San Diego State the lead on free throws with 6.4 seconds left in regulation when Alex O’Connell fouled him on a drive. Bradley missed the front end of a one-and-one, and Arthur Kaluma dribbled the length of the court before lofting an air ball from the baseline as time expired.
The Aztecs had led by at least five points since the middle of the first half when O’Connell hit just the second three-pointer of the game for Creighton to get the Bluejays within four just inside the two-minute mark.
After a steal led to a layup from Kalkbrenner, Creighton forced another turnover before getting two shots blocked at the other end. The Bluejays thought they had the tying basket on another steal after the second block, but an official ruled San Diego State called timeout.
That ruling was reversed on replay, and Alexander hit the tying layup with 11 seconds to go.
Kalkbrenner went down and grimaced after a posting up Arop as they made contact with each other early in overtime. The 7-foot-1 sophomore got up, tried to take a couple of steps and went back down, holding his left knee. After several minutes, Kalkbrenner was helped off the floor without putting weight on his left leg.
Baker-Mazara had a bucket and a three-point play during a 7-2 run that gave the Aztecs their first double-digit lead in the first half, then converted a four-point play to get the margin back to double digits at 27-15.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Stanley Umude scored 21 points, JD Notae scored all 17 of his in the second half, and No. 4 seed Arkansas hung on for a 75-71 victory over 13th-seeded Vermont in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday night.
Jaylin Williams scored 13 points and had 10 rebounds for the Razorbacks (26-8), who a year ago reached the Elite Eight before losing to eventual champion Baylor. Arkansas advanced to face the West Region’s No. 12 seed, New Mexico State, which knocked off Connecticut.
Two-time America East player of the year Ryan Davis and Ben Shungu scored 20 points each for the Catamounts (28-6).
Notae sealed the win by sinking two free throws with nine seconds remaining. Vermont’s final possession ended with Finn Sullivan missing a three-point attempt, allowing Arkansas to run out the clock.
FORT WORTH — Remy Martin had 15 points and Christian Braun 14 as five players scored in double figures for top-seeded Kansas, and the Jayhawks opened their 50th NCAA tournament with an 83-56 victory over Texas Southern on Thursday night.
Southwestern Athletic Conference champion Texas Southern (19-13), which won a First Four game two nights earlier, had its only lead against the Big 12 champs after Bryson Etienne made his team’s first shot of the game.
Once the Jayhawks finally got on the board on a tying layup by Dajuan Harris after missing their first three shots, they got on a roll. They made their next six shots, and soon after that had a stretch of seven makes in a row.
Kansas (29-6) plays its second-round Midwest Regional game Saturday against ninth-seeded Creighton, which opened with a 72-69 overtime victory over San Diego State and will try to get to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row.
John Walker III had 13 points for the Tigers.
Big 12 player of the year Ochai Agbagi had a relatively quiet night with 11 points for Kansas, but he had a short scoring outburst in the first half and his last points were a highlight play, scoring on an alley-oop pass from Harris, who finished with 12 points. Jalen Wilson had 11 points.
The Jayhawks led 47-19 after scoring five points in the final four seconds of the first half. It was their largest halftime lead in an NCAA tournament game since they led by 29 over Marquette in the 2003 national semifinals.
After Texas Southern got a putback layup from Joirdon Karl Nicholas with 15 seconds left in the half, Jayhawks coach Bill Self called timeout.
Joseph Yesufu passed to true freshman Zach Clemence, who split through two defenders for a layup while being fouled with four seconds left. Clemence missed the free throw, but Jalen Coleman-Lands got the rebound and hit a half-ending three-pointer from the right corner.
Agbaji had all seven of his first-half points by making three shots in row in a span of less than two minutes. He had a jumper, three-pointer and then a layup that made it 14-7 before Braun’s three-pointer for the first double-digit lead with 12:43 left in the half.
The Jayhawks later had an 18-2 run in which Martin scored nine points. He ignited the spurt with an emphatic bounce pass to David McCormack for a thunderous one-handed slam dunk and a 21-12 lead.
INDIANAPOLIS — KJ Williams scored six of his 18 points in overtime after Murray State blew an eight-point lead late in regulation, and the seventh-seeded Racers extended their winning streak to 21 games with a 92-87 victory over San Francisco in the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday night.
The Racers (31-2) tied South Dakota State for the longest winning streak in the nation this season. With South Dakota State’s loss to Providence earlier Thursday, Murray State can edge ahead in Saturday’s East Region second-round game against St. Peter’s. The 15th-seeded Peacocks toppled Kentucky 85-79 in OT.
The nightcap in Indianapolis was just as tight, with 18 lead changes and 14 ties. Murray State ultimately took control with Williams’ clutch baskets and Jordan Skipper-Brown’s timely plays in the extra session.
Jamaree Bouyea scored 36 points for USF (24-10), which made its first NCAA appearance since 1998.
Williams made a go-ahead layup with 1:15 remaining before Skipper-Brown’s layup made it 89-85 with 30 seconds left. Zane Meeks’ putback got USF within a basket, but he missed a free throw. Skipper-Brown made two free throws with 13.7 seconds left before adding another with 1.7 seconds remaining to seal the win.
The Racers led 73-65 with 1:58 remaining in regulation, but Khalil Shabazz made a three-pointer and Bouyea followed with five straight points.
Trae Hannibal also had 18 points for Murray State before fouling out late in regulation. Brown added 17, Justice Hill scored 15 and Skipper-Brown had 12 points and 10 rebounds, all of which the Racers needed to gut out their latest win.
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