Tag: Sweet 16

Can Duke beat Houston? Some USA TODAY Sports writers think so

A trio of USA TODAY Sports writers teamed to share some bold predictions for the Sweet 16, and they seem to think Duke has the chops to take down Houston.

The NCAA Tournament brings chaos with it in every round, and the Sweet 16 is never an exception.

USA TODAY Sports writers Eddie Timanus, Erick Smith, and Paul Myerberg teamed to share some bold predictions for the upcoming round on Wednesday, and one of them was that Duke would beat Houston.

The trio mentioned Duke’s inconsistency, pointing out that the Blue Devils failed to pull away from Vermont until the last 10 minutes before beating James Madison by nearly 40 points.

However, they think Duke’s guards (who shot a combined 13/23 from three against the Dukes) could find success against a Houston team that awarded Texas A&M with 45 free throws in the second round.

“The No. 4 Blue Devils have the talent and depth to take down an opponent that struggled amid some major foul trouble,” they wrote.

The three writers also included ‘All No. 1 seeds make the Final Four’ in their predictions, so they weren’t locking themselves into one timeline, but they said the Cougars are on upset alert more than any other top seed.

UCLA Wire previews the Pac-12 in Women’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16

Get a quick look at each of the opponents facing the five #Pac12 teams left in the Women’s NCAA Tournament.

Our friends at UCLA Wire are previewing the Pac-12’s games in the Women’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.

“There are five Pac-12 women’s teams left as the NCAA Tournament reaches the Sweet 16 stage. The games begin on Friday, with UCLA facing LSU in arguably the biggest matchup of them all on Saturday in Albany, New York.”

UCLA Wire editor Matt Wadleigh looks at the opponents for each of the five Pac-12 teams still in the NCAA Tournament. Oregon State’s opponent in the Sweet 16 is Notre Dame. Stanford faces North Carolina State in its upcoming regional semifinal game. The blockbuster game UCLA Wire alluded to above is UCLA versus LSU, a matchup of top-three seeds which includes the defending national champions from Baton Rouge.

USC, as you know, goes up against the Baylor Bears on Saturday afternoon. That game with JuJu Watkins immediately follows a repeat Sweet 16 clash between Colorado and Iowa, with Caitlin Clark trying to extend her career, go back to the Final Four, and attempt to win the national championship which eluded her grasp last year. This is a huge weekend for the Pac-12, a conference trying to make a stand before it dies. Can this conference go out in the blaze of glory, or will it all end not with a bang, but a whimper?

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Where UNC basketball program ranks in ESPN’s re-seeding of Sweet 16

The UNC basketball program is still a No. 1 seed in ESPN’s re-seeding of the Sweet 16 before the games begin.

The next two rounds of the 2024 NCAA Tournament will take place from Thursday to Sunday as we will be one step closer to crowning a national champion.

For the North Carolina Tar Heels, they are getting set to face off against No. 4 seed Alabama in the Sweet 16 in Los Angeles. The winner of that game will move on to the Elite 8 to face off against Clemson or Arizona. But as we get set for the next few days of games, ESPN has decided to re-seed the Sweet 16. And for North Carolina, they are still a No. 1 seed in the re-rank.

Here is what Myron Medcalf had to say about the Tar Heels:

UConn, Purdue and Houston all made cases at different stages of the regular season that they deserved a top seed in the NCAA tournament. UNC’s position seemed more fluid, especially as Iowa State and Tennessee charged toward that fourth top-seed spot late in the season. The Tar Heels have more than proved themselves as one of the elite teams in the field, however. After falling to a double-digit deficit in the first half against Michigan State on Saturday, they went on a 23-3 run and turned the game in their favor.

The game showed they have so many ways to attack. RJ Davis is an All-American point guard. Armando Bacot is one of the top big men in America. And now, Harrison Ingram has found a rhythm again (50% from beyond the arc in the NCAA tournament) after a lengthy slump. After Saturday’s win, North Carolina was ranked 18th in adjusted offensive efficiency on KenPom.com and the team had made 35.8% of its 3-point attempts — identical numbers to the 2021-22 team that reached the national title game.

