Kansas, the reigning nationwide champion, is out of the N.C.A.A. males’s match.
Taking part in with out their head coach, Invoice Self, for a second straight recreation, the top-seeded Jayhawks have been shocked by No. 8 seed Arkansas, 72-71, at Wells Fargo Enviornment in Des Moines, Iowa.
Kansas was bidding to turn out to be first the repeat males’s champion since Florida received the match in 2006 and 2007. As an alternative, the Razorbacks superior to the spherical of 16 in Las Vegas in opposition to the winner of Sunday’s recreation between Connecticut and St. Mary’s in Albany, N.Y.
The Jayhawks turned the second No. 1 seed to get bounced from the match in lower than 24 hours, after No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson toppled No. 1 seed Purdue on Friday evening.
Self, 60, missed the Huge 12 match after present process a coronary heart process final week after he complained of chest pains. The Corridor of Fame coach was launched Sunday from a hospital, the place he was recovering from a process to deal with blocked arteries in his coronary heart. He had been with the staff throughout its time in Des Moines and was nonetheless recovering, the varsity introduced, with hopes that he may coach later within the match.
“He’s been at our final three practices so his power’s so much higher and he’s feeling so much higher,” assistant coach Norm Roberts, who coached the staff on an interim foundation, instructed CBS earlier than the sport. — Adam Zagoria
UConn races previous No. 15-seeded Vermont.
STORRS, Conn. — If there was any doubt that the College of Connecticut was on secure footing heading into this yr’s girls’s N.C.A.A. match, its 95-52 defeat over the Vermont on Saturday took care of these considerations.
After a tumultuous and injury-filled common season, the second-seeded Huskies lived as much as their dominant status on their house court docket, outscoring and outrunning the No. 15-seeded Catamounts at practically each flip. Aaliyah Edwards, the 6-foot-3 junior ahead, led the Huskies with 28 factors, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
“We didn’t have a solution for her,” Vermont Coach Alisa Kresge stated of Edwards. “She’s only a employee, she works so laborious, she by no means provides up. She’s actually proficient, and that was fairly a mismatch for us.”
UConn ahead Dorka Juhasz recorded a double-double with 15 factors and 10 rebounds. Azzi Fudd made her first begin since Dec. 4 after repeat knee accidents over the yr (she saved a brace and knee sleeve on for good measure), whereas teammate Paige Bueckers, the junior ahead who’s out for the season together with her personal knee harm, cheered from the sidelines.
All 10 of UConn’s gamers scored, in one of many highest-scoring video games of the match to date. The Huskies scored 53 factors within the first half and saved the Catamounts to twenty factors, forcing Vermont to take fast pictures that did not land whereas clearing the paint on offensive drives.
Vermont was led by sophomore guard Catherine Gilwee, with 14 factors and 5 assists. The Catamounts entered the match with a 25-6 document, using a 17-game profitable streak; they beat Albany within the America East championship every week in the past to achieve the N.C.A.A. match for the primary time since 2010.
UConn will face the winner of the Baylor-Alabama recreation on Monday. — Remy Tumin
Duke misplaced as a bracket favourite.
Duke’s loss to Tennessee within the males’s spherical of 32 on Saturday was in no way a stirring shock, in the best way that losses by Purdue, Virginia and Arizona shook up the match.
However in bracket competitions on-line, loads of folks felt the sting anyway, displaying how widespread Duke stays even in a yr of considerably lowered expectations.
Duke, a No. 5 seed, was among the many hottest picks to win a championship in bracket contests hosted by ESPN and Yahoo, with extra help than all of the No. 4 seeds, together with Tennessee, and all however one No. 3, the frequent match powerhouse Gonzaga.
The recognition of the Blue Devils got here at the same time as modelers, together with the KenPom and Sagarin rankings, signaled extra modest expectations, prompting a variety of predictions — with loads of followers believing that Duke might have an early exit, together with those that anticipated a deep run.
