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🐻 Good morning to everybody however particularly …

THE OAKLAND GOLDEN GRIZZLIES

The Oakland Golden Grizzlies are greater than story. They seem to be a rattling good staff with a traditionally nice shooter, and now they’re the creator of an all-time March Insanity upset, too. No. 14 Oakland dispatched No. 3 Kentucky, 80-76, for this system’s first Spherical of 64 win.

The characters of the story are straight out of a fairy story … besides they’re very, very actual.

• Jack Gohlke knocked down 10 3-pointers, tied for second-most in an NCAA Event sport and one shy of the all-time report, en path to a career-high 32 factors. Simply who is that this man?! I am glad you requested, as a result of David Cobb has the reply: a sixth-year senior who spent 5 years at Division-II Hillsdale. This season, he has taken a staggering 347 3-pointers and solely eight 2-pointers.
• Coach Greg Kampe is in his fortieth season at Oakland. He celebrated his staff’s Horizon League Event title at a dive bar. He is hilarious and self-deprecating. He survived a near-death expertise with sepsis in 2017. And thank goodness he did. He is one of many actually nice characters within the sport, as Matt Norlander detailed final week.
• Trey Townsend added 17 factors and 12 rebounds. His father, Skip, additionally performed for Kampe at Oakland and is a credentialed photographer on the match.

March Insanity is simply the very best.

In the meantime, we obtained three 11-6 upsets, simply the second time three No. 11 seeds gained on the identical day.

• After successful 5 video games in 5 days to win the ACC Event and make the NCAA Event, NC State saved its March magic going with an 80-67 win over Texas Tech. As I wrote final week, why not the Wolfpack? They face Oakland tomorrow in a shock matchup.
• Jermaine Couisnard scored 40 factors to steer Oregon over his former staff, South Carolina, 87-73. Couisnard’s 40 factors are essentially the most in Oregon NCAA Event historical past and essentially the most by a participant on a double-digit seed since Stephen Curry in 2008.
• In its first NCAA Event since 1977, Duquesne began the 11-6 upsets off early with a 71-67 win over BYU. The Dukes’ coach, Keith Dambrot, coached LeBron James in highschool and is retiring after this season. However he’ll gladly put retirement off for a bit, and a present from James could have helped.

Listed here are all the winners and losers from Day 1 and our Day 1 takeaways.

😊 Honorable mentions

👀 And never such morning for …

THE KENTUCKY WILDCATS

In hindsight, we should always have seen this coming. The inconsistencies. The inexperience. The defensive lapses. The dearth of cohesion.

And, frankly, the monitor report. That is what Kentucky is in March.

The Wildcats have precisely one NCAA Event win within the final 4 years. They’ve misplaced to a 14 seed (Oakland this yr) and a 15 seed (Saint Peter’s in 2022) within the first spherical, and a 3 seed (Kansas State in 2023). In 2021, they went 9-16 and missed the match completely.

The inexperience is anticipated. That is what John Calipari has in Lexington: a one-and-done manufacturing facility. Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham — each potential top-five picks who had been terrific all season — shot three for 14 mixed, scoring 13 factors. Fellow prized freshman D.J. Wagner was scoreless and missed all 5 of his pictures. March is simply completely different, and it is usually unkind to the uninitiated.

The protection has additionally change into anticipated. In its final three season-ending losses, the Wildcats have allowed 80 factors on common, in opposition to opponents many individuals had by no means heard of till they appeared on the bracket. This yr, Kentucky had its worst defensive effectivity on report.

Here is the stat that will get me: Earlier than 2022, Kentucky was 27-0 in opposition to 12 seeds or worse. The Wildcats are 0-2 in these video games since.

And it is not simply the NCAA Event. The Wildcats have precisely one SEC Event win during the last 4 years. That places their total postseason report throughout that span at 2-7.

One other early exit clouds Calipari’s future and leaves us questioning if it is time for a change, Matt writes.

• Norlander: “There have been manner too many horrible losses for Kentucky and Calipari up to now few seasons, however the crescendo to Thursday night time’s pratfall in opposition to Oakland feels just like the worst of all of them. … Calipari was the suitable coach on the proper time when he got here to Lexington in 2009 to avoid wasting this system. And reserve it he did. Now this program wants one thing of a savior once more. At minimal, it wants a fixer. And we’re working out of causes to consider Calipari remains to be the man who desires the instruments in his palms or, even worse, that he is aware of find out how to use them.”

