Anyone else have basketball withdrawals in the middle of the night?

Happy Friday! Unless you’re a Kentucky fan because you’re having a terrible day.

Here’s a little prescription for you. Grab a coffee and a cookie, and you should start feeling better in no time.

The Madness has already begun. We’ll look at some underdogs who came out on top(and all the games), and then we’ll get ready to see if we’re having Italian for dinner tonight. Maybe some upsetti spaghetti!

Seriously, though, we’ve got a lot to cover, so hop on this bus and let’s tour the sports world!

March Freaking Madness Baby!

👉️ We had 16 games yesterday, and if we were looking at seeding alone, five games were upsets, and a few more were close.

Let’s get through some scores, much rapido!

🏀 9-seed Michigan St. upset 8-seed Mississippi St. 69-51.

🏀 7-seed Washington St just escaped 10-seed Drake 66-61 after Drake had back-to-back turnovers at the end of the game!

🏀 10-seed Colorado State got a taste of their own medicine after crushing Virginia on Tuesday. CSU got run over by the 7-seed Texas Longhorns. The Final score was 56-44, and CSU only scored 11 in the first half.

🏀 10 seed Nevada wasn’t playing games like this Reno 911, but they still fell “short” to 7 seed Dayton, 63-60.

MOVING ON!

🏀 11-Seed NC State upset 6-seed Texas Tech 80-67. After NC State’s run in the ACC Tournament, how could you doubt them?

🏀 11-seed Oregon narrowly made it into the NCAA tournament, but they handily beat 6-seed South Carolina 87-73. Jermaine Couisnard had 40 for Oregon!

🏀 Another 11-seed, Duquesne, who hasn’t been to the tourney in 47 years, upset 6-seed BYU last night. That’s super dope!

🏀 I think everyone was feeling 12-seed McNeese, but 5-seed Gonzaga wasn’t going to let the West Coast Conference down. The Zags handily beat McNeese 86-65 after outscoring them by 23 in the first half.

🏀 4-seed Kansas just slipped by 13-seed Samford. The final score was 93-89, but of course, there was all the drama at the end. A chase-down block got called as a foul and gave Kansas free throws when they were only up 1 with 15 seconds left. Samford got robbed!

🏀3-seed Illinois handled business against 14-seed Morehead St. Final score 85-69.

🏀 3-seed Creighton wasn’t letting the Big East down in round 1. They beat 14-seed Akron 77-60.

🏀 2-seed Tennessee put 15-seed Saint Peter’s on the next flight from Charlotte to Newark as Tennesse won 83-49. Dalton Knecht scored 23 points in 29 minutes of play.

🏀 2-seed Iowa State played 15-seed Long Beach State and won 82-65.

🏀 Another game with a 2-seed that had people worried was Arizona against 15-seed Long Beach State. After a close first half, Arizona put away Long Beach and won 85-65. Helluva game by the “Beach,” though. Yes, that’s the team’s name. The Long Beach State BEACH.

🏀 1-seed Carolina outscored 16-seed Wagner 90-62. There wasn’t much Wagner could do as they tried to keep the ball out of the paint, but Armando Bacot didn’t care. Bacot finished with 20 points and 15 rebounds.

🏀 We saved the best upset for last as 3-SEED KENTUCKY LOST TO 14-SEED OAKLAND 80-76! Oakland is a uni from Auburn Hills, Michigan and them boys went wild last night. Jack Gohlke torched the Wildcats with ten threes, and Oakland was 15 of 31 from 3-point land last night. That’s 48%! UK was the best 3-point team in the nation all year, and they only hit 32% of their 3’s last night. John Calipari was the hottest coach in college basketball when he signed with UK in 2009. He brought along those LeBron vibes when LeBron went to Miami. How many rings could he win? Well, the answer so far is ONLY 1! Is Calipari on the hot seat?!!! That’s a decision Kentucky will need to wrestle with.

Speaking of Wrestling

We’ve got the toughest dudes in the nation meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, for the D1 Wrestling Tournament. There are 330 wrestlers competing, and only 10 weight classes can crown a champion. There are also a few super cool storylines.

1. Penn State wrestler Carter Starocci is going for his fourth Natty at 174 pounds. Starocci had some injuries this year, so the three-time winner is a nine-seed! The way the bracket is set up, he could face one-seed Mekhi Lewis, from Virginia Tech, in the quarterfinals. Lewis won the Natty in 2019 in the 165-lb class. Whoever wins that match could face Michigan wrestler Shane Griffith, who won the Natty in 20221 in the 165-lb class when he was wrestling for Stanford.

