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North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Hubert Davis. Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

NCAA men's basketball winners and losers: UNC's Hubert Davis has to be on hot seat

By Adam Gretz | Last updated Mar 20, 2026 8:00 AM ET

The first full day of the NCAA Tournament is typically regarded as one of the best sports days of the year. Wall-to-wall action, buzzer-beaters, Cinderella stories and busted brackets. All of that was on display on Thursday in the men's tournament. So let's take a look at some of the winners and losers from the first full day of the tournament.

Winner: Nebraska

Nebraska is not typically a basketball power, with this year's tournament being just the ninth-ever appearance by the Cornhuskers. After losing their first game in the previous eight appearances, they finally advanced to the round of 32 on Thursday with a convincing 76-47 win over No. 13 seed Troy for the first NCAA Tournament win in school history.

Loser: Low point for Wisconsin

Wisconsin has been a regular in the NCAA Tournament for the past two decades, and typically wins at least one game. Sometimes it goes on a run. There is a lot of consistency here. But the No. 5 Badgers became the first high-seed to lose in the tournament, dropping an 83-82 decision to No. 12 High Point. There is always at least one 12-seed that wins, and the Panthers were the first to pull it off this year.

Winner: Mid-majors

After Miami (Ohio) won its play-in game on Wednesday, Thursday was a huge day for more of the smaller schools that the NCAA is trying to leave behind in this tournament.

VCU rallied back from a 19-point deficit to beat North Carolina.

High Point stunned Wisconsin, which was followed by head coach Flynn Clayman cutting what sounded like a pro wrestling promo and calling out all of the big-time programs that refused to schedule them during the regular season.

Flynn Clayman: "High Point and Miami (Ohio) are 2-0 in Quad 1 games. We couldn't get games. They couldn't get games. Akron couldn't get games. UNCW couldn't get games. Belmont couldn't get games. We won 22 of our 23 last games, and we didn't move up one spot in the metrics..." https://t.co/LetKdDxtEy pic.twitter.com/FQyyhQHTb3
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 19, 2026

Even Siena earned some respect by giving top-seed Duke everything it could handle.

Loser: Duke schadenfreude

College basketball fans typically have two teams they cheer for. The first is simply their alma mater or favorite team. The second is whoever plays Duke, and especially in the NCAA Tournament.

As No. 16 Siena built a double-digit lead against the Blue Devils, they had pretty much every college basketball fan that wasn't a Duke fan cheering for them to knock off college basketball's biggest name brand. But it was not meant to be as Duke still managed to rally for the win to advance to the second round and a matchup with No. 9 seed TCU.

Winner: Jamie Dixon

Speaking of TCU, Thursday was a big win for the Horned Frogs and head coach Jamie Dixon as he advances to the second round for the third time in five years. Dixon is still searching for his first ever Final Four appearance, but his teams are always tough, consistently competitive and have a knack for winning these close games.

Loser: Hubert Davis

Expectations are always sky-high for North Carolina, and they have simply not been met so far in the Hubert Davis era. At least not since his debut season when he took the Tar Heels to the National Championship Game. North Carolina has to deal with another early exit this year after blowing a 19-point lead to No. 11 seed VCU.

Since that National Championship Game run in his first year on the Tar Heels bench, Davis' teams have missed the tournament, lost in the Elite Eight, and then lost in the first round in back-to-back seasons.

If his seat was not already hot, it has to be now. This is not what North Carolina fans expect.

Adam Gretz

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on X @AGretz

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