NCAA Men's Tournament 2022: Winners and Losers of First Four
The 2022 men's NCAA tournament is underway.
In the first game, Texas Southern played its way into a matchup with a No. 1 seed for the second year in a row. The Tigers beat Mount St. Mary's in a First Four game to kick off the 2021 tournament, and a 76-67 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday advanced them to a matchup with Kansas on Thursday.
The Big Ten saw its first of nine tournament teams in action in the nightcap, with Indiana squeaking out a 66-58 win over Wyoming behind a terrific game from Trayce Jackson-Davis. The Hoosiers now advance to face No. 5 seed Saint Mary's.
The second day kicked off with a dynamite performance from Wright State guard Tanner Holden, who had 37 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Raiders to a 93-82 victory over the Bryant Bulldogs. Now they set their sights on No. 1 seed Arizona.
Notre Dame and Rutgers saved the best for last in Wednesday's night cap. It was a back-and-forth game that went to two overtimes and looked to be on its way to a third before Paul Atkinson Jr. cleaned up a missed shot and put home the game-winning bucket with two seconds to go in an 89-87 win.
Before the tournament kicks off in full on Thursday morning, let's run through the winners and losers of the First Four games.
Winner: The First Game-Winner of March Madness
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What a great appetizer for the full slate of action headed our way on Thursday.
In the final game of the First Four, we were treated to our first game-winning shot of the tournament. Paul Atkinson Jr. scored on a tough finish inside off a Blake Wesley miss, giving Notre Dame an 89-87 lead with two seconds to play
Atkinson won Ivy League Player of the Year last season at Yale before transferring to Notre Dame, and he averaged a solid 12.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in his first year in the ACC.
His 26 points were a season-high, and he did it on 13-of-15 shooting while leading the way for a Fighting Irish attack that scored a staggering 58 points in the paint while shooting 51.4 percent from the floor. Not bad production against a Rutgers team that ranked No. 43 in KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency.
Loser: The Final Rutgers Possession of Regulation
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It's hard to call anyone a loser in a thrilling 89-87 game that went two overtimes and appeared to be headed for a third, but the game might never have gotten that far if Rutgers had taken the time to draw up a play at the end of regulation.
With the score tied up, Ron Harper Jr. missed a good look from three with 22 seconds to go, but Paul Mulcahy pulled down the offensive rebound. With the shot clock turned off, the final shot of the game belonged to the Scarlet Knights.
However, rather than using their final timeout to draw up a play, Geo Baker spent most of the remaining clock dribbling between his legs and not going anywhere before he threw up a contested shot over two defenders that caught nothing but air.
There were no cuts, no screens, just a ton of dribbling and a bad shot.
Why not call that timeout?
Winner: One of the Cleanest Games You'll Ever See
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In 50 minutes of action, Notre Dame only turned the ball over five times, and they went the final 29 minutes, 44 seconds of the game without a giveaway.
They had what could have been considered a turnover when a loose ball bounced off Blake Wesley's foot with under a minute to go in the first overtime, but they immediately rectified that change of possession by forcing a turnover on the ensuing Rutgers inbound play.
Protecting the basketball was a strength all season for the Fighting Irish with just 10.3 turnovers per game to rank in the top 25 in the nation. Wednesday marked the fourth game this season Notre Dame turned the ball over just five or fewer times, but no other contest had an additional 10 minutes tacked on.
Another strong showing in that department would greatly increase their chances of advancing past a No. 6-seeded Alabama squad with as much boom-or-bust potential as any team in the tournament.
Loser: Bryant's Continued Unwillingness to Recognize a Weakness
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The Bryant Bulldogs ranked 20th in the nation with 27.2 three-point attempts per game entering the NCAA tournament, yet they checked in at a brutal 312th by shooting 30.8 percent from distance.
At a certain point, the coaching staff should have recognized the disparity and made the proper adjustments.
Instead, the Bulldogs continued to let it rip from deep on Wednesday night, and the result was more of the same. They connected on just 4-of-24 attempts from beyond the arc and wound up with far too many empty possessions as a result.
The trio of Adham Eleeda, Peter Kiss and Charles Pride averaged 20.8 three-point attempts per game during the regular season, shooting a combined 32.4 percent in the process.
The bulk of the three-point volume came from them again on Wednesday, and they mustered just 4-of-19 shooting from three, which played a major role in an 11-point loss to a team that simply played a more efficient style of basketball.
Winner: Tanner Holden Wins the Battle of the Mid-Major Stars
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Bryant guard Peter Kiss entered the NCAA tournament as the nation's leading scorer, averaging 25.1 points per game with 10 games of 30 points on his resume.
The 6'5" senior finished above his impressive season average with a team-high 26 points, but he did it with an inefficient 11-of-24 shooting night, and too many Bulldogs possessions were a one-and-done quick pull early in the shot clock.
On the other side, Wright State star Tanner Holden had one of the best games of his career.
