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NCAA Tournament 2019: UC Irvine, 12 Seeds among top day two performers

By Logan Butts

LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 29: The Liberty Flames bench celebrates during the second half against the UCLA Bruins at Pauley Pavilion on December 29, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 29: The Liberty Flames bench celebrates during the second half against the UCLA Bruins at Pauley Pavilion on December 29, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images) /
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SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 22: Jonathan Galloway #5 and Evan Leonard #14 of the UC Irvine Anteaters celebrates a 70-64 win against the Kansas State Wildcats for their first school tournament win during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at SAP Center on March 22, 2019 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 22: Jonathan Galloway #5 and Evan Leonard #14 of the UC Irvine Anteaters celebrates a 70-64 win against the Kansas State Wildcats for their first school tournament win during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at SAP Center on March 22, 2019 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /

Day two of the NCAA Tournament first round is in the books. Who were the day’s top performers?

The first round of the NCAA Tournament is complete and day two of the action delivered us four upsets, some close calls with high seeds, and some great individual stat lines. Even though there will still no buzzer beaters, it was a good day of games.

Let’s take a look at the best performers of the day. Keep in mind that I’m focusing less on the high seeds for the first round since they should, in theory, have more chances to shine.

UC Irvine

The Anteaters pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament thus far, taking down Kansas State 70-64. UC Irvine were a trendy pick to take out Kansas State even before it was announced Dean Wade would miss the game, so the win wasn’t necessarily shocking, but seed-wise a 13 over a 4 is the best we’ve gotten at this point.

Irvine played the same style that propelled them to 30 wins in the regular season – they slowed  down the pace, stifled the Wildcats on defense, and a balanced group of upperclassmen led a balanced attack on offense.

Senior Elston Jones carried the Anteaters in the first half and junior Evan Leonard had the best all-around game (19-6-4-4), but junior Max Hazzard’s clutch shooting down the stretch (and swag-heavy celebration) is what sealed the win.

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