NCAA Tournament

Led by star freshman Ja'Kobe Walter and senior forward Jalen Bridges, the third-seeded Baylor Bears scored a convincing 92-67 win over the No. 14 Colgate Raiders in the first round of the 2024 NCAA men's basketball tournament on Friday.

Playing at FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee, as part of the West Region, Baylor used its athleticism and shooting prowess to sink a Colgate team that reached the NCAA tourney and lost in the Round of 64 for a fourth consecutive year.

Coming off a poor showing in a Big 12 tournament semifinal loss to Iowa State that saw him score just three points on 1-of-8 shooting, Walter showed Friday why he was the Bears' leading scorer this season and the Big 12 Freshman of the Year.

The 6'5" guard racked up 19 points, making three trifectas and eight of his 10 free-throw attempts, and college basketball fans hyped up his performance on social media:

Bridges also turned in a huge effort, leading all scorers with 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting, including 5-of-8 from downtown.

Baylor led by 20 at halftime, and Walter was the driving force behind the team's early dominance, knocking down a pair of trifectas and making seven of his eight free-throw attempts en route to 15 points in the opening 20 minutes:

While most eyes were on Walter, head coach Scott Drew's team succeeded thanks to a team effort, as four players scored in double figures.

The Bears also shot 57.9 percent from the field and 53.3 percent from three-point range as a team, plus they held Colgate to 45.6 percent shooting from the floor and 27.8 percent shooting from deep.

Senior forward Keegan Records was the star of the game for Colgate in a losing effort, recording 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting.

Baylor won its first national title in 2021 and it has now reached at least the second round in each of the past five NCAA tournaments. Based on their recent success and how they played Friday, fans are hitching their wagons to the Bears as a team that can potentially go on a Final Four run or even further:

As talented as Baylor is, it had some inconsistency in Big 12 play this season, going 11-7 in a deep and competitive conference.

The Bears can play with and beat any team in the nation when they are on their game, though, as evidenced by victories over Iowa State, Kansas, BYU, Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Auburn and Florida.

While the level of competition is going to get far more difficult as the tournament goes on, Baylor showed Friday that it is capable of outclassing teams when firing on all cylinders at both ends of the floor.

After taking down Colgate, Baylor advances to the second round this weekend where it will face the winner of No. 6 Clemson vs. No. 11 New Mexico.

If the Bears reach the Sweet 16, they would then take on either No. 2 Arizona or No. 7 Dayton.

The No. 14 Oakland Golden Grizzlies shocked the No. 3 Kentucky Wildcats in the first round of the 2024 NCAA men's basketball tournament on Thursday, and they reportedly did it on a minuscule budget compared to UK.

According to Front Office Sports, Kentucky spent 10 times more than Oakland on its men's basketball program in 2023, as Kentucky invested $23.6 million, compared to just $2.3 million for Oakland:

Despite the discrepancy, the John Calipari-coached Wildcats suffered another early exit in March Madness, falling 80-76 to Oakland in the South Region.

It comes as little surprise that Kentucky's basketball team is far more financially supported than Oakland's since Kentucky is a blue-blood program and one of the most successful of all time.

The Kentucky men's basketball team has won the NCAA tournament eight times, reached the Final Four 17 times and won two major tourneys before the existence of the NCAA tournament as well.

By comparison, Oakland did not become an official Division I program until 1999, and this year marks only the fourth time it has made it into the NCAA tournament field. To make matters worse for Kentucky, Thursday marked the first NCAA tournament win in program history for Oakland.

Kentucky is stacked with high-ceiling prospects and 5-star recruits thanks to the resources it is able to sink into recruiting, whereas Oakland's roster is made up of overlooked players who weren't necessarily highly touted coming out of high school.

There is no greater example of that than senior guard Jack Gohlke, who transferred to Oakland this season after previously playing at Division II Hillsdale College.

Gohlke led all scorers Thursday with 32 points, going 10-of-20 from the field with all of his attempts coming from three-point range.

Oakland University, which is located in Auburn Hills, Michigan, had just under 16,000 students enrolled as of the fall of 2023, while the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, had nearly 34,000 enrollees for 2023-24.

Kentucky is bigger by every metric, and it should be better as well, but that wasn't the case on Thursday.

Now, Kentucky has just one win over the past three NCAA tournaments, and it has experienced a first-round exit in two of the past three tourneys.

