NCAA Tournament: First Round Thursday open thread

Someone check on Charles Barkley.

Auburn survived an inexplicably-bad final minute to beat #12 seed New Mexico State, 78-77, and move one step closer to a potential matchup with North Carolina in the Sweet 16 next weekend.

East 3-seed LSU got off to a fast start, and held on to beat Yale, 78-73. Louisville got upset by Minnesota, rendering the ACC 0-1 thus far.

At the time of this posting, absolutely nothing weird is happening.

• 15-seed Bradley is beating #2 Michigan State, 35-34, at half. Maybe the media outrage from them being in Duke’s bracket is ruining their mojo.
• West Region #4 seed Florida State is in the final minutes of a tight one with #13 Vermont.
• First Four winner and #11 seed Belmont (picked by yours truly to reach the Regional Final in the East) is up on #6 Maryland.

On the radar:

• Midwest #13 Northeastern vs. #4 Kansas, 4:24 EST
• West #12 Murray St. vs #5 Marquette, 4:30 EST
• West #10 Florida vs. #7 Nevada, 6:50 EST
• Midwest #15 Abilene Christian vs. #2 Kentucky, 7:10 EST
• South #11 St. Mary’s vs. #6 Villanova, 7:20 EST
• West #16 Farleigh Dickinson vs. #1 Gonzaga, 7:27 EST
• West #15 Montana vs. #2 Michigan, 9:20 EST
• Midwest #10 Seton Hall vs. #7 Wofford, 9:40 EST
• South #14 Old Dominion vs. #3 Purdue, 9:50 EST
• West #9 Baylor vs. #8 Syracuse, 9:57 EST

How’s your bracket looking?