NCAA Tournament: Winners and Losers of Day 2

A home game that supposedly wasn't really a home game...a kid called "Lucky" rolling the dice and coming up a winner.

What else could you have wanted from the two First Four games played Wednesday night at the University of Dayton Arena, where Robert Morris squared off against North Florida in the first game and Dayton played Boise State in the second?

Heck, there was plenty of drama before one of the games even tipped off. But in the end Robert Morris held off North Florida, 81-77, and Dayton, playing in its home arena, came from nine points down over the final 6:26 to pull out a 56-55 win over Boise State.

"No one in the country believes in themselves more than us," Dayton coach Archie Miller said in his postgame interview on truTV immediately after the game. "We may not be the best team. But we are absolutely the most together team. They've fought through a lot this season, and they absolutely refused to go down."

By the time the night was over, there were clear winners and losers as there always are.

Winner: Lucky Jones

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Lucky Jones of Robert Morris made North Florida feel unlucky to have met him.

His real name is Lucious Jones, but he goes by the nickname of "Lucky."

On Wednesday night in Dayton, Robert Morris forward Lucky Jones didn't make opponent North Florida feel very fortunate. Jones totaled 21 points, seven rebounds and five steals, plus made a key block down the stretch in the Colonials' 81-77 victory.

There is no doubt Jones was fired up about his big performance and that now Robert Morris (20-14) has a date with No. 1 seed Duke in the NCAA tournament's round of 64. But forgive him if he doesn't see wins and losses as a life-and-death proposition, because he's been there.

Jones was born with Hirschsprung's disease, a condition in which nerve cells in the colon don't form completely. He had to endure numerous surgeries and had to wear a colostomy bag from birth until almost the age of two.

"I almost passed away when I was a young boy," Jones told onebidwonders.com. "I was almost a year old, and my parents didn't think I was going to make it to a year. I was in and out of the hospital every day."

Loser: North Florida's Second-Half Offense

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By switching up its defense early in the second half, Robert Morris threw North Florida off.

Robert Morris, which normally plays zone defense, went to man-to-man early in the second half after North Florida pulled ahead by 13 points and seemed to have the game well in hand.

The defensive adjustment made all the difference in the world. The Colonials spent the rest of the game switching back and forth between their usual zone defense and man, and the Ospreys suddenly found outside shots that had been open being contested.

Great call by Robert Morris coach Andy Toole, eh? He really must have let his guys have it at halftime when they trailed by six, right?

Uh, not really. He said after the game that he let his players pretty much sort it out for themselves, although he did tweak the defense a little.

"At halftime we let [the players] be for about five or six minutes, and I think they figured it out," Toole said, per The Associated Press (via ESPN.com)."As we came in as coaches in the locker room, you know they looked like they understood what they needed to do."

Winner: Beau Beech

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Even in defeat, North Florida's Beau Beech lit it up from three-point range.

Beau Beech lit it up for North Florida in a losing cause.

Beech supposedly was in a shooting slump coming into the game, having missed all 11 of his three-pointers the previous two games. But he scorched Robert Morris for 28 points in 33 minutes. He hit two quick threes early in the second half to give North Florida a 13-point lead and ended up hitting six of 10 overall from beyond the arc.

So in addition to having a great basketball name, Beech more than doubled his average of 12.5 points per game—before Robert Morris' defense took effect in the second half. Beech did not have a single field goal over the last 11 minutes, 18 seconds of the game.

"They kind of switched to a matchup zone, kind of a man-to-man," Beech said, per the AP (via ESPN.com). "It limited my three-point attempts."

Loser: North Florida in the Turnover Battle

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Both teams were willing to get on the floor for the ball, but Robert Morris took much better care of it in general.

Robert Morris committed an average of 14 turnovers per game leading up to Wednesday's contest.

But not Wednesday. The Colonials went the entire second half without committing a single turnover, obviously aiding their comeback.

Meanwhile, North Florida was committing turnovers in bunches. Indeed, Beech said that it wasn't missed shots that led to his team's demise so much as it was throwing the ball away.

"It was turnovers that killed us the most," Beech said, per the AP (via ESPN.com).

North Florida ended up with 19 of the miscues, allowing Robert Morris to hold a game-changing 21-5 advantage in points off turnovers, according to the AP.

Winner: Boise State Coach Leon Rice

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The way Leon Rice defused a potentially sticky subject in Dayton was pure class.

Boise State coach Leon Rice could have been a jerk about playing Dayton in Dayton, and no one really would have blamed him.

Instead, the way the Broncos coach handled having to play the Flyers in their home gym (you can't say "on their home court" because the NCAA actually trucks in its own court for the First Four teams to play on) was pure class. He not only defused the situation; he actually seemed to embrace it.

