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Men's NCAA Tournament 2025: Thursday's First Round Winners and Losers
For all the national holidays that we celebrate, it is an injustice that the first Thursday of the men's NCAA tournament isn't a day off work, printed on every calendar.
Hopefully, though, you've been able to celebrate appropriately, enjoying the winners and losers crowned, preferably with a bracket still at least a little bit intact. (Nothing too crazy happened, right?)
Before we begin, though: Winners—the teams who won. Losers—the teams who lost. There. We saved you the trouble of trying to be the first one to make that totally original comment.
Now, let's recap the day.
Winners and losers are more or less presented in chronological order, with new entrants always added onto the back end of the list.
Winner: Purdue's Gang Rebounding vs. High Point
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Traditionally, the 12:40 p.m. ET tip on Thursday is upset central. No. 11 Duquesne pulled it off last year. No. 13 Furman did it the year before that. And going further back, No. 13 South Dakota State, No. 14 Colgate and No. 14 Yale all put forth incredible efforts in the early special that decimates work productivity around the country.
But this year's second game of the first round only briefly turned into a nail-biter with about seven minutes remaining in the second half, No. 4 Purdue keeping No. 13 High Point at bay all afternoon for a 75-63 victory.
The story of the game was rebounding, with the Boilermakers just destroying the Panthers on the glass.
Purdue grabbed 19 offensive rebounds and finished with a +21 overall rebound margin.
Purdue twice grabbed three offensive rebounds on a single possession, and it was after Miles Colvin's putback slam off a missed three-pointer late in the first half that it started to feel like High Point didn't have much of a shot at pulling off the upset.
For as much as we've talked this season about Purdue being a three-man team, it was the bench to the rescue. Camden Heide had a double-double (11 points, 10 rebounds), and 6'3" freshman Gicarri Harris doubled his previous career high with eight boards. Meanwhile, High Point's starting five finished the day with just 11 rebounds.
Loser: Louisville's Defensive Approach Against Creighton
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Is it possible that Louisville mixed up its tape on Big East teams and prepared for St. John's instead of Creighton?
Against a Bluejays team that ranks 10th in the nation in three-point attempts per field-goal attempt, Louisville spent the first half going under pretty much every ball screen, leaving Steven Ashworth and Co. with a wide-open look at a triple time and again.
It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see how it worked out.
The Cards got away with it for the first few minutes as everyone shook out the early nerves, but Creighton caught fire and entered the half up 49-34, going 9-for-16 from three-point range.
Louisville adjusted in the second half and started switching on screens along the perimeter, holding Creighton to just 2-for-8 from distance the rest of the way.
Unfortunately for Pat Kelsey, it was too little, too late. Creighton had too much confidence. The deficit was too large to overcome. And it was the Big East improving to 2-0 in this year's dance instead of the ACC, by a final score of 89-75.
Winner: Big Ten in the Early Slate
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No. 14 Montana made things interesting for a little while against heavily favored Wisconsin, down by just four with about 15 minutes left in the second half. But as a team that ranks outside the top 250 in adjusted defensive efficiency on KenPom, keeping pace became too much of an uphill battle for the Grizzlies en route to an 85-66 final score.
If you're just watching Wisconsin for the first time this season, that point total probably comes as a bit of a shock to you. After all, the Badgers had averaged 60 points over their previous four NCAA tournament games, and they were always one of the slowest-paced teams in the country back in their Bo Ryan days.
Business as usual this year, though, averaging just a shade under 80 points per game for the season. Five Badgers finished in double figures as they ensured the Big Sky's streak of consecutive immediate exits from the NCAA tournament extended to 18 dances.
Pair that result with Purdue's somewhat comfortable victory over High Point and the Big Ten's dream of getting all eight of its single-digit seeds into the second round got out to a promising start.
Loser: The Cinderell-iest of Cinderella Stories
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When UMBC shocked the world in 2018, it did so as the top No. 16 seed (No. 63 overall), many feeling the Retrievers probably should have been a No. 15 seed before they toppled No. 1 overall seed Virginia.
And though Fairleigh Dickinson was the No. 68 overall seed when it pulled off its miracle in 2023, Purdue was the No. 4 overall seed that year.
Both ginormous upsets that no one saw coming, but we can still do better.
Like No. 67 overall seed Alabama State vs. No. 1 overall seed Auburn, for example.
And the Hornets sure had a lot of brackets buzzing early.
Auburn jumped out to an early 28-15 lead, seemingly well on its way to a "no need to even put that game on one of your screens for the second half" type of blowout that Houston delivered to SIU-Edwardsville in the slightly earlier time slot.
