Five Best Games From the 2024 NCAA Tournament First Round

Here’s a look back at the five best games from the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. There were comebacks, nail-biters and rock fights. Everything but a buzzer-beater. Perhaps this weekend will feature a few of those. Not to be greedy or anything.

5. Duquesne 71, BYU 67

The Duquesne Dukes made their first tournament appearance since 1977 and came away with their first win since 1969. BYU trailed the entire second half, but it was basically a one-possession game for the final eight minutes as the Cougars refused to go away and the Dukes were unable to pull away.

BYU’s starters were unable to get much going in the early window so Jaxson Robinson had to step up and scored a season-high 25 points off the bench. Dae Dae Grant led the Dukes with 19 points, the day after using an NIL deal to surprise the entire team with custom chains.

4. Oakland 80, Kentucky 76

The breakout star of the first round of the tournament has to be Jack Gohlke. The Division II transfer who attempted just eight two-point field goals all season came off the bench to hit 10 of 20 three-pointers and score 32 points. He then went back to the hotel and recorded a TurboTax ad. Seriously.

Fifth-year senior Antonio Reeves, who scored 27 on 11-of-18 shooting, was the only Wildcats player who showed up. Meanwhile, John Calipari’s freshmen struggled so badly they had him questioning whether he needed to change the way he builds teams and left observers wondering if he should be fired. Kentucky hasn’t made it to the second weekend of the tournament since 2019.

3. Kansas 93, Samford 89

If you fell asleep during the late window on Thursday after a very long day of college basketball, you may have woken up to a very confusing controversy. Kansas took a 21-point lead early in the second half, but the Bulldogs climbed all the way back to get within one point with 20 seconds remaining in regulation.

Samford was then robbed of a chance at the upset when A.J. Staton-McCray’s chase-down block of Nick Timberlake was called a foul. Timberlake hit the free throws, Jermaine Marshall missed one last chance to tie the game with a three-pointer, and Kansas survived. The Bulldogs are now 0-3 in NCAA Tournament history.

2. Yale 78, Auburn 76

Yale provided fans with one of the biggest upsets of the first round. Yale survived and advanced as Auburn’s Tre Donaldson missed two free throws with 6.1 seconds remaining. K.D. Johnson had one last chance at the buzzer, but it wasn’t meant to be as the Ivy League school won just their second NCAA Tournament game in program history.

Junior guard John Poulakidas hit six three-pointers and scored a season-high 28 points, which was more than double his scoring average for the season. Poulakidas had offers from other D1 schools, but said that choosing Yale was “a 40-year decision, not just a four-year one.”

1. Colorado 102, Florida 100

The Colorado Buffaloes beat the Florida Gators in one of the highest-scoring games in NCAA Tournament history. (Alabama beat Charleston, 109-96, later in the day!) Colorado junior KJ Simpson rattled in a baseline jumper with just two seconds remaining to eliminate No. 7-seed Florida.

The teams shot a combined 56.6 percent from the field, making 69 of 122 attempts. Amazingly, only 17 total three-pointers went down, with Florida's Will Clayton Jr. making four of them. Clayton Jr. was on fire in the second half and finished with a game-high 33 points. Both teams relied on balanced scoring attacks as five players from each team scored in double figures.

Stephen Douglas is a staff writer at The Big Lead.