Solely 16 groups stay within the N.C.A.A. males’s basketball match getting into Thursday. By the top of this weekend, the sphere will likely be whittled all the way down to the Ultimate 4.
4 video games will happen Thursday, cut up between San Francisco and San Antonio, earlier than 4 extra on Friday in Philadelphia and Chicago. Eight groups will stay getting into the weekend, with two video games Saturday and two on Sunday.
9 totally different seed strains and eight conferences stay among the many spherical of 16. Right here’s what to observe for getting into the Thursday video games.
Three No. 1 seeds stay, however their paths aren’t straightforward.
Baylor was knocked out on Saturday by eighth-seeded North Carolina, making this the fifth straight match wherein the reigning nationwide champion was ousted earlier than the spherical of 16. But three No. 1 seeds stay: Gonzaga (28-3), the highest total seed, Arizona (33-3) and Kansas (30-6).
Underneath Coach Mark Few, Gonzaga is the one workforce that has reached the spherical of 16 in every of the final seven tournaments, and it has performed in two of the final 4 championship video games. However its path to the Ultimate 4 in New Orleans is something however straightforward. After surviving ninth-seeded Memphis, 82-78, in maybe essentially the most entertaining recreation of the match, the Bulldogs will face No. 4-seeded Arkansas in San Francisco (Thursday, 7:09 p.m. Japanese time, CBS), after which would get the winner between the No. 2 seed Duke and No. 3-seeded Texas Tech within the West area. Gonzaga enters as a 9½-point favourite over the Razorbacks.
Kansas is an 8-point favourite over No. 4-seeded Windfall, the Large East regular-season champion, on Friday in Chicago within the Midwest area.
However Arizona is only a 1½-point favourite over fifth-seeded Houston in San Antonio within the South (Thursday, 9:59 p.m. Japanese, TBS). In case you’re searching for an upset, Houston is your finest guess. The Cougars are within the high 10 in each offensive and defensive effectivity in accordance with Ken Pomeroy’s rankings, which means they have a tendency to get a great shot whereas their opponent doesn’t.
Dive Deeper Into the N.C.A.A. Tournaments
At the least one No. 1 seed has reached the Ultimate 4 in 9 straight tournaments, and a number of No. 1 seeds have reached the spherical of 8 in seven straight tournaments.
Coach Ok continues to be within the hunt for a sixth championship.
Duke (30-6) survived and superior towards seventh-seeded Michigan State on Sunday, extending Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s profession for at the very least one other week. Nonetheless, the Blue Devils can have their fingers full with an older Texas Tech workforce ranked No. 1 in defensive effectivity by KenPom. The Crimson Raiders (27-9) are permitting simply 13 factors within the paint per recreation within the match, the fewest within the area. They may look to play a bodily recreation that disrupts Duke’s offensive move (Thursday, 9:39 p.m. Japanese, CBS). The Blue Devils characteristic 5 potential N.B.A. draft picks, led by the freshman ahead Paolo Banchero, who averages 17.0 factors and seven.9 rebounds per recreation.
“I’m not that excited,” Mark Adams, Texas Tech’s first-year coach, stated of dealing with Duke. “I don’t know if anyone is worked up about enjoying Duke.”
Krzyzewski has “all the time been a mentor of mine, somebody I appeared as much as,” Adams added. “Not solely is he an incredible coach, however an incredible particular person. Simply completed a lot for basketball. And he’s constructed a program which all of us admire and respect. It’s only one workforce to the subsequent, he’s acquired a dynasty he’s constructed. So our hat’s off to him.”
Ought to Duke advance, it might get a rematch towards Gonzaga in what can be the highest-profile recreation of the match. The Blue Devils beat the top-ranked Bulldogs, 84-81, on Nov. 26 in Las Vegas with Banchero scoring 21 factors and the junior ahead Wendell Moore having 20 factors, 6 rebounds and 6 assists.
The A.C.C. and Large 12 cleared the path, however the Large Ten is struggling once more.
The Atlantic Coast Convention was maligned for being down all through the season, but right here it’s with three groups — Duke, North Carolina and Miami — within the spherical of 16. The Tar Heels knocked off a No. 1 seed, and the Hurricanes routed a No. 2 seed, Auburn, by 18 factors.
Miami Coach Jim Larrañaga trolled Charles Barkley, the Naismith Corridor of Famer who performed at Auburn, instantly following the No. 10-seeded Hurricanes’ 79-61 victory on Sunday. Barkley, working as a TV analyst in the course of the match, had stated earlier than the sport that he would rejoice by taking his shirt off if Auburn received.
“I listened to Charles Barkley inform the CBS crew that if Auburn received, he would take off his shirt,” Larrañaga stated. “And I assumed to myself, ‘Man, nobody desires to see that, Chuck.’”
The Large 12 Convention additionally has three groups remaining in Kansas, Texas Tech and Iowa State, which took out third-seeded Wisconsin, a Large Ten common season co-champion, and subsequent will get Miami.
The Large East has two faculties remaining in second-seeded Villanova, which received N.C.A.A. championships in 2016 and 2018 underneath Coach Jay Wright, and Windfall.
The Pac-12 additionally has two faculties remaining, Arizona and fourth-seeded U.C.L.A., which performs North Carolina on Friday. A West Coast college hasn’t received the title since Arizona in 1997.
The Large Ten as soon as once more is developing brief. It despatched 9 groups to the match, essentially the most of any convention, however solely two stay. No. 11-seeded Michigan will face Villanova in San Antonio (Thursday, 7:29 p.m. Japanese, TBS). No. 3 Purdue, the runner-up within the Large Ten match, will meet upset-minded St. Peter’s, a No. 15 seed, on Friday in Philadelphia.
A yr in the past, the Large Ten additionally put 9 groups into the match, with solely Michigan reaching the spherical of 8.