North Carolina’s path to the Final Four is a tough one. Alabama is a high-scoring team that can give others problems. From there, they would have to face off against a good Arizona team that won the Pac-12 or a Clemson team that they split with this season.

But for the Tar Heels, they need to take it one game at a time and focus on the task ahead.

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Can the Duke defense slow down Paige Bueckers?

Duke women’s basketball needs to slow down one of the best players in the sport on Saturday, but the Blue Devils might be suited to the task.

Let’s just get it out of the way: UConn’s Paige Bueckers is one of the best college basketball players of the last decade.

Bueckers was named the Player of the Year as a freshman in 2021, averaging 20.0 points. 5.7 assists, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.3 steals in her first season of collegiate basketball. She led the Huskies to the Final Four that season and the national championship game the next.

This year, after missing a full season due to injury, she’s picked up right where she left off. She’s averaging a career-high in points (21.8), rebounds (5.1), and blocks (1.4), and she’s still dishing out 3.9 assists per game.

She’s racked up two double-doubles through two tournament games, dropping 28 points on Jacksonville State and 32 points against Syracuse. She’s pulled down 10.5 rebounds and dealt 6.5 assists per game in the postseason thus far, and she had seven steals between the two games.

In postseason basketball, the sport’s best players can be absolute buzzsaws. Scheme, depth, balance, it can all be thrown out the window if your team doesn’t have anyone to stop Bueckers.

The Blue Devils might not have that problem.

Duke allowed 58.0 points per game this season, the best mark in the ACC and the seventh-best average of any Power 6 school. The Blue Devils are allowing opponents to shoot 36.9% from the floor and 32.0% from beyond the arc.

Kara Lawson’s squad has a strong track record against dominant guards, too.

Syracuse’s Dyaisha Fair, an All-ACC First Team member who averaged 22.3 points per game (the third-most in the conference) got to play the Blue Devils at home in February. She finished 7/25 from the floor, one of just six conference games in which she finished below 30% for the game, and 1/7 from behind the 3-point line. The Orange only scored 45 points.

Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson, another 20-point-per-game scorer and another All-ACC First Team guard, scored 15 points on 17 shots against the Blue Devils back in January. Duke won that game by 42 points on the Seminoles’ home court.

Even in Duke’s second-round upset of Ohio State, the Buckeyes’ star guard Jacy Sheldon couldn’t get off the ground. Sheldon averaged 18 points per game entering the contest, the third-best mark in the Big Ten, but she could only manage 13 points against the Blue Devils. Sheldon made five of her 13 attempts and just one of her four 3-pointers, and Ohio State went 1/11 as a team from distance.

A player of Bueckers’ caliber presents her own challenges. The only player Duke has seen on her tier this season is Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, a freshman who leads the conference in both points (22.9) and steals (4.6) while finishing third in assists (5.6). Hidalgo helped the Fighting Irish past Duke with a 23-point game in Cameron last month, but Duke lost that game by eight after losing the third quarter by 12.

The path for a No. 7 seed to make the Elite Eight would always be tough, Bueckers or not. However, if any 7-seed might have a path to slowing down the Huskies dynamic star, it would be the Blue Devils.

Joe Lunardi talks ACC in NCAA Tournament after knocking conference all season

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi discussed the success of the Atlantic Coast Conference in the NCAA Tournament, putting four teams into the Sweet 16.

If you’ve followed Joe Lunardi’s bracketology on ESPN over the 2023-24 college basketball season, you know he wasn’t high on the Atlantic Coast Conference. He consistently had ACC teams on the bubble and at one point it was a two-bid league for Lunardi.

Counting Virginia, which was in the First Four, and NC State, which won the ACC Tournament, to punch their tickets, the conference received five bids. Now, it has 25% of the the Sweet 16. 

The conference went 8-1 if you count the First Four game and 8-0 if you only count the opening weekend. That’s pretty damn good, and ACC fans are speaking out.

