– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BUFFALO, NEW YORK — The NCAA Tournament may not make for strange bedfellows, but, at least in the case of arch rivals Michigan and Michigan State, the Big Dance made for odd road trip partners.
Both receiving high seeds in the NCAA Tournament, the Wolverines and Spartans shuffled off to Buffalo to start their championship journeys, and on a day where one Big Ten, Wisconsin, was on the receiving end of a shocking upset, the Maize and Blue were tested beyond what most thought would seem possible … for at least the first 25 minutes or so.
Michigan, the No. 1 seed in the Midwest region, was only up by two points early in the second half before pulling away from and defeating Howard 101-80 inside KeyBank Center on Thursday evening. Morez Johnson Jr. made all eight of his field goal attempts on his way to 21 points and leading five players who scored in double figures for the Wolverines.
The Spartans had no such trouble preceding their rivals, as the No. 3 seed trounced No. 14 North Dakota State 97-62 in East Region action. Carson Cooper had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Spartans, who shot 59 percent from the field and made 10 of their 20 three-point attempts.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Thursday’s NCAA Tournament first round, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Aaron J. Thornton. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 67 pictures in total.
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