The unexpected eight: All the double-digit upsets from Thursday and Friday
Separating the march from the madness.
Twenty-one out of 32 games went according to seeding during the first round of the 2024 NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Three more were technically upsets, but a 9 over an 8 shocks no one.
Eight double-digit seeds knocked out bigger names, bluebloods and recent success stories to earn a second dance this weekend. I listened to the post-game comments from the winning coaches and players to pick out the bits of belief and strategy that powered the underdogs — who maybe don’t want to be called that? — to the most meaningful wins of the opening days
(13) Yale 78, (4) Auburn 76
We’ll start our tour with some statements from that the bulldogs that epitomize the Cinderella mentality and experience.
“It’s a dream come true when you come to school like Yale, to not only make it, but to win that game.”
- August Mahoney, senior guard
“We can hoop, and we know that.”
- Matt Knowling, senior forward
“This time of year, it’s really based on what your principles are and what you’ve been doing all season long.”
- James Jones, head coach since 1999
(11) Duquesne 71, (6) BYU 67
The Dukes won their first NCAA tournament game since 1969.
Here’s head coach Keith Dambrot, who will retire at the end of the season after coaching at Duquesne since 2017 and in Division I since 1991, on the gameplan, the season, and the next round.
“Back cuts, slips, we eliminated them all. The only thing [BYU] beat us with was one-on-one and at the three line some.”
“When you start the Atlantic 10 0-5, and you lose a lot of heartbreakers, people kind of count you out. If you look at our last eight weeks or so, we’ve been in a million of these things.”
“They just won’t let me retire, man. I’m trying to retire, but if we keep winning games, they’re gonna make me an old man.”
And here’s freshman forward Jakub Necas after setting career highs with 30 minutes, 12 points, six rebounds and three blocks.
“I was kind of tired in the end, to be honest.”1
(12) Grand Canyon 75, (5) Saint Mary’s 66
“What a fun night to be a Lope.”2
That’s GCU head coach Bryce Drew on the program’s first tournament victory, the fan support that earned rave reviews from the broadcast team and his squad’s execution against a tournament regular. Here’s Drew on the Lopes defensive gameplan and the reason behind their advantage at the free throw line.
“We really tried to change our coverages throughout the game, going back and forth with some different ones. I still thought [Saint Mary’s] got the ball a lot where they wanted to, but some of our recovery plays were spectacular. Tyon [Grant-Foster], Lok [Wur], and Gabe [McGlothan] coming out of nowhere and deflecting balls and blocking shots.”
“We’re number five in the country on getting fouled. We have a lot of guys that really drive the ball. They’re really aggressive, they’re long, they’re confrontational around the rim.”
The players both acknowledged the traveling Lopes fans in attendance:
“I told you reinforcements were inbound, and they showed up. The Havocs, they’re always having our backs.”
- Gabe McGlothan, senior forward
“They’re called the Havocs. They wreak havoc. They do what they need to do for us.”
- Tyan Grant-Foster, senior guard
Both players addressed a specific aspect of the game that the Lopes knew they needed focus on, and McGlothan’s tongue-in-cheek description reminds us of the importance of the fundamentals.
“Coach told us they’re the number one team in the country by rebound margin, so we just knew we had to rebound.”
- Tyan Grant-Foster
“Coach Drew gave us a really good pep talk before the game, saying, ‘You know when the ball goes up, you gotta go grab it with two hands and land with it.’ I decided to take a note from that, and this is what we got.”
- Gabe McGlothan3
(12) James Madison 72, (5) Wisconsin 61
This was my favorite batch of first-round quotes. The Dukes snagged win number 32 against Wisconsin.4 I’m most excited for their second-round matchup against Duke.
Let’s start with junior guard Terrence Edwards, Jr on his support, his role, his style and his perspective.
“My family traveled all the way from Atlanta up here, and they booked all the way to Monday, so it was only right that we get this win today so we could fill out their trip.”
“The coaches put me on everybody who start going off.”
“I like to scream and get that stuff out of me. I don’t like to hold that in. And it’s contagious to the team.”
“Our coaches kept staying on us, saying don’t let off the gas. I think we was doing that a lot in conference play. We kind of got bored a little bit. Coming in this tournament, we knew we was going to play teams where you can’t do that type of stuff. That’s what you saw tonight: us putting a full 40 minutes together. See you on Sunday.”
And here’s forward T.J. Bickerstaff with an uncommon term that I’d support becoming more widely used.