So is Lunardi, who talked about the ACC in his latest for ESPN:

“Allow me a word — several, actually — on the ACC. Fans of the conference consistently — and correctly — countered my season-long description of its decline by insisting the league would be just fine when it mattered most. And, once again, a conference ranking fifth, fifth, seventh and fifth since the pandemic has been more than fine in the NCAA tournament. An 8-1 record through the first weekend can only be commended. Going forward, it remains to be seen if the conference will make the necessary scheduling adjustments to counter the continued weakening that’s coming in the form of Stanford, Cal and SMU. Further, the league’s four Sweet 16 entries have no connection to the pre-tourney résumés of Pittsburgh or Wake Forest. By that logic, Pitt and Wake should be double-dinged by Virginia. Thankfully, it doesn’t work that way.”

That’s not Lunardi admitting he’s wrong. He probably wasn’t going to do that anyway as he brought up where the league has ranked in college basketball since the pandemic.

But he points out how consistently good the conference has been when it matters the most: the NCAA Tournament.

So while the Mountain West continues to get the attention of experts, it will have their one team in the Sweet 16 as the ACC looks to put four teams in the Elite Eight this weekend.

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The Blue Devils have the chance to break a 30-year streak on Friday

Duke, a No. 4 seed, plays No. 1 Houston on Friday for a spot in the Elite Eight. A win would also be the Blue Devils’ first over a higher-seeded team since 1994.

Duke has more than a ticket to the Elite Eight on the line on Sunday. The Blue Devils could accomplish something the program hasn’t done since 1994.

The Blue Devils have played a team seeded above them in the NCAA Tournament five times since 1994, and Duke has gone home after every game.

In fact, Duke hasn’t taken down a team above them in the rankings since Grant Hill led the squad past No. 1 Purdue in 1994.

The last three times the Blue Devils played a No. 1 seed when they weren’t a top seed themselves, they lost. This year, Duke is a No. 4 seed in the South region. Houston, their Sweet 16 opponent, is the top-ranked team in the region.

Granted, five times in three full decades is a microscopic sample size, especially considering that the Blue Devils have won three national titles in that same time frame. They don’t run into teams better than them too often. However, it’s still a three-decade streak.

Duke has a chance to change some program history on Friday night. Tipoff is scheduled for approximately 9:40 p.m. on CBS.

Where does Andy Katz rank Duke among remaining Sweet 16 teams?

College basketball reporter Andy Katz ranked the last 16 teams standing in the men’s NCAA Tournament on Monday. Where did he put the Blue Devils?

College basketball reporter Andy Katz revealed his ranking of the final 16 teams standing in the NCAA Tournament this year, and the Blue Devils came in right in the middle at eighth.

Katz revealed the rankings on Monday, and his power rankings included some bold takes. The Blue Devils are above Iowa State, a No. 2 seed, and 3-seed Illinois is his fourth-ranked team remaining.

Duke has excelled through two games of the tournament, pulling away from Vermont late for a 64-47 win before throttling James Madison for a 93-55 blowout in the second round.

Houston, Duke’s second-round opponent, spent much of the season atop the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, and the Cougars have only lost four games. However, Katz is lower on them than most, dropping Houston to his fifth-ranked team left in the field despite their status as a No. 1 seed.

Connecticut, the defending national champions, remains the team to beat in Katz’s eyes, followed by Purdue and North Carolina.

NC State, the ACC Tournament champions, sat at the bottom of the ranking. The Wolfpack, an 11-seed, are also the lone double-digit seed remaining. San Diego State, Clemson, and Gonzaga also fell in Katz’s bottom four.

Nate Oats details what Alabama must do to beat North Carolina in the Sweet 16

Does Alabama have what it takes to take down No. 1 North Carolina in the Sweet 16 of March Madness? Nate Oats shares his thoughts.

The Alabama men’s basketball team is fresh off its round of 32 victory over Grand Canyon and will now shift its focus to the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Sweet 16.