Then, out of nowhere, Alabama State went on a 16-4 run, Auburn going nearly seven minutes without a bucket. The Hornets trailed 32-31 when they were headed to the charity stripe with a chance to take the lead late in the first half.
Unfortunately for Cinderella, Amarr Knox missed his free throw, Auburn immediately went on a 9-0 run to enter the intermission with a 10-point lead, and that was curtains on the dream upset. Auburn eventually cruised to a 20-point victory. (Though, didn't cover the 31.5-point spread, if that's a concern of yours.)
Maybe Duke/Mount St. Mary's or Florida/Norfolk State will give us a shocker on Friday, but no 16-over-1 special on Thursday.
Winner: Newest ACC Coach Getting an Early 'Conference' W
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For some time now, the worst-kept secret in college basketball was that Will Wade wouldn't be returning to McNeese next season.
After two wildly successful years off the beaten path with the Cowboys, it was only a matter of time before the former LSU coach found his way back to a major-conference job—you know, now that it's perfectly permissible to pay the players.
Most expected that 'matter of time' wouldn't come until after McNeese was eliminated from this year's dance, but news broke on Wednesday that Wade had already accepted an offer to fill the head coach opening at NC State.
This turned Thursday's showdown with Clemson into a battle between the shortest-tenured and longest-tenured coaches in the ACC, Brad Brownell presently in his 15th season with the Tigers.
The real matchup, however, was McNeese's frantic, physical, turnover-forcing style of play going up against a Clemson team lacking for a proficient point guard.
And, well, it was almost immediately apparent that fortune favored the aggressor in this one.
Clemson led 6-4 at the first media timeout, but managed just one bucket over the next 10-plus minutes. During what was a 19-2 run by McNeese to quickly turn the game into a laugher, Clemson committed eight turnovers and the Cowboys grabbed nine offensive rebounds.
Incredibly, there was a stretch of more than nine minutes in which Clemson only attempted six shots. And the Tigers didn't record their second assist of the game until more than 28 minutes into the contest.
Clemson battled back a little bit down the stretch, but never really threatened to reclaim the lead. The final score was 69-67, in what NC State fans hope is a sign of things to come.
Loser: Georgia, Almost Immediately
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We all knew that Gonzaga-Georgia wasn't a typical coin flip of a No. 8 vs. No. 9 matchup.
Though the Zags were very much lacking for quality wins this season, all the predictive metrics considered them a top 10 team in the nation. They ended up at No. 8 in the NET, No. 9 on KenPom and No. 10 in BPI, while Georgia was in the much more "conventional for a No. 9 seed" Nos. 30-38 range in all of the team sheet metrics.
Without a doubt, Gonzaga was the favorite.
However, even the most Zag-loving metric on the planet could not have predicted how quickly things would spiral out of control for the SEC's Bulldogs.
Gonzaga scored on 12 of its first 14 possessions.
The two times it didn't? It forced a turnover within 10 seconds of Georgia acquiring the ball.
In fact, Georgia had seven giveaways in the first seven minutes, and started 1-for-11 from the field.
Sports fans in Georgia are all too aware that a 28-3 deficit isn't insurmountable, but trailing 27-3 by the second media timeout might as well have been.
From that point forward, Georgia did outscore Gonzaga 65-62...to lose by 21 points.
That's two SEC teams down, 11 or 12 to go?
Winner: Red-Hot BYU Staying Red Hot
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From Feb. 10 through this morning, Torvik data ranked the four best teams in the nation as follows: No. 1 seed Duke, No. 1 seed Houston, No. 1 seed Florida...and No. 6 seed BYU.
The Cougars even got pummeled 74-54 by Houston in the Big 12 semifinals, but that probably just kept BYU from landing atop that list, because no one had been hotter up until that point.
Considering Houston's elite defense was able to shut this team down, there were some thoughts that VCU and its nation-leading defensive effective field-goal percentage could do it, too, and pull off a minor upset.
Alas, BYU did its thing in an 80-71 victory, becoming the first team all season to reach 80 against the Rams.
It was actually VCU that did some heavy lifting from three-point range, draining 15 triples to BYU's seven. That's usually BYU's forte.
The Cougars were unstoppable down low instead, shooting 59 percent inside the arc with 36 points in the paint, 16 second-chance points and—the real edge—a +15 in points from the free throw line.
This sets up what promises to be a fascinating second-round showdown between Wisconsin and BYU in Denver. Without offering any sort of betting advice here, it'd be a little surprising if the winner of that one doesn't put up at least 90.
