March Madness Friday recap: No. 1 seed goes down as Fairleigh Dickinson shocks Purdue
Welcome to the happy confluence that is the first Friday of March Madness and St. Patrick’s Day.
This promising day of cool and fun features 16 men’s NCAA Tournament games in the Round of 64 slate. And it produced one of the greatest upsets in March Madness history.
No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson upset No. 1 Purdue, becoming just the second men’s No. 16 seed to take down a No. 1 since the NCAA Tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
Brackets everywhere are surely in tatters, as FDU moves on to the second round, along with these Cinderella double-digit seeds that won Thursday: No. 15 Princeton, which stunned No. 2 Arizona; and the 13-seeded Paladins of Furman, who upset No. 4 Virginia.
The action won’t stop until around midnight on the East Coast with No. 11 Arizona State and No. 6 TCU tipping off at 10:05 p.m. ET (truTV).
Follow the madness: Latest Men’s NCAA Tournament College Basketball Scores and Schedules
In addition, the women’s first round got underway. Aliyah Boston and No. 1 South Carolina got their title defense off to a good start with a win over 16-seeded Norfolk State. Fellow No. 1 seed Virginia Tech dispatched No. 16 Chattanooga, while Caitlin Clark had another double-double to lead the No. 2 seed Iowa over SE Louisiaa.
Think you have what it takes to beat your friends? Test your college basketball skills (or luck) here with USA TODAY’s Survivor Pool. Bookmark our brackets page, too!
MEN’S TOURNAMENT: Complete scores and schedule
WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT: Complete scores and schedule
Trayce Jackson-Davis does it all in Indiana win
All-America forward Trayce Jackson-Davis scored 24 points and pulled down 11 rebounds as No. 4 Indiana beat No. 13 Kent State 71-60 in the final game of the first round of the men’s tournament.
The box-score-stuffing senior made his impact across the board. Jackson-Davis also chipped in five assists and five blocks as the Hoosiers advanced to the second round for the first time since 2016 and the fifth time since 2008.
Senior forward Race Thompson added 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting to crack the 20-point mark for just the third time in his college career.
Indiana next takes on No. 5 Miami. With a win against the Hurricanes, the Hoosiers could land a Sweet 16 matchup with No. 1 Houston and former coach Kelvin Sampson, who was fired in 2008 amid allegations of serious NCAA rule violations.
— Paul Myerberg
TCU men cap rally with dramatic shot in final seconds
After clawing back from a double-digit deficit, No. 6 TCU defeated No. 11 Arizona State on JaKobe Coles’ runner with just over a second remaining. TCU’s comeback victory prevented a third double-digit seed from winning Friday (No. 11 Pitt defeated Iowa State and in the stunner of the day No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson defeated No. 1 Purdue).
And yes, the “Hypnotoad” made a reappearance in the postgame celebration.
No. 1 Purdue lost 63-58 to Fairleigh Dickinson to become the second top seed to lose to a No. 16 seed since the bracket expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
The automatic bid out of the Northeast Conference, FDU was able to battle the Boilermakers to a draw in the paint despite a mammoth size disadvantage. FDU is the shortest team in Division I at an average height of 6-foot-3, with 6-foot-6 freshman Jo’el Emanuel the tallest player in the Knights’ rotation.
After Purdue went on a 12-0 run to go up 47-41 with under 12 minutes left, the Knights began chipping away behind forward Sean Moore, who finished with 19 points, 14 coming in the second half.
Purdue was led by 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey who tallied 21 points and 15 rebounds, but the Boilermakers struggled overall, shooting just 35.8% from the field and 19.2% from 3-point range.
Pittsburgh held Iowa State to 23% (23!) shooting from the field, blitzing the Cyclones to set up a second-round game with 3rd-seeded Xavier (which is coached by former Pitt standout Sean Miller, no less). The Panthers are just three days removed from hanging on to beat Mississippi State 60-59 in the tournament’s play-in round.
It’s safe to say no one saw this run coming from Pitt, given how weak the ACC has been all year — no one except the Panthers, anyway.
“We’re hungry,” said senior guard Cummings, who led all scorers with 13 points, while also handing out 3 assists. “We’ve been doubted all year long. When we get to this stage, we’re happy to prove people wrong.”