He told reporters in a news conference that he tried not to make an issue of it with his team, adding, "I think the media has made a big issue out of it. But college basketball players want to play basketball, and we get an opportunity to play basketball here."

Later, he smiled and said, "There is a reason it's here and it should be here, because they do such a great job with it. It's a great arena. The people are awesome. I'm not sure they'll embrace us the same way they did last time. We brought along a food-taster just in case, to taste all of our food along the way."

More proof that a little humor can go a long, long way. Like his team, which had to travel 1,700 miles to play one that didn't have to travel 17 feet.

Loser: NCAA Selection Committee

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Dayton coach Archie Miller thought his team deserved a higher seed.

The fact is that Dayton should not have been playing in Dayton anyway.

The Flyers (25-8 entering Wednesday's game) made it to the championship game of the Atlantic 10 tournament before losing a close one to VCU. As Dave Southorn of the Idaho Statesman wrote after Selection Sunday, "With an RPI ranking of 32 and six wins over teams in the top 67, most thought Dayton could rest easy. Instead, it was the last at-large team selected into the field of 68."

"Most people had us from a six or seven to a 10 [seed]," Dayton coach Miller told Southorn, adding that it will "sting."

After having a couple days to think about it a little more, Miller attempted to take a higher road in a news conference on practice day. Maybe he also thought about the home crowd he would have behind his team, or remembered more clearly that the Flyers owned a 21-game home winning streak coming in, including a 16-0 record at home this season.

Whatever the case, Miller told reporters then, "We're in. That's all that matters. We were an 11 seed last year and we played Ohio State in Buffalo. We're an 11 seed this year and they gave us Boise State and told us to play in Dayton. I don't care. First Four, last four, it doesn't matter to me. Being in this tournament at this time of year is what every single person who does this for a living wants to do. And we're here."

And thanks to some late-game heroics by senior Jordan Sibert (more on that in a minute), they still are.

Winner: Derrick Marks

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Derrick Marks led all scorers with 23 points.

Boise State's Derrick Marks was on the mark for most of the night, helping the Broncos lead most of the game against Dayton.

Marks is a rare breed in that he's a point guard who is very adept at posting up smaller players, and he took advantage of it when he could against the Flyers. But he also hit some outside shots and scored driving to the basket as well.

In short, Marks showed why he led the Mountain West in scoring and was the conference's choice as Player of the Year.

Marks ended up with 23 points, three assists, three rebounds and three steals. But he wasn't close on a last-second shot attempt (and no matter what anyone else says, there was no foul on the play).

Loser: Dyshawn Pierre's Shorts

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Dyshawn Pierre was willing to do anything to grab a loose ball, including, well, losing his pants.

Dayton's Pierre hit a basket to pull the Flyers to within 53-50 with 2:22 left and made several other big plays throughout the course of the night.

Too bad all most people will remember about his night is that he lost his pants after coming up with a defensive rebound about three minutes earlier.

That's right. The 6'6", 230-pound junior forward lost his shorts. They fell down completely in front of the pro-Dayton crowd estimated at 12,500.

The good thing was that Pierre displayed outstanding quickness in pulling them back up. And then he flashed a smile about it.

Winner: Jordan Sibert

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Jordan Sibert battled foul trouble all night but hit the big shots when Dayton needed it most.

Jordan Sibert, a senior who is Dayton's leading scorer and undisputed leader, battled foul trouble all night and was ineffective on offense for much of it.

But when the Flyers needed him most, he delivered. He made two free throws to tie the game at 53 and followed that up by hitting the game-winning three-pointer that gave them a 56-55 lead. It capped a comeback from nine points down, after they had trailed Boise State 50-41 with 6:36 left in the game.

"[Sibert] is a big-time senior. Twenty-two [wins] in this arena. It wouldn't have happened without him," Miller told truTV after the game. "He's a cornerstone player. When Jordan decided to come here, neither of us were where we are now. He's worked very, very hard. I'm proud of him. He made a big, big shot there at the end."

Sibert admitted that he was frustrated earlier in the night, when three fouls limited him to just nine minutes of playing time in the first half. He also had to go to the bench with four fouls briefly with under eight minutes left to play in the game.

"It was a rough night," Sibert told truTV. "We went through a lot of ups and downs throughout the night. Foul trouble kind of got me out of my rhythm, but my teammates told me to stay focused. They believed in me, and I believed in them. They kept me focused the whole game and we were able to pull out the win."

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.

Joe Menzer has written six books, including one about college basketball entitled Four Corners, and now writes about college hoops and other sports for Bleacher Report while also working as a writer and editor for FoxSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.