NCAA: Minnesota up early vs. Xavier; West Virginia struggles vs. Morgan State

NCAA: Minnesota takes early lead

Xavier is off to a rocky start. With 4 minutes gone, the Musketeers are 2 of 8 from the field and leading scorer Jordan Crawford has missed his first two shots.

Crawford is the guy who became an internet sensation when his YouTube dunk over LeBron James went viral.

Royce White was dismissed from the team, Trevor Mbakwe is sitting out during a criminal investigation, and Al Nolen is out because of academics. And yet Minnesota still reached the NCAA tournament against No. 6 seed Xavier in the West Regional.

The Gophers have an early 8-6 lead over the A-10 heavyweight.

Among the intriguing plot lines in the Temple-Cornell game is the matchup between the Owls’ Fran Dunphy, a candidate for national coach of the year, and Cornell’s Steve Donahue — Dunphy’s former pupil.

Devin Ebanks finally hits West Virginia’s first field goal after 11 straight misses, just before the second media timeout. Morgan State still leads 14-5.

This game could come down to who can make jump shots. The Bears are in a 2-3 zone to cover the court against better athletes, while West Virginia coach Bob Huggins will stick with his vaunted 1-3-1 zone.

Leave it to Da’Sean Butler to finally get West Virginia on the board with one of two free throws at 14:36 of the first half. Still, the Mountaineers are 0 for 10 from the field.

Most of the West Virginia lineup is back from last year’s team that lost to Dayton in the first round of the NCAA tournament. That could begin to weigh on their minds if the game remains close in the second half.

Morgan State has scored the first 10 points against the Mountaineers, bringing up the question: Can the Big East really lose another first-round game?

West Virginia can’t afford to get behind by too much, either. It shoots only 43.7 percent from the field, making it difficult to fight back into a game.

Todd Bozeman finally gets the feeling of the NCAA tournament again, now that Morgan State has tipped off against second-seeded West Virginia. He was banned by the NCAA for eight years after he admitted to paying a recruit while coaching at California, where he led those Bears to three tournament appearances.

Already Reggie Holmes has knocked down a 3 for the Bears’ first basket. He’s the school’s all-time leading scorer, surpassing Marvin Webster earlier this season.

Minnesota came out for its shootaround before playing sixth-seeded Xavier in Milwaukee wearing shirts that say “RESPECT” on the back.

The Gophers have won seven of their last 10 games to play their way into the first round, but lost to Ohio State by 29 in the Big Ten tournament finals.

Cornell forward Alex Tyler has his right calf heavily taped for the Temple game in the East Regional. He practiced Thursday for the first time in two weeks, then said, “They’ll have to kill me to keep me off the court.”

The opening day of the NCAA tournament shocked the Big East — three teams lost and another won in overtime. It thrilled double-digit seeds — three of them won. And it wore out fans with three games going overtime, including BYU’s 99-92 double-overtime win against Florida.

Can the second day live up to the madness?

Things get started with Morgan State and West Virginia in the East Regional, followed by Minnesota-Xavier in the West and the game a lot of folks are keeping an eye on: fifth-seeded Temple against No. 12 seed Cornell, two teams that most people consider under-seeded.

Let the games begin.