College Basketball

Top storylines from Day 1 of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament

Updated Mar. 21, 2025 1:03 a.m. ET

College Football and College Basketball Writer

There are few days more exciting on the sports calendar in a given year, than the first Thursday of the NCAA Tournament, which ushers in four straight days of wall-to-wall hoops from lunchtime on the East Coast until well after midnight. Fans can grab a few hours of sleep in the early morning hours — assuming the adrenaline has adequately worn off — and prepare themselves for more of the same as the Big Dance narrows from 64 teams to 16 teams by the end of the weekend.

FOX Sports tracked some of the biggest storylines from the opening day of the NCAA Tournament: the breakout performances, the pulsating upsets, the buzzer-beaters that are sure to be included in "One Shining Moment" when the tournament concludes in early April. We'll dive into those topics in a bit more detail here.

[MORE: 2025 March Madness live updates, scores]

Follow along for the ride:

Red Storm flex their muscles, set up Pitino vs. Calipari

NCAA BK

NCAA TOURNMENT - FIRST ROUND

St. John's Red Storm SJU

Nearly 14 minutes had come and gone in Providence on Thursday night before St. John's, winners of the Big East regular season and tournament titles, finally edged ahead of Omaha, an upstart 15-seed from the Summit League. Nothing about that opening stretch from the Red Storm resembled the well-oiled machine that stormed through Madison Square Garden last week and manhandled team after team in what is arguably the sport's most rugged conference. Instead, it was the Mavericks who jumped out to a 26-16 rebounding advantage; the Mavericks who racked up a 14-6 lead for points in the paint; the Mavericks who turned 12 offensive rebounds into 10 second-chance points. Sure, St. John's rallied late to take a five-point advantage into halftime — one can only imagine the torrent head coach Rick Pitino unleashed — but Omaha had been in front for more than 11 minutes, nearly twice as long as the Red Storm. To say an upset was brewing might have been a step too far, but nothing about the first-half performance from Pitino's team was convincing.

Nearly three minutes had come and gone during the second half in Providence on Thursday night before Omaha, still clinging to the possibility of becoming just the 12th team seeded No. 15 to win a first-round NCAA Tournament game, all but waved the white flag. Nothing about the preceding few minutes had gone the Mavericks' way after putting forth a spirited, and admirable, first-half performance that allowed them to briefly dream. But then came a 10-2 spurt from St. John's to open the second half: with a 3-pointer by RJ Luis Jr. and then another from Aaron Scott, with a layup from Kadary Richmond and then an alley-oop slam from Luis that forced Omaha head coach Chris Crutchfield to call an early timeout and apply a tourniquet to the bleeding. The Mavericks' deficit had swelled to 13.

But nothing that Crutchfield could say or diagram in that huddle would be enough to neutralize the superior talent and relentless defense from the Red Storm, their spirit steeled by what was almost certainly a halftime admonishment from Pitino. The force with which St. John's began the second half was in keeping with what Pitino's team had done all season: scratching and clawing and diving for every loose ball, then punishing opponents once they got it. A slow offensive start to the game was replaced by uncharacteristically potent perimeter shooting, with the Red Storm having made nine 3s by the under-16 media timeout. That included multiple makes for Luis (22 points), Simeon Wilcher (13 points), Deivon Smith (eight points) and Aaron Scott (six points) on a night when St. John's drilled 14 triples as a team. By the time Luis buried his fifth 3-pointer of the game with 13:14 minutes remaining — his second triple in a 46-second span — the lead ballooned to 20. Any threat of an upset was gone.

From there, the Red Storm coasted to a lopsided 83-53 win. Pitino's team advances to play No. 10 Arkansas on Saturday.

A star is born! Jonas Aidoo leads Arkansas past Kansas

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NCAA TOURNMENT - FIRST ROUND

Arkansas Razorbacks ARK

FINAL

ARK +5.0 OVER 147

Billed as one of the most exciting first-round matchups in this year's tournament, the battle between No. 7 Kansas and No. 10 Arkansas delivered on much of that promise with eight ties, 10 lead changes and more high-level talent than nearly any other pairing in the Round of 64. The excitement radiated from a coaching battle that pitted Bill Self and his two national championships against John Calipari and his singular national title, though the latter has reached the Final Four six times, two more than his counterpart on Thursday night. Their rosters were predictably loaded: five former top-60 high school recruits among the 10 combined starters with more blue chippers off the bench. And many of the players who weren't among the nation's elite in high school have since developed into some of the most coveted targets in the transfer portal, from ex-FAU star Johnell Davis (Arkansas) to ex-Wisconsin standout AJ Storr (Kansas), among others.

