The best moments from first-round NCAA Tournament games in Denver
DENVER — The Madness is here!
Ball Arena is one of the men's basketball NCAA Tournament sites that hosted four first-round games on Friday, March 17.
Attendance for the day was announced at 19,152.
The Coloradoan was live on site and below are some of the best things we saw from first-round action.
Best performance
Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner is one of the most fascinating players to watch in college basketball.
He’s 7-foot-1 and all arms and legs. While he can sometimes give off the baby giraffe vibe, he’s become an incredibly dangerous weapon and Friday he was at his efficient best.
Whatever Kalkbrenner did worked and no NC State defender could handle him.
He poured in a career-high 31 points, making 11 of 14 shots. Several were impressive alley-oops, but he also hit a 3-pointer at a time when Creighton had missed 16 in a row from deep.
It was a nearly perfect game.
👀Career high points for @RyanKalkbrenner#GoJays x #Marcadness pic.twitter.com/Oj0XPwTst3
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) March 17, 2023
Highlight play
Kalkbrenner was the winning star in the game against NC State, but Wolfpack star Terquavion Smith put on a show as well.
He scored a game-high 32 points and had a 30-second highlight in the second half.
Smith threw down a massive dunk over Kalkbrenner and then on the other end made a huge block.
UNREAL DUNK AND BLOCK SEQUENCE BY TERQ SMITH!pic.twitter.com/fWOe5SZTf1
— Heat Check CBB (@HeatCheckCBB) March 17, 2023
It was one of the best single-player sequences you’ll see all tournament.
Highlight play, part II
Arizona State's Frenkie Collins threw down a massive dunk in the last game of the day, right on the defenders head!
FRANKIE COLLINS 😳
(via @MarchMadnessMBB)pic.twitter.com/EXg0O25oTO— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) March 18, 2023
Game of the day
It may not have been the most end-to-end entertaining game because of the whistle-heavy second half, but the twists and turns were fascinating between No. 11 Arizona State and No. 6 TCU, in an eventual 72-70 TCU win.
Each team had a lead as large as 11 points during the game, but it came down to the very end.
Arizona State led by eight with less than 5 minutes to go in an upset bid, but the Sun Devils went cold.
TCU had a 12-2 run to take a 70-67 lead. DJ Horne then nailed a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left for Arizona State to tie it at 70.
Then JaKobe Coles hit a runner in the final seconds for TCU to grab the win.
HORNED FROGS FOR THE WINNNNNN pic.twitter.com/1hDbpyY3t9
— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) March 18, 2023
What a finish to the day!
Best uniforms
Gray jerseys tend to be divisive (at least for teams who don’t use gray in their usual color palette). Baylor is known for all sorts of wild, electric looks.
Friday’s look was somewhat muted by Baylor standards, but I was a big fan of the gray uni with black lettering highlighted by an electric yellow that really popped.
Great look!
Biggest crowd takeover
Not surprisingly, but Creighton owned Ball Arena for its game against NC State.
The Creighton campus is less than an 8-hour drive away and an easy flight, plus Bluejays fans are following a good team.
Sure enough, the blue shirts took over and the noise was loud for every big Creighton play. Loud “CU” chants frequently burst out, but not for the school in Boulder.
Biggest crowd takeover, part II
Grand Canyon made an, er, grand entrance.
A student section was chartered in on a flight (the things money will do for you, eh!) and the purple-clad Lopes absolutely rocked it.
Reinforcements inbound. ✈️🎉 pic.twitter.com/fL4jSqa1lo
— Grand Canyon Men’s Basketball (@GCU_MBB) March 17, 2023
They were the only student section all day at Ball Arena and their choreographed cheers dominated the noise for the game against Gonzaga.
Best non-local cheer
One of the most fun, true “March Madness,” moments came during the Grand Canyon-Gonzaga game. While that was going on, No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson was finishing off a shock of No. 1 Purdue.
The last few minutes of that upset were shown on the Jumbotron at Ball Arena. Fans leveled boos when the game was taken (briefly) off the big screen to force its return.
There was a huge cheer as FDU sealed just the second 16-over-1 upset in tournament history.
Big cheers in Denver as Fairleigh Dickinson closes out 16-over-1 upset of Purdue, end shown on the big screen above Grand Canyon-Gonzaga! pic.twitter.com/Fgt5xhz7Bj
— Kevin Lytle (@Kevin_Lytle) March 18, 2023
Final results, Sunday matchups
Here are the scores from Friday’s games in Denver and Sunday’s matchups:
No. 3 Baylor 74, No. 14 UC-Santa Barbara 56
No. 6 Creighton 72, No. 11 NC State 63
No. 3 Gonzaga 82, No. 11 Grand Canyon 70
No. 6 TCU 72, No. 11 Arizona State 70
Sunday’s games
No. 3 Baylor vs. No. 6 Creighton, 5:10 p.m. MT (TBS)
No. 3 Gonzaga vs. No. 6 TCU, 7:40 p.m. MT (TBS)
Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on Twitter and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: The best moments from first-round NCAA Tournament games in Denver
