A slate of four games came out of the Midwest region Thursday. The top seed Houston got a scare from Northern Kentucky, Penn State handles business over Texas A&M avoiding a Texas round of 32. Other action to go along with it let's take a look at the Midwest from opening day action.
(1) Houston 63 (16) Northern Kentucky 52
The Cougars got surprised by the Norse it seemed early on. As the game was within nine points the whole first half. Houston never really pulled away and the Cougars only topped the Norse by 11. Houston shot almost 50% from the field going (25-51). It was a solid start for a top seed in the Midwest.
(9) Auburn 83 (8) Iowa 75
Fran McCaffery has been at Iowa 13 season and still has zero second weekend trips. Once again losing in the first round this time to the Tigers of Auburn. Auburn had four players in double figures lead by Johni Broome with 19. Pearl and the Tigers will meet Houston on Saturday in Birmingham.
(2) Texas 81 (15) Colgate 61
One of my favorites to make a run to Houston is the Longhorns. They put that on display and made sure no other two seeds would drop in this game. Dylan Disu and Marcus Carr each led the Longhorn with 17 points each. Texas shot (31-58) from the field and hit 13 threes.
(10) Penn State 76 (7) Texas A&M 59
The Big Ten was done well by Penn State and Northwestern as the Nittany Lions advanced. This was a pretty consistent effort and one I wasn't expecting fully. I had Penn State winning but thought it would be a lot closer of a game. The story for Penn State is Andrew Funk went (8-10) from deep and for 27 points in a big time effort. Penn State will need a similar type of shooting game to beat Texas.