Following a three-day breather after a weekend of chaos, the males’s NCAA Match returns to motion with the beginning of the Candy 16.
Kansas State defeated Michigan State in time beyond regulation within the first of 4 video games within the West and East. Following the Spartans-Wildcats conflict might be Connecticut vs. Arkansas, which knocked off No. 1 seeded Kansas. Florida Atlantic, which ended the Cinderella story for No. 16 seeded Fairleigh Dickinson, will tackle Tennessee within the evening’s third recreation, and a heavyweight showdown between UCLA and Gonzaga will conclude the evening.
Comply with alongside for stay updates all through the remainder of the day.
MEN’S TOURNAMENT:Full scores and schedule
WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT:Full scores and schedule
Comply with the insanity: Newest Males’s NCAA Match Faculty Basketball Scores and Schedules
Markquis Nowell leads Kansas State to thrilling time beyond regulation win over Michigan State
Basic.
In a white-knuckle, heart-stopping experience, third-seeded Kansas State outlasted seventh-seeded Michigan State in time beyond regulation, 98-93, Thursday in a Candy 16 matchup of the boys’s NCAA Match.
Markquis Nowell, Kansas State’s 5-foot-8 level guard, was good with 19 assists – an NCAA Match single-game file — together with 20 factors and 5 steals.
His fifth steal got here within the closing moments of the recreation to ship the Wildcats into the Elite Eight. Throughout his electrical efficiency, Nowell overcame an ankle harm within the second half that compelled him to the bench for about 2½ minutes and left him hobbled.
With the victory, Kansas State continues its outstanding run. The Wildcats, picked final within the Large 12 preseason ballot, are headed for the Elite Eight of the boys’s NCAA Match.
The Wildcats wanted every little thing they acquired from Nowell, as Michigan State fought again after trailing by as many as 9 factors early within the second half and once more by seven factors with lower than 5 minutes to play.
Michigan State’s Tyson Walker scored with 5 seconds left in regulation to pressure time beyond regulation.
For Michigan State, the loss ended its quest to succeed in the Ultimate 4 for the eleventh time at school historical past. Nevertheless it was a formidable Match run for the Spartans, which began the season outdoors of the High 25.
– Josh Peter
Markquis Nowell has a fan in Patrick Mahomes
When Nowell left the ground after rolling his ankle, somebody requested if Mahomes may give the Ok-State guard any recommendation. No want, Mahomes tweeted.
“He’s acquired it! I consider!!” Mahomes stated, including two flexed biceps emojis.
The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs quarterback is aware of a factor or two about enjoying on a bum ankle, aggravating his excessive ankle sprain in the course of the second quarter of Tremendous Bowl 57. Mahomes’ standing regarded questionable as he limped off the sphere at halftime, however he performed your entire second half and led the Chiefs to the Tremendous Bowl title.
– Nancy Armour
Halftime: UConn 46, Arkansas 29
An unplanned change in lodges did not hold No. 4 UConn from leaping out to a commanding lead over 8-seeded Arkansas.
The Huskies, who have been compelled to vary lodges in Las Vegas after CT Insider reported their rooms have been in terrible situation, have been dominant within the first 20 minutes. At one level, UConn mounted a 14-0 run.
UConn’s Jordan Hawkins led all scorers with 10 factors within the half. Teammate Adama Sanogo is on double-double watch with eight factors and 6 rebounds earlier than the break. Nick Smith Jr. led Arkansas with 9 factors.
Even award-winning actor Invoice Murray was having fun with the Huskies’ dominance. In attendance to assist his son, Luke, who’s an assistant coach at UConn, Murray was proven cheering from the gang because the Huskies went on their run.
Kansas State star Markquis Nowell wants assist off court docket after showing to twist ankle
Kansas State guard Markquis Nowell fell awkwardly whereas trying a brief runner and needed to be helped off the court docket lower than 5 minutes into the second half of the No. 3 Wildcats’ Candy 16 matchup in opposition to No. 7 Michigan State.
Nowell had performed each minute for KSU, which was main 50-46 with 15:31 left, and had scored seven factors with 10 assists.
One of many breakout stars of this 12 months’s match, Nowell is the Wildcats’ second-leading scorer (17.1 factors per recreation) and ranks second nationally in assists (7.8 per recreation).
Nowell eliminated his shoe and had trainers tape his ankle up earlier than he returned to the court docket. Whereas the ankle was clearly bothering him, he nonetheless flashed his offensive creativity.
– Paul Myerberg
Halftime: Kansas State 43, Michigan State 38
Markquis Nowell was an offensive magician, weaving pinpoint passes to teammates to offer No. 3 Kansas State a five-point lead over 7-seeded Michigan State on the break.
Nowell racked up 10 assists within the first 20 minutes and added a deep 3-point subject purpose for the Wildcats.
The Spartans, in the meantime, acquired a torrid first-half effort from Joey Hauser (12 factors, three rebounds). Hauser related on 2 of 4 makes an attempt from 3-point vary. Michigan State additionally gained the first-half rebound battle 18-12 and pulled down seven offensive boards in comparison with only one for Kansas State
Why you may see Barry Sanders throughout Michigan State’s Candy 16 recreation
Numerous school basketball followers maybe not fully clued into Michigan State basketball seemed to be stunned when Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer and Detroit Lions legend Barry Sanders appeared on their tv screens sporting a inexperienced and white MSU cap — and sitting behind former MSU soccer coach Mark Dantonio and Kirk Gibson — in the course of the Spartans’ second-round NCAA match recreation Sunday in opposition to Marquette.
However as all Spartan supporters know, there is a quite simple rationalization as to why Sanders was in Columbus, Ohio, for the sport. His son, Nick, is a freshman on the MSU basketball group.
