The first eight Sweet 16 bids in the men’s NCAA tournament will be locked up Saturday, while the women’s tournament ends in the first round.
Furman and Princeton took the sports world by storm Thursday with upsets of No. 4 Virginia and No. 2 Arizona, respectively. Both are back in action. The 13th-seeded Paladins opened men’s action against No. 5 San Diego State. The 15th-seeded Tigers will face Tigers of a different stripe in No. 7 Missouri at 6:10 p.m. ET (TNT).
On the women’s side, No. 1 seed Indiana was in action after top seeds South Carolina, Virginia Tech and Stanford took care of business Friday. The Hoosiers started Day 2 of the women’s first round with a 77-47 win against No. 16 seed Tennessee Tech, which beat Monmouth in a First Four matchup Thursday.
Think you have what it takes to beat your friends? Test your college basketball skills (or luck) here with USA TODAY’s Survivor Pool. Also bookmark our page with brackets!
MEN’S TOURNAMENT: Complete scores and schedule
Follow the madness: Latest Men’s NCAA Tournament College Basketball Results and Schedules
WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT: Complete scores and schedule
Women: No. 1 Indiana 77, No. 16 Tennessee Tech 47
Sydney Parrish led the Hoosiers to a 30-point win over the Golden Eagles with 19 points, eight rebounds and one steal. Indiana had two other starters score in double figures: Grace Berger (17 points) and Yarden Garzon (12 points).
But the star of the show was the Hoosiers’ defense with 11 blocks and seven steals in front of a crowd of 14,000 fans at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana. “It’s such an advantage to have a sixth man,” Berger said of the home crowd.
Tennessee Tech was held to eight fourth quarter points. Maaliya Owens had a team-high 17 points.
San Diego State wants to end Furman’s Cinderella run
San Diego State is 20 minutes from the Sweet 16 as it leads Furman 39-25 at halftime in the second round of the South Region.
The Aztecs took control with an 18-1 run and held Furman without a field goal for more than 10 minutes. The Paladins shot 33 percent, including 2-of-11 from 3-point range, in the first half.
Micah Parrish has 14 points off the bench for SDSU, while Furman’s Jalen Slawson has eight points and two rebounds.
– Scooby Axson
Location of Saturday’s matches
Saturday’s winners will earn a spot in the Sweet 16, and the eight games will feature some of the best teams and players in college basketball. Three No. 1 seeds are in action, and the focus is on first-team All-Americans Jalen Wilson of Kansas and Alabama forward Brandon Miller, and potentially Houston’s do-it-all guard Marcus Sasser.
Here is the list of Saturday’s eight matches, ranked according to how watchable they are.
- No. 4 Tennessee vs. No. 5 Duke (2:40 p.m. ET)
- When. 1 Alabama vs. When. 8 Maryland (21:40)
- No. 7 Missouri vs. No. 15 Princeton (6:10 p.m.)
- No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 8 Arkansas (5:15 p.m.)
- No. 1 Houston vs. No. 9 Auburn (7:10 p.m.)
- No. 2 UCLA vs. No. 7 Northwestern (8:40 p.m.)
- No. 2 Texas vs. No. 10 Penn State (7:45 p.m.)
- No. 5 San Diego State vs. No. 13 Furman (12:10)
– Scooby Axson
Bill Self out again
Kansas head coach Bill Self will not coach the team’s second-round game against Arkansas on Saturday, the school announced. Self continues to recover from a heart catheterization that caused him to miss the Big 12 Tournament. The 60-year-old Self attended Jayhawks practice Friday but mostly sat and watched.
Assistant Norm Roberts will once again serve as the acting head coach for Kansas. He coached the Jayhawks to a 96-68 victory over Howard in the first round.
The defending national champions will tip off against the Razorbacks at 5:15 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.
Did it really happen?!?!
In case you missed it Friday night (although we can’t imagine how), Purdue became just the second men’s No. 1 seed to fall to a No. 16 since the bracket expanded to 64 teams in 1985 , as Fairleigh Dickinson shocked the nation with a 63-58 upset.
If there’s a winner besides current Fairleigh Dickinson players and first-year head coach Tobin Anderson — not to mention every single FDU graduate and fan — it’s likely Virginia coach Tony Bennett, who now isn’t the only coach to lose to a No. 16 seed. . Yikes. Talk about a club you don’t want to join.
