Men's NCAA Tournament 2024: Winners and Losers of First Four

The 2024 NCAA tournament is officially underway!

As always, the action begins with the First Four games in Dayton, Ohio, with four No. 16 seeds and four No. 10 seeds vying for their place in the full tournament field when March Madness kicks into full swing Thursday.

In the first game on Tuesday night, NEC champion Wagner held on for a 71-68 victory over MEAC champion Howard, building a 17-point lead early in the second half and weathering a 14-2 run late from the Bison to escape with a victory.

That was followed by an absolute dud from the Virginia offense in the second game, as they suffered a lopsided 67-42 loss to Colorado State on a night when the Cavaliers shot a brutal 25 percent from the floor and had just 14 points at halftime.

Wednesday's action kicked off with a far more entertaining game, as Grambling State went on multiple runs to eventually force overtime against Montana State, and the SWAC champions came away with an 88-81 victory.

The First Four games wrapped up with a strong defensive performance from Colorado in a 60-53 victory over Boise State, with Tristan da Silva (20 points) and KJ Simpson (19 points, 11 rebounds) both turning in strong games on the offensive end.

While we wait for all the madness to unfold on Thursday and Friday, here is a quick look back at the biggest winners and losers of the First Four games.

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The Wagner Seahawks entered Tuesday's First Four game with quite literally the least efficient offense in the 2024 NCAA tournament field.

The NEC champions closed out the regular season ranked 334th in KenPom's adjusted offensive efficiency, the worst of any of the 68 teams in this year's tournament field by a sizable margin. Saint Peter's (No. 305) and Grambling State (No. 297) are the only other tourney teams slotted outside the top 250 in that metric.

You never would have guessed it watching them take on the Howard Bison.

The Seahawks shot 29-of-55 (52.7 percent) from the floor and 8-of-17 (47.1 percent) from three-point range while assisting on 16 of 29 made baskets, and they did it with a roster that only has seven active players.

The team's three starting guards Melvin Council Jr. (21 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists), Julian Brown (15 points, 3-of-4 3PT) and Javier Ezquerra (6 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists) each played all 40 minutes, and while the fatigue started to show during the game's final minutes, it still ended up being an extremely efficient game for the Seahawks offense.

The 17-15 Seahawks now move on to face the No. 1 seed North Carolina Tar Heels on Thursday.

The Howard Bison trailed by as many as 17 points early in the second half on Tuesday night against the Wagner Seahawks in the first game of the night, and they still faced a 67-54 deficit with 4:26 remaining.

However, the game was far from over.

The Bison cut into that double-digit lead with back-to-back threes from Marcus Dockery and Seth Towns, and that ignited a 14-2 run that was capped off by a Bryce Harris layup with 17 seconds, trimming the Seahawks lead to just one point.

After a pair of made free throws from Julian Brown, the Bison took possession with 14 seconds on the clock and one final opportunity to try to force overtime.

They managed to get off three attempts from beyond the arc as the final seconds ticked away, with Jordan Hairston and Marcus Dockery each getting a good look, but the frantic comeback attempt ultimately fell short and the Seahawks survived.

A tip of the cap to Howard for not rolling over when it faced a lopsided game in the second half, and head coach Kenneth Blakeney will look to make it three straight NCAA tournament appearances next season.

In the days and weeks leading up to Selection Sunday, the Mountain West was often mentioned alongside the nation's power conferences thanks to the sheer number of tournament hopefuls.

Six teams ended up making the field from the Mountain West, but the committee was not kind when it came to seeding.

• No. 5 seed San Diego State
• No. 8 seed Utah State
• No. 10 seed Nevada
• No. 10 seed Colorado State (First Four game)
• No. 10 seed Boise State (First Four game)
• No. 11 seed New Mexico

Is it possible for an entire conference to feel slighted and have a chip on its shoulder during March Madness?

Colorado State was the first of those six teams to take the court, squaring off against Virginia in Tuesday night's First Four matchup, and they made a statement with a dominant performance.

The Rams made a statement defensively by holding Virginia to just 14 points in the first half and cruising to a 24-point victory. They also shot an efficient 55.3 percent from the floor, won the rebounding battle 43-24 and proved they belong in the NCAA tournament field.

Up next: No. 7 Texas in the Midwest Region.

The Virginia Cavaliers won 23 games largely on the strength of one of the nation's best defenses, playing with their usual molasses-slow tempo while counting on doing just enough offensively to come away with a win.

