An unprecedented 2-pointer boosts High Point

In the first real March upset of the tournament, the Purple Panthers jolt Wisconsin.

Chase Johnston of High Point

High Point was the boyhood home of John Coltrane and has the largest furniture-makers convention in the world. Bam Adebayo went to high school there. It got its name because it was the highest point on the railroad that still runs through North Carolina. But High Point’s identity got a temporary facelift on Thursday afternoon in Portland. It is now known as the home of the university that has the basketball team for which Chase Johnston plays.

Johnston is nobody’s first pick at the park, unless you’ve seen him shoot. The ball sort of bounces into his hand and then gets catapulted toward the net, as if his fingertips are springs. He was probably 40 feet away from the bucket Thursday when he popped a 3-pointer that cut Wisconsin’s eight-point lead to five. Then he hit two more threes, the second of which cut the lead to one.

With 16 seconds left, Wisconsin’s Nick Boyd drove the lane. The fifth-seeded Badgers had pretty much turned over their offense to him, so High Point was well-situated. Boyd, who had 27 points, missed his close-in shot, and Johnston took over, and Rob Martin got the rebound and threw it nicely in Johnston’s path, ahead of pursuers. Johnston laid it in for the lead and, eventually, the 83-82 win. As you might have heard a few times by now, it was Johnson’s fifth 2-point attempt of the season and his first make. It was the equivalent of Joe Burrow running 30 yards for a game-winning touchdown, and it became the Purple Panthers’ first NCAA tournament win ever, and their 15th consecutive win this season. They are 31-4, and they play Arkansas in the second round on Saturday.

High Point was a popular upset pick, even though Wisconsin had beaten Michigan and Michigan State and had the 11th-ranked offense in Division I. The KenPom analytic rankings had the Panthers 89th, one slot behind Miami of Ohio. This is Johnston’s seventh year of college basketball, because he was redshirted at Purdue Fort Wayne, spent a Covid year at Stetson and had an injury redshirt season at Florida Gulf Coast. He’s in his second High Point season and wears jersey No. 99. That would be a fitting tribute to Wayne Gretzky, because the Great One was famous for saying that 100 percent of the shots you don’t take don’t go in. But it’s not. Johnson wears 99 because of Jesus’ parable of the sheep, in which a man who has 100 sheep loses one, and leaves the 99 at home until he finds the stray. “He finds more joy in finding the one lost sheep than the 99 who remained righteous,” Johnston said. No word on whether Johnston’s favorite hymn is “Nearer My God To Three.”

But, like several other Panthers, Johnston is no stranger to big games, personally or collectively. Back in 2019 he was at Westminister Academy in Fort Lauderdale and hit 546 threes during his career, which was a national high school record. He was the 4-A state player of the year and was part of three state championship teams.

Martin, who’s 5-foot-10, helped Christian Brothers win a 6-A title in Missouri. His coach was Jayson Tatum’s father. He went to Indiana State and Southeast Missouri before he wandered down to High Point.

Arkansas coach John Calipari recruited Cam’Ron Fletcher to play at Kentucky, which he did for one year before he migrated to Florida State and Xavier. Terry Anderson is a graduate student who came from Lamar. This is an old team that is unimpressed with labels and rankings, and first-year coach Flynn Clayman said later that the power teams don’t return his scheduling calls. That, he said, is what creates 12th seeds for 31-win teams, and the Purple Panthers were assuredly not getting an NCAA bid if they hadn’t won the Big South tournament. Their non-conference strength of schedule rating was 356th, and the win over Wisconsin was the school’s first, ever, over a major conference school.

But, among its peers, High Point has sumptuous advantages. It may have the most luxurious campus in America, with steak houses, an abundance of swimming pools and fountains, a movie theater and a real live concierge at the student union. Scraps of paper have as much chance of staying on a High Point sidewalk as they would the grass of Augusta National.

It costs $74,000 to bask in all that, per year, and the average family of an HPU student makes over $160,000. Gentrifying what was a modest Methodist campus was the self-appointed task of Nido Quobein, a native Jordanian who made a fortune as a motivational speaker and publisher. As president, he made $2.3 million at High Point, but that’s just a decimal point. The sports facilities are as spiffy as everything else. For a nomad who has knocked around the JCs and the depths of Division I, this is a guest house in heaven.

High Point’s lure is its “life skills” curriculum, which skeptics say takes the place of real education. The steak house is a place where a student can simulate a dinner with a potential employer. No cell phones are allowed on those occasions. There is also a simulated airline cabin where the applicant can make small talk with his future boss. The school claims that 99 percent of its graduates either get a job or get a spot in grad school within 180 days of their commencement.

But the life skill that resonated Thursday was the ability to launch a hot potato into a hoop from long distance. It has the power to explode brackets throughout the country, as well as allow Panthers to lie down with sheep.

Other confetti from the first tournament day:

— Eleventh-seeded Virginia Commonwealth trailed North Caroiina by 19 points with 15 minutes remaining and came back to win in overtime, 82-78, the largest comeback in first-round history. Terrence Hill scorched the Tar Heels with 34 points, including seven 3-pointers. Carolina went the last 7:44 without a field goal, missed all six shots in overtime, and has now lost first-round games in back-to-back seasons for the first time. Coach Hubert Davis was asked why he didn’t go to his bench, when Henri Veesaar. Seth Trimble and Derek Dixon played over 40 minutes, and said merely that it was his decision. Tar Heel fans might want a little more specificity. VCU’s bench outscored UNC’s 42-7.

— In the same Greenville, S.C. arena, Duke was rendered groggy by 16th-seed Siena, which led 43-42 at the half after it shot 55 percent. The Blue Devils cranked it up later and won, 71-65, as the Saints shot 24 percent in the second half, and Cam Boozer scored 22 with 13 rebounds and went 13-for-14 from the foul line. Still, Siena led by five with eight minutes left, and Duke’s Jon Scheyer he was “outcoached and outprepared” by Siena’s Gerry McNamara. The Saints were ranked 181st by KenPom.

— Nebraska won its first NCAA tournament game ever, with surprising ease. Pryce Sandfort hit seven 3-pointers on the way to 23 points as the Cornhuskers beat Troy, 76-47. It was their first win in nine NCAA games.

– = Few players had a better intro than Illinois’ David Mirkovic, who scored 29 in 28 minutes with 17 rebounds on 11 for 17 shooting. The Illini pounded Penn, 105-70, and plays VCU next.

— Very few teams laid a plumper egg than Georgia, which was never in the running against St. Louis. The Bulldogs allowed the Billikens to conduct a layup and fastbreak drill in a 102-77 loss. St. Louis had lost four of its final eight but now has 29 wins and a date with Michigan on Saturday.

— South Florida also stubbed a toe. The American Conference champs were 2 for 15 from the 3-point line, and Wes Enis missed all 11 of his tries from the deep. The Bulls rallied against a Louisville team that was missing high scorer Mikel Brown, but lost, 83-79.

— St. Mary’s fell behind Texas A&M, 9-0, and an ailing Paulius Murauskas went 1-for-6 and played only 23 minutes. Add 18 turnovers and the Gaels just weren’t themselves, losing, 63-50, to an Aggies squad that had lost seven of their past 11. Now A&M plays Houston in the second round.

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