“I’ve always been underlooked.”
Underlooked, yes. Underdogs? Yes and no. JMU head coach Mark Byington gave that angle a shot to no avail.
“I tried to use the underdog strategy as a coach on Monday in our first meeting and our first practice, and they weren’t paying attention to me. I knew we were looking at an “underdogs” [scenario], but we never felt that way.”
Here’s more from Byington on how he managed so-called foul trouble, the gameplan and the next plan.5
“I know some people believe in not playing guys with two fouls. I’m not one of them. I judge the game and I trust those guys.”
“We thought we could be quicker and more aggressive on the ball. We emphasized that, maybe that would take away some of their size advantages. We thought that was our advantage.”
“How does it feel? I’m really not feeling a lot of emotion right now. I’ve gotta get back tonight, gotta late night, get these guys ready for Duke.”
(11) North Carolina State 80, (6) Texas Tech 67
NC State is a Power Five school, the upset is a little less glamorous. But this team is 23-14 after ending the regular season 17-14, then winning capping a five-games-in-five-days run with an upset win against top seeded rivals North Carolina in the ACC tournament final.6
Here’s Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts on the process that led to a drastic transformation, as well as the budding celebrity of the 275-pound star at the center of their strategy.
“People think it’s supposed to happen right away. It took us a little time to get clicking on both ends of the floor and understanding scouting reports. That’s the one thing from the ACC tournament and here [that] we’ve really understood. We thought we had an advantage throwing the ball inside, and it worked out. We got 49 points from our post play, and that was because we were very aggressive and guys understanding.”
“[DJ Burns, Jr] was a local star for a whole year. Now everybody in the national media is tarting to understatn that. I consider him a closer for us.”
Burns and his fellow big commented on the perception of the toll that playing so many games in a short timeframe would take on the players.
“I don’t think [stamina] was the focus too much. I think the coaches did a good job keeping us moving, focusing on what’s next, and we’ll celebrate after the season’s over.”
- DJ Burns, Jr., senior forward
“We’ve heard a lot about fatigue through our ACC tournament run and even now. No matter how many times people keep saying it, it seems like we keep getting stronger with every game we play.”
- Ben Middlebrooks, junior forward
(14) Oakland 80, (3) Kentucky 76
Greg Kampe has coached at Oakland since the 80s. Here’s his perspective on his team when the score is tight and on facing a historic program in this matchup.
“We just win close games. We’ve done it all year. We lost a very close one to Ohio State and a very close one to Illinois. We learned from those games. When we beat Xavier in a close game, we knew we were a special team. We just have different ways to beat you. Our zone — it’s good.”
“If you would’ve been in our huddle the last seven or eight minutes of the game, we said, if we get it if we’re ahead with six minutes to go in the game, we will win, and they believed that, and they did.”
“People just couldn’t believe that I said I wanted Kentucky, and they took it all wrong. We had a chance to play on prime time. I knew my team’s good, and I knew that they deserved the chance to not play somewhere out where nobody’s paying attention. I wanted them to be prime time.”
“This is the greatest win that I’ve ever been a part of. This, on prime time, against the great coach, the great program, and just the way we played. If we were pretenders, we would’ve folded.”
And here’s the owner of everyone’s favorite bit of trivia7 on his memorable moment as a Golden Grizzly after five years at Hillsdale College in Division II and whether or not he knew about the deluge of social media content or text messages spawned by his 10/20 performance behind the arc.
“We’re the underdog by all measures, but as a player, you can’t think that way. You’ve gotta go out there and you gotta think that you have the same talent level as them. I know they have draft picks and I know I’m not going to the NBA. But I know on any given night I can compete with those type of guys and our team can compete with those type of guys.”
“I’m a ‘phone totally off a couple hours before the game and don’t look at it for a while after.’ Just soak in the moment because that’s what I’m here to do with my teammates and my coaches.”
- Jack Gohlke, senior guard
And finally, here’s senior forward Trey Townsend on playing with Gohlke and seeing his local support show up.8
“It’s definitely a special thing, just watching him, just three after three after three, and he gets so hype out there and it just gives us all momentum and excitement to keep playing hard.”
“We wanted Pittsburgh or Indianapolis because we knew [our fans] were going to travel if they could drive. To see the support that was here tonight, that pushed us over the edge on top of Jack carrying us on his back for most of the game.
10 Colorado 102, 7 Florida 100
No overtime. Just two triple-digit scores in a college basketball game. Wow.
