#1 seed in the Midwest region, Purdue did not provide details against Grambling, #16. Large winners (78-50), the Boilermakers easily reach the next round, behind the great performance of Zach Edey.
The Canadian pivot imposed his size and power, for 30 points, 21 rebounds and 3 blocks in 31 minutes…
No worries either for the title holder, Connecticut, seeded #1 in the East region, who easily disposed of Stetson (91-52). Same thing for Houstonseeded #1 in the South region, who also spanked Longwood (86-46) to quietly advance to the second round.
It also goes for Marquette, Baylor, Duke And Alabama while the first big surprise of the day came from Yale.
The Bulldogs, #13, thus achieved the upset against Auburn (78-76), seeded #4 in the East region. Taking advantage of the expulsion of Chad Baker-Mazara, author of an elbow transformed into “Flagrant II”, the Ivy League champions snatched the match from the Tigers, who nevertheless had several shots in the final seconds…
Already no more perfect “bracket”…
Another upset, at the end of a completely crazy match, between Colorado, #10, and Florida, #7. The Buffaloes had pulled away but Walter Clayton Jr. refused to see the Gators go out like this. He thus chained 3-pointers to bring his team back, and even equalize (100-100) 11 seconds from the end of the match.
Except that KJ Simpson was ready to respond, and he rose from the baseline to take the winning shot, which bounced several times on the circle before validating the upset (102-100).
The final surprises came from James Madison#12, who eliminated Wisconsin, #5, in the South region (72-61) and Grand Canyon#12, who took out Saint Mary's, #5, in the West region (75-66).
So many upsets mean that there is no longer any perfect “bracket” recorded. Nor on ESPN, which nevertheless has more than 22 million, neither on CBS nor on Yahoo! Sports.
