Favorites Dominated Day 1 Of The 2017 NCAA Tournament

Vanderbilt had just taken a 66-65 lead over Northwestern with just 18 seconds left in an NCAA first-round nail-biter.

Fisher-Davis, on the other hand, went from hero to zero real quick.

Of course, Fisher-Davis’ foul stood out from an otherwise somewhat ordinary slate of games.

Gonzaga’s offense bounced back from a bad first half (31% FG) to put together a solid second half (47% FG) and eventually put away a resilient opponent in a blowout.

Both five seeds in their respective regions, the Irish and the Cavaliers faced up with very accomplished mid-majors in Princeton and UNC-Wilmington, and both survived to fight another day.

“The atmosphere was awesome”, McIntosh said.

I’m sure most of us (if not all of us) will pick Vanderbilt to advance, and for good reason. “The second half, we had no chance if he didn’t make some of the shots that he did”.

Then, he made the foul that will unfairly define his college career. After Vanderbilt missed a 3-pointer, Northwestern hit another free throw and its 68-66 win was secure.

But Bayless doubled down on his critique of Fisher-Davis on “Undisputed” Friday. Northwestern might have found a way to win anyway, as they still had time for a shot, but the Fisher-Davis foul took the pressure off the Wildcats and put it on the Commodores. He was tremendous today. I didn’t know what the score was.

But then redshirt senior captain Sanjay Lumpkin walked into the locker room before the game and saw the circular blue NCAA patch on his Northwestern uniform.

“There’s a sense of spirit from something like this that has not happened for the Northwestern Wildcats for a long time”, he said.

Those are the types of things you expect from someone who has been the team’s leading scorer virtually the entire season, which Fisher-Davis was. Fisher-Davis, misunderstanding coach Bryce Drew’s command to mark Bryant McIntosh, fouled him instead.

“From day one, we teach our guys that we’re a team”, he said. But one play doesn’t lose the game for you.

Steve Sherk, sports reporter: Northwestern will probably come out of the game with over-the-top energy, given that it’s never played on a stage like this before.

“It could have been a miscommunication”. “You envision yourself hitting the game victor”.

“We knew on the defensive end we were doing our jobs and, eventually, the shots were going to fall”, Zach Collins said.