“I thought to myself at halftime, if we don’t start guarding better, midway through the second half, if we don’t start guarding better, we gotta score 100 to win tonight. And we needed 102. Actually, only needed 101, but we got 102. Just enough at the end.”
- Tad Boyle, head coach
Speaking of the end, the last shot sparked memories of Kawhi Leonard’s bouncing game-winner for the Toronto Raptors and disagreements: clean or push off? Here’s what the shot-maker had to say.
“Happened to break free, was looking to just drive, create something, whatever was the best play. Noticed the defender got off balance, and that’s a shot I shoot a bunch of times. Cody [Williams] threw me a great pass that was able to guide me and lead me in that direction.”
- KJ Simpson, junior guard
And on that 100-point pace, senior forward and Texas Christian transfer Eddie Lampkin, Jr.
“I’m used to playing fast, so I just felt comfortable. When I was at TCU, we were the number one transition team every year I was there except my freshman year, so a high scoring game is just another game to me.”
(11) Oregon 87, (6) South Carolina 73
Jermaine Cousinard, senior guard for the Ducks, scored 40 points in a win over his former school. Here’s what he said about the ignition for that performance.
“I kind of heard somebody say something on the court to me, and that’s what got me going. I’m a competitor, that’s a guy I kind of mentored while I was there. Once he hit a three and got to talking, it was fun. Those guys kind of made me. I grew a lot, I learned a lot when I was there. I appreciate the guys more than anything.”
Credit to Jason Lloyd from The Athletic for the follow-up: Who?
“Jacobi [Wright]. That’s my little brother. It was nothing personal. I just heard him say one thing after he hit the three. I can’t even remember. I think he just said, “It’s cash.”
This nearly nothing, but Cousinard named it as the spark for a remarkable offensive night. Later, when asked how coach Dana Altman might perceive the upcoming matchup with his former team, Creighton, Cousinard’s teammate took the mic and said this:
“I think every game is personal.”
- N’Faly Dante, senior center
Altman discussed Cousinard and Dante9 gelling together after each missed time with injuries over the past two season.
“They’re out two oldest guys, our two most experienced guys. You see how college basketball is all geared to experience, and so we geared it to them. They're great guys, they’re easy to work with, they listen, they dty to do what I ask them to do. I’m really happy for both of them. They’ve carried us, and I’ve just tried to stay out of the way. The two of them got 63 of our 87 points.”
And we’ll end our upset tour with Altman’s comments on his 8-0 record in first round since arriving at Oregon from Creighton. He moves the focus from the zoomed out career perspective to the yearly opportunity to lead a new group to meet up with a new opponent. Is it like riding a bike?
“No, no. It’s always exciting. Our guys are always excited. We were really impressed with South Carolina on film. Wins over Tennessee, Kentucky. I told the guys, ‘They’ve got impressive wins, fellas. We’re going to have to play our tail off.’ Our guys knew the battle ahead, and they got excited about it.”
Four favorites won close games: (5) San Diego State, (7) Washington State, (7) Dayton and (4) Kansas. These games were worth talking about, and I might come back to them depending on how those teams perform in the next round. Oh, and the first half of (1) Purdue’s win over (16) Grambling State caught my attention before the Boilermakers de-jittered themselves. I’m watching their redemption arc.
I’ll be watching as much basketball as possible, but I’m also working on a baseball story and a soccer story. Good times. Honestly, writing Thrill Shot for the first three months of 2024 has been exhilarating, and I’m thankful you’ve been along for the ride so far.
Don’t worry, Dambrot praised his workout dedication and stamina right away.
I live in Arizona, and I always assumed that Lopes was short for Antelopes as a longer, official mascot. Nope.
McGlothan’s 11 boards tied with Mitchell Saxen from Saint Mary’s for the game high.
Which is in Madison, Wisconsin. And they’re the Dukes, about to play Duke.
Would this name make it through from first draft to final production in a sports movie? Byington. Buy-in-ton. Too on the nose? Or just subtle enough?
They won the ACC tournament title, not the ACC title. Regular season and tournament are separately meaningful. This is not a pro scenario where the regular season just sets up the playoffs.
The answer: 8. The question: How many two-point field goals did Jack Gohlke attempt this season. Not make. Attempt. (He made four of them.)
Oakland is in Michigan, not California. The bear mascot threw me off, too.
N’Faly Dante is my favorite name of the tournament.