2026 NCAA Tournament (Day 1)

Games I watched (some of):

Siena 65-71 Duke

Siena pushed Duke, this was a close game in the last 2 minutes. Siena made ZERO substitutions in the entire game! And, well, as you can imagine, their offense completely ran out of gas in the last 5 minutes. Duke clawed back and overwhelmed Siena late, but this was no easy match for the Blue Devils, they sweated this out. Hats off to Siena, if they had even one more guy on that bench they might've won this game. Could be the wake up call Duke needs (or it might show that they're just not ready to be as dominant as they ought to be).

Troy 47-76 Nebraska

Nebraska got going about 10 minutes in and that was that. Nebraska can score and Troy just couldn't hang.

High Point 83-82 Wisconsin

Great game! Back and forth all the way through, High Point made plays in the last few minutes and Wisconsin did not. High Point was the better team, this didn't feel like an upset while watching it. 

South Florida 79-83 Louisville

South Florida was hitting shots early, felt like Louisville was fumbling. Then around halftime, Louisville got going, built up a nice lead, sat on it for most of the 2nd half, then South Florida went on a run to make the game look close. If South Florida had gone on their run about 10 minutes earlier, this could've turned out different. Hard to tell if Louisville is actually any good. 

Virginia Commonwealth 82-78 (OT) North Carolina

North Carolina ran out of gas late, tough L but they were an upset candidate ever since they lost their best player (Caleb Williams) to injury a month ago. VCU stayed strong, made the plays they needed to down the stretch and UNC just couldn't score in OT. I wasn't overly impressed with VCU, kinda feels like UNC was ready to lose. 

Texas Christian 66-64 Ohio State

Back and forth all the way, two evenly matched teams. Thought the Buckeyes could've won it late but they didn't. Not overly impressed with either team but TCU was the better team. 

Saint Louis 102-77 Georgia

St. Louis is good, dude! UGA was kinda so-so this year, had a few nice W's but nothing overwhelming. But St. Louis just took it to them early and often and I think they're gonna be a tough out going forward (watch out, Michigan!).

Games I watched on scoreboard ticker:

Howard 80-101 Michigan

Idaho 47-78 Houston

North Dakota State 67-92 Michigan State

Pennsylvania 70-105 Illinois

Kennesaw State 64-73 Gonzaga

Hawaii 78-97 Arkansas

McNeese 68-78 Vanderbilt

Texas 79-71 Brigham Young

Texas A&M 63-50 Saint Mary's

Pretty much all of these games were the same to me: the winning team was ahead for the most part throughout, didn't seem like there was too much drama in the 2nd halves of any of these matches.