Both teams entered the NCAA Tournament desperate to avoid a first-round exit that would cement just how badly they underachieved during the regular season. The Jayhawks, who brought back star center Hunter Dickinson and surrounded him with Storr and several more key pieces, had begun the year ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll before eventually falling out of the rankings all together, limping to a 21-12 overall record and an 11-9 mark in the Big 12. While the Razorbacks, who made the splashiest addition of the offseason by plucking Calipari away from Kentucky, flirted with the NCAA Tournament bubble despite beginning the year ranked 16th. They finished below .500 in the cutthroat SEC but still scratched out 20 wins.

A three-point game at the half appeared to swing toward Arkansas in the opening minutes of the second stanza as Calipari's team reeled off an 8-0 run before the first media timeout. At the center of the spurt was big man Jonas Aidoo, a 6.4-point-per-game scorer who exploded for 20 by the midway point of the second half and finished with a game-high 22 points on 10-of-19 shooting. The Razorbacks remained in front until the 5:43 mark when Storr swooped down the lane for an offensive rebound and putback that nudged Kansas ahead, albeit only by a point.

To chip away at Arkansas' lead, Self made the surprising decision to employ zone defense despite only having played seven such possessions all season, according to the CBS broadcast crew. Self's change in strategy sealed off the driving lanes that Arkansas guards Davis (18 points) and D.J. Wagner (14 points) exploited earlier in the game, shouldering more of the scoring load with Adou Thiero (15.6 points per game) unavailable due to injury. A group of Razorbacks that entered the evening ranked 199th nationally in 3-point field goal percentage (33.3%) began settling for ill-advised jumpers that clanged, clanged and clanged some more. Calipari's team only scored 17 points in the first 17 minutes of the second half.

But Kansas' lead proved fleeting before a string of turnovers — three in the span of three possessions — fueled a 7-0 Razorbacks run inside the final three minutes. A layup from Boogie Fland, two free-throws from Aidoo and a backbreaking 3-pointer from Davis pushed Arkansas back in front. Another giveaway by the Jayhawks with 45 seconds remaining kickstarted the desperation fouling from Self's crew, all of it to no avail. Six turnovers in the final 4:14 were far too many to overcome. The Razorbacks survived, 79-72.

Their reward? A potential date with Rick Pitino and second-seeded St. John's on Saturday. It will be another showdown between Hall-of-Fame coaches.

Where there's a Will, there's a Wade

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NCAA TOURNMENT - FIRST ROUND

MCNS +7.5 UNDER 136.5

The latest batch of headlines surrounding Will Wade, the former LSU head coach who was fired amid an NCAA investigation into recruiting violations three years ago, originated on Wednesday afternoon in Providence. It was there that word began to trickle out regarding Wade's coaching future, even as his McNeese team was roughly 24 hours from an opening-round NCAA Tournament matchup against No. 5 Clemson. By dinner time, word had broke that Wade reached an agreement to become the head coach at NC State once his current March Madness run concludes, however long that might be. And based on the way McNeese performed during a stunning 69-67 upset of the Tigers on Thursday, it seems like Wade is destined to stick around a while longer.

In their second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, the Cowboys stormed to an 18-point first-half lead over Clemson, bludgeoning the ACC's second-best team for 26 points in the paint and "junking up the game" with a matchup zone defense they hadn't used much this season, according to an in-game interview with Wade. The efficiency McNeese displayed in shooting 43.8% from the field in the opening stanza was juxtaposed by hideous execution from the Tigers, who only managed three field goals in the first 12 minutes while turning the ball over six times during that stretch. Head coach Brad Brownell finally saw enough when a high-flying put-back jam from Christian Shumate brought the crowd to life, capping a run in which McNeese out-rebounded Clemson 12-1, prompting the Tigers to call timeout. The margin at halftime was 31-13 in favor of McNeese, with Clemson's two leading scorers — Chase Hunter and Ian Schieffelin — combining for zero points.