While Calipari is 410-122 at Kentucky and has led the Wildcats to four trips to the Final Four and one national title, he has not gotten past the Elite Eight since 2015.

As a result, Calipari may be feeling the heat, which could be why he discussed the possibility of changing his team-building strategy after Thursday's loss, telling reporters the following:

"I'll look at other ways that we can do stuff, but, you know, there's—this thing here, it's a different animal. We've been able to help so many kids and win so many games and Final Fours, national titles and all this stuff, win league championships with young guys.

"It's changed on us. All of a sudden it's gotten really old. So we're playing teams that our average age is 19, their average age is 24 and 25. So do I change because of that? Maybe add a couple older guys to supplement."

Over the past several years, Kentucky has largely been made up of young, blue-chip prospects who often leave for the NBA after one or two seasons.

One of the reasons why smaller schools like Oakland can compete with big-time programs in the NCAA tournament is the fact that it has its players for longer and can build chemistry over time.

Given Kentucky's lack of success in recent years, perhaps funneling more of the school's resources into the transfer portal could be beneficial since it would help bring experienced, veteran players into the fold, which could be huge come tournament time.

Fourth-seeded Kansas was playing without its leading scorer, Kevin McCullar Jr., in Thursday's NCAA tournament first-round game against No. 13 Samford, but senior big man Hunter Dickinson was among the players who helped the Jayhawks avoid the upset.

Dickinson dropped 19 points, 20 rebounds, five assists and four blocks to help Kansas secure a trip to the Round of 32 with a 93-89 victory. The Jayhawks were a popular pick to get upset due to their injury woes and recent struggles.

In addition to being without McCullar, Dickinson wasn't playing at 100 percent after suffering a dislocated shoulder in the regular-season finale March 9. He powered through to record his 17th double-double of the year in dominant fashion, outrebounding the entire Bulldogs starting lineup by himself.

K.J. Adams added 20 points for the Jayhawks, who shot a collective 60.3 from the field. Nicolas Timberlake had 19 points and Johnny Furphy had 16 points to help Kansas stave off every comeback attempt by Samford, which overcame a 20-point second-half deficit to get within one late, but a questionable foul call that appeared to be a block worked in Kansas' favor.

It was Dickinson who was the star of the show, and fans on social media were impressed with his performance:

Dickinson transferred from Michigan to Kansas for his senior season, and if high-profile postseason basketball was his goal, he made the right decision, as the Wolverines failed to make the NCAA tournament this season. He performed at a high level for the Jayhawks all year, and his presence was paramount Thursday amid the team's injuries.

Kansas will play No. 5 Gonzaga in the second round on Saturday. The Jayhawks will need another big outing from Dickinson if they hope to continue their run through the tournament.

During the early stages of No. 6 BYU's upset loss to No. 11 Duquesne in the first round of the NCAA tournament, sophomore guard Dallin Hall took a blow to his face while going for a rebound, leaving him with a bloody nose.

Play had to be stopped less than three minutes into the game after Hall went down, as the blood needed to be cleaned off the court:

Hall managed to stay in the game and played 36 minutes in BYU's 71-67 loss. He finished with 11 points, six assists and four steals.

Duquesne's win left a ton of brackets busted early on Thursday:

Hall led the Cougars with an average of 5.0 assists this season, so he should retain the role of lead distributor when the team returns for the 2024-25 campaign.

Seventh-seeded Dayton's late surge helped power the Flyers to a narrow 63-60 victory over No. 10 Nevada in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday.

Head coach Anthony Grant's team was dangerously close to losing, trailing 56-39 with just under eight minutes remaining in the second half. Dayton responded with a 17-0 run to tie the game, though.

The teams traded baskets before junior forward Nate Santos finished a tough layup in traffic to give the Flyers a 61-60 advantage. After getting a stop, Santos canned two more free throws to push the lead to three before a potentially game-tying three-point attempt by Nevada missed at the buzzer.

Dayton finished the game by outscoring the Wolf Pack 24-4 over the final seven-and-a-half minutes in regulation, leaving college basketball fans amazed.

Nevada's lack of offensive production down the stretch was surprising, as the team initially scored 34 points in the first half. However, turnovers and missed three-point looks proved to be the difference as the team gave the ball away 12 times compared to 13 assists.

As for Dayton, the win represented the program's first March Madness victory since 2015, which came under former head coach Archie Miller. The Flyers are now set to face off against Arizona in the second round on Saturday at 12:45 p.m. ET.