On Monday night as the Crimson Tide continued its preparation, head coach [autotag]Nate Oats[/autotag] made his weekly appearance on the radio show “Hey Coach”  and went into detail on what he considered would give the Tide the best shot of upsetting the Tar Heels.

After the Crimson Tide’s strong defensive performance against GCU, Coach Oats pointed to playing a more balanced game against North Carolina could go a long way in helping the Tide advance to the Elite Eight.

“We’re playing our best defense of the year at the right time, and I think if we can get our offense back to being the No. 1 offense in the country, we’ve got a pretty good shot to beat these guys,” said Oats.

The Tide head coach would go on to say that the offense has not been where it needs to be throughout the tournament.

“We really haven’t played a very good offensive game — we looked good against Charleston, decent, but kind of let our foot off the gas — and we didn’t play well at all against Grand Canyon on offense.”

Oats would also mention that he wants to let his player rest a bit before trying to make another run at this weekend in Los Angeles.

“We’ll do our best over these next four days to get the guys’ legs back under them. We’re not gonna practice [Tuesday]. We’re gonna try to get their confidence back with their shooting. We’re trying to get the No. 1 offense in the country back while maintaining — I saw somewhere we had the 38th-best defense in the last week. If we didn’t take our foot off the gas against Charleston like we did when we got up 31, I think it would be closer to top 20.

“So if you could combine a top-20 defense and the No. 1 offense, you’ve got a chance to make a Final Four run.”

Alabama certainly has what it takes to take down North Carolina on Thursday. Let’s see if Oats and the Tide can execute and advance to the program’s second-ever Elite Eight.

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Charles Barkley calls Grand Canyon’s game against Alabama ‘One of the dumbest I’ve ever seen’

Charles Barkley’s hilarious reaction to Grand Canyon’s “Dumbest basketball game he’s ever seen” vs. Alabama

There was a huge sigh of relief from the Alabama faithful Sunday evening as they secured an 11-point victory over Grand Canyon University to advance to the Sweet 16. The other feeling was one of ‘what in the world did I just watch?’

Granted it was not the prettiest game Alabama has ever played, Grand Canyon just played a game of pure chaos for two hours. With only five assists in the entire 40-minute game, it was like the Antelopes came down the court and just wanted to go one-on-one every possession with no control or composure. Grand Canyon also shot just 2/20 from three, turned the ball over 14 times and missed 14 free throws. There was just no rhythm about their offense and it was truly the most bizarre thing I have seen on the basketball court.

Auburn legend and March Madness personality [autotag]Charles Barkley[/autotag] was hilariously beside himself after watching Grand Canyon play the dumbest game of basketball he has also ever seen. Barkley said of the game, “I’m not sure what they were doing offensively, I don’t think they ran a play in the entire second half… That was some of the dumbest basketball I’ve ever seen grown college men play. [autotag]Mark Sears[/autotag] was the only guy who played with complete composure the entire game. Congratulations to Alabama University it’s a great school and [autotag]Nate Oats[/autotag] does a great job.”

The Tide will be back in action Thursday evening when they take on the No. 1 seeded North Carolina Tar Heels in the Sweet 16. Alabama enters the contest as a 4.5-point underdog.

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Photos of Notre Dame’s second-round victory over Ole Miss

See how the win appeared at Purcell.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – One never wants to say an NCAA Tournament is going to be easy. Sometimes though, the result of a game becomes impossible to ignore. Notre Dame dominated Ole Miss in the second round, 71-56, and will play in the Sweet 16 for the third straight season. Up next is Oregon State in the Albany Regional 1 semifinals.

There could be no more games at Purcell Pavilion this season after this game, and the Irish certainly went out on a high note. Even when the Rebels threatened to make the game close in the second half, it was little more than a passing threat, and the Irish’s lead never fell below double digits once it got there late in the first quarter.

It’s understandable if your job kept you from tuning into this game on a Monday afternoon, but that’s why there are photographs. Here are some that were taken at this game:

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