😰 Not so honorable mentions

• Listed here are the newest updates on the Shohei Ohtani/Ippei Mizuhara playing scandal.
• Brandon Ingram suffered a knee damage.
• Kevin Huerter (dislocated shoulder, torn labrum) is out indefinitely.
• J.B. Bickerstaff says he is been threatened by gamblers and that sports activities betting has “crossed the road.” He isn’t improper.
• The NBA is shutting down the G League Ignite program. Actually, I feel it is the suitable transfer for an experiment that by no means fairly produced as meant.
• There’s rigidity within the MLBPA.

🏀 Picks, schedule for second day of males’s NCAA Event first spherical

Probably the greatest components about March Insanity? After a wild first day, we get to do it another time immediately with 16 extra video games to complete the boys’s first spherical.

No. 1 total seed UConn opens its title protection in opposition to Stetson, whereas fellow No. 1 seed Purdue opens what it hopes to be a redemption tour in opposition to Grambling State. No. 1 seed Houston additionally will get going in opposition to Longwood. But it surely’s a No. 2 seed — Marquette — whose sport I will not less than placed on “could possibly be attention-grabbing” alert. Tyler Kolek is getting back from an indirect damage and can face a Western Kentucky staff that performs on the quickest tempo within the nation. Chip Patterson has all the highest storylines for immediately’s motion.

We even have professional picks, and outdoors of my alma mater (9) Northwestern taking up (8) FAU, my favourite sport on the slate is (11) New Mexico vs. (6) Clemson. Can the Lobos make 11 seeds an ideal four-for-four? Chip says …

• Patterson: “The backcourt trio of Donovan Dent, Jaelen Home and Jamal Mashburn Jr. are going to trigger all types of havoc for Clemson’s protection, and I am undecided if the Tigers’ ball-handlers are going to succeed sufficient in opposition to New Mexico’s strain. Clemson does have a measurement benefit that New Mexico will wish to keep away from, however with tempo and strain, the Lobos can dictate the phrases of the sport. Decide: New Mexico -2.5“

🏀 Girls’s NCAA Event first-round picks, Cinderella candidates

The primary spherical of the ladies’s NCAA Event is right here, and what a slate it’s. Isabel Gonzalez outlined the prime 10 video games of the primary spherical, and atop the checklist is …

• Gonzalez: “1. (7) Iowa State vs. (10) Maryland — Each of those groups suffered three losses in November, largely as a result of their schedules had been powerful. Nonetheless, each completed the common season higher than they began. Since Feb. 14, Iowa State has crushed each single opponent besides Texas. In the meantime, Maryland — a staff that has been to the NCAA Girls’s Event yearly since 2011 — made an announcement with an upset win over Ohio State through the Large Ten Girls’s Event.”

No. 1 total seed South Carolina additionally opens its match, although will probably be with out Kamilla Cardoso, who’s suspended for the sport in opposition to Presbyterian for her actions within the SEC Event title sport. However the Gamecocks have loads of star energy, together with …

• Gonzalez: “MiLaysia Fulwiley — Her sport is constructed for large moments, and that makes her a participant to look at within the win-or-go-home NCAA Girls’s Event. Her 24 factors led all scorers within the spicy SEC Girls’s Event championship win over LSU, and her play has led to NIL offers — together with a multi-year take care of Curry Model.”

Listed here are all of Isabel’s gamers to look at.

As for a star who will not be there, No. 4 seed Virginia Tech obtained the devastating information that Elizabeth Kitley has a torn ACL. Isabel defined how Kitley’s absence impacts the Hokies, who start their match in opposition to Marshall.

Here is extra:

📺 What we’re watching this weekend

🏀 We’re watching the NCAA Tournaments all weekend lengthy. Here is the males’s schedule, and here is the ladies’s schedule.

Friday

🏀 Cavaliers at Timberwolves, 8 p.m. on NBA TV
🏀 76ers at Lakers, 10:30 p.m. on NBA TV

Saturday

🏀 Celtics at Bulls, 8 p.m. on NBA TV
🏒 Panthers at Rangers, 8 p.m. on ABC

Sunday

🏒 Penguins at Avalanche, 2 p.m. on TNT
🏀 Thunder at Bucks, 7 p.m. on NBA TV
⚽ USMNT vs. Mexico, 9:15 p.m. on Paramount+
🏀 Pacers at Lakers, 10 p.m. on NBA TV