Pizza Pizza Pizza Four Pizza Ideas Crust Free, Nut Free, Gluten Free, Guilt Free. March Madness First Four games provide early heroes, comebacks and lessons. How To Download The Lady And The Reaper The Full Movie. DAYTON, Ohio If the idea was to give the NCAA Tournament a proper start, look at what this First Four provided A UC Davis victory in its first ever tournament game, which means the Kansas Jayhawks will now have to contend with Nwachukwu Ikeukwumere Chima Moneke. The Aggie fans know him just as Chima Moneke, a junior college transfer who has lived on five continents with his Nigerian diplomat parents, once emailed by his count at least 3. But hes become a folk hero his first season, especially after a double double Wednesday night against North Carolina Central in a 6. More about him in a minute. USC rallying from 1. Providence 7. 5 7. Comedian Ralphie May Has Died at 45 Years Old, Comedians Share Condolences Harrison Ford and Ryan Goslings Interview Goes Off The Rails Alex Rodriguez Says He. KfQo4Db.jpg' alt='How To Watch Love In The Time Of March Madness Online' title='How To Watch Love In The Time Of March Madness Online' />USC, of course, short for Usually Stirring Comebacks. Nearly half of the Trojans wins this season 1. Im not sure why we do it, freshman Nick Rakocevic was saying. Give coach a heart attack or something. The smallest Division I player in America. Mount St. Marys Junior Robinson might be 5 5, but he has a big idea in mind Bring on Villanova. One of the toughest decisions any coach will face all March, from New Orleans Mark Slessinger. Maybe youve seen the replays. After teammates Travin Thibodeaux and Christavious Gill got into a tiff during a timeout in their game against Mount St. Marys and Thibodeauxs hands ended up in the vicinity of Gills neckSlessinger decided it was time for Thibodeaux to sit down. For the rest of the game. Never mind that it was crunch time, with New Orleans down 5. Or that Thibodeaux had scored 1. Or that the Privateers ended up losing 6. Slessinger considered something larger to be at stake. I thought it was in the best interests of our team moving forward for that half, he said. Unfortunately for him, it gives an uncharacteristic impression of how great a kid he is. Hes an honor student who is extremely passionate and cares about his team. This question. Who gets the axe in the first round, Cincinnati or SMUIf history means anything, one of them is a goner. RELATED Every first round game analyzed Each is paired with a survivor from here Cincinnati against Kansas State, SMU against USC, both Friday and the past has been pretty definitive. In every season of the six year existence of the First Four, one of the at large winners has kept on going with an upset victory in the first round. Winning here has been a magic elixir for lower seeds. Every. Single. Year. No. 1. 1 VCU went through Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and Kansas to make the First Four to Final Four leap in 2. No. 1. 2 South Florida advanced from here to upset Temple in 2. No. 1. 3 La Salle and No. Tennessee parlayed First Four wins into Sweet 1. No. 1. 1 Dayton, given the enormous lollypop of getting a First Four game at home, advanced and then promptly knocked off Providence in 2. No. 1. 1 Wichita State went from here last March to take out Arizona. ConclusionsIm telling them its an advantage, Bruce Weber said of his No. Kansas State Wildcats, who beat Wake Forest, then jetted out for Sacramento and a date with No. Cincinnati. I told them the VCU story. If I remember right, VCU didnt even meet for the Selection Sunday. And then they got in and won here, and they kept going all the way to the Final Four. I brought that up several weeks ago. Weber coached Kansas State to a share of the Big 1. Wildcats had the good fortunate of being kept in their backyard, at Kansas City, for the first round. You would think everything was on our side, Weber said. Then La Salle showed up after getting past Boise State in Dayton, and suddenly Kansas State was behind by 1. The Wildcats rallied, but lost 6. They shot lights out. They played very loose and free, Weber said. MARCH MADNESS SCORESSo Kansas State might have been one of the early teams to be First Four ed. The La Salle coach thinks so, anyway. It was extremely valuable, John Giannini said over the phone Wednesday. Having an NCAA Tournament game under your belt and a quality win makes a big difference psychologically. It put us at ease a little bit. If your players havent been to the tournament, theyre understandably going to have an extreme level of excitement. They could probably be too excited. So if youre able to get through that first game, youre going into that next matchup with a higher level of confidence than your opponent, unless your opponent is a perennial NCAA Tournament team. So the First Four can be a door. Heres what else it does well Gives someone like Moneke a night such as Wednesday. Its everything Ive dreamed of, he said in the locker room. This is why I tried to so hard to come to America. Here I am. His parents travels took him from Africa to Europe, Asia, Australia. Somewhere along the way he fell in love with basketball, showed some ability, and looked for any road to the U. S. He ended up at a junior college in Nebraska, until he found his chance at UC Davis. Friday, hell play against Kansas. Some journey. Its helped me grow up because I havent seen my parents since 2. Ive had to do a lot of things on my own, he said. Ive had to grow up much quicker than a lot of people my age normally do. His parents back in Nigeria watch when they can. If the games not available, they follow his stats online. So do his brothers in Australia. Moneke has a global audience, who no doubt noticed he had 1. NCAA Tournament. But they arent here. WATCH MARCH MADNESS LIVEIts the toughest thing ever, he said of being away from family for so long. I tend not to think about it a lot, but when I do I do get emotional. It gets overwhelming. Its not something I recommend for anybody. But at the same time, if I hadnt had that experience, I wouldnt be the person I am today, and I love the person I am today. That includes the goggles. He plays with them, so imagine some of the comments from opposing student sections. All the time, he said. Whenever you play these kind of games youre going to get flak for whatever reason. The goggles are an obvious reason. And the full name that could take up most of a drivers license Chima is obviously not my first name, but its the easiest way to go, he said. Whenever Im doing any documentation like visas, I have to write the whole thing. It takes a while, but Im used to it now. He smiled at that. He smiles a lot, especially this week. To do this right now, my first year of playing Division I basketball, I couldnt have believed that, he said. Im still soaking in. Lets keep it going. Kansas is waiting. But the First Four did what the First Four should do gave passage, and hope. INTERACTIVE BRACKET  PRINTABLE BRACKET.