RTC will be providing coverage of the NCAA Tournament from start to finish.

Three Key Takeaways.

Marshall is Perhaps the Cinderella Story of the First Round (USA Today Images)

1. Marshall’s First Ever NCAA Tournament Victory. The Thundering Herd — First Round losers in each of their previous five NCAA Tournament appearances, the most recent coming in 1987 — notched their first-ever victory in the Big Dance this afternoon. Despite playing a “model mid-major” in the form of Wichita State, with its Final Four and high-seed pedigree of recent years, Marshall matched up with the Shockers well at nearly every position and kept the pressure on throughout. There was only one point where the Herd faltered — closing out the last three minutes of the first half — but for the rest of the game, Marshall played like it was the better team. Congratulations to the Herd for breaking through into the NCAA Tournament victory column.
2. The Herd are an Incredibly Fun Team. Head coach Dan D’antoni is like his brother, Mike D’antoni, in the sense that they understand very well that shooting a lot of three-pointers is a good way to win. It may not ultimately win championships, but it can create mismatches especially against teams that may have superior talent or depth. With Jon Elmore‘s bombs-away mentality (more on him below) and the stretch-four Euro game of Ajdin Penava, along with a host of other players who can make threes, the Herd play an uptempo style that just simply gets after it. With West Virginia’s pressure defense along with the intense big brother/little brother rivalry between the two schools, Marshall could be poised to become one of the transcendent stories of this year’s NCAA Tournament.
3. Connor Frankamp Gave a Career Performance in the Defeat. There was something off with Wichita State all season long — its defense was consistently lacking, Shaq Morris didn’t get the ball enough, and the move to the American seemed to create some other issues — but senior vagabond Connor Frankamp wasn’t going out without a fight today. The former Kansas transfer notched 27 points on the afternoon, including six important threes, on his way to a career-high game. It was he who gave his team life late when he hit a long three with 46 seconds remaining to cut Marshall’s six-point lead in half.

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