– Phil Good friend, Lansing State Journal
Las Vegas is now poised to be a hub for faculty sports activities with a number of NCAA occasions scheduled over the subsequent a number of years, starting with Thursday’s West Regional at T-Cell Enviornment. From golf to bowling to hockey — the 2026 Frozen 4 may also be held right here — the NCAA brand will quickly be as ubiquitous on the Las Vegas Strip as adverts for superstar chef eating places and Cirque du Soleil reveals.
It would all lead as much as 2028, when the NCAA brings its crown jewel occasion, the boys’s Ultimate 4, right here for the primary (and doubtless not final) time.
“It was simply getting over the stigma that it was Las Vegas,” stated Jim Livengood, the longtime athletics director at Washington State, Arizona and UNLV.
— Dan Wolken
With Mick Cronin in cost, the forecast for UCLA’s storied basketball program stays perpetually sunny. The Bruins are within the Candy 16 of the boys’s NCAA Match for the third straight season.
Up subsequent: a rematch in opposition to Gonzaga, which at the 2021 Ultimate 4 outlasted UCLA in time beyond regulation, 93-90.
“We’re 4 video games away from hanging a twelfth banner,” Cronin stated, referring to UCLA’s 11 nationwide championships. “That is how we have a look at it. That is how we discuss it.”
— Josh Peter
The males’s Candy 16 spherical ideas Thursday evening, with motion within the Large Apple and Sin Metropolis.
►No. 3 Kansas State vs. No. 7 Michigan State
Time/TV: 6:30 p.m. ET, TBS
►No. 4 Connecticut vs. No. 8 Arkansas
Time/TV: 7:15 p.m. ET, CBS
►No. 4 Tennessee vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic
Time/TV: 9 p.m. ET, TBS
►No. 2 UCLA vs. No. 3 Gonzaga
Time/TV: 9:45 p.m. ET, CBS
Greatest shot at making Ultimate 4
The 2022 Ultimate 4 in males’s basketball was, in the long run, dominated by bluebloods. This 12 months’s model may very well be extra about new bloods.
Of the 16 remaining groups, solely 4 have gained a championship (Michigan State, UCLA, UConn, Arkansas). Three of these are in the identical area, so there’s a excessive chance that anyone new might be slicing down the nets in Houston.
Seven of the Candy 16 groups (Alabama, Creighton, Florida Atlantic Miami, San Diego State, Tennessee and Xavier) have by no means even been to a Ultimate 4. We ranked them so as of their possibilities to make the nationwide semifinals for the primary time.
— Eddie Timanus
What have we realized?
Surprises and upsets outlined the primary two rounds of the boys’s NCAA Match, sending a few of school basketball’s largest names packing – together with Kansas, Purdue, Duke, Virginia and Kentucky – as Fairleigh Dickinson beat Purdue and Princeton topped Arizona and Missouri to jot down two of the highest Cinderella tales in current match historical past.
Amid this flurry of unpredictability, what occurs subsequent is anybody’s guess.
With the Candy 16 set to start, we detailed eight classes realized from the primary weekend of the match.
— Paul Myerberg
‘Spartan robust’
Ranked outdoors the highest 25 for a lot of the season, Michigan State wouldn’t have been thought-about a lot of a menace to get to the Candy 16 aside from one factor: They’ve Tom Izzo on the sidelines.
It’s not that Izzo is unbeatable or has an ironclad observe file in March. Like each different nice coach, he’s had his share of peculiar flameouts. However each few years, Izzo finds a solution to push a group deeper into the match than it’s purported to go.
Michigan State’s second-round win in opposition to No. 2 seed Marquette was the sixteenth time Izzo has crushed a higher-seeded group within the NCAA Match, beating out Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim for the all-time file. Maybe extra impressively, it was the sixth time he has gotten to the Candy 16 with a group seeded fifth or worse.
The Spartans tackle No. 3 seed Kansas State within the first males’s Candy 16 recreation Thursday.
— Dan Wolken
Princeton males, girls win first-round video games in similar 12 months, make Ivy historical past
This was a match to recollect for the Ivy League even earlier than Princeton’s males reached the second spherical.
That is the primary 12 months the Ivy’s groups have gained first-round video games in each tournaments. A day after the Princeton males shocked Arizona, the Tenth-seeded Princeton girls upset N.C. State on Friday evening on a 3-pointer with seven seconds left.
“We have been watching (the boys) within the locker room proper earlier than apply,” Julia Cunningham stated Friday evening. “Watching them, all of the protection they’re getting from the media, it was so properly deserved. We checked out one another and thought, we’re subsequent, now it’s our flip.
“It’s particular,” she added. “A particular week to be a Tiger.”
The Princeton girls have been crushed within the second spherical by Utah, however the Tigers’ males will tackle Creighton on Friday within the Candy 16.
– Nancy Armour
Ultimate USA TODAY Sports activities coaches ballot
Houston entered the NCAA Match with the No. 1 rating within the USA TODAY Sports activities coaches ballot, regardless of its loss within the American Athletic Convention championship recreation previous to the disclosing of the brackets.
The Cougars, who have been enjoying with out main scorer Marcus Sasser within the loss to Memphis, retained 21 of 32 No. 1 votes to stave off second-ranked Alabama. The Crimson Tide acquired eight firsts after profitable the SEC title in spectacular style on Sunday.
Houston and Alabama are the lone No. 1 seeds remaining within the match after Kansas was knocked off by Arkansas within the second spherical and Purdue, the highest seed within the East, was upset within the first spherical by Fairleigh Dickinson.
— Eddie Timanus