The first day of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament didn’t disappoint in Denver. Schools with low seeds had Mile High hopes of jumpstarting a Cinderella run in the tournament.
School pride is strong this time of the year. And it has a special meaning for those underdog teams — like UC-San Diego and the University of Montana — who have earned a tournament bid but aren’t expected to make a deep run.
The clock struck midnight at the Ball (Arena) for both those teams, losing in the first round to higher-rated opponents. But fans of the two teams told Denverite that the journey was well worth it.
Tritons almost takes down a titan
UC-San Diego, a 12 seed, made March Madness for the first time this year after having recently moved up to Division I.
The Tritons came close to upsetting fifth-seeded Mighian in the nightcap game at Ball Arena. Tyler McGhie’s 3-point attempt at the buzzer would have sent the game into overtime, but it hit the back iron.
For PJ Loury, the loss was still a win for the school.
“It basically has been such a huge boost for our alumni community and then honestly a gift that we're going to cherish,” said Loury, who flew from San Francisco to watch the team. Loury is on the UCSD Alumni Association Board of Directors,
“Being on the alumni board and helping oversee our global regional clubs, we're very grateful for how much effort the team put in and how that has then allowed us to really reenergize our alumni base in order to strengthen our network,” he said.
UC-San Diego is in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego with an enrollment of 43,000 students. The school competed for 35 years in NCAA’s Division III. It spent another two decades in Division II. In that span, they racked up 20 team Division III team titles and three more in Division II in all sports.
UCSD formally joined Division I’s Big West Conference in 2020. As part of the four-year reclassification period, the Tritons were not eligible for any Division I championships until this academic year. UCSD was one of 27 schools whose men’s and women’s basketball teams both made their respective tournaments.
“It's our first year being eligible for the national championship, and you see both our men's and women's teams competing for national championships. This is beyond anything I could possibly imagine,” said UCSD alum and current Denver resident Jamie Hurst while watching the UCSD women’s basketball team’s First Four game against Southern University with other alums and fans at Tom’s Watch Bar on Wednesday.
She played on the softball team when UCSD was still in Division III and now works as an executive at MSU-Denver’s University Advancement Office.
“It's incredible for me to think about how much work and how much strategy and how much commitment and buy-in all of UCSD, not just athletic department, but their students and their faculty had to put into this idea of ‘No, we can be more. We can be different,’” Hurst said.
Former UCSD basketball player and Aurora native Drew Dyer was excited that his alma mater is in the tournament, win or lose. After spending a year at the Air Force Academy for football, the Regis Jesuit High School grad wanted to play basketball again. UCSD head coach Eric Olen recruited him to play for the Tritons. Dyer said he’s grateful to have witnessed the evolution of the program.
“When I first got there, the basketball program was struggling. By the time I left, we were a Division II powerhouse,” said Dyer, who still lives in California and works as an account manager for a tech company. “I think that's just a testament to Coach [Eric] Olen and Coach [Clint] Allard and the culture that I like to think that we started to build and that they've continued for over almost a decade now.”
While other schools in the University of California system — like UCLA and Berkeley — get more notoriety, UCSD often gets confused with local schools such as San Diego State and the University of San Diego. The school boasts 16 Nobel laureates in its past and present faculty. That was the theme for some fans’ posters for their game against Michigan.
“For me, that was the sort of chip on our shoulder,” Loury said. “We need to convince the powers that be that we deserve to be at this level. And because we are such a good school beyond athletics, we believe we should be able to support a program that's on par with these other UCs.”
Grizzlies sizzle out against Wisconsin
Montana is no stranger to the Big Dance. They have made the tournament 13 times. They’re also no stranger to Wisconsin, whom they lost to 85-65.
The last time the Grizzlies and Badgers met in the tournament was in 2012. Wisconsin, led by NBA first-rounder Frank Kaminsky, beat Montana in that East Regional matchup, 73-49.
Pueblo native Jordan Gregory was a senior guard on that team. While meeting and talking with alums and fans at Rock Bottom Brewery on Wednesday, the former all-state selection from Pueblo East said it was a lifelong dream to make it to the tournament, no matter the outcome.
“Obviously achieving [a tournament bid] is a huge accomplishment, winning the conference, and then being kind of felt like a celebrity status for a couple of days, which was awesome. And then you kind of quickly come down to earth when you're playing,” Gregory said. “It was a celebration of the highs and then the low of the lows when your season comes to an end — but something that me and my teammates and my buddies hold really dearly.”
Montana's overall record in the tournament is 2-14, with their deepest run coming in 1975 when they made it to the Sweet Sixteen. That year, they would lose to UNLV in the West Regional third-place game.
Sixteen years later, the teams would meet again in the first round of the 1991 tournament. This time, UNLV's Runnin' Rebels were the defending national champions and were hoping to win a second one. Montana alum and Denver resident Jim Driscoll attended the school in Missoula at the time.
“They did pretty well. I remember the game. When they played the first half, I think they were probably down by less than 10 points and then it kind of got away from them,” said Driscoll, who is a lobbyist for Cornerstone Government Affairs. “It was great watching a bunch of Montana kids play their best.”
That year, UNLV’s 45-game winning streak and title hopes ended at the hands of eventual national champion Duke.
In 2025, even though Montana wasn’t favored to beat Wisconsin, Driscoll remained optimistic.
“I think the Grizz are scrappy. We're always underrated,” Driscoll said. “We're always going to be the underdogs. So, I think they take that to heart and I think they cherish the fact that they're underdogs.”
The tournament has also given Montana alums an opportunity to reconnect, especially those who live in the state. Gregory, who remains connected to the program, said it has been a surreal experience to see the team nab a tournament game in Denver.
“What's really cool is that I have a bunch of friends who I've made outside of basketball, who know my story and my playing time at the University of Montana, who have no prior affiliation with the school,” Gregory said. “And once they found out that they were coming to Denver, I got so many texts just asking how excited I was that the Griz were going to be coming to Denver and that they were rooting for us. So, it's been a really cool experience.”
The second round continues on Saturday in Denver with Texas A&M vs. Michigan and Wisconsin vs. BYU.