On Saturday in opposition to Tennessee, the Volunteers pulled away early within the second half, and the traditional, nearly anticipated push by the Blue Devils by no means materialized. The No. 5 seed this yr was Duke’s lowest within the discipline since being slated as a No. 6 in 2007; the Blue Devils will miss the regional spherical of the match after a Last 4 run a yr in the past in Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final season.
There may be an implicit however unstated deal between underdogs and the month of March: Most desires include fast expiration dates. And two days after the largest victory at school historical past, No. 13 seed Furman’s sell-by date arrived with a 75-52 rout by the hands of fifth-seeded San Diego State within the males’s N.C.A.A. match.
The place the Paladins have been capable of exploit Virginia’s weaknesses in a 68-67 upset on Thursday, they have been overwhelmed by the Aztecs in nearly each facet of Saturday’s recreation. Recognized for its robust protection, San Diego State held Furman, which had averaged 81.7 factors this season earlier than the loss, to its lowest single-game complete of 2022-23.
Furman shot simply 32 % from the sector (whereas the Aztecs hit 50 % of their pictures) and 23.1 % from 3-point vary. For the season, Furman had shot 48 % general and 34 % from 3-point territory.
Furman by no means led after the midpoint of the primary half, and Jalen Slawson, the Southern Convention participant of the yr, was in foul bother for a lot of the second half earlier than fouling out with solely 8 factors.
“They saved us from driving, saved the ball out of the paint, saved a very robust ground and performed actually laborious,” Slawson stated.
It was an entire and spectacular efficiency by the Aztecs, who transfer on to their first round-of-16 look since 2014, the place they may play the winner of Alabama and Maryland on Friday.
The Paladins, in the meantime, will take house indelible recollections and tales they may inform mates and households for the remainder of their lives.
“It’s an unbelievable story,” Furman Coach Bob Richey stated, “and I couldn’t be extra happy with our staff, at a time the place I’m extraordinarily dissatisfied that we didn’t advance. But it surely’s actually laborious to not pull the lens again somewhat bit and nonetheless see what that group was capable of accomplish.
“For that, I’ll be endlessly grateful.” — Scott Miller
No. 12 seed Florida Gulf Coast takes down a No. 5.
VILLANOVA, Pa. — When Sha Carter of Florida Gulf Coast lined up in opposition to the taller Bella Murekatete of Washington State for the opening tip, it appeared like the primary second of a mismatch. Carter didn’t try to corral the ball, and the Cougars raced to a lead.
But that impression flipped in a rush, because the smaller Florida Gulf Coast staff seized management halfway by way of the primary quarter and delivered a 74-63 win that confirmed why it was a preferred decide to advance — even amongst oddsmakers — regardless of being a No. 12 seed in opposition to a No. 5.
Tishara Morehouse, the main scorer this season for the Eagles getting into the sport, proved too fast for Washington State’s defenders. She used spin strikes and crossovers for scores, tallying 16 factors and serving to arrange Carter to attain at will. Carter led the sport with 24 factors.
The loss was a disappointing end to a exceptional season for Washington State, which had received 4 straight video games coming into the match to seize the championship within the tough Pac-12 Convention, after ending seventh within the common season.
It was the primary Pac-12 match title for the Cougars. However when the brackets got here out, Florida Gulf Coast instantly stood out as a tough matchup.
“They’re at all times under-seeded,” Washington State Coach Kamie Ethridge stated Friday as her staff ready for the sport.
Florida Gulf Coast has not misplaced since late January (an additional time defeat to Liberty), and prolonged its profitable streak to fifteen video games with the victory.
The Eagles weren’t alone as a profitable No. 12 seed on Saturday: Toledo took down fifth-seeded Iowa State, 80-73, and can transfer on to face No. 4 seed Tennessee. Florida Gulf Coast awaits the winner of the Villanova-Cleveland State recreation. — Kris Rhim
It might be even tougher now to beat a girls’s No. 1 seed.
