NCAA Tournament

Illinois senior forward Marcus Domask made history during the team's 85-69 win over Morehead State in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday.

Domask recorded a triple-double by scoring 12 points, grabbing 11 rebounds, and dishing out 10 assists in 36 minutes on the floor. Although he shot just 5-14 from the field, he connected on two of his four attempts from three-point range.

He became the first player to record a March Madness triple-double since Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, as Morant achieved the feat during Murray State's win over Marquette in the opening round of the 2019 tournament. Domask is now one of nine players to ever record a triple-double in the NCAA tournament.

"It's definitely a cool accomplishment to have my name up there with some of the greats, and so few have done it so far," he said after the game, per the Associated Press (h/t CBS Sports). "At this point in my career I'm past the personal accolades. At this point in March, it's all about winning. That's all I'm trying to do."

Although Domask had never recorded a triple-double in his collegiate career prior to Thursday's action, he's remained an effective all-around player for head coach Brad Underwood. In 34 starts during the 2023-24 season, he averaged 16.0 points and 4.9 rebounds to go along with a team-leading 3.7 assists per game.

Illinois advanced to the second round of the tournament for the third time in the past four seasons with Underwood. Now, the team will face off against Duquesne after the Dukes' upset win over BYU.

North Carolina cruised to a victory over Wagner in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday, as the top-seeded Tar Heels won by the final score of 90-62.

2023-24 ACC Player of the Year RJ Davis took over during the final 20 minutes of the game after scoring just five points in the first half. Davis finished with 22 points, two rebounds, and two assists while shooting 8-13 from the field and 4-7 from three.

Fans were impressed with the strong second-half performance from the senior.

The Tar Heels also received major contributions from another senior, Armando Bacot. He was dominant on the glass, scoring 20 points and grabbing 15 rebounds in 30 minutes on the floor. As a team, Wagner recorded just 20 total rebounds.

Bacot was also locked in on the defensive end of the court, recording a steal and a block apiece while picking up just two fouls.

The victory by head coach Hubert Davis' team sets up a second-round clash with Michigan State after the Spartans defeated Mississippi State on Thursday. The two schools haven't faced off in the tournament since the 2009 National Championship game, which resulted in a North Carolina victory under former head coach Roy Williams.

Fans were excited about the rematch between the Tar Heels and the Spartans.

After easily avoiding an upset, North Carolina will battle against Michigan State on Saturday. If the Tar Heels deliver a performance similar to their showing on Thursday, they'll likely be headed to the Sweet 16.

Veteran head coach Tom Izzo improved his sterling March Madness Round of 64 record Thursday, as his ninth-seeded Michigan State Spartans beat the No. 9 Mississippi State Bulldogs 69-51 in a first-round matchup in the West Region of the 2024 NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Michigan State is playing in its 26th consecutive NCAA tourney under Izzo, and it is now 20-5 in Round of 64 games during that stretch. Izzo also boasts a career record of 56-24 in the NCAA tournament overall.

It wasn't a banner year for the Spartans, as they went 19-14, finished tied for sixth in the Big Ten and lost in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament, but Izzo had his team ready to play Thursday just as he almost always does come tournament time.

Given the success Izzo-led Michigan State teams have had in March over the years, many fans on X lamented the fact that they bet against the Spartans or picked against them in their bracket pools:

Michigan State was highly efficient on the offensive end Thursday, shooting 50 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, the Spartans held the Bulldogs to 37 percent shooting the from the floor and 22.2 percent shooting from long range.

Three players scored in double figures for Michigan State, but it was senior guard Tyson Walker who led the way with a team-high 19 points, plus three rebounds, three steals and two assists.

Team-wide production was somewhat lacking for Mississippi State offensively, as freshman guard and leading scorer Josh Hubbard did most of the work on that end, recording 15 points, three boards and two assists as the Bulldogs' only double-digit scorer.

As good as Hubbard was on Thursday, he was on the wrong end of the highlight reel, as Spartans guard Jaden Akins rejected him with an emphatic block on a layup attempt:

Had Hubbard made that basket early in the second quarter, it would have cut the deficit to four and potentially given the Bulldogs some much-needed momentum.

Instead, the pendulum swung fully in favor of the Spartans, and they rattled off the next eight points to push the lead into double digits.

Mississippi State never really threatened Michigan State for the remainder of the game, thus continuing the program's recent history of the NCAA tournament futility.

Despite reaching the tourney four times since then, the Bulldogs have not won an NCAA tournament game since the 2007-08 season.

As for the Spartans, they are into the Round of 32 for the third year in a row and the sixth time in the past seven tournaments.

They will move on to face either No. 1 North Carolina or No. 16 Wagner in the second round this weekend.

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Long Beach State athletic director Bobby Smitheran had a very specific reason for firing men's basketball head coach Dan Monson last week ahead of the team's NCAA Tournament selection.

"My belief and hope is that by doing what I did and the timing of it, they would play inspired, and that's what they did," Smitheran told The Associated Press on Thursday (h/t ESPN). "I'm not trying to pat myself on the back, but it worked."

Monson was fired by Long Beach State on March 11, five days before leading the program into the NCAA Tournament.

While Monson was fired, he's continuing to coach the 49ers through the remainder of the 2023-24 season.

After he was fired, the team went on to win the Big West tournament and earn an unexpected berth in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 15 seed. Monson joked earlier this week that he's now "working for free."

"Did you see the 'Seinfeld' when George was trying to get fired and couldn't lose his job, still going to work every day? That's me," Monson told reporters. "I'm a 'Seinfeld' episode going on right now in real life."

