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When Sunday’s NCAA event enterprise closes, the boys’s Candy 16 shall be set, whereas half of the ladies’s Candy 16 subject shall be determined.
Two No. 1 seeds have already been knocked out on the boys’s facet, highlighted by a shock loss by No. 1 Purdue to No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson. Now FDU goals to do what no different 16-seed has ever been in a position to do: Attain the Candy 16.
The Knights will attempt to do the identical on Sunday (7:45 p.m. ET, truTV) towards Florida Atlantic, a mighty mid-major that’s 32-3 after its dramatic win over Memphis. However first, No. 11 Pitt and No. 3 Xavier get the occasion began at 12:10 ET on CBS.
The ladies’s action will get underway with the defending champs as No. 1 South Carolina tries to maneuver to 34-0 towards South Florida (1 p.m. ET, ABC). Iowa standout Kaitlyn Clark then takes the nationwide stage within the subsequent recreation on ABC because the No. 2 Hawkeyes tackle No. 10 Georgia.
Suppose you could have what it takes to beat your pals? Take a look at Your Faculty Basketball Expertise (or Luck) Here with USA TODAY’s Survivor Pool, bookmark our bracket pageVery
Comply with the insanity: Latest Men’s NCAA Tournament College Basketball Scores & Schedules
Males’s Event: Full Scores & Schedule
Ladies’s Event: Full Scores & Schedule
Saturday’s Video games: View all actions of males, girls
Sunday action underway
The primary recreation of the day, a matchup between No. 11 Pittsburgh and No. 3 Xavier within the males’s part, started simply after midday on Sunday. And if the offensive momentum beginning is any indication of what the remainder of the day shall be like, the scoring shall be on show.
The Musketeers have been the main scoring crew within the Massive East this season and pulled away from Pittsburgh halfway by way of the primary half, constructing a 28–18 lead. Javier went 14-3 and is capturing 57.1% from the sector on 12 of 21 makes an attempt. Guard Colby Jones and ahead Jack Nunz every had eight factors to guide the Musketeers.
Pittsburgh is capturing 7-of-16 from the sector at a clip of 46.7%.
The matchup additionally gives an fascinating little bit of nostalgia and familiarity as Xavier head coach Sean Miller starred as a guard for the Panthers from 1987-92, the place he began 124 of the 128 video games wherein he performed.
This males’s event is de facto up for grabs
All through the season, it promised to be probably the most broadly open NCAA males’s event in a era. Bluebloods weren’t so blue. There have been apparent flaws within the top-order groups. The mixture of an additional COVID yr for older gamers, an out-of-control switch setting and a crop of newcomers who have been largely not prepared for prime time meant that groups’ fortunes fluctuated from recreation to recreation, week to week. Yo-yo from week to week.
Now right here we’re, nearly achieved with the primary weekend of March Insanity, and there is one essential query to ask: Who’s going to win the nationwide championship?
Maybe it might be higher to say it in one other approach. If you wish to survive Sunday evening on this frenetic event, go forward and dare to dream. You too, Princeton. It is actually up for grabs.
, Dan Volken
Double hassle? Indiana and Miami will face off in males’s, girls’s sports activities
No, you aren’t seeing double.
Indiana and Miami will play one another within the second spherical of each the boys’s and girls’s tournaments. The lads’s recreation is in Albany, New York, on Sunday evening, whereas the ladies’s groups will sq. off in Bloomington, Indiana, on Monday.
“That’s awesome. I mean, what a great situation,” stated Miami girls’s coach Katie Meier. “I know our athletic director was on a plane going back and forth with someone from Indiana.”
The NCAA has no file of what number of instances the colleges have performed one another in every event, not to mention in the identical spherical. However suffice it to say that this has not occurred fairly often. Meier was requested about the potential of a double dip earlier than Saturday’s recreation, however she did not wish to reply and shrugged herself off. good factor as The Hurricanes fell behind by 17 before rallying to defeat Oklahoma State.
Top-seeded Indiana rolled earlier in the day while the IU and Miami men’s teams secured their spots on Friday.