The junior guard led his team in scoring with 19.8 points per game to earn All-Horizon League honors for the second year in a row, and he shined on Wednesday night with 37 points on 11-of-15 shooting and 14-of-16 from the free-throw line while also pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds.
Credit the entire Raiders roster with terrific ball movement all game, as they tallied assists on 19 of their 29 made shots and did a great job making the extra pass all game.
In a game where the NCAA's leading scorer was one of the biggest storylines going in, it was another mid-major standout who stole the spotlight.
Loser: The Worst Jerseys in NCAA Tournament History?
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Don't sleep on the Corpus Christi skyline.
That's apparently the message the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders squad hoped to get across with one of the gaudiest uniforms we've ever seen during March Madness.
From the giant cityscape visual across the chest to the inability to decide between blue and green as the secondary color on their black uniforms, these jerseys won't soon be forgotten, even if the Southland Conference tournament winners were handed an early exit from the NCAA tournament.
In all seriousness, props to the Islanders for earning a spot in the NCAA tournament field a year after posting a 5-19 record. Their 18-win improvement from last year tied Iowa State for the largest turnaround in the nation.
They kept things close against a Texas Southern team that beat Florida earlier this year and gave Twitter something to talk about in the process. What more can you ask from a No. 16 seed in a play-in game?
Winner: Bench Scoring in the Texas Southern vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Game
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It was no surprise the reserves played a major role in the outcome of the matchup between Texas Southern and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Those two teams led the 68-team field in bench scoring heading into their matchup. The Islanders ranked 15th in the nation with 28.3 points per game off the bench, while the Tigers were right behind them with 28.2 points per contest.
Both teams got standout individual performances outside of their starting lineups.
Bryson Etienne (21 points, 9-of-9 FT), John Walker III (16 points, 6-of-7 FT) and PJ Henry (14 points, 10-of-13 FT) accounted for 67.1 percent of the Tigers' scoring, and the bench finished with 55 points.
On the other side, Trevian Tennyson (18 points) led Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and he accounted for eight points during a 14-4 run that put the Islanders up 57-53 with 7:53 remaining in the second half.
Up next for Texas Southern: a stacked Kansas team that will require more than another spectacular showing from the bench to upset.
Winner: A Breakout Game from Jordan Geronimo
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Sophomore Jordan Geronimo entered Tuesday's game averaging just 3.9 points per game while playing 12.2 minutes per contest and saw single-digit minutes in five of the Indiana Hoosiers' last nine games.
To say he was an unlikely X-factor would be an understatement.
The 6'6" forward took a season-high 11 shots, connecting on seven of them en route to tallying a season-high 15 points to go along with seven rebounds, one assist and one block in 19 minutes.
Along the way, he showed off a diverse skill set, scoring on a put-back dunk and then burying his eighth three-pointer of the season a few possessions later. A 4-star recruit who chose Indiana from a long list of 26 offers, he has the upside to be a significant contributor.
The Hoosiers have gotten solid secondary scoring from Xavier Johnson (12.3 PPG) and Race Thompson (11.5 PPG) behind star Trayce Jackson-Davis for much of the season, and finding another offensive threat could be the catalyst for a March Madness run.
Loser: A Season High in Turnovers for Wyoming
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It's hard to win a game when you turn the ball over 19 times.
That was not a glaring issue for Wyoming during the regular season, as it averaged 11.1 turnovers per game during the regular season, good for a top-50 ranking in terms of taking care of the basketball.
However, it was the story of the night on Tuesday.
Leading scorers Hunter Maldonado (10 turnovers) and Graham Ike (five turnovers) were the biggest offenders, and the fact that Indiana only had three steals speaks to the sheer volume of careless giveaways that proved to be too much to overcome.
The Cowboys had a great season, tallying four Quad 1 wins while going 25-8 and appearing in the AP poll for the first time since 2015. In the end, a Hoosiers squad that entered the day No. 21 in KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency was simply the better team.
Winner: A Star Performance from Trayce Jackson-Davis
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It's always nice to have a star to lean on when the pressure ratchets up during March Madness, and Indiana definitely has that in junior Trayce Jackson-Davis.
The team's leading scorer (18.1 PPG) and rebounder (8.2 RPG) entered the tournament with second-team All-Big Ten honors after making the somewhat surprising decision to return to campus for another year. He turned in one of his best performances of the season in his NCAA tournament debut.
The 6'9" forward scored a game-high 29 points on an efficient 10-of-16 from the floor and 9-of-11 from the free-throw line, and he also grabbed nine rebounds and blocked a shot.
On the defensive end, he was tasked with slowing down Wyoming's leading scorer Graham Ike (19.6 PPG), and he held him below his season average on a 7-of-14 shooting night.
With a 43-point game against Marshall back in November and three other 30-point games on his resume, Jackson-Davis is capable of carrying the Hoosiers, and they'll be looking for more of the same on Thursday against a good Saint Mary's team.
All stats courtesy of Sports Reference.
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