Long Beach State will now face its toughest challenge of the season against No. 2-seeded Arizona on Thursday. The Wildcats are hoping to win the NCAA title behind a talented roster highlighted by Caleb Love, Oumar Ballo, Pelle Larsson and Keshad Johnson.

This marks the first NCAA Tournament appearance for Long Beach State since 2012. With little expectation for the 49ers to advance, they could upset a Wildcats team facing pressure to bring home a championship.

Monson has been head coach of Long Beach State since 2007. The program is 275-272 in his 17 seasons at the helm.

Prior to joining the 49ers, he served as head coach of Gonzaga from 1997 to 1999 and Minnesota from 1999 to 2007.

Kansas big man Hunter Dickinson won't let his shoulder injury stop him from taking the court in the NCAA Tournament.

Per The Athletic's Brendan Quinn, Dickinson said Wednesday that his shoulder feels "good" and he's prepared to lead the fourth-seeded Jayhawks in their Round of 64 matchup against No. 13 Samford on Thursday night.

Dickinson suffered a dislocated shoulder in Kansas' loss to Houston in its regular-season finale on March 9. There were initial fears that he suffered a torn labrum, but he ended up not needing surgery and was rested during the Big 12 tournament last week.

"The shoulder feels good, good enough to be out there with my teammates," Dickinson said Wednesday in a pre-NCAA Tournament press conference.

While getting Dickinson back will be a boost for Kansas, the team is still shorthanded. Star guard and leading scorer Kevin McCullar Jr. was ruled out for the entire NCAA Tournament by head coach Bill Self due to a knee injury.

The Jayhawks lost four out of their last five games and were bounced out of the Big 12 tournament in one-and-done fashion with a 20-point loss to Cincinnati. Due to the team's injuries and recent struggles, Quinn noted that Kansas is viewed by many as "a trendy pick as a potential upset victim in a first-round game."

Dickinson was the Jayhawks' second-leading scorer at 18.0 points per game while leading the team with 10.8 rebounds and 1.4 blocks, earning first-team All-Big 12 honors. However, Quinn pointed out that his average dipped to 15.8 points down the stretch when McCullar was out of the lineup.

Kansas will need Dickinson to be at his best if it hopes to avoid losing a first-round game in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006.

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Playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time, Grambling State completed an epic second-half comeback to earn an 88-81 overtime win over Montana State in Wednesday's First Four matchup.

Grambling State trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half before storming back behind a spirited effort from sophomore guard Jimel Cofer, who scored a team-high 19 points off the bench. Jourdan Smith and Antwan Burnett added 18 points apiece for the Tigers.

Grambling State will face Purdue, the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, in the Round of 64 on Friday night. Taking on the Zach Edey-led Boilermakers will be no easy task, but the Tigers are hoping to ride the wave of Wednesday's surprising win to another upset.

After all, it was just a year ago that Purdue became the second No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Those on social media were excited by their first dose of March Madness thanks to Grambling State's comeback victory:

Games like this are shining examples of the spirit of March Madness. Grambling State refused to go down quietly and overcame an early barrage from a hot-shooting Montana State squad.

This game was also indicative of the fight in the Tigers, who overcame a 2-10 start to the season to win the SWAC regular-season title with a 20-14 record and emerge victorious in the conference tournament.

Fans will be hyped to see if Grambling State's Cinderella run will continue when it meets Purdue on Friday.

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United States President Joe Biden released his bracket selections for the 2024 NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments on Wednesday.

On the men's side, Biden has No. 1 seed UConn beating fellow No. 1 seed Houston in the National Championship Game, and he selected No. 1 South Carolina to take down No. 2 UCLA in the women's National Championship Game:

Barack Obama began the presidential tradition of a sitting president filling out and publicly sharing college basketball brackets, and Biden has carried it on since officially taking office in January 2021.

In terms of the Elite Eight and Final Four, there aren't many surprises in Biden's men's bracket, as he put No. 1 UConn, No. 1 Houston, No. 1 North Carolina and No. 2 Tennessee in the Final Four, and had no seed higher than a 4 in the Elite Eight.

Biden did select a handful of major upsets in the first round, though, including No. 13 Charleston over No. 4 Alabama and No. 12 McNeese State over No. 5 Gonzaga.

In his women's bracket, Biden has a No. 1 and No. 2 seed in his Final Four in South Carolina and UCLA, as well as No. 2 Stanford and No. 3 UConn.

Utah and Colorado were the highest seeds in Biden's Elite Eight in the women's bracket, as they are both a No. 5.

Biden had only one seed higher than a 10 winning in a first-round upset in his women's bracket, that being 12th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast taking down No. 5 Oklahoma and then shocking No. 4 Indiana in the second round as well.

Former President Obama also released his men's and women's brackets this week, and like Biden, he chose defending champion UConn to win the men's title and undefeated South Carolina to win the women's title:

Biden is likely hoping to have a bit more success with his brackets than he did over the past couple of years.

Per Jason Owens of Yahoo Sports, Biden picked No. 2 Arizona and No. 4 Villanova to win the men's and women's titles, respectively, last season.

Arizona was shocked by No. 15 Princeton in the first round, while Villanova fell to No. 9 Miami in the Sweet 16. Biden's wife, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, attended Villanova.

In 2022, Biden went into full homer mode by picking his alma mater, the University of Delaware, to win both the men's and women's titles.

The No. 15 Blue Hens lost 80-60 to No. 2 Villanova in the first round of the men's tourney that year, and No. 13 Delaware fell 102-71 to No. 4 Maryland in the first round of the women's tournament.

After the two remaining First Four games are played Wednesday, the first round of the 2024 NCAA men's basketball tournament will start Thursday, followed by the first round of the women's tournament kicking off Friday.