But perhaps the biggest winners are college hoops fans. That we’ve now seen two 16-seeds beat 1-seeds in the last five years is proof that parity continues to grow in men’s college basketball, making the NCAA Tournament more unpredictable and ultimately more fun.
– Lindsay Schnell and Paul Myerberg
Sisters could meet in the second round with Saturday victories
Lior Garzon’s initial excitement during Sunday’s selection show was that Oklahoma State received the No. 8 seed in the NCAA Women’s Tournament opposite No. 9 Miami (Fla.). It took the junior less than a minute to realize that not only were the Cowgirls dancing, they were headed to Bloomington, Indiana, where her younger sister, Yarden Garzon, is a freshman guard for No. 1 seed Indiana.
At their respective schools through Ra’anana, Israel, the Garzon sisters never discussed the possibility of bracketing together until Sunday, but they knew it could at least be in play. Indiana tip-off vs. Tennessee Tech at 11:30 a.m. ET, followed by Oklahoma State-Miami at 2 p.m
Thursday’s reunion at the team hotel marked the first time the sisters have seen each other since Yarden visited Stillwater, Oklahoma during winter break.
“I’m really excited to see her play,” said Lior, who is averaging 11 points and shooting 43% off the bench.
As for the possibility of an Indiana-Oklahoma State matchup in the second round — and Lior was quick to point out that they still need to win their first-round games — it would mark the first time the sisters have gone head-to-head since played in a club match shortly before Lior left for the USA.
—Brian Haenchen, Indianapolis Star
Princeton is partying like it’s 1996
No. 15 seed Princeton dominated inside and threw the South Region into chaos with an upset of Arizona.
Maybe it wasn’t quite like when the Tigers pulled off a memorable upset of UCLA in 1996, when they were seeded 14 and beat the third-seeded and defending champion Bruins 43-41. There was more insult, and considering how common disruptions are now, it probably didn’t shock that many people. But it’s still a big deal. And it’s just the second tournament win for Princeton since that game. The Tigers beat UNLV in the first round in 1998.
– Lindsay Schnell
What is a Paladin?
Princeton might have pulled the biggest upset Thursday, but 13-seed Furman’s upset of No. 4 Virginia was a fun (unless you’re a Cavaliers fan, of course) start to the 2023 men’s NCAA Tournament.
It’s been a long wait for Paladin men’s basketball fans. It had been more than 40 years since Furman was last in the tournament and over 45 years since the last March Madness victory.
The American Heritage College Dictionary defines a Paladin as a “paragon of chivalry” or “a heroic champion.” A Paladin was also one of the 12 legendary peers or knightly masters present at the court of Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, in the 8th century.
— Jordan Mendoza
Alabama’s biggest adversary may be exhaustion from endless chaos
The athletic director issued a statement at halftime. The most scrutinized 20-year-old in basketball couldn’t make a shot before eventually going to the bench to rest a sore groin. Walk-on, who no one had heard of until Wednesday night, threatened to sue the New York Times. And the coach is losing his mind on every dribble for two straight hours of a game he was close to losing.
In other words, it was just another day in Alabama basketball.
—Dan Skyer
Houston ruins title hopes by playing Marcus Sasser before he was ready
It backfired spectacularly.
Just five days after Marcus Sasser strained his groin in the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference tournament, he was back in the Cougars’ starting lineup Thursday night. For a first round match against a No. 16 team.
To the surprise of virtually no one, Sasser didn’t even make the break. Now, top-seeded Houston might not make it to the second weekend, let alone the Final Four in its hometown.
—Nancy Armor
Final USA TODAY Sports Coach Poll
Houston entered the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports coaches poll, despite losing the American Athletic Conference championship game just before the bracket was revealed on Sunday.
The Cougars, who were without leading scorer Marcus Sasser in the loss to Memphis, retained 21 of 32 No. 1 votes to stave off second-ranked Alabama. The Crimson Tide received eight first-place finishes after winning the SEC title in impressive fashion on Sunday.
Houston handled Northern Kentucky in its first round, while Alabama routed Texas A&M Corpus Christi in its tournament opener. The Cougars clash with No. 9 seed Auburn on Saturday, while the Crimson Tide take on 8-seed Maryland.
—Eddie Timanus
