INDIANAPOLIS – To be, or not to be? For an underdog named Javion Hamlet and his group of scrapping North Texas teammates, that was an easy question.
Hamlet scored 24 points and Thomas Bell had 16, along with some game-changing defense in overtime, to lift the 13th-seeded Mean Green to a 78-69 win over No.
4 Purdue on Friday in the NCAA Tournament. It marked the second teen-powered upset of the Big Ten on the opening day of the NCAA Tournament — this one coming hours after No.
15 Oral Roberts knocked out Ohio State. What a great prize for Hamlet and Bell, a pair of seniors who led the Mean Green (18-9) to a regular-season Conference USA title last year but missed a chance at the tournament when the season was canceled by COVID-19.