Call it March Mildness. Dominant performances by top seeds are now the norm at the NCAA Tournament
There hasn't been quite as much madness in March Madness in recent years. The top four seeds in each region have gone unbeaten in the first round in each of the last two NCAA Tournaments. Coaches say the influx of money into the sport now that players can be paid has led to what one coach called a “chasm” in talent between the haves and the have-nots. The ability for players to move freely in the transfer portal has also made it harder for strong mid-major teams to stay together.
Perfect brackets fall into the single digits after Texas upsets Gonzaga and Nebraska tops Vandy
Forty games into the NCAA Tournament, fans hoping to fill out a perfect bracket were a respectable 2 for 26,587,885. No. 11 seed Texas all but wiped out the remaining unblemished entries in the annual March Madness contests with its upset of No. 3 seed Gonzaga on Saturday night. After the win by the Longhorns, there were 22 perfect entries in ESPN’s bracket challenge and 27 in the NCAA’s contest. The last three games on Saturday were won by higher-seeded teams, but No. 4 seed Nebraska was hardly a sure thing. After Nebraska held off Vanderbilt and Arkansas beat High Point, ESPN had two perfect brackets and the NCAA had four.
Is LeBron James running out of records to chase? How his list of accomplishments keeps growing
LeBron James might be running out of records to chase. He already has gotten plenty of them: most points scored, most seasons played, most minutes played, most All-NBA selections, most All-Star selections, most field goals made, most field goals attempted, most playoff games, most playoff points, highest career earnings. James has all those marks, and many more. Becoming the outright holder of the games-played record was inevitable.
Kevin Durant passes Michael Jordan for No 5 on NBA scoring list in Rockets' win
HOUSTON (AP) — On the night Kevin Durant passed Michael Jordan for fifth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, the 37-year-old was already looking ahead. “Four more to go,” he said with a smile. Durant scored 27 points in Houston’s win over the Miami Heat on Saturday night to move past Jordan. Durant, who was the second overall pick in the 2007 draft, had 21 points entering the fourth quarter and hit a 3-pointer with less than five minutes left to inch close to passing MJ. He did it on his next shot, sinking another 3 from nearly the same spot in the right corner to give him 32,294 points, two more than Jordan.
Nearly the greatest buzzer-beater ever? Half-court heave from Vanderbilt's Tyler Tanner rims out
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Tyler Tanner was inches from March Madness immortality. After Nebraska’s Braden Frager made a driving layup with 2.2 seconds left to give the Cornhuskers a two-point lead over Vanderbilt in a second-round NCAA Tournament thriller on Saturday night, Tanner had no choice but to chuck one toward the basket. His heave from beyond half court was on target. The ball crashed off the center of the backboard and dropped halfway below the rim — and then, somehow, it rattled out, and Nebraska escaped with a 74-72 victory. Players on both sides say they thought Tanner had made the shot.
Texas goes from First Four to Sweet 16, beating Gonzaga 74-68 in March Madness
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Texas has become the first team in five years to go from the NCAA Tournament’s First Four to the Sweet 16. Jordan Pope and Matas Vokietaitis each scored 17 points, and Camden Heide hit a game-sealing 3-pointer in the Longhorns' 74-68 win over Gonzaga on Saturday. First-year coach Sean Miller’s 11th-seeded Longhorns will face either No. 2 seed Purdue or No. 7 seed Miami on Thursday in the West Region semifinals in San Jose, California. The last First Four team to reach the Sweet 16 was UCLA, which made it all the way to the Final Four in 2021. Graham Ike scored 25 points for No. 3 seed Gonzaga.
UNC is evaluating its basketball program after another early March Madness exit under Hubert Davis
North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham says the school is evaluating “all facets” of its tradition-rich men’s basketball program after another early exit from the NCAA Tournament under Hubert Davis. Cunningham issued a statement Saturday saying he is working with UNC chancellor Lee Roberts and executive associate AD Steve Newmark in that review. Newmark will take over as Cunningham’s successor in the coming months. Davis closed his fifth season with a first-round loss to VCU after blowing a 19-point lead. UNC has just three March Madness wins in the last four seasons.
March Madness shuts out mid-majors as none reach 2nd round of women's NCAA Tournament for 1st time
March Madness wasn’t for mid-majors this year. For the first time since the women’s NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994, no programs from mid-major conferences advanced to the second round. The 32 remaining teams all hail from the Power Four conferences and the Big East. In the men’s tournament, five mid-major teams made the second round. There were 23 teams in the first round from smaller conferences, and they went 0-23. Colorado State, a 12 seed, got the closest, losing 65-62 to Michigan State. The rest lost by double digits.
Sungjae Im takes lead into Innisbrook finale, with Brandt Snedeker also in final group
PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) — Sungjae Im was in position for a wire-to-wire victory in the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook after a slow start in his return from a wrist injury. Brandt Snedeker was right beside him in the final pairing — with a hot new putter in the bag. Im holed a sweeping 13-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th hole Saturday for a 2-under 69 and a two-stroke lead over Snedeker, the 45-year-old U.S. Presidents Cup captain playing on a sponsor exemption, and David Lipsky. Snedeker birdied three of the first four holes in a 67, and Lipsky had a 70. After missing two straight cuts in his return, Im led by a stroke after each of the first two days. He has an 11-under 202 total.
Rick Pitino and Bill Self finally meet again when St. John's faces Kansas in NCAA Tournament
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Rick Pitino and Bill Self have racked up a combined 1,769 victories with consistent excellence at every stop in their college basketball coaching careers. These Hall of Famers are also two of only three active coaches to win multiple national titles. Yet during their decades on benches from Providence to Tulsa and far beyond, Pitino and Self had somehow coached against each other only once. These icons of their profession finally meet again on the NCAA Tournament stage when Pitino’s revitalized St. John’s takes on Self’s perennially powerful Jayhawks in San Diego for a spot in the East Region’s Sweet 16.