Indiana’s rout of Tennessee Tech put all 4 No. 1s within the N.C.A.A. girls’s match into the second spherical, and maybe highlighted a actuality that has shifted in recent times:
Although a 16-over-1 March Insanity upset is exceedingly uncommon, it’s in all probability even tougher to drag off within the girls’s match proper now than within the males’s.
One evening after the Fairleigh Dickinson males delivered the stunner of those festivities over No. 1 seed Purdue, the Indiana girls romped previous Tennessee Tech by 30 factors, 77-47, becoming a member of fellow No. 1s South Carolina, Virginia Tech and Stanford within the second spherical. All 4 of these groups, taking part in with home-court benefit, received with ease to begin their match run, with Virginia Tech profitable by the tightest margin at 25 factors over Chattanooga.
On Saturday, the Hoosiers pulled away within the second quarter, outscoring Tennessee Tech 21-9 within the interval, and shot a breezy 58 % for the sport as their lead grew and grew. Sydney Parrish led with 19 factors.
The boys’s match had gone with no No. 16 defeating a No. 1 earlier than 2018, however it has now occurred twice previously 5 tournaments. The same upset has solely occurred as soon as within the girls’s match because it expanded to 64 groups, when No. 16 seed Harvard beat top-seeded Stanford in 1998.
In that recreation, Harvard got here in feeling prefer it deserved a better seed, whereas Stanford misplaced two key gamers, Vanessa Nygaard and Kristin Folkl, to extreme knee accidents within the week main as much as the sport.
To beat a No. 1 girls’s staff taking part in at house, or perhaps a No. 2 — which has by no means misplaced to a No. 15 — it could take an identical sequence of circumstances. — Oskar Garcia
The basketball-playing Reese siblings are retaining their mother busy.
BATON ROUGE, La. — It’s been a busy weekend for basketball mother Angel Reese.
With two youngsters taking part in within the N.C.A.A. tournaments, daughter Angel for the third-seeded Louisiana State girls and son Julian for the eighth-seeded Maryland males, she’s touring to attempt to see as a lot basketball as she will.
After flying to Louisiana on Thursday, Reece watched from her resort room as Julian scored a team-high 17 factors within the Terrapins’ slim win over West Virginia.
The following day, she noticed Angel compile 34 factors and 15 rebounds on the Pete Maravich Meeting Middle in L.S.U.’s demolition of Hawaii.
She had deliberate to hit the highway at 10 a.m. Central time on Saturday to move to Birmingham, Ala., to see Julian play at evening in opposition to top-seeded Alabama. Then, it is going to be again to Baton Rouge for L.S.U.’s second-round recreation on Sunday in opposition to Michigan.
“I’m very proud,” Reese stated in an interview after Friday’s L.S.U. recreation. “It’s thrilling, however it’s very anxious. I’ll admit, it’s very anxious, particularly when you will have shut video games just like the one which Maryland had yesterday in opposition to West Virginia.”
Each gamers play essential roles on their groups. Julian is certainly one of Maryland’s 4 double-figure scorers and its main rebounder, whereas Angel is a first-team all-American. Their mom was an achieved faculty participant herself, rating second in Division I in rebounds per recreation in 1991-92 with the College of Maryland, Baltimore County.
There are different household ties within the match. The Hawaii girls’s staff had two sisters, Lily Wahinekapu and Jovi Lefotu. The Iowa males’s staff featured Fran McCaffery teaching sons Connor and Patrick. And the Prosper household additionally has a participant in every match, with Cassandre coming off the bench for the Notre Dame girls and Olivier-Maxence averaging 12.4 factors per recreation for the Marquette males.
The Reeses hope the whirlwind lasts so long as potential.
“That is an pleasant second for the Reese household,” the youthful Angel stated after Friday’s recreation. — Evan Easterling