Iowa State couldn’t get its offense going, shooting just 2 of 21 from the three-point line. The Cyclones didn’t help themselves at the free throw line either, going 11 of 19.
The NCAA said Iowa State questioned if the rims were level prior to tip off. “Building personnel checked it and made a minor adjustment prior to the game beginning. We offered them additional warmup time but they declined,” NCAA said in a statement to The Athletic.
— Lindsay Schnell and Cydney Henderson
first-round picks is an arduous task. It is important to take into account seed positioning and game matchups. For example, a team with a favorable first-round matchup that has the potential of facing a higher seed in one of the next few rounds could be a smart pick. Why? Because an unfavorable future matchup would result in that team being less tempting to select again.
Here are five intriguing picks for first-round consideration in the women’s tournament, taking into account matchups and bracket positioning.
- No. 3 Duke over No. 14 Iona
- No. 6 Colorado over No. 11 Middle Tennessee
- No. 3 Ohio State over No. 14 James Madison
- No. 8 USC over No. 9 South Dakota State
- No. 5 Oklahoma over No. 12 Portland
— Richard Morin
This is what we want on the first day of Madness: Brackets breaking all over the country and double-digit seeds shocking everyone (except themselves, at least if you’re Princeton).
But other top seeds looked dominant — which is what they’re supposed to look like, especially in their first-round games. All of it is coming together to provide an intriguing second round. But first, we’ve got one more whole day of first-round games, which may provide even more chaos.
— Lindsay Schnell
Friday’s games ranked by how watchable we think they’ll be. But again, keep that remote handy in case unexpected situations develop.
- No. 6 Kentucky vs. No. 11 Providence
- No. 8 Memphis vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic
- No. 5 Saint Mary’s vs. No. 12 Virginia Commonwealth
- No. 6 TCU vs. No. 11 Arizona State
- No. 7 Michigan State vs. No. 10 Southern California
— Eddie Timanus
That backfired in spectacular fashion.
Just five days after Marcus Sasser strained his groin in the American Athletic Conference tournament semifinals, he was back in the Cougars’ starting lineup Thursday night. For a first-round game against a No. 16 team.
In a surprise to pretty much no one, Sasser didn’t even make it to halftime. Now top-seeded Houston might not make it to the second weekend, let alone to the Final Four in its hometown.
— Nancy Armour
most scrutinized 20-year-old in basketball couldn’t make a shot before eventually going to the bench to rest a sore groin. The walk-on nobody had heard of before Wednesday night threatened to sue the New York Times. And the coach is losing his mind on every dribble for two straight hours of a game he didn’t come close to losing.
In other words, it was just another day in Alabama basketball.
— Dan Wolken
What’s a Paladin?
Princeton might have pulled off the biggest upset Thursday, but 13-seeded Furman’s downing of No. 4 Virginia was a fun (unless you’re a Cavaliers fan, of course) start to the 2023 men’s NCAA Tournament.
It’s been a long wait for Paladins men’s basketball fans. It was more than 40 years since Furman was last in the tournament, and over 45 years since its last March Madness win.
— Jordan Mendoza
TruTV can be found on several cable providers, and has the same channel number nationwide on some of the providers. Here are the channels:
- ATT U-Verse: 164/1164
- FIOS: 183/683
- Cox: Varies by location
- DISH: 242
- DirecTV: 246
- Spectrum: Varies by location
- Xfinity: Varies by location
For streaming, truTV is also available on: YouTube TV, iOS App Store, Google Play, Amazon App Store, Chromecast, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and Android TV.
Which March Madness games will be on truTV?
Four games will be broadcast Friday on truTV during the first rounds of March Madness. Here are the games that will be on truTV, as well as tip-off times (in ET):
► No. 3 Xavier vs. No. 14 Kennesaw State (Friday, 12:40 p.m.)
► No. 6 Iowa State vs. No. 11 Pittsburgh (Friday, 3:10 p.m.)
► No. 3 Gonzaga vs. No. 14 Grand Canyon (Friday, 7:35 p.m.)
► No. 6 TCU vs. No. 11 Nevada/No. 11 Arizona State (Friday, 10:05 p.m.)