The Kansas Jayhawks took out the Richmond Spiders and the UNC Tar Heels dispatched the Marquette Golden Eagles with a minimum of fuss, with two of the top cinderella teams of the NCAA Tournament so far losing by a combined 38 points Friday. Kentucky slipped past No. 1-seeded Ohio State by a score of 62-60 to keep the upsets flowing, and in a battle of double-digit seeds VCU topped Florida State 72-71 in overtime. Such is the nature of the NCAA bracket updates come Elite Eight time—March Madness gets a little more sedate, but it doesn't get any less absurdly close.
Marquette's 15 points in a brutal first half is the strangest story of the night. Eight minutes into the game Marquette carried a slim 10-8 lead, but things moved quickly after that and UNC closed the half on an absurd 32-5 jog. Tyler Zeller led UNC with 27 points and 12 rebounds; Marquette got 16 points in 18 minutes from Davante Gardner, a freshman forward who'd averaged nine minutes and 4.6 points a game to this point. The bracket can be upset, but teams like Marquette often learn, around Sweet 16 update time, that it's pretty hard to push over.