KSR Today: The First Four Tips Off March Madness

March Madness is officially here, kind of, sort of, in a way. Tuesday night Dayton plays host to the First Four with two games on the slate to let college basketball fans gently dip their toes into the NCAA Tournament. Some of you may be thinking, “Who cares? None of these teams are going to make any noise in the NCAA Tournament anyway.” Not so fast my friend.

Since its inception in 2011, a First Four team has won multiple postseason games in nine of the last ten NCAA Tournaments. Three teams have made it to the Sweet 16 and two others have made it all the way to the Final Four, VCU in 2011 and UCLA in 2021. Who has a run in em this year? Indiana and Rutgers have each logged some big wins, but the Hoosiers might have more momentum. Tonight’s matchups on truTV:

• (16) Texas Southern (-3.5) vs. (16) Texas A&M Corpus-Christi at 6:40 pm
• (12) Indiana (-4) vs. (12) Wyoming at 9:10 pm

NIT Begins Too

If you absolutely can’t stand going one second without multiple monitors rolling college basketball, the NIT has just what you need. Two SEC teams are on tonight’s ESPN schedule, including a Battle for Nashville between Belmont and Vanderbilt.

• Princeton at VCU | 7 pm | ESPNU
• Belmont at Vanderbilt | 7 pm | ESPN2
• Missouri State at Oklahoma | 7 pm | ESPN
• Texas State at North Texas | 8 pm | ESPN+
• Cleveland State at Xavier | 9 pm | ESPNU
• Alcorn State at Texas A&M | 9 pm | ESPN2
• Oregon at Utah State | 9 pm | ESPN
• UC Santa Clara at Washington State | 11 pm | ESPNU
• St. Bonaventure at Colorado | 11 pm | ESPN2

Bellarmine Ends Basketball Season

The Knights won the ASUN Conference Tournament, but the Louisville program transitioning from Division II is ineligible to play in the NCAA Tournament for its first four Division I seasons. In its second ASUN season, Bellarmine took home the conference tournament crown. After a petition to the NCAA for an NIT bid fell on deaf ears, Scotty Davenport’s squad decided to make their memorable win at Freedom Hall the final game of the 2021-22 season. It’s a bummer, but at least Bellarmine went out with a bang.

TWEAK!!!!!!

Monday night John Calipari said it! He said TWEAK. You know what that means? Time to steamroll the NCAA Tournament field.

“I tweaked some things today, folks. I tweaked a couple things and I’m liking it — I think they’re liking it,” Calipari said. “This morning when I woke up, it was like, ‘You’ve got to get them scrimmaging and let them get their feet underneath them. We’ve been beat up and now we’re together again. Well, let’s get this where we’re more in sync.’ I went with it. … We just need that, we need to do that.”

What exactly is the tweak? Who knows. But if it gives this team the mojo they need, who cares?

Kentucky on March Madness Confidential

CBS and Turner Sports crews will be embedded with the Kentucky Wildcats throughout their postseason run. Features from NCAA March Madness Confidential will air across all of the TV networks and will be shared on the March Madness Twitter and Facebook accounts. The behind the scenes action will also capture what’s happening inside the locker room of Auburn, Wisconsin, Texas Tech, Providence, Memphis and Notre Dame.

SEC College Basketball Coaching Carousel Turns

SEC schools are no longer messing around with mediocrity. Even though I hate to give him credit for anything, Bruce Pearl’s sustained success at Auburn appears to have forced other primary football schools to ask, “Why can’t we be good at basketball too?”

Monday afternoon South Carolina pulled the trigger and fired Frank Martin. He took the Gamecocks to the NCAA tournament only once in 10 seasons, but he caught lightning in a bottle and made the 2017 Final Four. Outside of that year, South Carolina had just one season with more than 20 wins and a .516 record. South Carolina is the fifth SEC job to open this offseason, with one already filled by another SEC coach when Mike White made an unusual jump from Florida to Georgia. As usual, in the SEC, it just means more… coaching changes.

Karl Towns Scores 60

The Big KAT went NUTS Monday night. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 32 points in the third quarter, propelling him to a career-high 60 points in a win over the Spurs. It’s the most points scored in an NBA game this season and a new Minnesota Timberwolves franchise record. Towns also grabbed 17 rebounds and netted 7-of-11 threes in the impressive 10-point win.

Boogie gets the Last Laugh

While Towns balled out, DeMarcus Cousins went toe-to-toe with James Harden. The new Sixers’ superstar had 24 points, 11 assists and 9 rebounds, but Boogie bullied Denver to a 114-110 win.

Boogie just laughing at Harden pic.twitter.com/wPv48Nsyul

— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) March 15, 2022

Burn Down Bloomington (Metaphorically)

It’s a big week for the BBN in Bloomington. It all starts today when the 14-3 Bat Cats battle the Hoosiers on the baseball diamond at 5 pm ET. You can listen on the UK Sports Network or stream the action with BTN Plus. Kyra Elzy will tag out Nick Mingione when the women’s basketball team travels to Bloomington, tipping-off in the NCAA Tournament against Princeton at 4 pm ET Saturday. A win, and UK can continue to play spoiler by ending Indiana’s season on their home floor. You’d love to see it.

Watch PrepSpin’s Sweet 16 Coverage

The KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 tips off tomorrow at Rupp Arena. Not everyone can get to Lexington for all of the games, but you can still watch future Kentucky Wildcat Reed Sheppard score a bajillion points by watching PrepSpin’s live broadcasts of the North Laurel Jaguars. The online pay-per-view service will stream every single game of the Sweet 16 so you don’t miss one minute of the action.