“We look forward to playing Indiana,” said Meier, “and hope the ‘Canes come out on top of two.”
, Nancy Armor
Princeton men, women win first-round games in same year, make Ivy history
It was a tournament to remember for the Ivy League even before Princeton’s men reached the second round.
This is the first year that Ivy teams have won first round games in both tournaments. A day after Princeton’s men stunned Arizona, the 10th-seeded Princeton women upset NC State on a Friday night 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining.
“We were seeing (the men) in the locker room right before practice,” Julia Cunningham said Friday night. “Looking at him, the coverage he is getting from the media was very well deserved. We looked at each other and thought, we’re next, now it’s our turn.
“It’s special,” she said. “A special week to be a Tiger.”
, Nancy Armor
sunday sports rankings
How many teams will be in your Sweet 16? We’ll find out who advances after Sunday’s eight-game slate, which features some of the highest seeds standing still after a wacky and unpredictable start to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
But we’ll be paying close attention to all the outliers, as No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson looks to pull off a historic Friday night upset of No. 1 Purdue with a second-round matchup against No. 9 Florida Atlantic.
Keep this in mind, though: Of the eight games played on Sunday, six feature the highest possible seeds — No. 6 against No. 3, No. 5 against No. 4 and No. 7 against No. 2.
Here’s a list of Sunday’s games in order of how watchable they are:
1. No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic (7:45 p.m. ET)
2. number five St. Mary’s vs. No. 4 Connecticut (6:10)
3. number 6 Kentucky vs. No. 3 Kansas State (2:40)
4. No. 3 Baylor vs. No. 6 Creighton (7:10)
5. No. 3 Gonzaga vs. No. 6 TCU (9:40)
6. number 7 Michigan State vs. No. 2 Marquette (5:15)
7. number five Miami vs. No. 4 Indiana (8:40)
8. No. 3 Xavier vs. No. 11 Pittsburgh (12:10)
-Paul Myrberg
Merrimack Coach Routing to Fairleigh Dickenson
So Merrimack coach Joe Gallo and the rest of the team stayed home and watched Fairleigh Dickenson tear Purdue — and big man Zack Ade — apart. So is there jealousy among its enemies in the Northeast?
“To quote my 6-year-old, ‘Dad, we beat them, so we want them to win,'” Gallo told CBS Sports, “People have been tough on our league all year, so I’m happy for the win.”
, heather tucker
UMBC discovered a good friend on Twitter
On the finish of the UMBC Twitter account is a finest good friend. That is the Twitter account for the Farley Dickinson males’s basketball crew. What have they got in widespread? They each handle to create full chaos and busting brackets.
The UMBC Twitter account celebrated Fairleigh Dickinson’s victory over Purdue, which possible destroyed lots of the NCAA males’s event brackets. The FDU Twitter account caught wind of this and concurrently introduced their new friendship.
It was at all times going to be troublesome for UMBC to search out somebody who understood. In any case, it isn’t typically that you just get a 16 seed bothering the 1 seed. UMBC was the primary males’s program to take action when it knocked over No. 1 Virginia in 2018. But when there’s anybody who understands the sentiment, it is FDU.
, Mike D. Sykes II, For The Win
Ultimate USA TODAY Sports activities Coaches Ballot
Houston entered the NCAA event with the No. 1 rating within the USA TODAY Sports activities Coaches Ballot regardless of a loss within the American Athletic Convention championship recreation simply earlier than the brackets have been unveiled final Sunday.
The Cougars, enjoying with out main scorer Marcus Sasser within the loss to Memphis, held off second-ranked Alabama whereas retaining 21 of the 32 No. 1 votes. The Crimson Tide impressively received the SEC title adopted by eight first-place finishes.
Houston took on Northern Kentucky of their first spherical recreation and Auburn of their second spherical recreation, whereas Alabama defeated Texas A&M Corpus Christi of their event opener. The Crimson Tide knocked off No. 8 seed Maryland late Saturday evening.
-Eddie Timans
