Day 2

McNeese State became the 47th 12-seed to win a first-round tournament seed since 1979. Getting a 5-seed is a curse.

Will Drake's Ben McCollum even take the plane back to Des Moines when his team exits the tourney. Curious to see his next stop. Get on the Drake pipeline to West Virginia? Stay in the mid-west and take the Iowa job? He's from Iowa City, interestingly.

Texas Tech set an NCAA tournament record by attempting 46 (!) 3-pointers against UNC Wilmington. They made only 13, which is a reason Wilmington got back in the game in the second.

Up next for Texas Tech, 11th-seeded Drake. Coaches Ben McCollum and Grant McCasland’s are very close friends.

UC San Diego are the Tritons. Nice mascot. Thanks for participating.

Houston's J’Wan Roberts looked comfortable on that sprained ankle in the blowout of (checks notes) SIU Edwardville. Good news for Cougar fans. Houston-Gonzaga on Saturday will be a clash of playing styles. Looking forward to that one.

Bruce Pearl was jacked up for Auburn's game against Alabama State, but his team still seems out of sync (they finished the season 1-3). May be bad news for me. I predicted they would focus, return to mid-season form and win the whole thing. Getting nervous about that pic.

Player of the Day? How about Tennessee's Chaz Lanier who dropped 29 on Wofford.

I started the day with some women's hoops. Kentucky, led by our Australian All-American Georgia Amoore (34 points), dominated the Liberty Flames for three quarters and then tried to give it away in the last stanza (the Cats ultimately won by a point).

Those Liberty Mutual commercials appear to have finally broken everyone's brain. The Liberty men and women made the tourney and the announcers can't keep themselves from blurting out "Biberty!" every time Liberty is mentioned. 

Every commercial break seems to feature at least one insurance ad. Some are truly terrible. The Biberty ads don't offend me. The recent emu one is actually kinda funny (the first dozen or so times you see it).

Speaking of ads, I've always liked Matt Damon. And I was surprised how entertaining the Beckham documentary was. I think their Stella Artois ad is endearing. And I can quote the shorter version word for word because I saw it 37,532 times yesterday.

Oregon's Ducks were all over the men of Liberty from the jump. Short tourney for the men and women Flames.

Robert Morris stuck with Alabama for a half. Led by Amerion Dickerson, who was playing in his hometown of Cleveland, the Colonials went into the break only down four. The Robert Morris campus is in Moon Township, about a half hour from Pittsburgh. [Editor's Note: Moon Township is John Calipari's hometown.] Bama had to adjust to the absence of Grant Nelson, their best player not named Mark Sears. Alabama played cute with his availability, suggesting he could play when it was obvious that they didn't intend to. That is not cool in the current gambling on everything era.

Robert Morris University was established in 1921 and currently enrolls about 5,000 students. It is named for one of our founding fathers, known as the "financier of the revolution". He and Alexander Hamilton were instrumental in establishing the first national bank. Morris signed the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution. [Who is the only other person to sign all three? Roger Sherman, who evidently brokered the Connecticut compromise. Maybe I shouldn't get my American History primarily from a Broadway musical. Back to the Notes.] 

Robert Morris would not go away and even took the lead, 65-64. Suddently, Grant Nelson's knee miraculously healed. Nelson entered the game mid-way through the second half. With Nelson playing Robin (a couple timely buckets including an emphatic dunk) to Sears' Batman (22 points, 19 of them in the second half), the Tide pulled away to win 90-81.

Amerion Dickerson's homecoming included 25 points and several sequences when he was the best player on the floor.

Robert Morris coach Andy Toole graduated from Penn, which just happens to have a coaching vacancy.

VJ Edgecombe of Baylor is one of the best freshmen in the country. Good size, wicked first step. His game will translate to the next level, sooner rather than later.

Baylor maintained a solid lead most of the game but couldn't put MSU away. Baylor committed a foul on a 3-pointer just over a minute left. MSU hit all three to pull to within a point. There were questionable calls in the last minute both ways. The last minute of the game took forever thanks to the refs (the college game HAS to fix this). Baylor held on to pull off a micro-upset (9 over 8).

Colorado State, which has won eleven in a row, with the upset of shorthanded Memphis. The Rams leader, Nique Clifford, scored 14 but was 3-13 from the field (0-6 from deep). He was productive otherwise with 8 boards and 6 dimes. Kyan Evans contributed a career high 23. Playing without injured guard Tyrese Hunter, Memphis let this one get away in the second half, with the Rams outscoring them by 13.

The highest scoring basketball game in NCAA history happened in 1992. Troy 258, DeVry 141. Tonight, Troy scored 201 fewer points than in that game.

Troy are a scrappy bunch, collecting way more rebounds than they should given their lack of height. It was pretty annoying being on the other end of this, as our guys (three 7-footers) didn't collect an offensive rebound until 3 minutes into the second half. Troy stayed within striking distance and then the Cats went on a 17-0 run mid-way through the second half. Ballgame.

This was coach Mark Pope's first NCAA tourament victory as a coach. Of course, he won the 1996 national title at UK as a player.

Otega Oweh scored 20, had 8 boards and 6 assists. The last Wildcat to post those numbers was Walter McCarty, one of Pope's teammates in 1996. Otega Oweh's number, 00, represents his initials. Otega's brother attended the game. Odafe Oweh is an outstanding edge rusher for the Ravens.

Troy coach Scott Cross is obsessed with Waffle House. In his own words: "Started off, the first two recruits we brought on campus, we're driving down the main street, I point out Waffle House, and ask them if they want to eat there for breakfast. They were like 'Waffle House? Hell nah, I don't want to go to Waffle House.' I'm like, 'OK, my bad. We'll try to eat somewhere else.' Long story short, we signed neither one of those guys. From that point forward, we offhand ask them, do you like Waffle House? If the answer is yes, we sign them. If it's no, we never get them." Personally, I've never been in one of those places before midnight or sober, but maybe that's just me.

Troy was established as a teaching college in a south Alabama town of the same name. They list George Wallace, Jr as a notable alumnus. His father, of course, was the racist governor who stood in the doorway of a "white" elementary school barring three little black girls from entering. Moving on.

Ole Miss took it to UNC in the first half, leading by 18 at the break. The Heels made a game of it in the second, with a frantic comeback. The Rebels (horrible mascot) coughed up most of a 22-point second half lead but held on to win by seven. This was Ole Miss' first tourney win in a decade.

With the UNC loss, only one ACC team, Duke, advanced to the second round. That hadn't happened since 1985.

UNC still has only one Quad 1 win.

The SEC and Big 10, in contrast, have 8 teams each in the second round. 6 SEC teams are heading home. All of the Big 10 teams made it to the weekend.