Loser: Preseason AP No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks
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Long before tonight, it had not been the type of season Jayhawks fans have come to expect from their program.
They did extend their streak of NCAA tournament appearances to an absurd 35 years in a row, but in nowhere near their usual position of power, settling for worse than a No. 4 seed for the first time since 2000.
Save for Zeke Mayo, the transfers weren't what Kansas needed them to be. Between KJ Adams and Dajuan Harris, the Jayhawks had two indispensable players who seemed reluctant/unable to step into the starring role they needed to play. It just never came together.
Yet, we're still talking about a No. 7 seed here; a team with more than enough talent to make a run, and a coach who has been to four Final Fours and won two national championships. There was hope that they would lock in when they needed to. And for stretches of the marquee showdown with Arkansas, they did.
The catalyst was switching to zone, something they had only played for a few possessions all season, per Steve Lappas on the broadcast. It seemed to glitch the Razorbacks' brains, who scored just 10 points over the course of nearly 13 minutes as a 54-44 lead turned into a 67-64 deficit.
But the Hogs finally broke through Kansas' defense with their own defense, recording steals on four consecutive possessions and literally racing back into the lead with breakaway conversions.
After AJ Storr missed a jumper with 3:37 remaining and a 67-64 lead, Kansas was down 71-67 by the time it next attempted any shot (a Storr free throw) with 1:23 to go. They went more than three minutes between field-goal attempts thanks to giveaway after giveaway, fueled in a big way by losing Adams to a leg injury with about three minutes remaining.
An almost fitting end to a frustrating season for the preseason favorite.
Winner: Chaz Lanier, Tennessee
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A point we've made several times over the past few weeks is that Tennessee's magic number is 18.
No, it has nothing to do with Peyton Manning. It's about Chaz Lanier's point total, the Volunteers entering the dance a perfect 19-0 when he reaches that mark.
And if there is actually anything magical about that number, then Tennessee won its opener against Wofford with a little over 17 minutes remaining in the second half, as that's when Lanier reached that mark.
He wasn't done, either. Far from it. Despite only making one bucket in the final 11:50, Lanier finished with 29 points, matching Creighton's Jamiya Neal for the highest point total through the first few waves of games.
Wofford shot 11-for-26 from distance and did all it could to remain within shouting distance, but Lanier hit six triples and kept the Terriers from ever getting the margin back to within two possessions in the final 32 minutes.
To be sure, Zakai Zeigler was huge, too, finishing with 12 points and 12 assists. Four of Tennessee's five starters also tallied multiple steals as the Vols outscored Wofford on points off turnovers by a 14-0 margin.
Tennessee ended up cruising a bit to a 77-62 victory, now 20-0 when Lanier posts a Manning.
Loser: Missouri Tigers to an Under-Seeded Missouri Valley Champ
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As was the case with Florida Atlantic when it made its Final Four run a few years ago, no revisionist history needed with this complaint.
We already knew (and screamed) four days ago that 30-4 Drake was under-seeded by the selection committee, laughably disrespected in being placed three spots behind 15-loss Texas on the overall seed list—suggesting quite clearly that the Bulldogs would not have been selected for an at-large bid if they had lost to Bradley in the Arch Madness championship.
Maybe that was the bulletin board material they needed, though, as the fighting Bennett Stirtzes were in control pretty much all night in their first-round "upset" of No. 6 seed Missouri.
Stirtz played all 40 minutes, finishing with 21 points and four assists. Mitch Mascari also played all 40 with a 6-4-3-3 line.
The Bulldogs tallied 13 steals.
They grabbed nearly half of the possible offensive rebounds.
They controlled the snail-like pace and won 67-57.
Ho hum. Business as usual, as life in the Missouri Valley evidently prepared Drake quite well for a showdown with Missouri.
The Tigers did uncharacteristically shoot just 25 percent from three-point range, but that's what Drake's constant ball pressure can do to a supposedly superior foe. We'll see how many more times it happens in this tournament.
Winner: Pharrel Payne, Texas A&M
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Almost everything about the No. 4 Texas A&M vs. No. 13 Yale game played out the way it needed to in order for the underdog to pull off the upset.
Yale shot 38 percent from three while A&M went 6-for-25. Given the respective shooting percentages over the course of the season, that was somewhat to be expected.
The Aggies won the rebounding battle, but not by a ton. Their offensive rebounding could have been the great equalizer amid all those long-range misses, but Yale did a fine job of keeping that aspect of the game from getting out of control.
A&M's dynamic duo of Wade Taylor IV and Zhuric Phelps didn't do a ton, either, finishing with 21 points on 19 shots with six assists.
