Upsets were the headline of 2023’s first round, with a 15-seed and 16-seed both advancing out of the first round for the first time in NCAA tournament history. Fairleigh Dickinson’s historic win over 1-seed Purdue will be the lasting talking point of the first two days; FDU, which went 4-22 last season, became just the second 16-seed to ever beat a 1-seed.
The Knights are joined in the second round by 15-seed Princeton, which stunned 2-seed Arizona on Thursday, and 13-seed Furman, which beat 4-seed Virginia on a deep JP Pegues 3 in the final seconds. Pegues was one of three last-second game winners, followed by Nick Boyd’s layup with 2.5 seconds left to give 9-seed Florida Atlantic a win over 8-seed Memphis and 6-seed TCU forward JaKobe Coles’ runner with 1.5 seconds left to beat 11-seed Arizona State. According to ESPN Stats & Information, that’s tied for the most in a single round since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
Despite five double-digit seeds advancing, most of the season’s best teams still remain. Will that change this weekend in the round of 32? — Jeff Borzello