Any kind of second-half run that fans might have expected from a Clemson team that earned a season-defining win over Duke in early February and is ranked No. 19 in the country by KenPom only happened in the absolute final moments. McNeese's lead actually swelled from 17 at the 18:08 mark, when Shumate flipped home a basket, to 22 at the 8:07 mark, when a corner 3-pointer from Brandon Murray forced Brownell to call another timeout as the game inched closer and closer to finality. By then, the Cowboys had doubled up Clemson, 32-16, for points in the paint and had a 27-2 advantage in bench points. They were still out-rebounding the significantly taller Tigers by 10 at the under-8 media stoppage.

The last few minutes dragged on for ages as Clemson intelligently pressed the Cowboys into one mistake after another, momentarily threatening to cobble together an all-time comeback. But McNeese turned a pair of press breaks into eye-catching dunks that nudged Wade's team in front for good. The Cowboys advance to play fourth-seeded Purdue, which pulled away from High Point for a 75-63 victory earlier in the day.

The result prolonged what was already a wince-inducing afternoon for the ACC, which saw Louisville get obliterated by Creighton to open first-round action. All season, the ACC was maligned and criticized for being arguably the weakest power league in the country. Aside from Duke, many analysts wondered, which teams from the league were actually good? The answer, it appears, might be none of them, with the Cardinals and Tigers both falling within the first few hours of the tournament. And while it's true that 11-seed North Carolina is still alive thanks to a First Four victory over San Diego State on Tuesday night, the Tar Heels' inclusion in the field was generally viewed as a mistake from the outset. It seems clear that Duke remains the ACC's only true hope for a deep NCAA Tournament run.

Creighton opens NCAA Tournament with a BANG!

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Louisville Cardinals LOU

Creighton Bluejays CREI

FINAL

CREI +3.5 OVER 145.5

When the bracket was released on Sunday evening, one of the early pairings that raised eyebrows across the sport was a matchup between No. 8 Louisville and No. 9 Creighton. Not only was this game going to be played in Lexington, Kentucky, which seemed to give the Cardinals a built-in advantage in their home state, but it also represented a significant discrepancy between what the selection committee thought of Louisville and the perception of head coach Pat Kelsey's team among the general public.

The Cardinals had quickly become one of the best stories in college basketball in their first season under Kelsey, formerly of Charleston. They finished the regular season 27-7 overall (18-2 in the ACC) after winning just 12 games over the previous two campaigns combined. And their run to the championship game of the ACC Tournament last weekend seemed to suggest that Louisville was playing excellent basketball at the right time, even if Kelsey's team was ultimately upended by Duke. It was a résumé that led most folks to assume the Cardinals would be seeded anywhere on the 4-, 5-, or 6-line in the Big Dance. That they ended up as an 8-seed in the South was a legitimate surprise, as evidenced by Kelsey's reaction on live television when the bracket was announced.

But the nature of Thursday's first-round matchup with Creighton, which dismissed the Cardinals, 89-75, in a game that was never all that close, suggests the selection committee got the seeding right, maintaining the appropriate skepticism about subpar competition in the ACC. Not even an overwhelmingly pro-Louisville crowd, which made this tournament opener sound like a bonafide Cardinals' home game, was enough to narrow what became a clear imbalance between the teams.

Fresh off a trip to the Big East Tournament title game, the Bluejays unleashed a barrage of 3-pointers that extended an early lead to 20 in the waning seconds of the first half. Point guard Steven Ashworth buried four of them on eight attempts. Small forward Jackson McAndrew connected on three of his seven tries. Shooting guard Jamiya Neal, who scored a career-high 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, chipped in two 3s of his own. As a team, Creighton shot 11-of-24 from beyond the arc to finish plus-9 compared to the Cardinals, who were forced to chase for much of the game but never got within single digits in the second half. The best efforts of point guard Chucky Hepburn (22 points) and Terrence Edwards Jr. (21 points) weren't enough to offset an otherwise cold shooting night for Louisville from beyond the arc (8-of-29, 27.6%).