All three of those things had to have been on Yale's blueprint.
But who could have possibly guessed that Pharrel Payne would outscore Bez Mbeng by 23 points?
Payne bounced in and out of the starting lineup this season, as he did the previous two years at Minnesota. He picked a fine time for a career high 25 points and just the seventh double-double of his career. Four of his buckets were putbacks on offensive rebounds, A&M finishing its 80-71 victory with 15 second-chance points.
Yale might have been able to withstand that performance off the bench if it's point guard had done his usual thing. Mbeng had three triple-doubles since the beginning of February and did get to nine rebounds and eight assists in this one. But he shot 0-for-5 from the field with four turnovers before fouling out in what was a brutal end to his college career.
Loser: Mountain West to Another Blue Blood
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Two days ago, San Diego State got boat-raced by North Carolina, a final margin of 27 points in that First Four matchup.
Well, against the only other program in college basketball history with at least 19 Final Fours, the Mountain West's Utah State didn't fare any better Thursday night.
Now, it wasn't an immediate blowout like Gonzaga-Georgia was. With about four minutes remaining in the first half, the Aggies only trailed UCLA by a deuce. So, there's that.
From that point forward, though, the Bruins outscored them 45-22, cruising to a 25-point victory as Mick Cronin improved to 4-0 in the first round during the UCLA portion of his career. (Quite the 180 from all those immediate exits while at Cincinnati, eh?)
Utah State was the MWC's most efficient offense this season, but you wouldn't know it from that game.
The Aggies did their best to capitalize on a Bruins perimeter defense that allowed 19 three-pointers against Wisconsin in its last time on the court, but they simply couldn't hit anything. After initially going 2-for-3 from distance in the first two minutes, USU shot 2-for-28 the rest of the way.
And now we wait to see if the Aggies can hang onto their coach (Jerrod Calhoun) for a change, or if they're going to need to conduct a search for the fourth time in five years.
Winner: The Dream Coaching Matchup on Saturday
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A Rick Pitino vs. Bill Self showdown in the second round would have been fun. No question about it.
Likewise, Omaha's Chris Crutchfield getting a chance to beat Pitino and John Calipari in succession would have been a wildly entertaining story.
But Pitino-Calipari is exactly the matchup everyone had circled on Selection Sunday, hoping that both teams would cooperate and bring that fruition.
After Calipari and Arkansas took care of the more questionable piece of the puzzle, PItino coached the Red Storm to a relentless beatdown of the Omaha Mavericks. The Johnnies got out to a slow start. As they so often have this season, though, they dialed in and made life miserable for the opposition.
It's been almost a decade since the last matchup in this coaching rivalry, Pitino leading Louisville to a three-point victory over Calipari's Kentucky Wildcats in Dec. 2016. There was plenty of history up until that point between the two great coaches, including even a handful of head-to-head battles when they both made their ill-fated forays into the NBA.
No doubt, it'll be like old times.
The only disappointment here is that we couldn't somehow get this St. John's pod into the same region where Kentucky is the No. 3 seed. Pitino-Calipari for the right to face Big Blue Nation in the Sweet 16 would've added yet another layer of intrigue to a story that doesn't even need that help to get everyone buzzing.
Loser: Everyone's Favorite No. 12 Seed, in Heartbreaking Fashion
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The UC San Diego Tritons had a fantastic season. It was their first year as a tournament-eligible team, and they made the most of it, winning 30 games as well as the Big West's regular season and conference tournament titles.
They were a fun team. A gritty team. An old, turnover-forcing, three-point launching, vibe-dripping team who checks all of the boxes you could possibly want from a Cinderella candidate.
But it wasn't meant to be.
The Tritons put forth an incredible effort against No. 5 seed Michigan, falling into an early 10-0 hole before scrapping and clawing for the better part of two hours to ever so briefly take the lead late in the second half.
A lot of foul calls (and non-calls) didn't go UCSD's way—pretty much everyone outside of Ann Arbor would probably agree it was a rough whistle for the underdog—but they kept battling.
In the end, Tyler McGhie's game-tying three-point attempt just missed the mark and Michigan escaped with a 68-65 victory.
For the Wolverines, though, what else is new? During the regular season, 12 of their wins and four of their losses were decided by four points or fewer, including that wild coast-to-coast game-winner in the Big Ten semifinals against Maryland. Outside of maybe Memphis, no one in the country knows how to grind out wins better than Michigan.
And because the Wolverines got it done, the Big Ten went a perfect 4-0 on Thursday. Let's see if they can do it again on Friday, too.
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