However, their offense was nowhere to be found Tuesday night.

The Cavaliers went scoreless for a staggering 12-minute, 41-second stretch of game time and nearly an hour of real time spanning from 9:20 remaining in the first half all the way until Reece Beekman finally hit a jumper with 16:39 left in the second half.

During that span, the Colorado State lead swelled to 19 points, and at that point it was too late to mount anything resembling a comeback.

With Virginia used to playing a slow, half-court game, fighting back from way behind was simply not in its DNA, and the game was effectively over before the under-12 media timeout arrived.

There are plenty of numbers to highlight Virginia's futility, including an abysmal first half where it scored just 14 points on 5-of-29 shooting, but the end result was one of the worst offensive performances from start to finish of any team in recent NCAA tournament history.

After the absolute slog that was Colorado State's blowout win over Virginia on Tuesday night, the first game of the evening on Wednesday provided a nice palate cleanser.

It was all Montana State throughout the first half as they built a 42-33 lead going into the break and extended that advantage to 53-39 over the first five-plus minutes of the second half.

Then Grambling State went on the first of what would be multiple runs.

The SWAC champions rattled off 11 unanswered points to trim the deficit to three, only to watch the Bobcats stretch their advantage back to 59-51.

However, the Tigers had another 11-0 run in the tank, which gave them the lead with less than six minutes to play, setting up a back-and-forth finish.

The two No. 16 seeds traded points over the next few minutes, and a three from Montana State guard Robert Ford III—who had a game-high 26 points on 9-of-13 from the floor and 6-of-8 from beyond the arc—tied things at 70-70 with under two minutes remaining.

With the score still tied at 72-72 and time winding down, both teams had a chance to win it on their final possession of regulation, but neither converted and it was on to overtime.

The Tigers ultimately came away with an 88-81 victory behind a perfect 10-for-10 showing at the free-throw line in the extra period, and now it's on to face All-American center Zach Edey and No. 1 Purdue on Friday.

Tip of the cap to Jimel Cofer, who didn't play in the first half for the Tigers, then poured in a career-high 19 points after the break to help spark the comeback.

The Boise State Broncos entered the NCAA tournament as a well-balanced squad, and while they averaged a modest 75.8 points per game during the regular season, they still checked in No. 49 in KenPom's adjusted offensive efficiency.

That offense completely disappeared when it mattered most on Wednesday.

Chibuzo Agbo connected on a jumper with 4:33 remaining to give Boise State a 49-45 lead, and the Broncos didn't score again until there was 17 seconds left on the clock and the game was effectively out of reach.

The Colorado Buffaloes used a 9-0 run during that cold stretch to seize control of the game and walk away with a 60-53 victory, giving the Broncos their lowest point total of the season.

Their four other lowest scoring outputs this season also resulted in losses, as they fell to Butler (70-56), Utah State (80-61), Washington State (66-61) and Colorado State (75-62).

Agbo had a solid individual game, tallying a team-high 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting, but he was one of the few bright spots on the offensive end.

Leading scorer Tyson Degenhart was held to just six points on 3-of-10 shooting after averaging 17.0 points per game coming into the night, and the Broncos shot a combined 34.3 percent from the floor and just 2-of-18 from behind the arc.

The Colorado Buffaloes looked like they were headed for the NIT when a 1-4 stretch of games dropped them to 16-9 overall, but they won their final six contests of the regular season to enter the Pac-12 tournament squarely on the bubble.

They beat Utah and Washington State, but came up short against Oregon in the conference title game, leaving it in the hands of the selection committee to determine their fate.

The Buffaloes ended up in a First Four game, and they proved they belong in the field with a strong defensive performance against a good Boise State team on Wednesday night, coming away with a 60-53 victory.

Tristan da Silva (20 points, 7-of-11 shooting) and KJ Simpson (19 points, 11 rebounds) paced the offense, but it was the Buffaloes defense that led them to victory, shutting down Broncos leading scorer Tyson Degenhart and limiting the team to a season-low point total.

Wednesday night's victory not only secured a place in the 64-team field for Colorado, but it also marked a school record 25 victories on the year.

That broke a tie with the 2010-11 and 2011-12 teams that both won 24 games, with future NBA players Alec Burks, Andre Roberson, Cory Higgins and Spencer Dinwiddie part of those Colorado squads.

Now it's on to a Friday matchup with No. 7 Florida in the South Region.