Big upsets are arguably one of the most exciting parts ofMarch Madness, despite the pain they might bring youralready-busted bracket. As the NCAA tournament began in earnest on Thursday, the first game of the day, between No. 9 TCU and No. 8 Ohio State, did not disappoint. Shortly after, another Big Ten squad went down as No. 12 High Point stunned No. 5 Wisconsin. By Thursday night, several more upsets had been finalized.
We'll break down all the major losses of the men's tournament below:
No. 9 Saint Louis 102, No. 8 Georgia 77:The Bulldogs never stood a chance here.
Saint Louis, led by star center Robbie Avila, rolled to a blowout win over Georgia on Thursday night. The Billikens led the entire way, and went on an extended 23-0 run through halftime that broke the game wide open. By the time Georgia finally scored again, the Billiken's lead had exploded up to 35 points.
Avila — who has earned some incredibly creative nicknames, including Cream Abdul-Jabbar and Larry Nerd — had 12 points and five rebounds. Dion Brown led the way with 18 points after he went 9-of-10 from the field. The Billikens, who probably should have earned a higher seed than what they got, will now take on No. 1 Michigan on Saturday.
No. 10 Texas A&M 63, No. 7 Saint Mary's 50:The Aggies led the entire way in this one and cruised to a double-digit win without any issue. After opening the contest on a long 9-0 run that kept the Gaels scoreless for the first four minutes, they took an 11-point lead into the break at halftime.
While the second half was much closer, the Gaels simply couldn't narrow that gap. Saint Mary's failed to score in the final 2:30 of the contest as the Aggies simply rode out the 13-point win into the next round.
No. 11 Texas 79, No. 6 BYU 71:Texas was in control of this one just about the entire way.
Texas, after a bit of a back-and-forth early on, surged ahead of AJ Dybantsa and BYU in the second half and held on to grab the eight-point win. That sent the Longhorns, who had to beat NC State in the play-in on Tuesday, into the second round.
Dybantsa had 18 points in the first half alone to keep BYU in it, and Texas coach Sean Miller was very blunt when asked how he could stop them at the break.
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"I don't think we can," hesaid plainly.
The Cougars, after falling down by 17 points in the second half, got back within four points with just under a minute left. But that was as close as they got. The Longhorns held them scoreless the rest of the way to grab the win.
Dybantsa ended up finishing with 35 points and 10 rebounds. He's now the first freshman with at least 30 points in his NCAA tournament debut since Stephen Curry did so with Davidson back in 2007.
No. 11 VCU 82, No. 6 North Carolina 78:Well, North Carolina completely fell apart.
The Tar Heels, who led by as many as 19 points in the second half, let the Rams climb all the way back to force overtime. Then, after both teams went cold in the extra period, it was Terrence Hill who drilled the eventual game-winner. Hill, with about 15 seconds left on the cock, pulled up from the top of the key and drained a step-back 3-pointer.
Though Henri Veesaar reached the free throw line at the other end and had the chance to tie the game again, he missed both of his shots from the stripe. That paved the way for the Rams to secure the upset win, which was the largest first-round comeback victory in NCAA tournament history.
No. 12 High Point 83, No. 5 Wisconsin 82:Not a bad time to make your first two-pointer of the year, Chase Johnston! And so a rough day for the Big Ten continues. High Point made its first NCAA tournament appearance last year, and this year heads to the round of 32 for the first time.
No. 9 TCU 66, No. 8 Ohio State 64:This result might've seemed fated at halftime, when the Horned Frogs held a 15-point lead, but the Buckeyes stormed back in the second half to make the first game of the day everything you'd want to kick off March Madness. TCU's Xavier Edmonds hit a shot at the rim with 4.3 seconds to go, and Ohio State wasn't able to get a good look before time expired.
While it may not have been a true upset, TCU was a 2.5-point underdog and will be moving on to the round of 32 for the first time since 2023.
Follow along throughout the NCAA tournament as we track every single upset.