2. Another Penn State wrestler, Aaron Brooks, could four-peat in the 184-pound class. Only five other wrestlers have done this.

3. The Heavyweight class had a 29-seed, Nash Hutmacher, who is nicknamed the Polar Bear. He’s a defensive lineman for Nebraska and, even though he’s a high seed for the tournament, was undefeated in high school for four straight years.

🔗 That’s about as far as we can take you in the world of wrestling. If you want to see these extremely in-shape dudes destroy one another in impressive ways, check here for more details.

Are There Still Pro Sports Going On?

Yep! I know we all get a little lost in the brackets this time of year, but we still go to the pros doing their thing. He’s a little run down.

NBA

🏀 Nikola Jokic had a triple-double last night as the Denver Nuggets downed the NY Knicks 113-100.

🏀 Luka Doncic scored 34 for the Mavs as they beat the Jazz 113-97.

🏀 Damian Lillard continues to be the Bucks's best offensive threat as they beat the Brooklyn Nets 115-108

🏀 Phoenix got a win! While it doesn’t seem like Phoenix can beat a good team, at least they can get a win when you expect it. They beat the Atlanta Hawks 128-115 last night. Devin Booker had 30.

NHL

🏒 The NY Rangers got a 5-2 win in Boston over the Bruins last night. Artemi Panarin had a hat trick for New York.

🏒 The NJ Devils maybe found a spark? Unlikely.. but they did get a win over the Winnipeg Jets! The final score was 4-1 after the Devils delivered a 3-goal 3rd period, and Jack Hughes finished with two goals himself.

🏒 The Edmonton Oilers scored eight goals against Buffalo yesterday. Connor McDavid had four assists, Zach Hyman had two goals, and so did defenseman Mattias Ekholm.

🏒 The Nashville Predators faced off against the Florida Panthers in South Florida last night. The Preds shut out Florida 3-0 and had two goals from Filip Forsberg.

What To Watch Tonight Who’s On Upset Alert

You guys are on your own to figure out what’s on in the NBA and the NHL. There are 16 more games in the NCAA tournament today, too. We’re talking TBS, TNT, CBS, and truTV. All day we have games. But who’s ready to get upset?

👉️ 11-seed New Mexico is playing 6-seed Clemon at 3:10 pm on truTV. So the seeding is already weird here becuase New Mexico is favored by 2.5 points in this game. But yes, we like New Mexico. They’re fresh off a Mountain West Tournament win, and Clemson got crushed by BC in the first round of the ACC tournament. Richard Pitino (Rick Pitino’s son) coaches the Lobos, and New Mexico has a talented backcourt that we love.

👉️ 13-seed Yale plays 4-seed Auburn at 4:15 p.m. on TNT. Auburn is favored by 12.5 points, but these Ivy League teams always come ready to play. Auburn has the fourth-ranked team in adjusted efficiency margin, but this Yale team has been playing together for quite a while. Can the Ivy League squad come up with a game plan that is good enough to stun the Tigers? We’ll see.

👉️ 13-seed Vermont plays 4-seed Duke at 7:10 pm on CBS. Duke is favored by 12.5 points, and I don’t care if the Blue Devils were favored by 40. This game is all about momentum for me. Vermont has won the last 19 of 20, and Duke is on a slippery slope of losses. They lost their last regular season game to UNC and then got bounced in the ACC Tournament. Duke is the better team, but can they get out of their way if they don’t get every call? I think not. (keep in mind I’m a UNC basketball fan and would love to see Duke lose)

👉️ 1- seed James Madison faces 5-seed Wisconsin at 9:40 pm on CBS. This should be a great game tonight. James Madison is a talented team who is 31-3 and UW is hot right now. Sure, UW lost in the Big 10 Final, and we were surprised they made it that far after a terrible end to the regular season, but AJ Storr and Chucky Hepburn have been on fire. I don’t think that fire will be extinguished today, so the question is, without stopping UW’s two stars, can JMU play good enough team ball to get a win? JMU needs to hit the rebounds hard to limit 2nd chances, and they need to keep UW off the foul line. The spread is UW -5.5 right now, and we like those odds!

We went a little over our 5-minute target today, but hey, that’s just the madness getting the better of us!

Enjoy the games today.

-The Daily Breakroom